Diagonal: An Ibero-American Music Review

This paper discusses two early American influences on Paco de Lucía’s guitar playing. The first, from Paco’s experiences while on tour in the United States in the early to mid 1960s, comes from a set of norms and practices that developed in the U.S. diasporic flamenco community. Through his work with José Greco’s dance company and his mentorship from Sabicas and Mario Escudero, Paco adopted musical elements and practices that had been developed in the United States, largely by Spanish expatriates. In addition, Paco’s solo guitar career is in the tradition of the solo flamenco guitar genre, also developed in the U.S. The second comes from Latin American musical traditions that exerted their influence on Spanish flamenco throughout the mid-20th century through the dissemination of pan-Latin popular music, often based on Latin American genres. Paco spent formative years as this tradition developed through the fusion work of Bambino and others. The chordal and harmonic elements from this contact indirectly influenced Paco’s emerging personal style.