Some define him as’ the gypsy Mozart ‘, something that flatters him, although he prefers to define himself as’ methodical, perfectionist and very’ mijitas’ “, he tells me with laughter from the other side of the telephone, just a few hours from leaving Mexico Where he will start promoting his new album ‘Soy de las 3.000’, which from today, March 6, can now be acquired digitally in iTunes and Google Play. An undisputed jewel, where flamenco and Latin rhythms merge to give way to a titanic work. “‘I am 3,000’ is a composite work to reach the whole world, not just flamenco lovers. It’s a very joyful album, so people can have a good time, “says Diego, who adds:” With my voice, flamenco guitar and Alain Perez arrangements nobody can stop dancing. “

A new musical stage begins in the artistic race of Diego in which the salero Andalusian and the Latin rhythms embrace to give rise to something shocking. An artistic wonder that, with the renowned Cuban musician and arranger Alain Pérez, results in his most biographical album. “Although I was very young in the neighborhood thanks to the help of my father and family to fulfill my dream, I am more and more that child of 3,000, more relaxed, calmer. I have spent many years working very hard, hardly eating or sleeping, I just lived to create. That’s why I want to pay homage to my roots, “he says, recalling those hard years of work. And is that despite coming from a family of great artists and geniuses of flamenco, he says he has not had it easy. “There are people to whom they give things done. That has not been my case. I have had to work hard to be who I am today. ” Diego, who was practically born with a guitar in his hand, is today considered a pillar of flamenco, bringing gypsy art to all parts of the world, either in personal presentations or accompanied by great figures such as Diego El Cigala, Camarón, Tomatito or Joaquín Cortés.

“Soy de las 3.000’ is the map where I come from”

Soy de las 3.000’ collects nine “innovative” themes, the pillar of the compilation being the theme of the same name as the album, with which he wanted to pay homage to the neighborhood where he grew up. “It’s a flamenco rumba where I talk about my family, my neighborhood, everything that happens in the 3,000’s. I love him very much. It’s the map where I come from. ” With him came the idea of turning his artistic career and creating something totally different from what Diego has accustomed us. “With the help of Alain, I composed the song I’m 3,000, of the same name as the album, the result was fantastic and I decided to create a complete album fusing Latin rhythms and flamenco.”

However, the spearhead theme of this material is La Sandunguita. Together with the Venezuelan Oscar D’León, ‘The Great Pharaoh of the Salsa’, they offer us a contagious and explosive musical comradeship that makes them dance frantically.

But in this disc not only has the collaboration of the Great Pharaoh. Together with Alejandro Sanz interpret Give me the chair where I waited for you, a musical flare where two of the most honored voices of the Hispanic world draw a pentagram in which the new flamenco shines in its maximum splendor. “Alejandro invited me one day to his house and asked me to record a guitar for the song that sings along with Marc Anthony, Let me kiss you. He gave me that opportunity and I dared to ask him to collaborate with me, “he points with a big smile. “He gave me a big surprise and I will always be grateful. He’s a genius. “

Nine songs are what make up his new album, among which we also find hits like Antonio Machín’s Dos Gardenias, Marc Anthony’s Now or Son of the Dawn, an emotional song he had already recorded two decades ago with Popular Cuban artist Omara Portuondo.

Diego Amador, the “jondo” pianist

Diego is not a purist when it comes to flamenco, more so if we consider that his main instrument is not traditional of the genre. If something has characterized this Mozart gypsy is that gift to play the flamenco piano that has become his great label and has led him to devote himself as one of the great flamenco – jazz style.

That free and vigorous spirit with which he interprets this instrument has earned him the nickname of ‘Ray Charles Gypsy’. But where does a passion born of jazz and piano come to a gypsy born and raised in the ‘zero zone’ of flamenco?

They were his brothers, Raimundo and Rafael, who in their day founded the group Pata Negra, the cause of that ‘worm’ that invited him to do something different. “My brothers were the pioneers in the new flamenco, the fusion of rock, pop and blues. One day they brought home jazz and blues records and I loved them. That’s when I said, ‘I want to do that.’ “

“The only conservatory I know is the street”

Self-taught, the only university he has attended is the one on the street. “The only school I know is my family, and the only conservatory, the street,” he says proudly. And it is that almost at the same time that it learned to speak, it began to play the guitar in the arms of its father.

As a member of a gypsy family, with five or six years and learned to play the first chords, shortly after would play other instruments such as drums, bass and piano. “I’ve been sucking art since I was very young. To my house came all the great ones, like Camarón. “

Music, art, instruments were his best armor in one of the most marginal neighborhoods of Seville, and while many young people lost themselves in the world of drugs, Diego spent long hours locked up in his house making music. “I would tell all those kids who live there that things do not come alone, you have to work really hard,” and insists, “art does not make you big, what makes you big is effort and study”. And that was the effort, the constancy, the dedication that have led to this musical monster to record with important icons like Chick Corea, considered one of the maximum voices of piano jazz. “Now I dream of making a collaboration with Stevie Wonder or Alicia Keys.”

From March 6 to April 8, Diego will be on a promotional tour throughout America: Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Chile, Peru and the United States, in May he will start his concerts in these countries. Thus, with more than twenty years of career, this gypsy boy of 3,000 is confirmed as one of the greatest exponents of flamenco, giving way to a musical horizon where good music and the purest feeling passionately embrace.

The Objetive