Lifestyles Profile - Paco Rentería
Paco Rentería has grown attached to Puerto Vallarta; sensitive to its magnetism, he has become a regular visitor. In fact, he will be the featuring musician to open the festival of celebrations for Puerto Vallarta’s 150th anniversary in December. His favorite performance location is the Camino Real, where, besides enchanting locals and tourists with his guitar, he takes the opportunity to relax and find moments of inspiration amid the beautiful scenery of the bay. In the morning, he sunbathes and attends the press, but in the heat of the night, he comes to life before his audience. With a well-planned and coordinated stage setting, Paco Rentería leads his gifted group of musicians into a musical night full of spark and surprises.
He is disciplined, organized and very methodical; otherwise, he would never have acquired the degree of musical genius that qualified experts describe as “virtuoso”. His parents were responsible for inspiring his love of music, and he speaks of them as his main source of happiness and balance. Conscious of having lived a very privileged childhood for its creative and spiritual motivation, he also made sure he was ready for “la vida loca” and majored in business studies, which have come in very handy for marketing his work.
Sensuality and technical expertise are the words that define Paco Rentería’s concerts, and so is Paco a passionate man who exercises rational control, and in this eternal conflict he thrives and takes pleasure. He seduces his audience with the flamboyance of a musketeer; touché and we hear the sound of his electrifying La Malagueña, touché again and off we go to Egypt riding on a camel, and, while his audience awakens and stands up in an emotive applause, Paco just smiles. From his warm smiles, he turns to jokes and stirs up the crowd with his song, A Woman’s Skin, to the sound of which an enthusiastic American lady stands up crying, “He’s a phenomenon!”
Though provocative, Paco is a gentle man; and, though ambitious, he is naturally unaffected, and here lies his greatest charm, for his most intimate contradictions are not frustrating, but a constant source of creativity and energy. He has many musical affections, and his repertoire is as varied as that of a magician. With the delicacy of expert hands, he plays his guitar as if it were endowed with life, waiting to be stroked to reveal its precious sounds. In an enraptured trance, the music seems to float in the air unowned, and, for a few seconds, his audience dreams the same rhythms, as Paco explores and explores his guitar because he knows that somewhere in the secret of those notes lies the passion that enlightens his soul.
In his eclectic journey, Paco searches for his own language; he taps to the sound of rumba, jazz and Latino music and beats to the rhythm of flamenco. Faced with the disturbing question, “Paco, how would you define your music?” he feels incapable of labeling; caught in this inspiring wave of suggestive rhythms, he himself wavers in search of his own definition. Like Alice in Wonderland, Paco tours from country to country, amazed and astonished with those floating rhythms that make up his own creative world.
However, what will happen when the maestro finally finds his passion, when all those marvels fuse in a single voice and he drops the foil and takes up the sword? We believe that it will be at such time when Paco Rentería will reach a resounding success, because music was his first love and, like any good artist, recognition is his yearning desire.
Lifestyles Magazine USA
