Manolo Sanlucar, biography of a flamenco legend

The flamenco guitar maestro Manolo Sanlúcar left us on August 27.
And on this last hot and peaceful night of the month of August, just four days after his death, I felt the need to dedicate this first article of my Blog to the now eternal Andalusian musician.

Manolo Sanlúcar has left a colossal legacy on the flamenco guitar.
Not only in terms of performance and composition, but also in terms of pedagogy.

Thus he has shared his knowledge and techniques over the years with young guitar students, for example as in his day with what is today the great Vicente Amigo.

But if that were not enough, this dedicated and meticulous man has left behind an encyclopedia of titanic dimensions. A job only worthy of a great mind.

There is an abysmal depth in the gaze of the genius of Sanlúcar. His expression is full of superhuman strength, like that of an ancient and strong Andalusian peasant who is not attenuated by the whims and outbursts of time and fortune.

But at the same time that he has strength, he conveys a serenity and calm, as elevated as that of a Buddha.

The vigor of a warrior and the wisdom of a scholar. Great Manolo.

His guitar is committed, it is Andalusian, it is full of life, it is relentless, serene, flamenco, sublime. It is greatness and it is wisdom.

The sound of his wood is mixed with his blood, with his commitment to the Andalusian people, with his dedication to flamenco, in short, with his truth. A certainty that is very clear in him and that there is nothing and no one that can take it away from him.

That is why this man has always walked confidently and firmly and has left us a legacy for posterity.

The flamenco heritage of his father, Isidro Sanlúcar

“I would like to be a messenger for you. My guitar is at the service of my people and wherever my people are, I will be there.”

Manolo Sanlúcar was born in 1943, yes, in Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz) and grew up in a fairly humble context. With a guitarist father, Isidro Muñoz, who was the one who instilled in him and transmitted his love for the guitar.

Isidro was a guitar player and a good fan of flamenco, although, however, he could not dedicate himself completely to the guitar, because he did not have enough money to feed the family, and he had to earn his salary, especially with the job of baker. .

Isidro also tried to be a soccer player, painter and bullfighter, and he also knew how to compose on pentagram and paper, since he had a poet side.

It is clear that artistic sensitivity ran through the veins of this man and that is why, although he could not dedicate himself completely to the guitar, what he did do, and did very well, was transfer his passion for this instrument and for this art to all his friends. children.

Of those, Manolo and Isidro, the genius’s brother, would be the two who most welcomed this inheritance from their father.

In fact, Isidro Muñoz’s brother was also a fantastic performer and composer and accompanied his brother in many concerts as second guitar.

Here I leave you a fabulous guajira that Sanlúcar performed with his brother in 1976. If you want to know more about the guajira, by clicking on this link you will discover things about this delicious flamenco style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUXp-eZncf0

The beginnings of the guitarist

“There is a historical void of a flamenco school that is expressed on stage, but is not documented through its musical forms.

It is outrageous that this happens with such an extensive musical culture, which has unique and particular values and which has aroused the interest of the Western world and beyond.”

Manolo, from Sanlúcar to Jerez

“The guitar is not generous at all, it is demanding. But at the same time it is fair. If you study it deeply and dedicate your attention to it, it doesn’t give you everything, it gives you what corresponds to what you have studied. And if you abandon it, it gives you nothing.”

Although his mother told him that if he dedicated himself to the guitar he would be hungry and sleepy, Manolo, he could not avoid the passion that united him to this instrument.

And together with his brother Isidro, he went every day by bicycle to Jerez de la Frontera to take classes with the renowned guitarist of the moment, the Jerez native Javier Molina.

The origins of his guitar

At that time, there was a bar in Seville, the Pinto bar, run by the flamenco couple formed (nothing more and nothing less) by Pepe Pinto and Pastora Pavón “La Niña de los Peines”.

There was where the flamenco artists of the time gathered and where good flamenco parties were held.

The artists who met there are the source from which all current flamenco artists and lovers drink today.

The news reached the ears of the great singer Pepe Pinto that there was a boy in Sanlúcar who was “pointing out ways”, so the singer located his father Isidro and told him to take the boy to Seville one day, so that he could play a time in the tavern.

“When that meeting ended, which ended up being a party, Pinto told me that he had just finished a tour but that Pepe Marchena was going to start another. So I received knowledge of that type of flamenco and at the same time I passed from one company to another. “So at the same time I was with Pepe Pinto too, because within his show there were extraordinary people.”

And he started to spin

At the age of fourteen he was already accompanying these artists, we are talking about the first level, nourishing himself with flamenco in all its aspects, both in experiences and in musicality, in hearing and in general in mastery of the guitar.

After a while he met the immense La Paquera de Jerez, a flamenco legend with torrential energy, both in her character, in her life and in her singing.

La Paquera’s flamenco is totally different from Pepe Marchena’s singing, with which Manolo had been working for so long.

However, only a guitarist with Manolo’s extraordinary qualities could be able to adapt perfectly to these two very different universes. And so he did.

“I don’t take all that with pride, having done all that. I don’t know how to feel it as something of my property. “I don’t know exactly how what I feel comes about, what I do know is that all of that belongs to my culture, and my music is for my people.”

Manolo Sanlúcar, the creator and the committed

And the recording of albums, the theaters, the relationship with the Granada singer Enrique Morente began.

“In that relationship that Enrique and I had there was a lot of artistic and human reflection…”

In 1968 he recorded the album Marfer and from that moment on, practically every year or two years he would release a new flamenco album.

But not only records, but the most varied, just like his personality, so for example, he recorded the theme song for Canal Plus or the unforgettable music of Medea for the National Ballet of Spain.

However, Sanlúcar, who was already a recognized flamenco guitarist, did not stop there.
If not, his curious, restless and investigative spirit leads him to learn classical music and also become a concert guitarist.

Becoming in this facet also a leading figure not only nationally, but also worldwide.

“I am where I need to be. When the freedom that the artist must have leads to debauchery, I am orthodox. When the orthodox does not allow the artist to move to search… then I am in the heterodox…

Which does not mean that the canons should not be taken care of, because one thing must always be clear, that it is one thing to create and another thing to alter the canons.”

Andalusia

The devotion he professed to our land was always evident. Faithful defender of Andalusia and our art.

In this way, when the teacher considered that our land had been disrespected, it was as if he had disrespected himself.

Song of Andalusia, is the unofficial anthem of Andalusia that he composed on the 50th anniversary of his profession.

“It is very curious that the culture of flamenco, an Andalusian culture, has been so undervalued when it is a music that challenges any musician in the world. We have our own music, it is music that is born from folklore… These are the themes that are chosen from popular music and become a specialty.”

Anthem of Andalusia, composed by Manolo Sanlúcar

Flamenco Guitar, Manolo Sanlúcar

On July 27, 2013, at the Cueva Festival in Nerja, Manolo Sanlúcar announces his retirement from the stage and from the guitar, since as he himself says, he has another more important mission to fulfill.

“It is a very special night because I decided to announce that he gave up the guitar as of today. I was waiting to say goodbye in an Andalusian town and I was incredibly lucky to be invited to come here today.

And I do it not for myself, because I feel very alive, I do it as a protest to an issue that is irrelevant now, but that is a cultural issue that occurs in our land, in flamenco, and that at the time I will publish”

And that matter, which he had in his hands, was concluded last year 2021 in his house in Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

A titanic work

A work of gigantic dimensions, that only someone like him, with that innate and extraordinary capacity for commitment, work and responsibility with music, with Andalusia and its culture, could carry out and finish satisfactorily.

“I had to give up the guitar and I understood that the work he was doing was more important because flamenco music is not understood by musicians from other cultures.”

 

It is a great encyclopedia where he leaves the best of his knowledge, all the knowledge that he has accumulated throughout his extensive professional career.

The flamenco Bible

All of his knowledge is collected in a work, which could be considered “the bible of flamenco” written by himself. A sacred mission that the teacher, just finished the year before his death.

A titanic encyclopedia, which has taken him twelve years of his life and is titled: “The Flamenco Guitar, Manolo Sanlúcar.”

This is a first book titled “Andalusia: The Other History”, which in turn is divided into two volumes.

And a second work, “The School”, with two other volumes.

But in addition, it also has a musical section with 12 DVDs, each one with an audiovisual chapter lasting about 30 minutes, and another more special one, lasting about 45 minutes.

In total there are 41 musical themes, in which more than 40 artists have participated, and where the mysteries of the musical system are unraveled, which include the different genres and styles of flamenco.

It is likely that just by reading the work that the master has written and directed, “you have been left in a state of shock,” and it is no wonder.

Since a work of such caliber can only be carried out by someone of his extraordinary abilities.

“What I am looking for is to give shape to everything that is there dancing, that there was a lot of knowledge but there was a lot of imprecision.
And the proof of my sense of responsibility, I don’t know if I was finally right or not… but at the age of 16 I started to compose “Mundo y forma de la guitar flamenco”, which are 3 longplays where I tried to reflect there all the musical architecture of the canons of flamenco.”

Manolo Sanlúcar, the legacy of flamenco guitar and musical knowledge.
From this space of Flamencas and Marcianos, we thank you for all the wonderful music you have left us.

Thanks, teacher.