{"id":3932,"date":"2016-03-31T13:47:02","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T20:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=3932"},"modified":"2021-04-29T10:49:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T17:49:57","slug":"modern-masters-of-flamenco-guitar-part-1-manolo-sanlucar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/modern-masters-of-flamenco-guitar-part-1-manolo-sanlucar\/","title":{"rendered":"Modern Masters of Flamenco Guitar Part 1: Manolo Sanl\u00facar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/store.elizabethl27.sg-host.com\/collections\/featured-products\/products\/no-381-spring-2016\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>From the Spring 2016 issue of Classical Guitar magazine.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<h6>BY JASON WEBSTER<\/h6>\n<p>No overview of the past 40 years of Spanish guitar would be complete without an appreciation of Manolo Sanl\u00facar, a contemporary of Paco de Luc\u00eda and co-instigator of the late-20th-century revolution in flamenco music. Like many leading figures in the art form, Manuel (Manolo) Mu\u00f1oz was brought up in a flamenco family, born in the coastal town of Sanl\u00facar de Barrameda near C\u00e1diz in 1943. His father was a guitarist and used to play with the legendary singer Pepe Marchena. The young Manolo was taught by his father from an early age, making his professional debut when he was only 13. In his early career he was supported by La Ni\u00f1a de los Peines, and for a long time was accompanist to singer La Paquera de Jerez (Francisca M\u00e9ndez Garrido), a powerful thunderstorm of a <em>cantaora<\/em>, who facilitated an important turning point in Manolo\u2019s artistic development. It is commonly said that a flamenco guitarist needs to spend ten years accompanying dancers and another ten with singers before he should play solo. Manolo did his full apprenticeship, and after adopting the stage name \u2018Sanl\u00facar\u2019 after his home town, started playing concerts and recitals across Spain, where his unmistakeable talent, clean sound, and technical virtuosity made him quickly stand out as someone to watch.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K9FfOpBaK0I?rel=0\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It was the early 1970s and Spain was entering a fascinating transitional phase socially, politically, and culturally. The Franco regime was in its death throes and old taboos were being broken. Like many of his contemporaries, Sanl\u00facar started to experiment with his chosen art form, pushing flamenco in new directions, and extending its boundaries. As he later commented, \u201cWe realized that the guitar needed to be harmonically enriched; flamenco guitar [at the time] was harmonically impoverished.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some of his explorations moved in the direction of \u201ceasy listening\u201d and pop, heralded by the track \u201cCaballo Negro\u201d on his 1974 album <em>Sanl\u00facar<\/em>. With its use of drums, electric bass, and rhythm guitars, it was one of the milestones in the development of what later became known as <em>nuevo flamenco<\/em>. This was followed several years later by the hit tracks \u201cCandela\u201d (1980) and \u201cAl Viento\u201d (1982).<\/p>\n<p>Apart from this lighter sound, however, Sanl\u00facar\u2019s greatest legacy perhaps lies in his marriage of flamenco with classical music, a format in which he shines both as a composer and virtuoso. This relationship began with his <em>Fantas\u00eda Para Guitarra y Orquesta<\/em> (1978), an ambitious four-movement piece with clear influences from Joaqu\u00edn Rodrigo and the Spanish classical guitar tradition. This was followed in 1982 by his \u201cflamenco opera\u201d titled <em>Ven y S\u00edgueme<\/em>, in which the noted singers El Lebrijano and Roc\u00edo Jurado performed, and his ballet, Medea, which has been taken around the world by the renowned Spanish National Ballet company.<\/p>\n<p>As with all flamenco greats, however, Sanl\u00facar is engaged in the complex balancing act between innovating and remaining loyal to tradition, and while forays into the classical world have opened new possibilities, he has never forgotten his roots. The synthesis that this has produced in his music is best represented by <em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1UtFPbI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tauromagia<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (1988), one of his masterpieces and, in my opinion, the best flamenco guitar album ever recorded. The music charts the course of a bullfight, from the animal\u2019s life in the countryside, to the beginning of the fight, the pageantry and various sections of the <em>lidia<\/em> (the actual bullfight), and finally the torero\u2019s triumphal exit through the main gate. The <em>buler\u00eda<\/em> \u201cTercio de Vara\u201d alone has a subtlety, balance, and complexity to it that makes the entire album worth listening to, while the final track, \u201cPuerta del Pr\u00edncipe\u201d has become one of Sanl\u00facar\u2019s signature pieces and was featured in Carlos Saura\u2019s celebrated film, <em>Flamenco.<\/em> (<em>Watch a clip below.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1_F6dScNsxM?rel=0\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After performing such great service to flamenco, scoring huge successes, and winning countless awards, in 2013 at the age of 70, Sanl\u00facar announced that he was retiring. He has not played in public since, but he leaves a rich legacy, not only in the new territory that he explored for the art form, but in the large number of younger players who have been inspired\u2014directly and indirectly\u2014to follow in his footsteps. If you don\u2019t know his work, go out and discover it\u2014you have a treat waiting for you.\b<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3936\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/381_COVER-228x300.jpg?resize=228%2C300\" alt=\"Classical Guitar Spring 2016 Issue. Angel Romero. Making a Living as a Classical Guitarist. Elliot Fisk. Bach. The Beatles. Milos.\" width=\"228\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/381_COVER.jpg?resize=228%2C300&amp;ssl=1 228w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/381_COVER.jpg?resize=768%2C1013&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/381_COVER.jpg?resize=777%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 777w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/381_COVER.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 228px) 100vw, 228px\" \/><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/store.elizabethl27.sg-host.com\/collections\/featured-products\/products\/no-381-spring-2016\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>For more of <em>Classical Guitar<\/em>\u2019s newest stories, lessons, and gear reviews, order a copy today. The Spring issue includes a special focus on making a living as a classical guitarist, stories on Angel Romero, Steven Hancoff, Hilary Field, a personal tour of guitar shops in Madrid, reviews of new sheet music, cds, guitars, and so much more.<\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Spring 2016 issue of Classical Guitar magazine. BY JASON WEBSTER No overview of the past 40 years of Spanish guitar would be complete without an appreciation of Manolo Sanl\u00facar, a contemporary of Paco de Luc\u00eda and co-instigator of the late-20th-century revolution in flamenco music. Like many leading figures in the art form, Manuel (Manolo) Mu\u00f1oz was brought up in a flamenco family, born in the coastal town of Sanl\u00facar de Barrameda near C\u00e1diz in 1943. His father was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[248],"class_list":["post-3932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-spring-2016-issue"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Manolo-Sanlucar.-Modern-Masters-of-Flamenco-Guitar.-Classical-Guitar-Magazine.png?fit=1000%2C675&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16148,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3932\/revisions\/16148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}