The best Tomatito albums to discover his work

Who is Tomatito?

José Fernández Torres, known in the flamenco world as Tomatito, was born in Almería in 1958 into a family of guitarists. His father was Tomate and his grandfather Miguel Tomate, while his uncle Niño Miguel is considered one of the legendary guitar players of recent flamenco history. He grew up, then, surrounded by guitars from the cradle, listening to his father’s and grandfather’s playing at home, which naturally shaped a calling he never had to search for: he was born into it.

That family background partly explains the solidity of his playing. He isn’t a guitarist who came to flamenco out of curiosity or late study, but someone who absorbed the language of the instrument the way one learns to speak, in the domestic setting of a dynasty of guitar players from Almería. Over time, that early apprenticeship would become the technical foundation of one of the most respected careers in contemporary flamenco.

His years as Camarón de la Isla’s guitarist

At the age of twelve, Tomatito moved to Málaga to start his professional career, performing in tablaos such as the Taberna Gitana. It was precisely there that he met Camarón de la Isla, an encounter that would completely change the course of his artistic life. Camarón took him on as his accompanying guitarist and, for around fifteen years, the two formed one of the most iconic artistic partnerships in flamenco history. Tomatito himself has acknowledged in various interviews how much he owes to that collaboration, which placed him, from a very young age, at the absolute center of the flamenco scene.

Those years alongside Camarón were not just a technical apprenticeship, but a school of artistic complicity: accompanying cante requires a kind of listening and anticipation that is only honed through thousands of hours shared on stage. During that period, Tomatito also took part in landmark events on the flamenco calendar, such as the Giraldillo del Toque at the III Bienal de Arte Flamenco de Sevilla in 1984, the Cumbre Flamenca de Madrid in 1985 and the V Festival de Jazz de Madrid in 1986, appearances that steadily built his name beyond the already enormous shadow of Camarón.

His most important albums

Tomatito’s discography, both from his years as an accompanist and as a soloist, is marked by a few very specific milestones worth knowing to understand his career.

The first, and probably the most symbolic, is “Paris 1987,” the live album recorded with Camarón de la Isla that earned Tomatito a Grammy for best flamenco album. It’s an album that perfectly sums up what that artistic partnership was: Camarón’s cante sustained by a guitar that already showed a character of its own, though always in service of the singer.

Already as a soloist, the album that marked a turning point in his international career was “Spain” (2000), recorded with the Dominican pianist Michel Camilo. This work earned Tomatito a Latin Grammy and showed that his guitar could hold its own alongside other musical languages, in this case Latin jazz, without losing the flamenco roots that define him.

Later, Tomatito took on a project of a different nature: the “Sonata Suite,” a work for guitar and orchestra recorded with the Orquesta Nacional de España. It’s one of his most recent and ambitious works, and shows a guitarist willing to take flamenco into the realm of concert music, in dialogue with a symphony orchestra.

To that list must be added his work as a composer: Tomatito co-wrote the soundtrack for the film “Vengo” (2001), a work for which he received a César award, a recognition that confirms the versatility of his musical writing beyond the traditional flamenco album format.

His style as a guitarist

Tomatito’s playing is recognized for his mastery of the thumb and the rasgueado, executed with a precision critics have repeatedly praised. He moves easily between different guitar tunings and tackles palos as different as soleá, tangos or bulerías with the same confidence, which speaks of a complete guitarist, capable of adapting to the demands of each style without losing personality.

One critic summed up his playing by noting that “many play flamenco, but not with the clarity and force” he brings to it, a description that captures well what sets Tomatito apart from other guitarists of his generation: it isn’t just technical virtuosity, but a clarity of execution and a rhythmic force that make his playing instantly recognizable.

That combination of technical precision and personality is largely what allowed him to go from being Camarón’s accompanying guitarist to becoming a soloist capable of collaborating with musicians from traditions as different as Michel Camilo’s Latin jazz or orchestral music.

Awards and recognition

Tomatito’s list of honors reflects the reach of a career that has crossed stylistic and geographic borders. He won a Grammy for best flamenco album alongside Camarón de la Isla for “Paris 1987,” and, already as a soloist, earned a Latin Grammy with Michel Camilo for “Spain” (2000). To these two recording accolades is added a César award for the soundtrack of “Vengo” (2001), which he composed together with other authors.

Beyond specific awards, his career includes collaborations with artists of very different profiles, such as Diego El Cigala and Romeo Santos, confirming the versatility of a guitarist capable of moving between the most orthodox flamenco, Latin jazz and Latin American popular music without losing his identity.

His legacy

Tomatito is still active, and among his most recent projects is precisely that “Sonata Suite” for guitar and orchestra with the Orquesta Nacional de España, a logical continuation of a career that has never stopped seeking new contexts for his guitar. That career has established him as one of the great living flamenco guitarists and as a direct heir to the legacy of Camarón de la Isla, with whom he shared fifteen years that defined one of the most important periods of contemporary flamenco.

His case is also a fine example of how an accompanying guitarist can, over time, build a voice of his own as recognizable as that of the singer he accompanied, without ever disowning that founding period alongside Camarón.