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yes. Manitas de Plata. Also amazingly "unique".

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Clearly however Carlos was far inferior to Sabicas because Carlos was never booked into the Jernigan Suite when he toured. This caused Carlos to lose sleep, be stressed out and to get sloppy when on stage because his American wife badgered him about the accommodations.... He also wanted to get rooted deep into the American counter culture and work with the Grateful Dead, which is also why he cultivated his sense of showmanship.

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The saddest man in the world has an American wife, a Chinese salary a Japanese home and English food

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And the reason he never jammed with Pigpen on drums is because Pig played organ and harmonica, and would have drowned out Carlos on either one.

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ORIGINAL: estebanana

Well both really, his hand movement is so minimal it's hard to see on films what he was doing. The technique is so clean and precise it never fails to make me shake my head. Sabicas' music is not my top, but I would never discount him as one of the best of the best. I like some of his compositions better than Nino Ricardo's, but there something about Ricardos funkiness I like.

But Sabicas' right hand seems to be the about as good as it gets.

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Someone wrote that Ramon Montoya would have been a great musician in whatever genre he happened to work, but Niño Ricardo had to be a flamenco guitarist. You could just about substitute Sabicas for Montoya, in my opinion.

But Niño Ricard was flamenco through and through. And in his earlier days he was a technical monster as well, though not quite on the order of Sabicas.

Having seen Sabicas up close and in person a fair amount, I was always amazed by the fluency and apparent effortlessness of his technique. He was never in a hurry, no matter how fast he might have been blasting away. And he was never pushing hard, no matter how much he was rattling the chandeliers. He got his volume by efficiency, not force.

Or so it seemed. He probably could have cracked walnuts between the thumb and forefinger of either hand. His right hand strokes could have been like Bruce Lee´s one-inch punches.

He could play from the New York club Zambra's 2 AM closing time until sunrise without ever setting the guitar down, fueled only by a couple shots of Spanish brandy per hour.

RNJ

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Someone wrote that Ramon Montoya would have been a great musician in whatever genre he happened to work, but Niño Ricardo had to be a flamenco guitarist.