If you\'re a fan of flamenco, or just looking for a perfect introduction, you have an opportunity this week to hear one of the genre\'s finest contemporary guitarists. Gerardo Núńez and trio are appearing as part of Iberica 2006\'s Festival of Spanish Culture, which also includes events in Boskovice, Bratislava and Brno. Iberica, a new organization dedicated to promoting Iberian culture, is also offering workshops, lectures and experimental fusion flamenco performances. The Archa event will be the closest to the traditional flamenco \"tabloa,\" the well-known style of dramatic singing and dancing, driven by Núńez\'s innovative guitar techniques.

By the time Núńez\'s first solo CD, El Gallo Azul, hit the shelves in 1987, many aficionados were already praising him as flamenco\'s most promising new guitarist. Among those impressed was the 20th-century champion of flamenco guitar, Paco de Lucia.

For a long time, de Lucia was the leading light for most of the flamenco guitarists who came after him. But Núńez is of a younger and slightly more worldly Andalusian generation, as comfortable listening to King Crimson and Pink Floyd as they are to old-school flamenco recording artists like Antonio Moreno and Diego del Gastor. And in the post-de Lucia flamenco world, Núńez maintains a distinct reputation for his unique style.

\"Núńez brought to flamenco guitar new tunings — in some of his pieces he changes the tuning of strings and creates a new tonal and harmony ambiente,\" says Iberica 2006 organizer Petr Vít. \"He is able to play very traditional flamenco and at the same time improvise with jazz musicians. And, of course, technically he is one of the best. He has unbelievable speed!\"

Núńez admits to breaking traditional rules, but his solid technique and mastery of melody continue to attract a following of both staunch purists and fans who wholeheartedly embrace flamenco\'s new directions.

To explore those directions, in the early 1980s Núńez left his home of Jerez de la Frontera, a small city in southern Andalusia considered flamenco\'s epicenter, for the more cosmopolitan buzz of Madrid. There he moved between traditional projects and fusion collaborations, which included work with the likes of Radio Tarifa, John Patitucci, Michael Brecker and Andreas Vollenweider.

One of Núńez\'s most imaginative collaborators has been the dancer Carmen Cortés, who has authored and performed a number of flamenco ballets. They include A Frederico, inspired by the poetry of Federico Garica Lorca, and Cantes de ida y vuelta, which celebrated flamenco\'s musical symbiosis with the greater Spanish-speaking world. In 1998, Cortés also collaborated with Núńez on a critically acclaimed flamenco theatrical interpretation of Oscar Wilde\'s Salome.

Recently, Cortés and Núńez\'s ensemble work has been greatly enhanced by the resonant voice of the young singer Jesús Méndez. Known as the \"jewel of Jerez cante,\" Méndez is descended from one of flamenco\'s great families. The Méndez ancestry includes the early 20th-century flamenco star Francesca La Paquera, who provided the electrifying cante on international cinema screens in the opening scene of Carlos Saura\'s award-winning film Flamenco.

Reviewing Núńez\'s most recent CD, Calima, Guitar Player magazine called Núńez \"an outstanding technician [with] impeccable taste and masterful stylistic blends.\" For his upcoming Archa performance, Vít says to expect \"solo pieces enriched by some jazz harmony, but, for the accompaniment of Carmen\'s dancing, he will likely follow a more traditional style.\"

Fans of the influential buleria form will be glad to hear that the program will likely include more than one buleria. According to Vít, \"[the trio\'s] concerts usually end with the long improvised buleria \'Fin de Fiesta.\' \"