The tango guitar
Today you can listen to a conversation with another great tango master: the guitarist Ubaldo De Lio. For more than 50 years he played with the wonderful composer and pianist Horacio Salgán in the Duo Salgan – De Lio and in the Quinteto Real.
In January 1999, Ubaldo de Lio told me in his apartment in the Flores neighborhood how they met and started playing together. Ubaldo De Lio was almost 70 years old at the time, but he continued touring the world playing with great energy.
Ubaldo De Lio was born on March 11, 1929. He started playing guitar at the age of seven. At the age of 14 he already started working professionally with a guitar ensemble that accompanied the most important singers of the 40’s on Radio Belgrano, among them Nelly Omar, whose interview we published a few weeks ago. In 1950 he founded a jazz quintet in which Lalo Schifrin, then in his 20s, played piano. Ubaldo de Lio was also interested in Brazilian music. But he found his true musical destiny in 1957 when he met Horacio Salgan.
Hear for yourselves what this great guitarist, who died in 2012 at the age of 83, told me.
Part of the interview with De Lio
“Well, my beginnings were in … I was born in the year 1929, on March 11, so … so I was born on the same day as Piazzolla, March 11. Piazzolla was born in 24 and I was born in 29. We have celebrated many birthdays together in Europe, I was in Paris, I was in Italy, I was in Europe and I celebrated with him. (He addresses some children: Che, che, che, che, che! Go over there, go over there).
This…well, as I was telling you, I was born on the 29th on March 11. I started when I was about 4 and a half years old with a very elementary teaching of chords and a little bit of humming myself. I had an uncle of mine, whom I loved very much, who was the promoter of my whole career, if you will, because he was a big fan of Carlos Gardel and he liked to sing a little bit.
Then, there was a boy who lived in my house, in the house of my grandparents and my parents and mine, who played more or less… he played a little bit the guitar so, he suggested to him: “If you teach the child, teach him the chords, all those things, I will give you a little present, too”. So “Yes, of course, Don Florencio, yes”.
And this boy taught me the first chords and singing some Gardel songs: “Guitarra, guitarra mía”, “Sus ojos se cerraron” …those things, well, and my uncle bought me a guitar. I was married to my mother’s sister, who is still alive, and well, and they gave me this…with that guitar and there I left until I was 7 years old when I began to study with a very good teacher, who had been a student of…he and María Luisa Anido had studied the same technique which was that of Domingo Prat, Domingo Prat is a Spaniard, he was; he died and they studied the same school, very good guitar school.
María Luisa Anido, a concert guitarist from here and this man was called Juan Spumer and well, I started with him. I didn’t want to start with…he didn’t want to start with me because I looked too small.”
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Wikipedia
At the age of 6, he began his guitar studies with Juan Spumer and later with José Canet. At the age of 9 (in 1938) he entered the National Conservatory, from which he graduated four years later (in 1942, at the age of 13) with his degree as a guitar teacher. A year later (in 1942) he was already working professionally, playing for José María de Hoyos and with the Tropilla de Huachi Pampa, and working with the musician from Mendoza Hilario Cuadros (1902-1956), and with José Luis Padula in radio Prieto (from Buenos Aires).2
Between 1944 and 1946 he was a member of the stable cast of musicians of radio Belgrano (Buenos Aires), together with guitarists Vila, Ciacio and Cortese. With them he accompanied the singers Edmundo Rivero (1911-1986), Alfredo Bermúdez (19) and Alberto Serna.2I accompaniednearly all the singers, Gardel and Magaldi missed me by a hair’s breadth. I accompanied Corsini, Oscar Alonso, Santiago Devin, Nelly Omar -with whom I was for many years-, Azucena Maizani, Mercedes Simone, always by radio. And from 1947 to 1955, with other boys, I was with Hugo del Carril, who that year ’55 suffered a heart attack in Montevideo and we returned.Ubaldo de Lío .
At the age of 21, Ubaldo de Lío created his first quintet to play at the Hot Club in France:In 1950 I formed a jazz ensemble. At the piano was 20-year-old Lalo Schiffrin. His mother brought him to me and said: “Take care of him, Ubaldo”. On violin, Hernán Oliva; on guitar, Guillermo Barbieri (brother of the comic actor, Alfredo); a double bass, and me playing the mandolin. (He was a Waldir Acevedo type, he sounded cute). We recorded at the Victor and there were no reedits, nor the matrices must have been left.Ubaldo de Lío 4
In 1953, with this quintet he played with Eddie Pequenino (1928-2000) in the RCA recordings of Brazilian songs, where De Lío played mandolin.2
At the boite Jamaica the pianist Horacio Salgán (1916-2016) played with the bandoneonist Ciriaquito Ortiz (1905-1970) and, at dawn, when there were few people left, De Lío would play with Salgán, a bit like a game. The owners, who were very tango fans, proposed them to do a number within the show: the two of them alone, doing instrumental tangos, without the singer Ciriaco Ortiz.
Thus, in 1957, the Salgán-De Lío duo was born, I never thought that with Salgán we would be together for so long, and it happened by itself. Neither of them sought it. I think that life is like chess, all the pieces are in place and I got those pieces. Between touring, traveling and performing we have spent almost more time together than with our respective families. We have a more intense rhythm than a marriage, but I clarify that we are not even engaged.
Since I started, I can’t stop. With Salgán there was a time when we worked every night; there were even days when he did not go home to sleep. He did not even appear. One day I caught my finger on the trunk of the car. It bled a lot, but I went out to play anyway. I could not leave the place with the public inside, nor my colleagues. I did it out of love for the shirt: that’s how I always handled myself. I never had any pretensions of being discovered. I always told myself: someday they will realize what I did and what I was Ubaldo de Lío.
They worked there for three years. In 1959, both formed the Quinteto Real with Enrique Mario Francini on violin, Pedro Laurenz on bandoneon and Rafael Ferro on double bass. They made their debut on radio El Mundo on September 1, 1959.6 WithRoberto Grela we were very close friends. Nevertheless, I believe that what I do is original. I played with Grela, we accompanied the singer Néstor Feria. And look, back in 1952, I was part of the Tibidabo show and Troilo came to see me. I needed a guitarist for El patio de la morocha. At first I accepted, but in reality I had many commitments.
And you know what I did? I called Grela to tell him to contact Pichuco. Raúl Berón reproached me: “Why don’t you do it, Ubaldo? I couldn’t, besides, at that time Grela had little work. Thus was born that beautiful quartet of Troilo. Anyway, when Troilo puts together a new quartet, I’m there. Anyway, I was still very busy and I talked to Pichuco to tell him that I was going to send him a boy who played very well, it was Aníbal Arias and that was very good for both of us.
On May 25, 2010 -in the framework of the celebrations for the bicentennial of the nation-, after years of retirement, Ubaldo de Lío met again on a stage with Horacio Salgán, in front of more than a million people gathered on Nueve de Julio Avenue (and several million live TV viewers).
Ubaldo de Lio in Troilo Quartet
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