Antonio

Antonio González Batista , El Pescaílla

Barcelona , 5 de gener de 1925
Barcelona , 12 de novembre de 1999

Composer i Performer

Cantaor and guitarist

Considered one of the initiators of the Catalan rumba. Along with his brother Juan, he started playing music as a flamenco singer and guitarist in Gràcia neighborhood. Of his five brothers, he was considered the most virtuous with the guitar. In the opinion of some musicologists, his contact with a sailor who played the bongo in Escudellers Road in Barcelona in the late 1950s, was essential for his advance into Catalan rumba. Whilst his brother Juan appears to have invented the "ventilador", the peculiar technique of tapping the guitar box with the hand whilst playing, Antonio added a personal touch and popularized it. He was husband of the singer and bailaora Lola Flores, whose career eclipsed her husband’s.