Aunque ahora se han convertido en clásicos de este arte, en los años 70, cuando la pareja comenzó su andadura profesional, fueron precursores del conocido como ‘nuevo flamenco’. Su toque y su cante comenzaban a expandirse más allá de los aficionados estrictamente al flamenco, abarcando un público más heterogéneo.

Iniciaron la senda del flamenco fusión que luego otros muchos seguirían alcanzando grandes éxitos. Los aires hippies que llegaban desde Estados Unidos y recorrían Europa fueron una de las mayores influencias para esta pareja, afectando tanto a la música como a las letras. De hecho, las letras dejaban de lado la amargura y la pena que caracterizan a numerosos palos flamencos, dedicándose a la paz, las flores y el amor. Todo ello de la mano del poeta Juan Manuel Flores.

Lole (Dolores Montoya Rodríguez) procede de familia de gran arraigo y tradición flamenca, hija de La Negra, comenzó en el baile hasta dedicarse al cante junto a Manuel. Por su parte Manuel Molina llevaba desde niño en el mundo del flamenco y a los doce años ya formaba parte del trío ‘Los gitanillos del Tardón’ junto a Chiquetete y El Rubio.

It’s a landmark in maestro guitarist Paco de Lucía’s personal history, and also for flamenco history. On May 8th, this internationally renowned artist will be vested as Doctor Honoris Causa by the Berklee Collage of Music, a private university in Boston, Massachussets (USA). Those responsible for awarding this great academic distinction believe that “his music and artistic vision has influenced several generations of musicians and have contributed to the transmission of flamenco to an international public”.

Francisco Sánchez Gómes, known artistically as Paco de Lucía, was born in Algeciras (Cádiz) in 1947, where his internationally renowned career began decades ago, when flamenco was no longer a music for private parties and began to be performed in tablaos around Spain and throughout the world.

Paco de Lucía’s tremendous success isn’t due solely to his work as a flamenco guitarist, but also because he has influenced other styles of music, and this award in particular has expanded his sphere of influence from the purely musical and comercial to the academic, wrapping this flamenco musician’s work in a nimbus of respect even more grandiose than before.

The son of a Spanish father and a Portuguese mother, this is not the first distinction De Lucía has received. In Spain, he has received every award an artista could deesire: National Flamenco Art Prize for Guitar, Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts, Honorary Distinction in the Music Awards, Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts and Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Cádiz.