It is not an exaggeration to say that the name of Omar Geles is engraved “in golden letters” on the top of the vallenatowho was one of the most influential musicians of the genre and a great visionary.
That is why his death, which occurred on the night of Tuesday, May 21,has an entire region in mourning, mourning the idol and, the country, lamenting the early loss (he was 57 years old) of one of its most memorable musicians.
Today in Colombia there is no singer, accordion player, academic, fan or student of vallenato who does not recognize —in the one born in the San Marcos de Malagana district, in Mahates, Bolívar— to a man endowed with a monumental talent that allowed him not only to compose true vallenato hymns, but to do so copiously. His creative production is close to 1,000 songs, who wrote for several generations of artists. He was an accordion player, composer and also a vallenato singer, he combined all these facets at different times in his life. This year he celebrated 40 years of artistic life.
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His songs were performed by singers such as Jorge Celedón, Poncho Zuleta, Silvestre Dangond, Diomedes Díaz, Peter Manjarrés, Jorge Oñate and Patricia Teherán, to name a few. It is a fact, academically verified, that there is no composer in the last four decades who has had more successes than Omar Geles Suárez.
“He was a composer who knew how to reinvent himself, who began as they did in the 80s, with lyrical songs, romances, and then when the sentimental, urban, slow and romantic vallenato became fashionable, he began to do it and he was the best at it. , but when he noticed that that type of music was already on the wane and more danceable, new wave type music was needed, then he became the best at that too, Omar Geles knew how to be the best in different styles“, corroborates Abel Medina Sierra, cultural researcher and teacher of the Bachelor of Music program with an emphasis on Vallenato at the University of La Guajira.
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Talent plus human quality
The former Minister of Culture of Colombia, María Consuelo Araujo, a Vallenato expert, It remembers not only the artist but the human being. Araujo remembers how many years ago he met Omar Geles, at a party at his house. “I was captured by his way of being and I became practically his faithful follower after knowing his heart, He was a person of immense kindness, of a very rare humility in the world of artists because Omar had zero egos.; he said it himself Carlos Vives, “Omar Geles had no problem with his songs being sung by others ahead of him.”
Araujo confirms that the success of his compositions has a lot to do with the authenticity in his lyrics, “that is, he didn’t write what he didn’t feel and that is why his mother (Hilda Suárez) was the center of all creations, there is no song in which he does not mention his mother and the immense effort she made to lift her family out of their condition of poverty.”
Maybe that’s why its composition The ways of the life, was one of the most recognized, so much so that it transcended borders and was recorded by other artists outside the country, even in other genres. Up to 30 versions of that song are recognized.
Araujo emphasizes Professor Medina’s words, but also adds that he was a man who was very synchronized with the audience. He was like a magician who previously read the tastes of the public and was clear about what would be successful and what would not.
“He was very synchronized with the audience, he knew what was going to be successful and he sold it to the singers who also already had a career and recognition then, for example, with Peter Manjarres recorded a song called I left you “That when you hear the song you understand that part of his talent was knowing who it suited perfectly.”
But it must also be added that he had charisma and that is why he was also successful as an accordion player and singer.
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An artist like Omar Geles could tell heartfelt, nostalgic and profound stories, but he had those moments of partying with the audience because he knew when the public needed them. And to that we must add that he had a great deal of harmony with young people and that is why he was so relevant for several decades.
For Professor Medina, Omar Geles had, in all his facets as an artist, a clear vision. “He could see that over time the image of the vallenato accordion player was going to become depreciated, undervalued, and that is why he became known as a composer and from there then he decided to be a singer”.
In 1991 he began recording with the singers and never stopped. Added to this ability to innovate is that he was one of the first accordion players to become the owner of his ensemble. “Omar Geles, since he separated from Miguel Morales and began his union with Jesús Manuel Estrada, was the owner of the group Los Diablitos. He was also the first accordion player to create his own recording studio in Valledupar. and another fact is that he became a producer in the 90s. He was Patricia Teherán’s producer, who discovered her and chose the songs for her, he went, he discovered her, he had her record, he made the arrangements, he chose the songs. He was also the producer of Adriana Lucía, by Wilfran Castillo, by Esmeralda Orozco and by the beginnings of Ana del Castillo.” And to that we must add his role as a music editor, one of the most recent in his prolific career.
“Little devil? No, please.”
Araujo tells how Omar Geles respectfully asked him not to call him “little devil,” a nickname that he had not only because of the name of the musical group he formed. but he had it since he was a child.
The story of the nickname is told by Professor Medina: “The entertainer, presenter and announcer Mario Puerta Gómez gave it to him. once he saw him play when he was a child And since he was very black, he said that he looked like a little devil playing, because his touch was also devilish, he was very fast with the whistles.”
Geles wanted to get away from the nickname when he became a Christian: “I am on the path of God,” he told Araujo and the academic Medina confirms that in recent years managed to free himself from that stigma“it was one of the goals he achieved, of many, to free himself from that nickname of the little devil.”
And there was nothing dark about him, as Araujo says. “He was a healthy, healthy, athletic man, which is why his death surprised us so much.”
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Omar Geles, as confirmed by the Erasmo Clinic, “arrived at our facilities without vital signs on May 21, after suffering syncope while playing tennis.”
And although he had had a worrying health episode in Miami, at the end of April, after suffering severe pain in his chest and arm in the middle of a concert, he was discharged without major complications.
The farewell in Valledupar
With street of honor the body of the artist Omar Geles was received in the auditorium of the Rafael Carrillo Lúquez Departmental Library of Valleduparon the morning of Wednesday, May 22, where he remained in a burning chamber.
His audience, his admirers, were waiting for him in tears, chanting his songs as the best way to pay tribute to him. There were long lines to see him off.
Vallenato personalities such as Silvestre Dangond, Iván Villazón, Jean Carlo Centeno and Rolando Ochoa also arrived. On Wednesday night his body was transferred to Plaza Alfonso López in a tribute to his Vallenatos colleagues and this Thursday a religious ceremony will be held and then, at 11:00 in the morning, carry out the burial in the Jardines del EcceHomo cemetery in Valledupar.
There is no doubt that a great of Colombian music has left, one of the most influential representatives of vallenato in the country. “We continue on the paths of life until we meet again,” said Carlos Vives.
