Biography

The love for flamenco has been passed down Tomás’s family
throughout the generations.

He learned to play flamenco guitar from his father whose
teaching instilled in Tomás a respect for flamenco
together with the understanding that his playing should
communicate the true meaning of each piece
without using superfluous effects.

His father explained to him:

“No florees el toque porque el flamenco
ya comunica todas las emociones y todos
los sentimientos humanos sin echarle ni
quitarle nada”

“Don’t make the playing flowery because
flamenco by itself communicates every
emotion and every human sentiment and
you don’t have to add to nor
take anything away from it”.

Repertoire and Concert Programme

Flamenco is generic and the pieces are referred to as forms (palos). Hence typical palo flamenco is called Soleá but each guitarist, singer or dancer will develop, recreate the Soleá in accordance with their own style and preferences. Indeed there is much improvisation and a true flamenco guitarist will rarely play the same palo the same on repeated occasions. Rather the piece will be built on the inspiration of the moment from a large encyclopaedic knowledge of falsetas.

Nonetheless there are compositions by some guitarists that have gained such a position of respect and admiration that it is quite frequent to include these in the repertoire.

For Tomás Jiménez the greatest inspiration has been Paco Peña. Paco not only creates magnificent flamenco music which has such a clear line of intention, such a clear direction that cements the falsetas to create a composition. More than this his playing is so compelling: he has huge amounts of technique and yet this phenomenal ability is almost underplayed as it exists solely at the service of the music. Paco has himself been inspired by the guitarists who preceded him: especially Ramón Montoya, Niño Ricardo and Sabicas and we might say that the music of those maestros has formed the foundations on which Paco has built his own work.

Although Tomás was fortunate enough to have attended a few of the last concerts given by Sabicas in general Tomás has received their music via the guitar of Paco Peña. It is therefore natural that the work of Paco Peña in turn should have been the corner stone the inspiration for the work of Tomas and many of Pacos compositions are alive in Tomás repertoire together of course with the works of the other maestros.