Julio Vallejo Flamenco Virtuoso

Julio Vallejo was 14 years old when I met him 1972 or 1973 in Madrid. I remember when I first went to the modest pension his mother owned at 10am one morning to take my first lesson from him. His mother led me to his room and, without knocking, entered and said in a loud voice, Julio, wake up, you have a student. The room was dark until his mother threw open the shutters and light flooded in revealing two small single beds in a corner of the room. On one was a guitar case and in the other was Julio under a sheet sound asleep. His mother went over and shook him awake and as he sat up, he reached across to the other bed and grabbed a pack of cigarettes, lit one up, reached over pulled his guitar out of the case and still half asleep, ripped off an incredible scale that to this day, some 37 years later, I can still hear. I can remember it clearly because in that instant I knew that I was witnessing real talent and that I would never be able to play a scale like that in my sleep, much less awake. Again, he was 14 at the time. Later, Julio told me that he had studied with Paco's father for some time, which was not surprising.
As you listen to this short clip of him playing, you will see what an incandescent talent he was.
The use of the venue Club Ismael had been donated by friends of the guitarist Rafael de Madrid so they might raise money for either his hospital bill or his funeral, I cant remember which. The tickets went for 150 pesetas which was barely 2 dollars, if that. Julio was joined that day by a Japanese violinist named Akira who was playing a lot of Flamenco on his violin at the time and was employed in a few of the tablaos as a kind of avant-garde diversion during the shows.
The number they played (Czardas by Monty) was a number Julio was familiar with from his playing it with Paco de Lucia on his album Recital de Guitarra.
Remember that this was recorded in a typical bar with people talking and clinking glasses, moving chairs and so forth. Julio was in a playful mood as I remember and was just going all out to have fun so there are some holes in the fabric, but what a fabric! That said, there is still enough to be heard to be in awe of. One other tidbit I remember was looking around as Julio did those insanely fast scales and watching the other guitarists faces.......it wasnt pretty.
One last note - the last time I saw Julio was in the 1980s and he told me that he had found another type of employment and that it had nothing to do with guitar! I was never able to find him after that to clarify that bombshell, so if anybody knows what became of him please let me know.
Enjoy!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Classical
• guitar
• flamenco
• virtuoso
• technique

[flamencowboy]

hello,i played some years ago in madrid on the streets with a guitar player named carlos del rio and he told me a lot about julio that he is such a great player maeby you chould contact him

[MrJuliovallejo]

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