"Río Ancho" is a Spanish

flamenco guitar A flamenco guitar is a guitar similar to a classical guitar but with thinner tops and less internal bracing. It usually has nylon strings, like the classical guitar, but it generally possesses a livelier, more gritty sound compared to the clas ...

piece that combines

flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...

and

gypsy jazz Gypsy jazz (also known as gypsy swing, jazz manouche or hot club-style jazz) is a style of small-group jazz originating from the Romani guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt (1910–53), in conjunction with the French swing violinist Stéphane G ...

influences. The piece is in the key of

E minor E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major. The E natural minor scale is: : Changes needed ...

and progresses to A minor, D, G, C and B7. The original performances of the song had notable flute solos towards the end of the piece, reminiscent of classic Spanish gypsy music with trumpets. The track first featured on

Paco de Lucia Paco is a Spanish nickname for Francisco. According to folk etymology, the nickname has its origins in Saint Francis of Assisi, who was the father of the Franciscan order; his name was written in Latin by the order as ''Pater Communitatis'' (fat ...

's 1976 album '' Almoraima''. In 1980, Paco de Lucia and Al Di Meola collaborated and produced an ensemble track composed of Di Meola's " Mediterranean Sundance" from his 1977 album '' Elegant Gypsy'' with "Río Ancho". It was performed live in San Francisco on December 5, 1980, and the set was released by Columbia as '' Friday Night in San Francisco''. The collaborative version of the song consists of a relatively simple lyrical harmonic progression adorned by a flamenco rhythm. However, it poses technical difficulties due to the speed and precision required of Di Meola's picking on the steel-stringed guitar, playing melodic

phrases In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...

, and to Paco de Lucia's fingerpicking on the

, as well as the exact matching of Di Meola and de Lucía's solos which frequently consist of them both playing a rapid set of matching or corresponding notes. They resort to many guitar performance techniques and fingerstyles, such as drumming guitar tops, strumming, bare thumb plucking,

palm muting The palm mute is a playing technique for guitar and bass guitar, executed by placing the side of the picking hand below the little finger across the strings to be plucked, very close to the bridge, and then plucking the strings while the damp ...

tremolo picking Alternate picking is a guitar playing technique that employs alternating downward and upward strokes in a continuous fashion. If the technique is performed at high speed on a single string or course voicing the same note, it may be referred to ...

hammer-on A hammer-on is a playing technique performed on a stringed instrument (especially on a fretted string instrument, such as a guitar) by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on to the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. This ...

s and

pull-off A pull-off is a stringed instrument playing and articulation technique performed by plucking or "pulling" the finger that is grasping the sounding part of a string off the fingerboard of either a fretted or unfretted instrument. This intermediate- ...

sweep picking Sweep picking is a guitar playing technique. When sweep picking, the guitarist plays single notes on consecutive strings with a 'sweeping' motion of the pick, while using the fretting hand to produce a specific series of notes that are fast a ...

, vibratos, and glissandos. The collaboration was an instant success. A shorter version was included in the November 1996 album ''Pavarotti & Friends for War Child''. The 1980 version proved more successful, and the Mediterranean Sundance and Río Ancho track has been performed by Marco Porcu, Seis Cuerdas, Jorge Martinez and La Peña Flamenca.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rio Ancho Paco de Lucía songs Flamenco compositions 1976 songs