Zyryab

Zyryab, released in 1990, featured jazz pianist Chick Corea as a special guest collaborator on several tracks. The core sextet also included Jorge Pardo on flute, Carlos Benavent on bass, Rubem Dantas on percussion, and Manolo Soler on drums. This expanded ensemble format pushed flamenco further into jazz-fusion territory.

Zyryab is a flamenco-jazz fusion album that blends Paco de Lucía's traditional flamenco guitar with jazz harmony, Latin rhythms, and the expanded instrumentation of a sextet. The collaboration with Chick Corea introduced pianistic jazz elements previously uncommon in flamenco recordings. The album is considered a landmark in the development of nuevo flamenco.

The album is named after Ziryab (Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Nafi), a 9th-century polymath, musician, and courtier who migrated from Baghdad to Al-Andalus and profoundly influenced the music, cuisine, and fashion of medieval Spain. Ziryab is credited with adding a fifth string to the oud and founding a influential school of music in Córdoba. Paco de Lucía's album pays homage to this Andalusian musical legacy.

Zyryab followed Paco de Lucía's groundbreaking collaborations with John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola, including the 1981 live album Friday Night in San Francisco, and continued his exploration of fusing flamenco with jazz. Earlier solo albums like Almoraima (1976) had already begun incorporating non-traditional elements into flamenco. Zyryab further expanded this fusion by integrating a full jazz-flamenco ensemble.