Juan Martin

Juan Martín is a celebrated virtuoso of the flamenco guitar. He has twice been voted into the top three guitarists in the world by the US Magazine Guitar Player.

His guitar method El Arte Flamenco de la Guitarra has revolutionized the learning of the art worldwide. People from Russia, Iran, South America and Turkey now travel to Spain to learn more having formed a correct basis of technique, rhythm and falsetas from Juans books. This has also been the case with his 3 video/dvds, La Guitarra Flamenca, originally distributed by WEA. His ability to perform has led to a record with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and two records for RCA/BMG with film composer Mark Isham. His appearances include Montreux Jazz Festival sharing the bill with Miles Davis and an improvised radio session with rock legend Stevie Ray Vaughn in 1985. The Nancy Jazz Festival had him solo to follow the Wayne Shorter band and in 2005 he opened the Guinness Jazz Festival in Cork Ireland with his Quinteto Fabuloso.

His first fusion experience was the recording of Picasso Portraits following his invitation to play at the 90th birthday celebrations of the universal painter. His interest in the Moorish roots of flamenco led him to record Musica Alhambra in 1996 rediscovering Andalusí and Sephardic music from the 12th and 13th centuries that was then no longer performed in Spain: Martín spans the centuries with a mixture of the dazzling and the profound commented The Observer. He followed this CD with Arte Flamenco Puro, El Alquimista recorded in Andalucía, Riquezas, an album with flamenco singer Antonio Aparecida and a Latin influenced album Camino Latino. His most recent album released in 2004 is a live recording of his flamenco group at the Barbican Hall in London called Live en Directo which has received wonderful reviews. In 2005 he was asked to write the foreword to The Complete Guitar Handbook which features the greatest guitarists of all time. He is one of only 2 flamenco guitarists featuring in the list.