Sabicas

Sabicas ( Agustín Castellón Campos, * probably in 1912 in Pamplona, † April 14, 1990 in New York City ) was a Spanish flamenco guitarist. He coined playing techniques and helped the flamenco to international fame.

The age of five he began to teach himself to play the guitar. He is distantly related to Ramón Montoya, who influenced his early game. With ten years he already gave his first concert in a Madrid theater. With Carmen Amaya, he went to the Franco coup in 1936 to South America. In the 50s he moved to New York City, where he in 1966, the early fusion album recorded rock Encounter with Joe Beck. He was in touch with jazz people like Charles Mingus, Ben E. King, Gil Evans, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. He was a teacher of Paco de Lucía. It was not until 1967 he joined sporadically again in Spain. Under the changed political conditions there was established in 1989 an album with Enrique Morente. He was the San Fermin festival dedicated in 1982. Sabicas died in a New York hospital where he was being treated for a stroke and pneumonia.