Javier Molina
Who is Javier Molina?
Javier Molina Cundí was born in 1868 in the Santiago quarter of Jerez de la Frontera. He began playing the guitar as a child, accompanying a blind violinist, and by twelve he was already giving guitar lessons. In those early years he also performed alongside his brother, a dancer, at private parties in the city, an experience that gave him his first contact with the flamenco circles of Jerez.
His true training as a tocaor came from two of the great masters of 19th-century playing, Patiño and Paco Lucena, whose influence marked his way of accompanying cante forever.
Career
In 1885 he left Jerez along with his brother and a very young Antonio Chacón, with whom he traveled the Andalusian provinces performing in tablaos in Cádiz, Seville, Extremadura and Madrid. That tour was the start of a career that made him Chacón’s regular accompanist and an essential reference for practically every cantaor and dancer of his generation.
After the Civil War, Molina also devoted himself to teaching in Jerez, where his students included the Morao brothers, and he continued performing occasionally on tours and in local concerts, alternating flamenco with classical guitar.
Style and discography
His playing was marked by elaborate left-hand fingering and the use of open strings, with a clean sound that paid particular attention to the accompaniment of the most difficult, classic cantes. That style, inherited from Patiño and Lucena, ended up establishing what is known as the Jerez school of guitar, from which tocaores such as Diego del Gastor and Niño Ricardo emerged.
Legacy
Javier Molina died in 1956 in Jerez de la Frontera. His teaching, passed directly to the Morao brothers and indirectly to entire generations of Jerez guitarists, makes him one of the great patriarchs of 20th-century flamenco guitar.