Pepito y Paquito: Unearthing the Beginnings of a Flamenco Legend

Pepito y Paquito offers a glimpse into the humble and homespun beginnings of a genius who marked a turning point in flamenco guitar and reveals a series of rudimentary musical recordings of Paco de Lucía and his older brother Pepe, at ages 11 and 13 respectively. These recordings, hidden in a quince box for more than half a century, showcase the genesis of a universal figure in contemporary flamenco and highlight his brother's significance as a singer. The extraordinary home recordings that, like a home movie, take listeners back to a time of the need in Franco's Spain, and how the brothers, gifted with preternatural talent, allowed them to to escape poverty through art and ingenuity.

Thanks to BMG and the Paco de Lucía Foundation, these early sound recordings, collected by Antonio Sánchez Pecino, the boys' father, and Reyes Benítez, their main supporter and custodian of the recordings, have reached us. Made between 1959 and 1960 on a Grundig tape recorder. The recording sessions took place in the coastal town of Algeciras, first in the Sánchez family home and then in the quiet house of Benítez's mother. Their existence was known, but their whereabouts were not. Until Quique Benítez, Reyes' son, discovered them in 2022.

Pepito y Paquito represents a work of musical archaeology with immense historical value. A total of 21 songs were recovered and restored using new technologies to create an album that composes the artistic prequel of both brothers, before their revolutionary breakthrough in the 1st International Flamenco Art Contest of Jerez de la Frontera in 1962 and their first records as Los Chiquitos de Algeciras.

INNATE VIRTUOSITY OF PACO

Pepito y Paquito is an auditory window through which we observe two children having fun, playing, and singing naturally and festively. Simultaneously, their inherent talent projects the long shadow of the legacy they would develop in their respective careers as two icons of contemporary flamenco, especially that of a universal master of the guitar.

"For all the possibilities discovered in our instrument over the generations, it is not surprising to hear master Paco at 12 years old already chasing the next level of what could be. In fact, according to these recordings, he was already there in many ways," commented American jazz guitarist Pat Metheny. “Hearing and knowing Paco, and to have been on the planet with him at the same time, is one of the things I am most grateful to have experienced in life."

The influence of celebrated flamenco guitar innovator Nino Ricardo, Paco’s first hero of the guitar, is evident in his playing from an early age; however, his virtuosity and genius are revealed in his ability to play like an adult despite being a child. Moreover, he mastered various styles of flamenco, as these 21 songs include Bulerías, Soleares, Cuplés, Rumbas, Fandangos, Tangos, Seguiriyas, Alegrías, and even Villancicos. All of them are performed astonishingly, allowing us to instantly recognize his art.

THE RECOGNITION OF PEPE

Pepe is a central figure in Pepito y Paquito. His singing is pure rawness, passion, and brilliance. We understand where the admiration and appreciation for his vocal power in the early years of his career came from. His privileged position in flamenco is evident, both accompanying Paco and in various solo projects.

“Thanks to my friendship with Paco, I met his brother Pepe and heard him sing, and here is another phenomenon. Pepe's singing at 13 years old is incredible. How can two children play and sing so well, with such passion and maturity? Two prodigies born in the same house with such enormous talent can only happen once every 100,000 years,” explains the revered British guitarist John McLaughlin.

It is paradoxical that Pepito y Paquito becomes the first album that Pepe and Paco recorded together and, at the same time, the last of their extensive flamenco careers. For Pepe, it also represents a crowning achievement for someone who always dedicated love, affection, pride, and respect, witnessing firsthand the success of his younger brother. At the same time, it asserts his own stature within flamenco singing, with a personal voice full of feeling, conveying raw and honest emotions.

A decade has passed since the death of Paco de Lucía. Pepito y Paquito commemorates an anniversary that reminds us of the genius of an artist who marked a turning point in the world of flamenco guitar, an artist whose loss is still deeply felt. His dedication, talent, and innovation made him the most universal flamenco guitarist, daring to incorporate fusions that, without betraying tradition, have now become hallmarks of six-stringed music.

Nothing was impossible with Paco's perfectionist determination and his enchanting presence on stage or in the studio. A legacy that has opened countless doors for future generations. In Pepito y Paquito, we revisit a musical childhood where we can feel what Paco would later become, honing a technique that already amazed from his early years and that we now rediscover as if he had never left. An enduring icon.

ED NEUMEISTER QUARTET + 3: COVERS

Trombonist, composer, arranger, educator Ed Neumeister is an artist operating at the forefront of creative music for more than forty years, with more than a dozen compelling releases under his own name (most recently, What Have I Done? and Explorations), and countless collaborations. He continues to create thought-provoking music for curious ears; music that challenges, inspires and delights.

Neumeister’s upcoming release, Covers, takes the listener on a trip through familiar tunes that resonated from his youth – five by the Beatles, two by Led Zeppelin, one made famous by Otis Redding and another just hatched only a few years ago by Taylor Swift. His core band features Gary Versace on piano, organ/accordion, Drew Gress on bass and Tom Rainey on drums, and is augmented by the “Covers Horn Section” of Billy Drewes, Caroline Davis and Ingrid Laubrock. Bassist Cameron Brown appears on three tunes as well.

Neumeister put his stamp on these beloved tunes from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, and he encourages the others, particularly Versace, to bring their own personal expression to the proceedings. “Gary and I talk about what he should play on these tunes, but I trust him implicitly,” said the leader. “He always plays exactly what’s needed without overplaying. He’s been in my quartet for years now so we have a great connection. We seem to know what each other will play before playing it.” In addition to being the leader and arranger, Neumeister is the “singer” of these timeless melodies. Through his highly-developed techniques on trombone, and use of an array of plungers and mutes, his singular voice gives these melodies a newly-harvested sound.

The idea for doing Covers came about because Neumeister loves expressing beautiful melodies, and it was pointed out to him that he has not recorded any standards in a while. The artist elaborates, “it was suggested by several people that I do my treatments of some rock, pop and R&B tunes from my youth. Since I grew up with the Beatles and vividly remember when the White Album was released, those tunes were a natural. Added to that were my days playing with Jerry Garcia in the great Bay Area band Reconstruction with Merl Saunders, Ron Stallings, Gaylord Birch and John Kahn. We played Jerry’s version of the Beatles’ ‘Dear Prudence’ every night to a great response, so that tune was a natural as well. Throw in a couple of tunes by Led Zeppelin, who I used to go see at the Fillmore West when I was still in high school, and ‘Try a Little Tenderness,’ a big hit for Wilson Picket in the ’60s and I remember hearing Linda Tillery sing it with the very influential Bay Area band Loading Zone, and I had the bulk of the material for the album.” Due to the hubbub about Taylor Swift as of late, Neumeister gave her albums a listen to see if anything resonated with him. “I discovered her tune ‘The Last Great American Dynasty’ (from 2020’s Folklore), so I decided to add my treatment to that,” said Neumeister.

“I’ve worked with Ed since the ’80s, when we played in the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra together. We’ve done many projects since in Europe and New York, and now he plays in my Nonet. He is an inspired arranger, composer and conductor, as well as a soloist of deep expressive passion.” – Joe Lovano

In the past years, Neumeister has focused on more modern approaches – sometimes abstract or experimental. But the priority is always on the groove and the melody. Whether free form or structured, the groove is always the master, or should be, and melody is always of prime concern. Sometimes these elements are easily discernable in Neumeister’s music, and other times more elusive, but ever present and deep in the musical texture. Neumeister elaborates, “I’ve always loved playing good melodies while putting my own personal touches in the statement of the melodies and in the arrangements themselves. We’ve accomplished that on Covers, and this project also let me delve into my history, especially my younger days when I hardly knew what jazz was. I’m still not sure . . . but that’s a whole other conversation.”

The extensiveness and profundity of Neumeister’s experience informs every note he composes and plays. The strain of musicianship, technique and inventiveness heard from Neumeister on his albums and collaborations has remarkably deep roots, stretching back to the earliest days of being a teenage, professional musician in the Bay Area, featured in high level marching bands, collaborating with Jerry Garcia (in the band, Reconstruction), backing up the likes of Chuck Berry, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra, embarking on a creative sojourn to Amsterdam, winning the first trombone chair with the Sacramento Symphony, and numerous other gigs, finally arriving in NYC in 1980 where he quickly became a “first-call” for Lionel Hampton, The Duke Ellington Orchestra (in which he played the trombone book made famous by Joe ‘Tricky Sam” Nanton), the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra (alongside Joe Lovano, Kenny Garrett and Tom Harrell), a stint with Buddy Rich, and many others. Neumeister has basically “worked with everyone,” as they say, including a forty year musical relationship with Joe Lovano (currently a member of his Nonet), Gerry Mulligan’s Concert Band, the aforementioned Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, which became the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra after Lewis’ passing (Neumeister’s arrangement of “A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square” on the album To You: A Tribute To Mel Lewis, was nominated for a Grammy Award), and many others. On top of all this, he has been leading his own ensembles throughout his entire career, and they have served as vehicles for his prolific output as a composer/arranger.

Larry Goldings Redefines His Legacy with First Live Piano Trio Album in Nearly Three Decades: I Will

For over thirty years, Larry Goldings has been hailed as one of the greatest jazz organists of his generation, a premise made salient with the continued success of his long-standing organ trio with guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Bill Stewart. However, the brightly glowing accolades for his organ playing have perhaps blinded the jazz-loving public to Goldings' equally astonishing and singularly unique talents on the piano, beyond those fortunate enough to catch a live show in Los Angeles (his home since 2001). 

Thankfully, Goldings is addressing the imbalance in perception with a rarity for him: a live piano trio album, his first in all those years as a professional musician. I Will features Goldings on piano, along with Karl McComas-Reichl on bass and Christian Euman on drums, three of the most inventive rhythm section players in L.A. 

On an October night in 2023, this new trio debuted at Sam First, the intimate listening room near LAX Airport, known for its cozy, living room vibe and pristine, audiophile-grade sound. They returned the following spring for an encore performance, and both nights were recorded using Sam First’s state-of-the-art analog to digital recording setup. However, it was only after Goldings heard the results that he decided to make an album. 

"It's probably good that we didn't know we were going to put it out at that point," Goldings says. "I was pleasantly surprised to realize that we definitely had a record." That the album is live contextualizes it with other recorded shows by notable piano trios – Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Fred Hersch (Goldings' third cousin), Brad Mehldau, et al – and the brilliant performance of Goldings' trio invites and deserves such lofty comparisons. For Goldings, this album not only serves as a proclamation of his pianistic prowess, but also a bit of a reckoning (or reconciliation) for him as a pianist. It's been 27 years since he released his first piano trio album, Awareness, with bassist Larry Grenadier and the great Paul Motian on drums, after Goldings was already well-known as an organist. 

"I think I hired Paul with the thought that he would steer me away from clichés, and to generally free things up,” Goldings says. A signature track from that early album, the Gershwin evergreen "Embraceable You," was done in complete rubato, out of time and very open harmonically. It's akin to a time capsule to hear the same tune and arrangement reprised so many years later, on I Will. How has Goldings' piano playing evolved over that span? "I'm less worried about fitting into somebody's expectation of how a piano trio should sound, or what a piano player should be able to do," he answers. "I wish I could say I've logged in so many hours over the years as a piano player, and that's led to some kind of breakthrough. Instead, it's just been that the older I get, the more comfortable I feel with my choices." 

Choices informed by all the music Goldings has been exposed to in his wide-ranging career. "I think as a result perhaps of some of the non-jazz gigs that I've done – particularly the really authentic settings like being with James Taylor and Maceo Parker – it's drawn out these other interests that I've always had. Not to mention seeing the potential for getting audiences involved in a different way and not just playing for musicians, which is often a jazz musician mindset." Goldings' material on I Will certainly reflects a populist approach to his artful eclecticism, from his edgy, odd-time original blues "Roach" (inspired by drummer Max Roach's own composition, "Driva'man") and his hero's-journey storybook piece, "Sing Song," to the traditionally hard-swinging "It Ain't Necessarily So," another Gershwin classic.

The trio also grooves, whether via the extroverted Afro-Latin clave of Mario Bauzá's "Mambo Inn" or the introspective folk-rock beat of Judee Sill's "Jesus Was a Cross Maker." Conversely, the ballads float on suspensions of time and belief; on "Embraceable You," and on Paul McCartney's "I Will" and "Somewhere" from West Side Story, the Leonard Bernstein masterpiece he recorded many years ago in similar fashion with guitarist Jim Hall. "I was lucky enough to be around people like Jim Hall," Goldings says. "He could play so sparsely and thoughtfully, with the purest of sounds and a deep understanding of the of the song. Never any showboating or over-playing." Those insights power Goldings' musical core, ever more in this new chapter in the storied career of a generational organist – and pianist. 

When asked to complete the sentence, "I will...," Goldings offers a laundry list of resolutions: "I will...play more piano, that's one. I will concentrate on having fun with the music – I think that's the most important thing, and I know that I will particularly with those guys. And I will worry less, I will exercise more, and I will be grateful that I still can do this."

ZY THE WAY Announces Debut Album Then And Now: Bridging Ancient Chinese Poetry and Contemporary Jazz

In a groundbreaking fusion of cultural heritage and modern artistry, the innovative jazz ensemble ZY THE WAY is set to release their highly anticipated debut full-length album, Then And Now. This album reimagines the boundaries of music and storytelling, blending ancient Chinese poetry with the dynamic sounds of contemporary jazz, global influences, and improvisation.

A Cultural Odyssey Through Music

Based in Taipei, ZY THE WAY leads a new era of musical innovation. Their work transforms the ancient verses of the Book of Songs (Shijing 詩經), a cornerstone of Chinese literary tradition compiled nearly 3,000 years ago, into vibrant modern compositions. The band’s debut EP, A Different Destiny, earned critical acclaim, including a 3.5-star review from Downbeat Magazine and accolades in Australia and Taiwan. With Then And Now, the group reaches new creative heights, bridging millennia of tradition and contemporary expression.

Revitalizing the Shijing 詩經

Then And Now draws inspiration from the Book of Songs (Shijing 詩經), an anthology from China’s Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BCE). Regarded as the oldest and most revered collection of Chinese poetry, the Shijing offers profound insights into early Chinese society’s cultural, social, and spiritual life.

In collaboration with Dr. Annie Luman Ren, an award-winning translator and classical Chinese scholar, ZY THE WAY brings these ancient texts to life for modern audiences. This partnership deepens global understanding of these historical works while empowering the band to create jazz compositions that honor their essence, combining traditional scholarship with innovative artistry.

Track Highlights and Context

1. Sun In The East (東方之日)
   Evoking celestial imagery, this track explores the fleeting beauty of romantic encounters and the ephemeral nature of love.

2. Then And Now (權輿)
   Reflecting on contrasts between a glorious past and present challenges, this piece offers commentary on the cyclical nature of prosperity and change.

3. Agile (還)
   Celebrating the exhilaration of hunting, this song underscores its cultural and ceremonial significance in ancient Chinese society.

4. Wild Winds (終風)
   Attributed to China’s first female poet, Zhuang Jiang, this melancholic poem delves into emotional turbulence, connecting weather and personal suffering.

5. Wedding Night (綢繆)
   A celebratory piece highlighting the transformative and ceremonial beauty of marriage.

6. Ten Acres (十畝之間)
   A tribute to rural life, portraying harmony between work and leisure while celebrating agrarian simplicity.

7. A Hermit’s Hut (考槃)
   Inspired by Daoist philosophy, this track reflects on the peace of nature and spiritual fulfillment through solitude.

8. Blue Collar (子衿)
   Exploring themes of longing and separation, this piece connects ancient sentiments with modern audiences.

About ZY THE WAY

Since forming in 2019 in Taipei, Taiwan, ZY THE WAY has trailblazed by merging the Shijing’s ancient poetry with contemporary jazz improvisation and innovative sounds. The group celebrates the Chinese diaspora’s cultural heritage, reinterpreting 3,000-year-old literary masterpieces with fresh energy. Their multimedia approach, including live poetry readings and visual elements, creates an immersive audience experience.

Renowned for their originality, ZY THE WAY’s music blends memorable melodies with strong grooves, bridging the sophistication of jazz and Western classical music. Their compositions invite listeners into a profound yet accessible musical journey, transcending cultural boundaries.

With Then And Now, ZY THE WAY promises an unforgettable experience that honors the past while resonating deeply with today’s global audience.