PragueDJ.com

Date/Time: Tuesday, August 3rd @ 20:00
Venue: Obecní dům - Smetanova síň (The Municipal House)
Entrance: 1,800 - 3,370czk (BUY HERE)
Audio Sample: "La Nina de Puerta Oscura" from the Prague DJ playlist

Who plays the fastest guitar in the world? Depending on your taste in music, you might have different answers, but most will imagine some longhaired metal thrasher like Michael Angelo Batio of Nitro or Tiago Della Vega with his Guinness record-setting performance of “Flight of the Bumblebee.” But as this Japanese kid on his ukulele proves, there’s a world of difference between a frantic flurry of notes, and the graceful dexterity of a passionate storyteller.

Paco de Lucía, who returns to Prague this Tuesday for a performance at the grand dome of Na Příkopě, Obecní dům (better known as The Muncipal House), not only plays with a speed comparable to the quickest thrash legends, but he does so with such a vivid and alluring imagination. Whether it’s a sweet serenade to a café-scene flirtation, or a rumbling flamenco riff played with all the machismo of a matador taunting a charging bull, Paco de Lucia is an artist painting pictures with each spidery movement of his fingers.

Accompanying de Lucía to the stage (after beginning with a few solos of course) will be six fine musicians, including the brilliant vocalist and dancer Duquende Farruco aka Farruquito, who is the grandson of El Farruco, founder of the Andalusian dance troup, The Gypsies of Seville.  Also joining will be guitarist Larry Coryelem and pianist Chick Corea to round out the list of world-famous musicians for a night of the best traditional Flameno music the world has to offer.

Here's an existential interview Paco de Lucía did with Flamenco World back in 1992:

I owe everything to my father. He forced me to play when I was a child, when you don´t have the capacity to decide what you want to do in life. That´s when you need someone to push you, to show you the way. That´s what my father did, among other things, since he could not send me to school because there was no money at home. I had to find a job and take home a salary.

Does imagination go against common sense?

Common sense is limited since it depends on your intellectual capacity. Imagination has no limits, and sometimes my imagination goes against common sense. Sometimes I regret not knowing music, because it's like not knowing reason, technique, mathematics; but the unconsciousness, the ignorance make you fly higher or, at least, make you fly and land on places where reason would not land.

Is Flamenco the patrimony of gypsies?

Gypsies say that they have making flamenco for five centuries. Besides their dedication and the cohabitation with flamenco, gypsies have an artistic ability, an expression and a temperament proper to flamenco. It doesn't mean that those who are not gypsies are not qualified; the person who grows up and is in contact with gypsies is usually very good: Antonio Chacón, El Niño Ricardo and many others. No, it's not the patrimony of anyone, it's the patrimony of the person who makes it since he is born; flamenco music is like that.

What's the role of Flamenco within European culture?

I believe flamenco is the most important culture in Spain, and would even say in Europe. Somehow, flamenco represents Spanish culture, even if many people do not like such a globalization. Flamenco is andalusian, the basque, the galician, the catalan have nothing to do with it. So I guess they don´t like to be known out of Spain because of flamenco. But Andalucía is an important part of Spain. Flamenco is an incredible music, it has an enormous emotional force and a rhythm and a feeling that very few European folklore's have.

Is success based on the brainwashing of the public?

The artist wishes to be understood, to communicate and to prove that he holds a truth. I am not sure to what extent you want to brainwash the public but... yes, there is some truth to it. Maybe the success is to brainwash the public.

Are you concerned by failure?

Yes, a lot. I don´t know whether it's vanity o whether it's because I need affection, or both...

Does money symbolize the fulfillment of one's duty, the signal that you have offered to the world what it wished to have?

To live within a society and within a system is like a game where money means that you win: you get money for doing something everybody likes. In the case of artists, money is the recognition of a valid job, just that. I imagine that the money a manipulator makes does not give the same feeling. One has to know how to value money because it's easy to fall into the trap of wanting more and more money despite having more than the amount you can spend. When it comes to that point, it becomes unhealthy and dangerous.

Is the Devil, thank God, coming back?

I have an intense life in which every day is different from the rest, I constantly change the scenery, and sometimes it's unbearable and dull. I imagine people leading a dull life, getting up every day at the same time and working in something they don´t like, and, of course, they make up fantasies and they have to believe them. If the Devil is valid, then long life to Devil! as long as people do not die of disgust and as long as the flies do not eat them. But whether it is effective or not is another thing.