The flamenco genre lost a legend today.

Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía, 66, who had a global reach and resonated a powerful passion through his guitar strings, died suddenly of a heart attack in Mexico today, according to Reuters.

Flamenco guitar playing was part of de Lucía's core.

"I learned the guitar like a child learns to speak," the late guitarist said in a 2012 documentary," Reuters reports.

"As a technician, he is probably one of the most elegant of flamenco artists," writer Raymond Ericson said of Mr. de Lucía in a 1972 review for The New York Times.

"His set of flamenco tunes and Andalusian melodies had the emotionally riveting quality of brilliant, impassioned conversation. Much of the power of Mr. de Lucia's playing comes from his far-reaching, deeply personal explorations of the tensions inherent in flamenco, especially its use of prolonged harmonic irresolution and its abrupt, jarring rhythmic punctuation," said Stephen Holden in a review performance at Carnegie Hall in 1989.

De Lucía challenged himself by taking on complicated syncopated flamenco rhythms as he was improvising jazz or classical guitar, which in turn helped bring flamenco the forefront in Spain and abroad, when it wasn't widely embraced by the mainstream.

Born Francisco Sánchez Gómez, he gained attention and fame in the 1970s after recording bestselling album Entre dos Aguas, becoming the first flamenco musician to perform at Madrid's opera house Teatro Real in 1975.

De Lucia took flamenco to another level with his albums such as El duende flamenco de Paco de Lucía and Almoraima and essentially reinvented traditional flamenco music.

He teamed up with other music legends Carlos Santana, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Camaron de la Isla, exposing him to a wider range of music and contemporary music styles.

"It has been said, and rightly so, that Paco de Lucia has never been surpassed by anyone and guitar playing today would not be understood without his revolutionary figure," Spain's arts association SGAE said in a statement.

According to Reuters, a spokesman for the city hall in Algeciras, where de Lucía was born, confirmed his death and said the city had decreed two days of official mourning.

Watch de Lucía share the magic of Flamenco music.