Jose Luis Rodriguez (Jose Luis "de la Paz") has died. I'm told he was in his 50s, which is probably about right.
Jose Luis was a breathtaking flamenco guitar player. It's likely he was the best I've ever heard in person. He was from Spain, as most of the best are, and he lived in Miami.
I used to see Jose Luis at various venues, and he played with rotating flamenco ensembles. Ilisa Rosal's Ballet Flamenco La Rosa was one of them. Siudy Garrido is a local flamenco dancer who might have been Jose Luis' agent or helper for a while. One of his more common "band mates" was Adolfo Herrera, who is a delightful person and a spectacular percussionist.
Jose Luis' English was labored, but he was friendly and humble. Talking to him, you would never get a sense of the massive talent he had. If you listened to him play, your mouth would be agape.
One of my friends who knew Jose Luis well called to tell me he had died. I knew he had a serious illness, but I didn't realize it was so imminently terminal. Jose Luis did not know me personally well enough to have contacted me about his condition, but if he had, I would have visited him as much as he might have needed. He died at home.
The effect of the news of his death was not dramatically different from the news of the death of Francisco Sanchez Gomez (Paco de Lucia), who died suddenly of a heart attack in Mexico in 2014.
There are very many flamenco guitarists. I have heard a number of them here in Miami. But none of them was like Jose Luis. He will be deeply missed.
