Today we’d like to introduce you to JOSE LUIS DE LA PAZ
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
It’s difficult to answer this question. I was only a few months old when I first had a guitar in my hands. My entire childhood was spent with guitars and the sound of flamenco in the house, because my father was a great fan of this art and I was enthralled listening to those old records.
When I was barely 6 years old I had my first teacher. In a short time I was playing on stage accompanying singing and dancing. At 14 I was already playing professionally and was one of the finalists in the National Guitar Competition in Jerez. Since then… awards, tours, concerts, collaborations…
In 1994 the great dancer and choreographer Cristina Hoyos called me to be her Musical Director. I composed 5 shows for her between until 2004. Then I composed music for Choreographer Belen Maya and Juan Carlos Lerida in Spain.
In 2011 I moved to the US to expand my knowledge and possibilities. I founded Nu Flamenco Collaborative and I produced a few projects. I can mention “Intimate Spaces”, “Resonances”, “Avalon”, “Toda Sciencia trascendiendo”.
I have also collaborated with artists such as Susana Behar, Colin Farish and Susana Behar. I have also collaborated with choreographic projects such as “Intimo” and “Amor Brujo” by Siudy Garrido, “Fronteras” by Carlota Santana, “Ole-Olá by Cristina Hoyos” and “Solaz” by Tania Lillieaux (award for the best production of 2024 granted by the Isadora Dunchan Foundation).
In 2018 I performed Amor Brujo by Manuel de Falla, under the artistic direction of Siudy Garrido, together with the LAPhil and Maestro Gustavo Dudamel. In 2023 I was honored to be featured in the Library of Congress of the USA thanks to the group Marqui’s who is who.
In recent months I am working on a new album titled “la mujer en el mar, flamenco filin” with poems by Alfonsina Storni and the voice of the singer Gema Corredera.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It is never easy to be a full-time musician these days.
I generally prefer not to think about it too much, but I can tell you about some of them:
– Being a flamenco guitarist, even if I am a concert artist and composer, is something “exotic” in the US. The general audience does not understand our codes, nor the rhythmic difficulty of the compositions and you find yourself in the middle of a lot of stereotypes that distort the “truth” of my work. Getting to the heart of these new and neophyte audiences is a very difficult challenge.
My choice has been not to think from flamenco, even if I do flamenco, but simply to offer my music without the pretense that it will be “understood” by the audience, but that my music moves the audience, as far as possible, from an internal truth in the composition and interpretation.
– Another factor is that, when I join other musicians to make my music, it is necessary to make them understand the codes and the flamenco language, which is a very strong cultural shock. It requires patience and finding common ground, which, if you look at it carefully, can also be a point of enrichment in every sense.
– Another great difficulty in making a living from music is the fact of being alone. I don’t have a production team and I also manage all my work and personal life alone. This has required me to learn many tasks that I didn’t do when I lived in my country, Spain. Here I learned to write grants, to prepare a budget, to produce a show without external help. I learned to edit video, photography, to take photos for the press… Not to mention Social Media, the current means of visibility for the artist, which is a very chaotic world for me, in which quality doesn’t matter, but “likes”. And, in addition to all that, you have to follow up on contacts, play daily and compose, record, etc. It’s a great challenge when you don’t have help.
Now, after almost 15 years in Miami, I’ve started to have some friends who help me with budgets, grants, marketing or production, etc.
– Finally, I will talk about the economic difficulties. It is a reality that the costs of production and maintenance of private life have grown enormously in recent years, which, added to the fact that artists do not earn more to compensate for this, has caused our standard of living to be greatly damaged.
If we add to this the general mistreatment of the owners of the places where there is live music, we can say that we are in constant economic risk. When we go on tour, whoever hires us has to do more to maintain our working conditions, which has translated into worse ways of traveling, worse hotels, per-diem that is not enough to pay your expenses, etc… In the end, it is the artist who pays the consequences of everything, being the first to see the problems and adapt with better prices, etc. This is the reality.
Miami has become a very aggressive city for the full-time artist. For this reason, many artists have bent their legs and work in other jobs in order to survive. This is something that makes me very sad.
Overall, even if the situation is not ideal, I cannot stop doing what I do. I continue composing, recording, reinventing my work and trying to present my compositions in the best possible way, giving the audience the best of me and trying to make my work meet the best conditions of excellence and quality.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
In my work as a flamenco guitarist, I am known for being able to play and compose in all three disciplines (singing, dancing and concert). One of the things that characterizes me is my ability to use the dynamics of the guitar beyond the usual.
That is, I have a lot of possibilities to express myself on the guitar from the most delicate to the most aggressive. This comes from a need to maintain my concert technique and delicacy, while touring playing for a ballet of 10 dancers. In those years, almost 10 with Maestra Cristina Hoyos, I studied on my own to maintain this delicacy that the concert demands. As a result, I developed a right-hand technique that has allowed me to open the dynamic-expressive range of the guitar much more.
But, in addition, in recent years, I have experimented with electronic music, jazz, pop and Sephardic music, which has helped me to be much more efficient and fluid, although without losing my Andalusian and personal seal. I have also ventured into classical music and have composed a symphonic piece that has been used as an introduction to Amor Brujo, choreographed by Siudy Garrido. I can also play great classical pieces such as El Concierto de Aranjuez.
At the moment, I am researching what I have called “Vestida de Mar: flamenco-filin”, in a project that I am working on with the Cuban singer Gema Corredera and in which I have been inspired by poems from the Argentine Alfonsina Storni.
As I said, the use of elements from the different cultures and disciplines that I have around me, give me a personal and unique character when I play my guitar.
What’s next?
Right now my first goal is to continue with the recording of “Vestida de Mar”, my new album in which my dear Gema Corredera collaborates.
In addition to this I have several commitments with the symphonic work that I composed as an introduction to Amor Brujo in the choreographic version by Siudy Garrido and a tour with her in October and I will have a premiere in Orlando, also in October for Flamenco del Sur in a version of La Casa de Bernarda Iba for flamenco.
Afterwards, some rest and then go back to touring in January and February.
As for the rest…. to continue forward, learning, and looking for new sounds to renew and reinvent myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://joseluisdelapaz.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joseluisguitar/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joseluisguitar/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JOSELUISDELAPAZ
Image Credits
Personal collection Jose Luis de la Paz
