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While already a star in his homeland, Spanish flamenco jazz pianist Chano Domínguez won an international following with his appearance in Calle 54, the award-winning 2000 documentary about Latin jazz. Born and raised in Cadiz, a hotbed of traditional flamenco, Domínguez started his career as a progressive rocker in the popular Andalusian band Cai. Attracted to jazz by fusion pioneers like Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report, he was also inspired by the earlier works of Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk. But Domínguez has found a singular niche as a pianist in the language of flamenco, with its constituent forms of tangos, tanguillos, alegras, compass de buleras, fandangos and soleas — tackled through the lens of the post-bop tradition. The incendiary keyboardist quickly became a dominant force in European jazz, leading an acclaimed trio and collaborating with artists including Paquito D’Rivera and Wynton Marsalis, with whom he recorded the stunning Vitoria Suite alongside guitar genius Paco de Lucía. Chano’s upcoming Blue Note album, Flamenco Sketches, will be a fresh take on Kind of Blue, the immortal Miles Davis masterpiece.
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