The Entre Ríos guitarist Horacio Malvicino, considered one of the pioneers of modern jazz in Argentina and who was a member of the different groups of Astor Piazzolladied at the age of 94, as reported this morning by the National Academy of Tango.
“We accompany his family and friends in this moment of deep sadness for everyone,” the entity expressed in a statement, to say goodbye to the musician who throughout his life played tango, jazz and bossa nova, and shared projects with musicians. from the likes of Leopoldo Federico and Daniel Binelli.
Malvicino was an arranger and director, wrote for musical works on television, made jingles, scored films and accompanied groups of various rhythms and tango. Although his thing was jazz, a genre that accompanied him throughout his career, Piazzolla’s arrival into his life changed his destiny.
“The one who best understood everything I wrote is Horacio Malvicino”Piazzolla once said when talking about his guitarists. “Maybe I was the most tango and the most youthful, I had a bit of the street,” he replied. malvetawho accompanied him in the innovative use of jazz guitar in tango and was part of the Octeto Buenos Aires, the Quintet, the Conjunto Electrónico and his last group, the Sextet.
The guitarist from Entre Ríos arrived in Buenos Aires in the ’40s to study Medicine. He reached the 5th grade, but his family could no longer “send the 150 pesos for the board and books,” he recalled. Malveta. He had to quit, they sent him his guitar and he went out to visit bars. He also sold newspapers and went hungry, until he could live as a musician.
“Although I started and continued playing jazz, I always liked tango that has dirt in it. And playing Astor’s music is simply wonderful,” the man from Entre Ríos recalled about his relationship with The Tanoas he called Piazzolla.
The bandoneon player and composer discovered it in 1955 at the Bop Club, which on Mondays filled the Buenos Aires headquarters of the YMCA with bohemia and talent. “There we were mingling with Lalo Schifrin, Billy goat Borraro, Enrique Villegas and we did a little concert of two or three hours, which did not produce a penny, out of pure hobby.”
Horacio Malvicino, Piazzolla’s historic guitarist. Photo: AP
When Piazzolla showed up, after listening to him, and proposed joining the new group that was in his plans, the Octet Buenos AiresMalvicino was surprised: “I almost fainted, because I knew him long before. I was studying medicine (I never got my degree) and I went with my overalls folded in four to listen to him at the Tango Bar… It seemed incredible to me that he was there telling me that he had thought of playing an electric guitar, which at that time was a life risk, so that he could improvise.
“That’s how we started. All the boys gathered at Electra, a restaurant in Callao and Bartolomé Miter, where at that time all the musicians stopped, to distribute the scores a few days before starting to rehearse, which was not common. But Of course, when I saw those staves I understood: there were so many notes that everyone had to prepare at home for a week,” he recalled.
The audacity of the Buenos Aires Octet, among which the presence of Malvicino was not the least, met with resistance, if not disdain. “They told us everything, they threw every object at hand at us. A group of eight or ten fans came to every concert. The rest, nothing. We didn’t have any luck but we insisted. Plus we had a lot of fun. We traveled once a week to La Plata, to perform on Radio Provincia, in a rented van driven by Tano. We left at eight in the morning and picked up all the boys.”
Dissolved the Buenos Aires Octet, malveta and The Tano They met again in the first Piazzolla Quintet. “From the first album it was very successful, I don’t know if because ears or concepts had softened, but people already accepted Astor’s works. It was quite a movement to make the music known. He has left a repertoire outside of series,” he said.
Within their anecdotes together, Malvicino remembered: “The first time we went to play in France we stopped at a rancid hotel, they gave us two mangoes but we had to do it, they received us at the Embassy and when we sat down there we had to hide our feet because our shoes were broken on one side. Over time everything changed, we toured Japan, Europe, and the United States many times, always with joy. Astor called home and said to my wife: ‘Would you like to come, Malveta?’ And how could she not love her!’“.
