Tomatito has sixty guitars. He is not a collector in the connoisseur sense — he does not seek out vintage instruments for their historical value or their resale potential. He is a guitarist, and the sixty guitars represent the accumulated choices of a lifetime of professional flamenco playing: instruments acquired for their specific tonal character, their specific playability, their specific suitability for the specific palos and cantes of the flamenco tradition he has spent his entire life serving. When he sits in a hotel room in Seville, waiting for the Bienal de Flamenco to begin, surrounded by that specific geography of guitars, he is surrounded by the physical archive of a career that began when Camarón de la Isla — the greatest flamenco singer of the modern era — heard a fifteen-year-old boy playing Paco de Lucía’s pieces at a taberna in Málaga and asked him to become his accompanist. He said yes. He stayed for eighteen years. When Camarón died in 1992, Tomatito said “the dream shattered.” Then he got up and continued playing, because that is what he does, and the guitars were always there.
José Fernández Torres was born on August 20, 1958, in Fondón, Almería — a small town in the interior of the province of Almería, in the heart of Andalusia’s Gypsy flamenco tradition. His surname within the flamenco community is not Torres but a series of increasingly diminutive tomato nicknames: his grandfather was Miguel “El Tomate” (The Tomato), his father was also El Tomate, and he became Tomatito — “the little tomato.” He is Spanish Roma — a Gypsy — and the Gypsy tradition of flamenco, which is distinct from the non-Gypsy (payo) tradition in specific rhythmic, melodic, and emotional ways, is the foundation of everything he plays. He is “the Gypsy guardian of the flamenco temple,” in one assessment — the musician who, as much as anyone, has preserved the specific jondo (deep) emotional character of authentic Gypsy flamenco while also demonstrating its compatibility with jazz, world music, and broader creative exploration. He has won two Latin Grammy Awards. He has played with Michel Camilo, Chick Corea, and Eliane Elias. He has toured the world. He has sixty guitars. The most important ones play like dreams.
Background: Almería Gypsy Family, Málaga Tablaos, Camarón Encounter, 18 Years at the Greatest Singer’s Side
The Fernández Torres family’s guitar tradition runs through two generations of “El Tomate” before reaching Tomatito — a surname-nickname lineage that places him in the specifically Almería Gypsy guitar tradition. Almería has a distinct place in flamenco history: Antonio de Torres Jurado, the nineteenth-century luthier who defined the modern guitar’s construction, was from Granada but worked extensively in Almería; the city’s specific flamenco tradition, rooted in the mining communities of the Sierra de los Filabres and the Gypsy settlements of the coast, has a specific character — heavy, direct, compás-forward — that distinguishes it from the more lyrical Seville school or the more harmonically sophisticated Córdoba school of Vicente Amigo.
His father moved the family to Málaga when Tomatito was twelve, and in Málaga he found the performing environment that shaped his early career: the tablaos (flamenco nightclubs) and tabernas where Andalusia’s greatest performing musicians came through on their touring circuits. He worked at La Caneta’s club in Marbella and then at the Taberna Gitana in Málaga, accompanying dancers and singers as a member of the resident cuadro flamenco. His ability to play Paco de Lucía’s pieces — the most technically demanding and musically sophisticated guitar music in contemporary flamenco — established him as a guitarist of unusual ability. He was self-taught; he and Camarón would later discover they had that in common. “Both of them were self-taught and never learned how to read a partition,” the AFP interview notes — a detail that emphasizes the oral/aural transmission that has always been the primary vehicle of flamenco’s tradition.
The Camarón encounter is the defining biographical event of Tomatito’s career, and it happened twice: first, a casual encounter when Camarón heard him playing at the Taberna Gitana, and second, the formal engagement that began when Camarón unexpectedly needed a guitarist at fifteen for a festival. Camarón heard that the boy at the Taberna Gitana could play Paco’s pieces. Camarón agreed to use him. Tomatito needed his father’s permission because Camarón’s tours traveled the whole world. The father gave permission. The partnership lasted eighteen years — from 1979, when Tomatito replaced the departing Paco de Lucía as Camarón’s primary accompanist, to Camarón’s death from cancer in 1992. The album that launched their collaboration and changed flamenco history was La Leyenda del Tiempo (1979) — a record that incorporated rock, jazz, and world music elements into flamenco in ways that shocked traditionalists and inspired modernists, and that is now considered one of the foundational documents of nuevo flamenco.
Classical Guitar magazine’s description of watching them perform is among the most vivid assessments in the literature: “Look out for video footage of the two men performing live, where the connection between them becomes even more evident. For me, one of the most powerful visual images that exist in flamenco is the expression on Tomatito’s face as he accompanies Camarón: Those eyes speak of admiration, absolute artistic union with his partner, and what can only be described as love.” When Camarón died, Tomatito said “the dream shattered.” He “reluctantly went solo” — his word — and built the solo career that has since encompassed jazz collaborations, world music fusions, and the continued preservation of the core Gypsy flamenco tradition that is his deepest identity.
The Rig: Tomatito’s Guitars, Strings, and Technical Approach
Guitars
Sixty Guitars (The Collection, Broadly): “60 guitars and family-style flamenco” — as AFP’s profile of Tomatito describes his collection. This is not a boast about acquisitiveness but a factual account of what sixty years of professional flamenco playing, with sufficient commercial success to afford it, produces in terms of accumulated instruments. A serious concert flamenco guitarist needs multiple instruments: different guitars for different palos (the rhythmic forms of flamenco have different tonal requirements), different guitars for different performance contexts, backup instruments for touring when a primary guitar is damaged or unavailable, instruments acquired over years from different luthiers when a specific tonal character was needed for a specific musical purpose. Sixty guitars is not excess for a musician of Tomatito’s career span and musical ambition; it is the natural inventory of a working professional who has never thrown an instrument away when it stopped being his primary.
Conde Hermanos Flamenco Guitars (Primary Concert Instruments): Tomatito uses Conde Hermanos instruments — confirmed by the Vintage Guitar World documentation that “famous guitarists such as Paco de Lucía, Vicente Amigo and Gerardo Núñez have used Conde Hermanos instruments and thus shaped their unmistakable sound style.” The Conde Hermanos connection places Tomatito in the same instrument family as the other great Lucía-generation flamenco guitarists: the Madrid-based dynasty whose guitars have defined the sound of concert flamenco since the mid-twentieth century. For a guitarist whose entire career has been shaped by his close proximity to Paco de Lucía — as a student, as a colleague, as the person who followed Lucía at Camarón’s side — using the same luthier family as Lucía is as much a statement of artistic lineage as a tonal choice.
The Flamenco Blanca (Cypress, Spruce, Standard Construction): Tomatito plays traditional flamenco blanca guitars — the cypress-back-and-sides, spruce-top construction that distinguishes the traditional flamenco instrument from the classical guitar (which uses rosewood) and from the negra (which also uses rosewood but within a specifically flamenco construction). The blanca’s specific tonal character — bright, percussive, with a cutting attack on the treble strings and a resonant bark on the bass — is specifically associated with the Gypsy flamenco tradition that Tomatito represents. His description of his own style acknowledges the instrument’s role: “While Paco de Lucía has had a decided influence on his playing, Tomatito has imbued it with a gypsy-style marked by greater use of the right-hand thumb, and the boundless energy which makes his playing so brilliant.” The blanca’s specific bright, immediate response suits this thumb-heavy, energetic, percussive Gypsy toque in ways that a classical guitar or negra’s rounder, more sustained tone cannot.
The Gypsy Toque — Right-Hand Thumb Emphasis: The specific characteristic that distinguishes Tomatito’s playing from non-Gypsy flamenco guitarists — and from Paco de Lucía’s own approach — is his greater use of the right-hand thumb. In non-Gypsy flamenco, the thumb primarily handles bass-string alzapúa and bass note support. In the Gypsy toque, the thumb is more active across the full string range — driving rhythmic patterns, playing melodic lines, contributing to rasgueados with a heavier physical emphasis that gives Gypsy flamenco its specific propulsive, almost aggressive rhythmic character. Tomatito has been described as “the guardian of the temple” specifically because his thumb-heavy Gypsy toque preserves this rhythmic emphasis even in his most harmonically adventurous contemporary work.
Antonio de Torres Influence (Almería Luthier Heritage): The article about Tomatito’s guitar tradition notes that “In Almería, the guitar is synonymous with two names in particular, Antonio de Torres Jurado and Julián Arcas Lacal. In practice, the flamenco guitar itself is centered on two gypsy families, that of Miguel de Almería, also known as Miguel ‘El Tomate’, and the ‘Josele’ family.” Antonio de Torres — the greatest guitar luthier of the nineteenth century, whose construction methods defined the modern classical and flamenco guitar — is Almería’s most famous instrument-building son. The specific resonance of Torres’s construction principles with the Almería Gypsy tradition that produced Tomatito is not coincidental: Tomatito plays instruments descended from Torres’s innovations in the city where Torres himself built. The geographical coincidence deepens the biographical biography: Tomatito is not merely an inheritor of the flamenco guitar tradition but specifically an inheritor of the tradition that was born in his home province.
Strings
Savarez Tomatito Signature Strings (T50R Normal Tension and T50J High Tension): Tomatito’s string endorsement with Savarez is among the most fully documented pieces of his gear — the string company has produced a signature series specifically designed with and for him. Savarez’s description of the partnership: “A pupil and accompanist of Paco de Lucia in the 1970s, Tomatito then took over from him at Camarón de la Isla in 1979.” The Savarez Tomatito T50R (normal tension) and T50J (high tension) combine Savarez’s Alliance KF nylon G string with Cristal clear nylon treble strings (E and B) and silver-plated bass strings wound on a multifilament core. “SAVAREZ and Tomatito specially crafted this flamenco guitar strings set for the immediate and precise response, the projection and the particular sounds each flamenco player is looking for. The velocity is much easier. The flamenco playing with its rasgueado, alzapúa, picado is free and secure.” The string set reflects his specific tonal priorities: immediate attack (not the warmer, slower response of some classical strings), projection (volume), and the specific balance between treble clarity and bass warmth that flamenco technique requires. Normal tension is generally preferred for the lower string resistance that makes rasgueado and picado technique faster and more comfortable; high tension provides more volume and sustain at the cost of additional physical effort.
Amplification
Acoustic Concert Performance and Microphone Amplification: Tomatito, like all concert flamenco guitarists, performs primarily in acoustic settings — the guitar’s natural acoustic projection amplified when necessary through sensitive microphone placement rather than through pickup systems or amplifiers. This approach preserves the specific tonal character of the flamenco blanca, which is optimized for acoustic projection rather than for pickup-mediated amplification. For major concert halls and festivals, a small condenser microphone (typically a Neumann or DPA small-diaphragm model) positioned near the guitar’s soundhole is the standard approach, with the signal routed to the venue’s PA system through a clean, flat-response amplification chain.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy
Tomatito’s playing style is the most compelling argument for the continuing vitality of the Gypsy flamenco tradition in the modern era. His mastery of the compás — the rhythmic cycle that underlies all flamenco — is specifically noted by every commentator as his most essential quality: “His style is rhythmic and elegant, and characterized above all by his absolute mastery of the compás. A guitarist without ‘compás’ may play his own music which may have some flamenco characteristics, but it will never be genuine.” This assessment places compás above harmonic sophistication, above technical speed, above any other musical quality as the essential test of authentic flamenco. Tomatito passes this test absolutely, which is why he is considered the “guardian of the temple” — the musician who maintains the rhythmic heartbeat of authentic flamenco even in his most experimental moments.
The eighteen years accompanying Camarón de la Isla gave Tomatito an education in musical service that is unique in the flamenco guitar world. Accompanying a great cantaor (flamenco singer) requires a specific kind of musical intelligence — the ability to support and enhance the singer’s emotional expression without drawing attention to the guitar itself, the ability to follow the singer’s rhythmic freedom without losing the compás, the ability to anticipate where the singer is going harmonically and be there before they arrive. For eighteen years, accompanying the greatest flamenco singer of the modern era, Tomatito developed this intelligence to a degree that transformed his solo playing: his solo work has a quality of service to the music rather than service to the performer, a focus on the emotional content rather than the technical display, that reflects the accompanist’s training in a way that purely solo-trained players rarely achieve.
His own description of his musical philosophy is direct: “flamenco can’t go in other directions, because then it stops being flamenco.” This apparent conservatism coexists with extensive jazz and world music collaboration — a position that is not self-contradictory but philosophically precise. Flamenco can incorporate jazz harmony, Latin jazz rhythms, and Brazilian elements; what it cannot do is abandon its specific compás, its specific emotional authenticity (duende), and its specific Andalusian root. Tomatito’s collaborations with Michel Camilo, Chick Corea, and George Benson (who appears on his Paseo de los Castaños album) all maintain the flamenco identity at the core while allowing the jazz and world music elements to enrich the vocabulary. He goes out; he comes back. The flamenco is always there.
How to Sound Like Tomatito
Guitar: A quality flamenco blanca — cypress back and sides, spruce top, the standard construction of the traditional Gypsy flamenco guitar. The Savarez Tomatito strings (T50R normal tension for most playing; T50J high tension for maximum volume and projection) are the authentic string choice. Any quality Spanish-built flamenco guitar from Conde Hermanos, Hermanos Sanchis Lopez, or similar Andalusian/Madrid luthiers provides the appropriate construction.
Right-Hand Technique: Tomatito’s specific Gypsy toque emphasizes the thumb more than non-Gypsy flamenco. Develop alzapúa technique (thumb driving melodic lines across bass and treble strings) alongside standard flamenco rasgueado and picado. The thumb’s authority in Gypsy flamenco is the distinguishing technical characteristic.
Amp Settings (When Amplifying):
| Control | Setting (0–10) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Volume | 3–5 | Natural projection — flamenco is primarily acoustic |
| Bass | 3–4 | Reduce slightly — cypress body has naturally limited bass |
| Mid | 5–6 | Present — the Gypsy toque’s thumb-driven midrange needs definition |
| Treble | 5–6 | Bright — blanca’s treble attack is its primary tonal identity |
| Reverb | 1–2 | Minimal — Gypsy flamenco is dry and immediate, not reverberant |
Compás: The most important “gear” in Tomatito’s approach is not any specific guitar or string but the internalization of compás — the rhythmic cycle that underlies each flamenco palo. The bulerías (12-beat cycle, the most complex and most characteristic of Gypsy flamenco) and the soleares are the foundational palos for developing compás. Without compás, the guitars and the technique are irrelevant. With compás, even modest equipment produces authentic flamenco.
Influence & Legacy
Tomatito’s legacy is inseparable from the Camarón partnership that defined the first half of his career and from the Gypsy flamenco tradition that defines the entirety of it. His two Latin Grammy Awards — for Barrio Negro (2004) and for a second album — confirm the institutional recognition of what the flamenco world already knew: that he is the definitive voice of the Gypsy tradition in contemporary concert flamenco.
His influence on younger Gypsy flamenco guitarists is profound and specific. The Gypsy toque — the thumb-heavy, compás-centered, rhythmically propulsive approach that distinguishes Gypsy flamenco from the more lyrical and harmonically sophisticated payo schools — has been preserved and transmitted through Tomatito’s visibility as its most celebrated living practitioner. “For the same reason many other guitarists, whether gypsy or not, have adopted the same style, thus forming a veritable school based on the gypsy ‘toque’ as played by ‘San Paco de Lucía’, as Tomatito calls him, or ‘St. Paco’.” The Paco de Lucía connection runs throughout: Tomatito’s relationship with Lucía — as a student in the 1970s, as his successor at Camarón’s side, as a fellow explorer of flamenco’s possibilities — is the most continuous thread in his entire career.
His connection to Vicente Amigo (Series 2 #142) is the most important parallel in contemporary flamenco guitar: two guitarists who both acknowledge Paco de Lucía as their primary influence, both use Conde Hermanos instruments, both have won Latin Grammy Awards, and both represent different dimensions of the modern flamenco guitar tradition — Amigo’s Córdoba school harmonic sophistication versus Tomatito’s Almería Gypsy rhythmic authority. The contrast between them is the most productive creative tension in contemporary flamenco: the intellectual and the visceral, the composed and the compulsive, the Andalusian academic and the Gypsy guardian.
His connection to Paco de Lucía (Series 1) is the most personal and most musically significant relationship in his career — the guitarist who shaped everything Tomatito became, who gave his blessing to Camarón’s choice of the young Tomatito as his replacement accompanist, and who remained a reference point (“San Paco”) throughout Tomatito’s career. Sabicas (Series 2 #144) and the preceding generation of concert flamenco guitarists represent the tradition that both Lucía and Tomatito inherited and transformed.
Internal Links:
- Vicente Amigo, Tomatito’s contemporary and the Córdoba school counterpart in modern flamenco at #142
- Paco de Lucía, “San Paco” — the foundational influence on Tomatito’s entire career (Series 1)
- Sabicas, the preceding generation of concert flamenco guitar that both Lucía and Tomatito inherited at #144
- Al Di Meola, part of the jazz-flamenco community that Tomatito explored in his collaborative work (Series 1)
Frequently Asked Questions: Tomatito Guitars & Gear
What guitar does Tomatito play?
Tomatito owns approximately 60 guitars — the accumulated collection of a lifetime of professional flamenco playing. His primary concert instruments are Conde Hermanos flamenco blancas — the Madrid-based luthier dynasty whose instruments have been used by Paco de Lucía, Vicente Amigo, Sabicas, and the most significant flamenco guitarists of the twentieth century. He plays traditional flamenco blanca construction: cypress back and sides, spruce top, lower action than classical guitars, and a tap plate (golpeador) for rhythmic finger tapping. His string choice is Savarez Tomatito signature strings (T50R normal tension or T50J high tension), a series he co-developed with Savarez specifically for flamenco performance.
What is the Savarez Tomatito string series?
The Savarez Tomatito string series (T50R normal tension, T50J high tension) was co-developed by Tomatito and the Savarez string company specifically for flamenco guitar performance. The set combines Savarez’s Alliance KF nylon G string with Cristal clear nylon treble strings (E and B) and silver-plated bass strings wound on a multifilament core. The series was designed for “immediate and precise response, projection and the particular sounds each flamenco player is looking for” — specifically optimized for the fast attack of rasgueado, alzapúa, and picado techniques.
How did Tomatito become Camarón de la Isla’s guitarist?
Tomatito, at fifteen, was playing flamenco in Málaga tablaos and had become known for his ability to play Paco de Lucía’s pieces. One day in Málaga, Camarón de la Isla unexpectedly needed a guitarist for a festival performance and was directed to the boy at the Taberna Gitana. After this first encounter, Camarón recognized Tomatito’s exceptional talent and asked him to become his regular accompanist. Tomatito needed his father’s permission because Camarón’s tours were international. His father agreed. The partnership began in 1979 when Paco de Lucía became more occupied with his solo career and lasted eighteen years until Camarón’s death from cancer in 1992.
What is La Leyenda del Tiempo and why is it important?
La Leyenda del Tiempo (1979) is the album that launched the Camarón/Tomatito partnership publicly and is considered one of the foundational documents of nuevo flamenco. It incorporated rock, jazz, and world music elements into flamenco in ways that shocked traditionalists but inspired the subsequent generation of flamenco musicians. The album initiated a collaboration that produced nine more records together and established Tomatito’s standing as the most important flamenco accompanist of his generation.
What is the Gypsy toque and how does Tomatito’s playing differ from non-Gypsy flamenco?
The Gypsy toque is the specific approach to flamenco guitar associated with Roma (Gypsy) players — characterized by greater use of the right-hand thumb, more rhythmically percussive attack, and a specific emotional directness derived from the Roma cultural tradition. Tomatito’s playing is “marked by greater use of the right-hand thumb, and the boundless energy which makes his playing so brilliant” — a style he absorbed from his family tradition (his grandfather and father were both known as El Tomate, Gypsy flamenco guitarists) and from his proximity to Camarón de la Isla, who was also Roma. The Gypsy toque prioritizes compás (rhythmic cycle mastery) and emotional authenticity (duende) above harmonic sophistication.
What Latin Grammy Awards has Tomatito won?
Tomatito has won two Latin Grammy Awards. The Paris 87 album (a live recording with Camarón de la Isla) won the Latin Grammy for Best Flamenco Album in 2000. His solo album Barrio Negro won the Latin Grammy for Best Flamenco Album in 2004. He was also a two-time Latin Grammy nominee with Camarón for various recordings from their collaboration.
Has Tomatito collaborated with jazz musicians?
Yes, extensively. Tomatito has collaborated with jazz musicians including Michel Camilo (the acclaimed Dominican jazz pianist), Chick Corea, Eliane Elias, and George Benson (who appears on his Paseo de los Castaños album). His album Barrio Negro explored flamenco-jazz fusion with various collaborators. He has performed with Cuban and South American jazz musicians in a continuing exploration of the flamenco-jazz synthesis that Paco de Lucía pioneered with the Friday Night in San Francisco sessions.
