José Fernandez first saw the light in the heart of an Andalusian Gypsy family where everyone is a musician. From his grandfather, a very known Flamenco singer & poet, he inherited his gypsy temperament and a very developed artistic sense.

At the age of 4, he wandered around in gypsy ceremonies as a drummer on the laps of his uncle or as a phenomenal child singer, which made a local newspaper call him “the Mozart of Flamenco”.

Musician in his soul and bulimic of music, he does not limit himself in mastering only one instrument, he is interested in everything that makes a sound. After the drums, it is the guitar, the piano, the bass under all its different forms (guitar bass, contra bass, baby bass,…) and moreover all the percussion (timbales, congas, bongos, darbouka,…).

Through his different trips and contacts with new cultures he tried more exotic instruments; not bad for a gypsy who was born with a guitar in his hand.

We have seen him with a Greek bouzouki, an Arabic lute, and even an Indian flute.

Born in the first era of great musical fusion in the 70’s, José is a son of the world music, who dreams of mixing his flamenco heritage and his mastering of “Cante Jondo” (the authentic flamenco singing), with all other different music, from salsa to oriental tunes. Not so surprising for someone who idealizes artists as different as Camaron de la Isla, Carlos Santana, Django Reinhardt, Stevie Wonder, Oum Koulsoum & Farid El Atrache to whom his father, born in Bizerte / Tunisia, had special affection for.

At 12 years old, he forms his first group with his brothers & cousins under the supervision of his father, a great bass player who was the first in introducing his instrument into flamenco in the 60’s, where the flamenco had only the guitar as an instrument.

It only took a first concert in a gypsy wedding for this group to be classified as one of the best in the area. The young José won his first accomplishments in the hierarchic world of the gypsy music, as a singer as well as a guitarist, which is a rare issue.

Hundreds of concerts and dozens of prices (price of the young hope of flamenco in the festival  “Flamenco du Sud”.) later, the hazard placed Michel Eléftériadés, a young producer and a big “aficionado” of flamenco, and José on the same road. Since the first minutes, the chemistry was on, the 2 men knew that by unifying their creativity & their musical backgrounds, they’d go very far..

Michel embarks José with him to Beirut, Amman & Egypt searching for the best musicians and for new inspirations. The fruit of this collaboration is an album entitled “Camino Gitano” which can be qualified as Mediterranean, since it had the color of the sea surrounding the Greek islands, the perfume of the blooms in the morning, the taste of the spices in Maghreb and the warmth of the sun in Malaga.

Besides “Camino Gitano”, and after the great success of his concerts in duet with Wadih El Safi and the “all star” arabo-andalousian orchestra, José recorded an album with the living legend of the tarab, Wadih El Safi.

This summer José will be touring to promote his new album “Makhlouta”.  “Makhlouta” is a Lebanese dish composed of a mixture of vegetables and beans.  Jose’s new album is a fusion between “ingredients” as different as oriental, flamenco, Brazilian, funk, swing…..