This week, on Solera Flamenca, we are bringing you Miguel Ángel Cortés´s music, a true master of the flamenco guitar, with a consolidated career both as a soloist and accompanying other performers. Gifted with dazzling creativity, it is no wonder he has become one of outstanding artists in today´s flamenco world.

For this recording, Miguel Ángel Cortés works with the clapping and cheering (palmas y jaleos) of Diego Amaya (Chicuelo´s son) and Juan Mateo, a true genius of rhythm, who has worked with artists such as Chicuelo, or Juan Ramón Caro, among many others.

Miguel Ángel Cortés was born on 26 January 1972, in Granada, España. He joined the world of flamenco through the Zambra del Sacromonte at the early age of 8. Only aged 14, he started touring around Europe, Japan, the USA… working with Mariquilla, Manolete, Javier Barón, Antonio Canales, Juan Ramírez, Beatriz Martín, Eva La Yerbabuena and Juan Andrés Maya. Soon later, along with his brother Paco Cortés, he would join the singer Carmen Linares for her various tours in Middle East, Europe and Japan.

All along his career, he has stood out when accompanying flamenco artists as prestigious as Enrique Morente, Carmen Linares, José Mercé, Chano Lobato, José de La Tomasa, Chiquetete, El Pele, Miguel Poveda, Estrella Morente y Marina Heredia, and some others. He is currently the regular guitarist of the singers Esperanza Fernández, Arcángel and Rocío Márquez. He has also collaborated with different music styles, such as Mick Taylor (ex-guitarist of the Rolling Stones), Luz Casal, Antonio Orozco, Manuel Carrasco, Kiko Veneno and Diana Navarro, for instance.

Some of this collaborations have been collected in albums and documentaries like “Omega” with the singer Enrique Morente and the music band “Lagartija Nick”, Antonio Orozco´s album “El principio del comienzo”, and Estrella Morente´s “Casa, Cueva y Escenario”.

In 2008 he took part in Seville Flamenco Biennial, as a guest artist in Manolo Sanlucar´s show “Tu oído es más viejo que tu abuelo” (your hearing is older than your grandfather). If his work as a soloist is remarkable, his facet as an accompanying guitarist definitely led him to becoming one of the main figures of flamenco nowadays. This stage of his career started in 1994, when he was awarded with the Second Prize in “Paco de Lucía Guitar Contest”. In 1998 his first album, “Patriarca”, was released. The second, “Bordon de trapo”, was produced by Gerardo Núñez and he counted on several collaborations, like Carmen Linares, Esperanza Fernández and Arcángel. In 2013 he released “El calvario de un genio”, where he pays a tribute to the poet Federico García Lorca.

In 2014 he starts the show “Lo Cortés no quita lo Gallardo” in the Seville Flamenco Biennial, accompanied by the classical guitarist José María Gallardo, referring to the album of the same name. They toured around a numnber of festivals, both classical and flamenco ones.

As a soloist, he has performed several concerts in places such as Jerez Festival, Seville Flamenco Biennial, Cordoba Guitar Festival, Flamenco Thursdays of Cajasol, Mont de Marsan Flamenco Festival (France), Tampere Flamenco Festival (Finland), Querétaro Flamenco Festival (Mexico), Bimhuis in Amsterdam, Music House in Moscow, Berlín Embassy or London Flamenco Festival, among others.

He has obtained several prizes and awards: Giraldillo Award for guitar playing in Seville Flamenco Biennial, 2015. Also, Best accompanying guitar Flamenco Hoy Award, 2011. The website Deflamenco.com awarded him in 2012. Finally, his album “Bordón de Trapo” was awarded with Best Guitar Album in 2007.

In today´s production we will be offering you a dazzling buleria where Miguel´s good taste and expressivity are more than proved, accompanied by the clapping and cheering of Juan Mateo and Diego Amaya. A video recorded with a guitar made by the maker Jerónimo Pérez 2019, an incredible guitar, with a really powerful and flamenco touch, just like our protagonist´s skills.