Few men have defined flamenco music as much as Ramon Montoya. The great Spaniard, who died in 1949, left a legacy for the world that many young pretenders have attempted to learn from and replicate. Few have come close to his repertoire and skill, but now London is about to taste what some of Montoya’s direct descendents can do.

Jeronimo (full name Jeronimo Maya) has teamed up with his brother Leo De Aurora for ‘A Lo Gitano Jazz’ (Jazz Gypsy Style), a project of virtuoso flamenco guitar playing that arrives at Le Quecum bar in Battersea. The brothers are among the finest practitioners of the flamenco art in the world, and worthy of their bloodline.

Jeronimo was nothing short of a child prodigy, though wisely his parents spared him from heavy exposure to audiences. We won’t bore you with the accolades, awards and qualifications he has, suffice to say there are a lot. He has also performed in some of the most illustrious venues in Europe from the Royal Festival Hall to the Concertgebouw.

Unfortunately, his English is not the best, and neither is our Spanish, so it was a struggle of an interview at times. Nevertheless, the language barrier didn’t impede the evident passion for this music that pulses through Jeronimo.

“We understand our music as a way of life,” he says of him and his brother. “Leo and I have played for 15 years. We play together at home, and when we find things we like, we decide if we record or not.”

With the two little geniuses running amok with their Spanish guitars, it must have been a household even Frasier and Niles Crane couldn’t match for precociousness. Jeronimo cites a wide, startling array of influences on the brothers.

“We were born to be flamenco, but we listened to all types of music. I listen to classical music, jazz like Charles Mingus, mavericks like Moondog… Leo listens to black music, classical or funk. He loves Aretha Franklin.”

They are an intense pair, taking their music heavily, heavily seriously. A Lo Gitano Jazz is eleven pieces of flamenco at its purist and most technically perfect. There’s a lot at stake – so as with many brothers who work together, ‘creative differences’ are inevitable.
“We feed on that,” says Jeronimo. “That is the way we learn, enrich and multiply our creativity.”

The album of this project is now available – an excursion in flamenco guitar that approaches Manouche Jazz (gypsy jazz with a certain French touch), with Jeronimo and Leo swapping rhythm and lead as the mood takes them and contains tracks dedicated to Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Charles Mingus. The record, and series of concerts, marks the coming of age of Leo De Aurora as an artist of the requisite calibre to perform alongside his technically immaculate older brother.

As well as the obvious debt the duo’s music owes to Ramon Montoya, they are both deep admirers of the great Django Reinhardt, something very evident in their music. “What he had will be there forever”, says Jeronimo. “What attracted us the most in his music was, I think, his personality and very singular sound.”

Guitarists in many genres are fanatical about Reinhardt and other jazz-guitar greats, but few are actually related to them. To be continually associated with Montoya might be considered an albatross around one’s neck, but Jeronimo thinks differently.

“It has always been a blessing for us. But Jeronimo is always searching to be himself, and Leo in the same way.”
Anyone ready to be dazzled by the Spaniards’ fingerpicking (and fans of those who refer to themselves in the third person), should get themselves to Battersea.

Jeronimo and Leo De Aurora play Le Quecum Bar on 23-24 September 2007.