Rafael Riqueni
Who is Rafael Riqueni?
Rafael Riqueni del Canto was born in 1962 on Calle Fabié, in the Seville neighborhood of Triana, cradle of a significant part of the city’s flamenco tradition. He trained with Isidoro Carmona and, later, with Manolo Sanlúcar, one of the great renovators of twentieth-century flamenco guitar, from whom he inherited a harmonic sensibility rare within the genre.
His talent showed itself early: before turning fourteen he had already won the main national guitar prizes in Córdoba and Jerez, and in 1977, at just fifteen, he won the prestigious Premio Ramón Montoya at the Concurso Nacional de Córdoba.
Career
From 1977 he pursued an intense and consistent artistic activity, first as an accompanist and increasingly, afterward, as a soloist and composer. He worked alongside artists such as Rocío Jurado, Isabel Pantoja, María Jiménez, Martirio, Romero Sanjuán, Mario Maya, the Montoya family, Juan José Amador, Naranjito de Triana and Enrique Morente. In the late 1980s he moved to Madrid, and from there widened his range toward collaborations with musicians outside flamenco, such as Anouar Brahem, Al Di Meola and Vargas Blues Band.
Style and discography
His music, marked by a very recognizable elegance and lyricism, draws openly on the Spanish musical nationalism of Albéniz, Falla and Turina, translated into the language of flamenco guitar with a highly personal result. That influence can be heard in works such as the live album “Flamenco” (1987), recorded without added effects, in a tribute album to his masters — Sanlúcar, Niño Ricardo and Sabicas — in the “Suite Sevilla” composed together with José María Gallardo, and in “Mi tiempo”, presented at the 1990 Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla.
Legacy
He also composed the music for the play “La reina andaluza” (1989) and wrote a guitar version of “Amargura”, by Font de Anta, among other pieces that form part of his most personal repertoire. Regarded as one of the most refined guitarists of his generation, his work remains a reference within the most harmonic and compositional strand of contemporary flamenco.