FRIDAY 10 | Clean-shaven with greying shoulder-length hair, Diego Dimarques could easily pass for a son of Jose Reyes, the world-famous flamenco guitarist whose five sons – Nicolas, Canut, Paul, Patchai and Andre – comprise a majority of the Gipsy Kings. “There are rumours that I was part of the band, the one with the white hair,” Dimarques – also a guitarist – says, dispelling any notion that he might be a long-haired Nicolas Reyes in disguise. “I am not part of their family in the sense that we have no common blood.” But Dimarques is a fellow traveller on the same circuit, a compadre in heart and spirit, and considers Gipsy Kings co-founder Jalloul ‘Chico’ Bouchikhi both a friend and inspiration. “I met Chico when I was playing a hotel in Paris in 2006 or 2007 and he was there to promote his new album Freedom. I was surprised to see him and I went to him to apologise for not playing his songs very well, but he told me: ‘The more they are played, the less we forget the culture.’ We talked together around a Pastis and he told me there was no problem if people thought I was part of the band!”
WHO: Diego Dimarques Trio
WHAT: Gipsy and Latin guitar
WHERE: Equinox, #3a Street 278
WHEN: 9pm January 10
WHY: Our very own Gipsy King