OBITUARY. RAMÓN DE ALGECIRAS, FLAMENCO GUITARIST
The big brother
Flamenco-world.com, January 20th, 2009
Ramón
de Algeciras (Algeciras 1938) has died. On January 20th,
2009, Paco de Lucía and Pepe de Lucía’s
big brother passed away, the first of Antonio Sánchez
Pecino’s children to turn professional in flamenco.
And, as Paco himself has stated so many times, one of his
two maestros: “I’m the youngest one in the family,
my father started to teach Ramón, my brother Ramón
is older than me, the eldest one of all of us. And when
I was little I used to hear them play, and I unintentionally
began to get involved in this world”, he explained
in the television series ‘Rito y geografía
del cante’.
He started playing professionally at the
mere age of fifteen, following the footsteps of Niño
Ricardo. He joined the flamenco circuit enlisted in Juan
Valderrama’s tours. And he would soon accompany the
top figures of the moment: Antonio Mairena, Pepe Marchena,
La Niña de los Peines, Fosforito, Pepe Pinto... He
also graduated in accompaniment for baile, becoming a member
of the Antonio
Ruiz Soler Ballet from 1966 to 1968. When Paco de Lucía
began to stand out, he joined his group. They recorded albums
in a duo such as ‘Canciones andaluzas para dos guitarras’,
‘12 hits para 2 guitarras flamencas y orquesta de
cuerda’ and ‘Dos guitarras flamencas en América
Latina’; and they took flamenco music to the Teatro
Real in Madrid for the first time.
Ramón was one of the members of
the now mythical Paco
de Lucía Sextet, together with other musicians
of the likes of bass player Carles Benavent, saxophonist
Jorge Pardo and percussionist Rubem Dantas, taking part
in international tours, audiovisual recordings like ‘Directo
Alemania 1966’ and albums such as ‘Sólo
quiero caminar’. He was also one of the accompanists
of the first Camarón
de la Isla, both live (his is the guitar which seconded
the cantaor when he won the bulerías prize at the
Mairena del Alcor Contest in 1975); and at the recording
studio, participating on albums like ‘Detrás
del tuyo se va’, ‘Cada vez que nos miramos’
and ‘Canastera’, among others.
Ramón de Algeciras had already retired
from stages for several years and had taken on a management
position in the company administrating his brother’s
work. The picture of the three brothers - Ramón,
Paco and Pepe - live was captured for posterity by filmmaker
Carlos Saura in his film ‘Flamenco’
(1992), performing the tangos ‘El perol’.
