Juan Manuel Cañizares Lara profile

Spanish guitar player, born 1966 in Sabadell (Barcelona). Younger Brother of Rafael Cañizares. Flamenco guitarist Juan Manuel Cañizares began seriously studying the instrument at the age of ten, first at the Municipal Conservatory of Sabadell, and then subsequently in both Tarrasa and Barcelona.

In 1989, Canizares joined the renowned Spanish rock band El Ultimo De La Fila, and subsequently went on to work with such other notable (and quite musically varied) artists as Enrique Morente, El Camarón de la Isla, Maria Pagés, Pepe de Lucia, Sworn Dew, Vince Mendoza, Joan Manuel Serrat, Peter Gabriel, Al DiMeola, Mike Stern, Peter Erskine, Michael Brecker, and the Chieftans.

Around the same time, Cañizares began to collaborate with one of the leading flamenco guitarists in the whole world, Paco de Lucía, before launching his own solo career in the late '90s, resulting in such releases as 1997's "Noches de Imán y Luna" and 1999's "Isaac Albéniz, Sonatas Para Piano", featuring piano sonatas transcribed for two guitars.