Paco de Lucia - Cositas Buenas (Edicion 20º Aniversario) (Remastered 2025) [Hi-Res]

For four decades, Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia’s jazzy, Mephisto-like technique redefined flamenco. This album, which means ‘Good Small Things,’ is de Lucia’s first release in five years, and it’s been worth the wait. Most of the eight tracks feature just de Lucia, a chorus of vocalists, percussion, and the zesty handclaps called palmas. Lucia and company take you through the Moorish, Jewish, and Gypsy inventions and dimensions of flamenco, from the buleria ‘Patio Custodio’ and the torrid tientos ‘El Tesorillo’ to the moody, mid-tempo buleria por solea ‘Antonia’. Guitarists Juan D’ Anyelica and Tomatito join de Lucia on ‘El Dengue’, and ‘Que Vengo el Alba’, which also features a vocal track from the late singer Camaron de la Isla. The last song, ‘Casa Bernardo’, with bassist Alain Perez, jazz trumpeter Jerry Gonzalez, and Latin pop star Alejandro Sanz on the guitar-like tres, foreshadows the future of this ancient and inventive art form.
“On his first outing in five years, and the first of the new century, flamenco guitarist Paco De Lucia has given us one of the most sublime recordings in his long career. This collection of “Good Little Things” (Cositas Buenas) is a step away from Nuevo flamenco, and back to the grain of the source music itself. It is a record full of handclapped rhythms, organic spare percussion, and burning, passionate songwriting and singing. The various singers – including Paco himself – wail, chant, moan, and ecstatically intone his new songs to the sheer rough-hewn grace of his playing. Most tracks are done in the canonical style of guitar, and voice with handclap accompaniment, but there are two – the smoking, burning black soul of “El Dengue” and “Que Venga el Alba,” on which he is accompanied by another guitarist. On the album’s final cut, “Cassa Bernardo,” a rumba, Jerry Gonzalez adds his mariachi trumpet to the proceedings. Cositas Buenas is an album that careens across the history of flamenco. While rooted in antiquity, it nonetheless points the way to a new music, one that extrapolates rhythm and harmony and adds syncopation, texture, depth, and multi-layered harmonics to the original framework. It is transcendentally beautiful if overwhelming in its passion and the sheer joy of performance. Indeed, Cositas Buenas sets a new standard for modern flamenco music and acts as the true bridge between the ancient and the future. No one but a master who cares nothing for his laurels could have articulated such a work.” ( Thom Jurek, AMG)