The saxophonist and composer became a legend with his three pioneering albums of «Jazz Flamenco»

Last Saturday he died at his Madrid home in the Moncloa district at the age of 91. Pedro Iturralde won in his own right a place among the greatest in European jazz. A legend capable of diving into hard-bop and be-bop, in the 50s, when no one in Spain had heard those words. And, above all, he later established himself as a pioneer at the level of Miles Davis, with his three volumes of "Jazz Flamenco", the first of which, in 1967, he recorded with a very young Paco de Lucía who said without understanding anything about what he had touched.

«I have been developing flamenco jazz since I started to perform when I was 15 years old at the Café Comercio in Logroño with a classical pianist. We accompanied singers who performed songs by Falla, Albéniz and Granados. Later, during my military service in Tangier, I discovered flamenco and began to mix both styles. At the beginning of the 60s, I continued with that idea in Madrid. I would pick up popular songs from Lorca, but I would rewrite the harmony with the piano because the poet's was very poor and, on it, I would improvise later with my group. One of those pieces was "Zorongo gitano", which was what led me to compose those records ».

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