He is a multi-ethnic musician, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer, musical director and maestro. He is known for his great personality, creativity, maturity, sound and original style.
El Amir is one of the most versatile musicians in this world. As a concertino and virtuoso is considered to be one of the Top outstanding flamenco guitarists of his generation.
El Amir has collaborated with a very long list of renowned artists: Hans Zimmer, Radio Tarifa, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, Guy Laliberté (Cirque du Soleil), John Laraio (Yes), Rory Kaplan (Michael Jackson, Chick Corea), Juno Reactor (Matrix), Kroke (Steven Spielberg), Lisa Gerard (Dead can Dance), Maria Dolores Pradera, Peter Murphy (Bauhaus), Chambao, Jorge Pardo (ExPaco de Lucía), Joaquin Sabina, Gavin Greenaway, Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance) Josemi Carmona (Ketama), Enrique de Melchor, Lola Greco, Joaquin Ruiz, Tomasito, Gerardo Nuñez, Raimundo Amador, Antonio Canales, Shankar Mahadevan (John McLaughin-Shakti), Navajita Plateá, Sandra Carrasco, Radio Symphonic Orchestra Vienna, Naseer Shama, Estrella Morente, Miguel Poveda, José Mercé, Diego El Cigala, … just to name a few of them.
Legendary news channel CNN made a documentary about the cultural and musical roots in Andalusia and chose El Amir to be the featuring artists of the program talking about Arabic and oriental influences in the music of Andalusia.
He plays flamenco guitar and Arabic oud since he was seven years old and has performed already for thirty years on stage. Along with his extensive career, he has learned how to play traditional Mediterranean instruments such as Greek bouzouki or Turkish saz besides instruments such as electric guitar, banjo, and bass among others being a virtuoso on each of them.
El Amir was born in Freiburg (Germany). Along with his career, he has been developing an interest for many music styles such as Flamenco, Arabic music, Rock, Fusion, World music, Folk, Classical, Indian music, Electronic music, FunK…
In 1998 he moves to Madrid and became a permanent member of the legendary and famous Spanish World-music band Radio Tarifa with whom he toured worldwide for ten years. Latin Grammy nominee for recording on albums such as Radio Tarifa 2004, Chambao 2012 and Silver Medalist of two Global Music Awards (Snow Owl-2019) and Andalucía from his new album (2020).
In 1999 he wins the 1st prize for best musical and original composition at the 8th National Competition of Choreographies for Classical and Flamenco Dance in Madrid. El Amir has joined the new and amazing Project “Canción Andaluza by Paco de Lucia” to form a powerful guitar tandem with Paco de Lucia’s nephew Jose Maria Bandera.
In 2017 El Amir became the first musician to perform Vivaldi’s Concerto in C Major for mandolin on the Greek Bouzouki. He made a special arrangement and adaptation and played it live accompanied by musicians of Spain’s National Orchestra at the National Music Auditorium in Madrid. In February 2019 he also performed Vivaldi’s Concerto in D Major on Flamenco Guitar.
El Amir has released three flamenco guitar albums “Pasando Por Tabernas” (2006), “9 Guitarras” (2013) and “Andalucía” (2020). Further with his World-music band Zoobazar “Uno” (2011) and “Dos” (2014) performing Mediterranean and Middle Eastern folklore fusion. He has recorded on a long list of albums of great artists. His music is distributed by Galileo Music.
He has presented this year his own flamenco guitar signature model El Amir by the Luthier José Salinas and distributed by Mundo Flamenco.
He is Orange Amplifiers ambassador, Carlos Juan Amplification, Knobloch Strings endorser, Kramer Electric Guitars and much more. El Amir has been featuring as a soloist in the Tour of the renowned music film Hollywood composer “The World of Hans Zimmer” 2018-2019-2020 participating on the Live Cd of The World of Hans Zimmer.
The prestigious public Tv Channel PBS, USA released in September 2019 a documentary where El Amir was invited and is featured to explain the influences of Flamenco, Andalusi Music in Scarlatti`s classical music.
His new flamenco guitar album called "Andalucía" has released on the 28th of February 2020, (Andalucía Day).