Pedro Bacán
Who is Pedro Bacán?
Pedro Peña Peña, known as Pedro Bacán, was born in Lebrija (Seville) in 1951. He inherited his stage name from his father, Bastián Bacán, and belonged to one of the great Gitano flamenco dynasties of Lebrija and Utrera: he was the brother of the singer Inés Bacán, who would become an important figure in cante jondo, and a cousin of El Lebrijano and Pedro Peña, placing him from childhood within a top-tier flamenco environment.
Career
He distinguished himself accompanying the most significant cante figures on a large number of recordings, and in 1980 was the guitarist for Calixto Sánchez when he won the Giraldillo at the Seville Flamenco Art Biennial. That same year he received the Premio Nacional de Guitarra Flamenca from the Cátedra de Flamencología y Estudios Folklóricos Andaluces, and in 1983 he was named a special guest lecturer in the Musicology department at the University of Washington, where he gave solo concerts at American universities and theaters.
Style and discography
His playing is described as brilliant in its command of the instrument and precise in execution, with a deep understanding of what his contemporaries called the “mysteries” of flamenco, with particular skill in both rhythmic thumb work and melodic runs across the scales. He also drove a movement to recover the purest flamenco, creating theatrical productions with the participation mostly of members of his own family, among them the recording “Noches gitanas de Lebrija,” besides scoring the soundtracks for the films “Manuela” and “Desastre de la guerra.”
Legacy
He died in 1997 in a car accident near Utrera, prematurely cutting short a career that had already placed him among the leading guitarists of his generation for his work both as an accompanist and as a champion of the flamenco tradition of Lebrija.