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i played guitar for Paco de Lucía
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xirdneH_imiJ
Posts: 1935
Joined: Dec. 2 2006
From: Budapest, now in Southampton
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 i played guitar for Paco de Lucía
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i put this in off topic because it's very personal and emotional...
as the title says, i played guitar for Paco de Lucía! how did this happen? well, he has his concert in Budapest two days ago...i've seen him play twice before, of course i was impressed, but he wasn't in his best form then and didn't seem to be in a particularly good mood either...back in december i made sure i and my guitarist friend had tickets in the first row, for the uninterrupted view of everything, money didn't matter...
about the concert:
we were lucky, he was really at his best that night...he played his trademark concert intro rondena flawlessly, and he built on it later...the rondena was introduced with the well known intro from Cueva del Gato, then it flowed into Camarón, there were one falseta each from Doblan Campanas and Mi Nino Curro...then he played Antonia (spb), then an alegría that started out as Calle Munición and halfway was changed to La Barrosa...then two rumbas, both a mixture of his old rumbas, then a Bulería based on Volar, but there were elements of other bulerías in this too...we got to hear the new piece too, that started out as the seguiriya Luzia, then the band joined in and changed to spb, about 4 compáses of tangos, then bulerías, and in the and it all changed back to seguiriya...it was great, with many new falsetas...they ended the concert with Zyryab which towards the end had some falsetas of the bulería Soniquete in it, but they ended it the usual way...the finishing piece after being forced back on the stage by the audience was another rumba based on Entre dos Aguas, with many different falsetas again...
about the rest:
after the concert we went to the door in which we believed the band were going to come out and asked the personnel there if it's possible to get in or should we just wait but they sent us away saying there's no chance of Paco giving out autographs...so we went around the place, met my friend Bhandras there (fellow foro member) and about half an hour later we went back there...there were people coming out and they said no more people are allowed in...so it looked bad then...but we found out that the band were going to have dinner right there as the concert hall also has a restaurant there and Andras decided to go in and have dinner himself with his fiancee, they could stop us from going in but they couldn't stop them as they were paying customers...not that we would've wanted to disturb the band for autographs while they were eating...i almost gave up and we went away with my friend but i don't live too far and after talking to Andras i drove back to the place...just as i was approaching the hall he called again the Paco went out to have a smoke with Duquende and David de Jacoba...so after parking the car i almost ran there and approached the Maestros...i was using a bad spanglish to communicate as my spanish is poor but i also know that Paco understands english...he seemed suprised that almost two hours after the concert there was still a fan searching for him but his surprise looked like a pleasant one and he certainly looked like he was in a good mood...
i asked if he would sign my guitar as i'd been waiting for this moment for a long time...he said sure, take it out and as i was about to give it to him, he said "Toca!" with a smile on his face...and how can one refuse that? i could have played some open strings making no musical sense, even then i would've been able to tell the world Paco de Lucía heard me playing guitar :)...my guitar was tuned to rondena as i played my own piece before putting the guitar away, so i just fine tuned the strings for a few seconds, it was still out of tune but oh well, i didn't want to waste his time...but it was about 5 degrees and very windy right next to the river Danube so you can imagine it was cold and i had no way to sit down either...so in an awkward position i played about the first minute of my rondena to him, then stopped, told him there's another tremolo section there and he understood i was trying not to be too much, he said he knows it's cold out there so he asked if i had a pen which of course i had prepared...Duquende said the same thing, how prepared i was, we were laughing...after the signature i told Paco it was the third time i've seen him perform in Hungary and i really hope there will be another time in the future...he nodded smilingly and we mutually thanked each other...while leaving he gave me two very friendly (but surprisingly strong) pats on my shoulder...i stood there grinning and watched them proceed back to the restaurant...my friend Andras also got his with, a picture with the Maestro, something i didn't ask him for, even if i had the camera in my pocket, i felt he gave what he was prepared for and didn't want to ask too much...perhaps i'll have a chance again to meet him in person...
so, while i'm really not the type to worship people, having met this man who's a living legend, an inspiration to generations of not only flamenco guitarists, was a day i won't ever forget...and he heard me play guitar...it made it worth all the practicing for the last 4 years, and all the practice i'll get in the future...
for some reason the foro won't let me upload a picture so i'll do that later...
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Mar. 30 2010 14:50:06
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xirdneH_imiJ
Posts: 1935
Joined: Dec. 2 2006
From: Budapest, now in Southampton
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RE: i played guitar for Paco de Lucía (in reply to Ricardo)
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Florian, in Budapest there's very little flamenco performing and what is there it's performed by a handful of us, the same 10-15 people that started out almost together 5-6 years ago...there are no flamenco schools but there are about 4-5 teachers of adequate level and there's just one who performs on a classy level...guitarists have the opportunity to join in classes, but payment is out of the question...
about once a year we get a class act performing here, that's about it...these 3 days we had Paco then we had Esperanza Fernández and Miguel Angel Cortés yesterday, unfortunately i couldn't afford the latter concert...so it look unlikely that we'll see any good flamenco here for a while...so if you're thinking of visiting your neighbors for flamenco, forget it! if you're here for the girls, sure, come :)
in the years i've had the fortune of meeting nearly everyone who plays or aims to play flamenco in the country, needless to say there are few of us and even fewer who take it really seriously...but us guitarists are very much on friendly terms, helping each other out wherever possible...unlike dancers who could drown each other in a glass of water! :)))
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Mar. 31 2010 9:52:45
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