The Montreux Years

This live recording is the latest in a series from the Montreux festival archives. Previous releases feature greats such as Nina Simone and John McLaughlin, and Paco de Lucía, considered by some to be the greatest of all flamenco guitarists, is well placed in this lauded company. This is also, surprisingly, the first new album of his music since his death in 2014.

The tracks here are from festival appearances in 1984, 2006 and 2012, with little to separate the years sonically or stylistically. There are three tracks of solo guitar or guitar and percussion which show Lucía's extraordinary virtuosity, in the case of ‘Variaciones de Minera’, well into his 60s. The rest feature variations of the sextet which produced the genre-shifting classic ‘Entre Dos Aguas’ half a century ago, with a foundation of electric bass and percussion, augmented here by vocals, saxophone and/or harmonica. In fact that famous track reappears here, floating under the surface of ‘Alta Mar’ and even sneaking into the opener ‘Vámonos’. While some of these long versions’ solos run out of steam, it's terrific to hear the maestro in such great form.