The book is based on some twenty interviews with the artist

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, November 2003
Translation: Joseph Kopec

'Paco de Lucía en vivo' ('Paco de Lucía Live') is "a book destined to be a classic". Writer Félix Grande is convinced of the importance of the second work about the artist published by Juan José Téllez. The Cádiz-born journalist starts "with the twenty-five interviews I've had with him, a real record considering it's Paco de Lucía", to shape what he brands "a six-hundred-page article". This biography, whose context is the maestro's family history, pauses in the last decade of his musical career, besides to analyze "his references, his 'children', his contemporaries, the work of Ramón de Algeciras and Pepe de Lucía", to "explain the controversies arising with regards to Diego del Gastor and mairenismo (a musical dogma created by Antonio Mairena)", as well as "what Paco de Lucía has meant beyond the world of flamenco".

Juan José Téllez and Félix Grande

The conclusion Félix Grande reached at the presentation which took place at Fnac Madrid on November 4th left no choice: "Read this book. I have the moral duty to say so". This imperative invitation was reasoned out in the scarce fifteen minutes of his participation. Grande, the author of works such as 'Memoria del flamenco', stressed that "it's a book which is very well written and that means that it has style, strength, expression and conviction. And that's not possible if you don't believe in what you're writing. Téllez has always believed in the brilliance of the Lucía family", which was represented at the ceremony by a grateful Pepe de Lucía.

Although he foretold that there will have to be many more books about Paco de Lucía, "because it's the inevitable fate of brilliant creatures", he elaborated that "this is the book you can't do without if you want to know everything that can now be known about Paco". In fact, he emphasized the great amount of information contained in the work, split into three blocks: the artistic context, artistic biography and family environment. This third aspect is crucial to him, since "it makes understood his character, his disposition, the energy of his technique, the strength of his expression". He added that Paco de Lucía "is the result of a personal expression of rage", whose cause he found in poverty. And that led to a theory which he shares with the author of the biography: "Paco de Lucía was the first to lead flamenco guitar to the place of protest, of social criticism". He attributes to the maestro from Algeciras having "made clear the role of the guitar, that it wasn't just the accompaniment of the cantaor who was expressing the rage of his own, but also a testament of that pain".

In blood ink

In that sense, Juan José Téllez added that "flamenco can't be understood without rage, without rebelliousness. In this family's art there was more than a profession, a quest, a cry, the same one which is now heard from three-fourths of the world". And that is the reason why he says that "it's not just a book on flamenco, but is about the history of the world from the perspective of an Andalusian family; a politically incorrect book, not by consensus, but passionate". And he makes clear that "it's written in blood ink, from a sensitive angle, not an intellectual one". Téllez vindicates passion, and therefore praises Paco de Lucía's struggle "for the obvious, dignifying the guitar and respecting tradition in order to disobey it at the same time, favoring a resounding revolution which not only behooves flamenco, but also other types of music". In conclusion, he affirms wanting "to pay tribute to so much beauty".

Pepe de Lucía, Juan José Téllez and Félix Grande

Cádiz-born journalist Juan José Téllez (Algeciras, 1958) is the author of a previous approach to Paco de Lucía entitled 'Retrato de familia con guitarra' ('Family Portrait with a Guitar') and the work 'Chano Lobato. Memorias de Cádiz'. Likewise, he has cultivated poetry, stories and essays. In the world of flamenco creation, he has penned the lyrics of the dance shows 'Contrabandistas' by David Morales and 'Inmigración' by Ángeles Gabaldón.