Jorge Pardo: biography of the flautist who brought the flute to flamenco
Jorge Pardo (Madrid, 1956) is a flautist and saxophonist and a key figure where jazz and flamenco meet. He was the one who opened flamenco up to the transverse flute, and his playing, halfway between roots jazz and flamenco compás, remains a reference for musicians all over the world.
- Flamenco Flute: he is considered the one who introduced the flute to Flamenco.
- Jazz Fusion: he enjoys international prestige in the jazz world.
He started studying at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid at 14 and was soon drawn to jazz, which he began playing with university bands.
“To learn flamenco you have to go out there and get your hands dirty; a YouTube tutorial is not enough.”
Awards
France
Best European Jazz Musician, Académie du Jazz (2013)
Spain
Spanish National Prize for Contemporary Music (2015)
Jazz
Gold Medal of the Jazz en la Costa Festival in Almuñécar (2016)
Grammy
Best Latin Jazz Album for “Antidote”, with Chick Corea & The Spanish Heart Band (2020)
Early years: from jazz to Dolores
Early on he shared the stage with musicians such as Tete Montoliu, Pedro Iturralde, Slide Hampton, Lou Bennett and Pony Poindexter. Together with Pedro Ruy-Blas he founded the band Dolores, which soon became a benchmark of Spanish jazz.
“When I started playing the flute I learned the notes. When my flute became flamenco I felt I could say them differently. When I freed myself from constraints, I felt them like this.”
Paco de Lucía and the birth of the flamenco flute
Diego Carrasco and, above all, Paco de Lucía opened the doors of professional flamenco to him. With Paco he toured the world several times, recorded on his albums and shared the bill with major names of international jazz. That period gave birth to the language we now call the flamenco flute.
In 1982 he recorded his first album as a leader in Mallorca, Jorge Pardo, with Joan Bibiloni and Carles Benavent, who would be a regular partner for decades.
Discography and collaborations
Albums under his own name followed: Las cigarras son quizá sordas (1991), Veloz hacia su sino (1993), 2332 (1997) and Mira (2001). With Carles Benavent and Tino di Geraldo he recorded El concierto de Sevilla (1995), and with Chano Domínguez 10 de Paco, a landmark of flamenco jazz. He has also recorded with Gil Goldstein, Ketama, La Barbería del Sur and Tomás San Miguel, among others.
With Chick Corea
From 2004 he was part of Chick Corea’s Touchstone Tour and, years later, of The Spanish Heart Band, with whom he recorded Antidote (2019), winner of the 2020 Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album. Along the way he released Vientos flamencos (2005) and its second part (2009), Huellas (2012) and Historias de Radha y Krishna (2014).
Metaflamenco and new paths
In 2016 he premiered Djinn, a project he describes as “interdimensional metaflamencojazz”: groove, electronics, voice and flamenco in a single sonic journey. That same year he worked with DJ Toner7 on Grandmaster Jazz vol. 1, blending jazz and hip hop, and in 2022 he released Trance Sketches, adding electronic music to flamenco and jazz.
“It’s not true that flamenco and jazz are only for connoisseurs.”
Learn flamenco flute with Jorge Pardo
In his online flamenco flute course at Campus Masterclasses, Jorge Pardo teaches you to master the compás, find the flamenco tone and play tangos and soleá, and shares what he learned alongside Chick Corea.