Interview with Diego Amador, multi-instrumentalist:

"There's no such thing as flamenco piano"

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, July 2003
Translation: Gary Cook

What if a modern-day flamenco guitarist sat down at a piano? What if he thought flamenco fusion's all been done before, and decided to keep his feet firmly in the flamenco of yesteryear? And what if he also flew the flag of the great jazz pianists? The answer is 'Piano Jondo', the piano album which Diego Amador, El Churri, has wanted to make for years, and which has finally materialized… at the request of Fantasy Records distributors. The youngest of the Amador brothers, a self-taught musician, takes "a firm step in the direction of genuine flamenco", in the words of Mario Pacheco, director of the Nuevos Medios label. And listening to the compositions on the new album only serves to underline his words; despite the fact that the artist himself vigorously denies that the piano is a flamenco instrument. "Flamenco is a quality of the one who's playing… whether they're playing piano, a tin can, whatever."

Diego Amador (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Interview with Diego Amador
"There's no such thing as flamenco piano"

'Piano Jondo', by Diego Amador
The artist gives us a track-by-track run-down of his album

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