Guitarist and composer Juan Manuel Cañizares was born in 1966 in Sabadell, in northeastern Spain, the son of parents from southern Spain. He started his studies at the age of 10 at the Sabadell Municipal Conservatory, then continued in Tarrasa and Barcelona. In 1982, Cañizares obtained the Jerez National Guitar Award.
He toured with the rock group El Ultimo de la Fila in 1989, which allowed him to experience performing outside the world of flamenco. Since then, he has continued to work with Spanish and international musicians such as: Enrique Morente, the legendary Camarón de la Isla, María Pagés, Pepe de Lucía, Rocío Jurado, Vince Mendoza, Joan Manuel Serrat, Peter Gabriel, Al Di Meola, Mike Stern, Peter Erskine, Michael Brecker and The Chieftains.
Meeting flamenco guitar maestro Paco de Lucía was one of the most decisive experiences in Cañizares’ musical career. He collaborated with Paco de Lucía in the shows Sólo, Dúo, Trío and was later a member of the Paco de Lucía Septet. Their collaboration lasted ten years (1988-1998), until Cañizares decided to launch his own career.
In 1997, Cañizares recorded his first album titled Noches de Imán y Luna, which is rated as a great event in the flamenco world. With this recording, Cañizares found a new way to understand flamenco and became one of the most important advocates of flamenco guitar. His second album is based on an exceptional transcription of Albéniz’ piano sonnets for two guitars, it is a beautiful work from both a musical and a historical point of view.
In 2004 Cañizares collaborated with the recording of “The Official Torch Relay Theme”. This track was included on the record Unity (the official record for the Olympic Games in Athens 2004) which was sold in over 50 countries. In 2005, he had a huge success at Carnegie Hall in New York, where he performed at the “Mano a Mano” show with José Maria Gallardo del Rey. Cañizares is also a noted composer who has created works for the Ballet Nacional de España as well as film scores.
In 2007, he released Suite Iberia – Albéniz por Cañizares, which is a transcription and interpretation of the Iberia Suite, exactly a hundred years after Isaac Albéniz composed the masterpiece. This rather grand and vast composition is based on the popular music and sonority of the Spain in which Albéniz lived, inherently influenced by flamenco. Iberia, originally written for the piano, is for the first time adapted for two guitars, both played by Cañizares. The result is an exciting and surprising communion between the charisma of Cañizares’ guitar and the flamenco underlying the original piece by Albéniz.
Cañizares recorded several classical music albums featuring compositions by Albéniz, Granados, Falla and Scarlatti.
In 2018, Cañizares released an independent album titled El mito de la caverna. The album won the prestigious Spanish MIN independent music award in 2019 for Best Flamenco Album.
“Flamenco tradition has brought me, following the Platonic metaphor, the language of the shadows in the cavern, those mysterious sounds that reached me traveling down the river of tradition. Years later, while studying at the music conservatory, I learned musical theory, which in similar metaphoric terms can be regarded as the language of sunlight. This intellectual perception of music allowed me to travel to a very different musical world,” said Cañizares.
His catalog as a composer includes works for the Spanish National Ballet (BNE) and soundtracks for films such as La Lola se va a los Puertos (with Rocío Jurado and Paco Rabal), Flamenco (1996) and La Jota (2016) by Carlos Saura.
In 2023, he won Spain’s National Music Awards in the Performance category.
[First part of the biography, translated by Rita Granda]
Discography:
Noches de Imán y Luna (Nuevos Medios, 1997)
Transcripción Original de Albéniz (Nuevos Medios, 1999)
Punto de Encuentro (EMI, 2000)
Suite Iberia – Albéniz por Cañizares (Sony BMG, 2007)
Cuerdas del Alma (Sony Music, 2010)
La Vida Breve – Falla por Cañizares Vol.2 (JMC Music Productions, 2013)
El Sombrero de Tres Picos – Falla por Cañizares Vol.1 (JMC Music Productions, 2013)
El Amor Brujo – Falla por Cañizares Vol.3 (JMC Music Productions, 2014)
Goyescas – Granados por Cañizares (Sony Music, 2012)
Sonatas – Scarlatti por Cañizares (JMC Music Productions, 2014)
Danzas Españolas – Trilogía de Granados por Cañizares Vol. 1 (JMC Music Productions, 2017)
Valses Poéticos – Trilogía de Granados por Cañizares Vol. 2 (JMC Music Productions, 2017)
Goyescas – Trilogía de Granados por Cañizares Vol. 3 (JMC Music Productions, 2017)
El mito de la caverna (JMC Music Productions, 2018)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.