Zyryab

Zyryab —blackbird— nickname given to the Baghdadi-Cordoban Abu Al-Hasan Ali Ibn Nafi who lived between the years of 789 and 857 AD and decisively influenced the development of traditional Arab music on the Iberian peninsula. To him are credited, variously: the invention of the plectrum using the front feathers of an eagle; adding the fifth string to the lute; and the establishment of a music school, which was without precedent. He is traditionally considered to have been the father of the music of Al Andalus, music that brought together the wisdom of that magnificent cultural melting pot.
Paco de Lucía’s album is based on the updating up of some already recorded ideas. The demands of this new recording by the group led him to conceive Zyryab with the help of Chick Corea, Manolo Sanlucar, Carles Benavent, Jorge Pardo, Rubem Dantas, Ramón de Algeciras, Pepe de Lucía and the young singer-songwriter, El Potito, who brought his high pitched voice to ‘Soniquete’ and ‘Playa de Carmen’. With this group of talents he achieved one of the jewels of the Flamenco of the 90s. Also present here is Ramón Porrina, then known as “El Pesicola”, playing the cajón on the bulerias ‘Soniquete’. Joan Albert Amargos played keyboard and helped in the arrangements for this record, released on 22 October 1990.