Fito Páez
Fito Páez in 2006
Background information
Birth name	Rodolfo Páez Ávalos
Born	(1963-03-13) 13 March 1963 (age 49)
Origin	Rosario, Argentina
Genres	Rock
Occupations	singer-songwriter, film director
Years active	1979–present
Labels	Warner Music/Distribuidora Belgrano Norte/Sony Music
Website	http://www.fitopaezmusica.com.ar/

Rodolfo "Fito" Páez Ávalos (born March 13, 1963 in Rosario, Santa Fe Province) is an Argentine popular rock and roll pianist, lyricist, Spanish language singer and film director.

Biography[link]

Early career[link]

Fito Páez in 1982

His real name is Rodolfo Páez, like his father. When he was a child people called him "Rodolfito" (in Spanish, an affectionate form of "Rodolfo") to distinguish him from his father. With the passage of time, this nickname became just "Fito", and that is where his stage name came from.^[1]

He formed Staff, his first band when he was 13. In 1977, he played in El Banquete with Rubén Goldín and Jorge Llonch. He began to perform solo in pubs the following year.

Straight out of high school, he began touring with several bands and soon after that produced his first solo album, "Del '63", which was released in 1984. It was promoted first in his home town, but later earned attention in Buenos Aires. The recording was put together with the help of some of Argentina's most prominent musicians, including Daniel Wirtz, Fabián Gallardo, Tweety González and Paul Dourge. The disc won him critical acclaim as a songwriter and helped lead to future projects, including a 1985 album, "Giros".

The demo of that album earned him the praise of Luis Alberto Spinetta, as well as a partnership - Paez's next album, 1986's "La La La" was a duet with Spinetta. The duo supported that album with a tour that reached all the way to Santiago, Chile. The same year, he participated in the Thousand Days of Democracy festival with Spinetta, Juan Carlos Baglietto, Silvina Garré and Antonio Tarragó Ros.

His 1987 recording, "Ciudad de Pobres Corazones", marked a dark, political turn for his work. It was dedicated to the memory of his aunt and grandmother, who were assassinated in Rosario. The album seethed with anger, but it was also more rhythmic and showed greater songwriting depth than his previous recordings. Páez got his first taste of production work with "Ey!", which was released in 1988. Recorded in New York and Havana, it also showcased many of the musicians that he had worked with previously, including Guillermo Vadalá, Daniel Colombres and Osvaldo Fattoruso. It also featured the trumpeters and saxophonists of the group, Afrocuba. Less harsh than his previous recording, it was one of his most balanced records.

1990 - present[link]

During a concert in 2003

Fito Páez in Casa Rosada, 2006

"Tercer Mundo", released in 1990, explores Latin American cultural influences and showed the harsh world of poverty and exploitation. It, too was critically acclaimed, but it was Paez' 1992 album, "El Amor Después del Amor" that marked the pinnacle of his commercial success. The album sold more than 750,000 copies and when Paez toured to support it, he found himself playing to sold-out shows for 40,000 people. Shortly after its release, he played a benefit concert for UNICEF which raised more than $420,000.

The follow-up, "Circo Beat", had impossibly high expectations and though it had several hit songs, including "Mariposa Tecknicolor" and "Tema de Piluso," as well as a companion album, Circo Beat Brazil, which featured Brazilian remixes of its hits, it only sold around 350,000 copies.

Several other projects were completed in the late '90s, including a live album, Euforia and 1998's Sabina & Paez: Enemigos Intimos, with Joaquín Sabina. The year 1999 brought another balanced, superbly produced album, "Abre". He also took home two Grammys at the first annual Latin Grammy Award in fall 2000. He lived with Argentine actress Cecilia Roth for some years, with whom he adopted a child in 1999.

Paez' 2003 album "Naturaleza sangre" marks a return to his musical past, featuring appearances from Charly García, Luis Alberto Spinetta and Brazilian artist Rita Lee on the previously unreleased version of "Ojos Rojos". At 40 years old, Paez finds himself at his musical peak.

In 2006, Páez was given an escopetarra (a decommissioned AK-47 converted into a guitar) by Colombian musician and peace activist César López in honor of his music.^[2]

The album El mundo cabe en una canción won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Rock Solo Vocal Album at the Latin Grammy Awards of 2007.

In 2008 recorded, No se si es Baires o Madrid, in Madrid, Spain. He invited several important musicians, such as Pablo Milanés, Joaquín Sabina and Ariel Rot to participate. In 2010, presented the album Confiá. In December 2011 he has recorded a new album which has song that were made by other artist, but this time Páez is going to be the singer; the album is called "Canciones para áliens"

Discography[link]

• Del 63 (1984) ("Of 63")
• Giros (1985) ("Turns")
• Corazón clandestino (1986) (Maxi-single) ("Clandestine heart")
• La La La (with Luis Alberto Spinetta) (1986)
• Ciudad de pobres corazones (1987) ("Poor heart's town")
• Ey! (1988)
• Tercer mundo (1990) ("Third World")
• El Amor Después del Amor (1992) ("Love after love")
• Circo Beat (1994) ("Beat Circus")
• Euforia (live) (1996) ("Euphoria")
• Enemigos íntimos (with Joaquín Sabina) (1998) ("Intimate enemies")
• Abre (1999) ("Open")
• Rey Sol (2000) ("King Sun")
• Naturaleza sangre (2003) ("Blood nature")
• Mi vida con ellas I (live) (2004) ("My life with them")
• Mi vida con ellas II (live) (2004)
• Moda y pueblo (2005) ("Fashion & people")
• El Mundo Cabe en Una Canción (2006) ("The world fits in a song")
• Rodolfo (2007)
• No sé si es Baires o Madrid (live) (2008) ("I don't know if it's Baires or Madrid")
• Confiá (2010) ("Trust")
• Canciones para Áliens (2011) ("Songs for Aliens")

Compilations[link]

• Grandes éxitos (1990) ("Greatest hits")
• Crónica (1991) ("Chronicle")
• Lo mejor de Fito Páez (1993) ("The best of Fito Páez")
• Lo mejor de los mejores – Volume 1 and 2 (1995/1996) ("The best of the bests")
• Lo duro/Lo suave de Fito Páez (1996) ("Hard/Soft of Fito Páez")
• Serie de oro: grandes éxitos (1999) ("Gold series: Greatest hits")
• Antología (2002) ("Anthology")
• Músicos, poetas y locos (2003) ("Musicians, poets and fools")
• Super 6 (2003)
• Gran reserva (2005) ("Great reserve")
• Grandes Canciones (2008) (live) ("Great songs")

Tributes[link]

• Homenaje a Fito Páez (2006) ("Tribute to Fito Páez")

Filmography[link]

• Vidas privadas ("Private lives") (2001)
• ¿De quién es el portaligas? (2007) ("Whose is the garter belt?")

References[link]

• Horacio Vargas: Fito Páez - La biografía - La vida después de la vida. Homosapiens, Buenos Aires 1994, ISBN 950-808-044-2.

External links[link]

• (Spanish) Fito Páez Biography (1/5) on YouTube

Luis Alberto Spinetta
Luis Alberto Spinetta, 1976
Background information
Also known as	El Flaco, Luigi, Luisito
Born	(1950-01-23)23 January 1950 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died	8 February 2012(2012-02-08) (aged 62)[1] Buenos Aires, Argentina
Genres	Rock, Progressive rock, Blues, Jazz, Jazz fusion
Instruments	guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, piano, electronic keyboard, vocals
Years active	1967–2012
Associated acts	Almendra, Pescado Rabioso, Invisible, Spinetta Jade, Spinetta y los Socios del Desierto, Charly García, Fito Páez, Gustavo Cerati, Pedro Aznar, Pappo, León Gieco, Andrés Calamaro, Dante Spinetta, Litto Nebbia, Moris

Luis Alberto "El Flaco" Spinetta (23 January 1950 – 8 February 2012) was an Argentine musician. As one of the most influential rock musicians of South America, together with Charly García is considered the father of Argentine rock. He was born in Buenos Aires in the residential neighbourhood of Belgrano. During his early childhood he was already listening to all kinds of music: folklore and tango, and a little bit later, rock. In 1967, amidst the repressive political climate, he formed a band called Almendra with his own school mates.

Contrasting with the backwards and authoritarian government of General Juan Carlos Onganía, Buenos Aires was undergoing a cultural blossoming based on new art expressions; the new generation, among sons of the middle class, were immersed in an effervescence that would not reappear in Argentina until 1983. Spinetta devoted himself fully to his own music. In his lyrics, there are influences of multiple writers, poets and artists like Arthur Rimbaud, Vincent van Gogh, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Carlos Castaneda and Antonin Artaud, which has his name in the album Artaud.^[2]

On 23 December 2011 he published on the Twitter^[3] account of his son Dante that he was facing lung cancer.^[4] He died on February 8, 2012 in his native Argentina, at the age of 62.^[5] His ashes were scattered in the waters of the Río de la Plata, according to his last wish, next to the Memory Park built to remember the desaparecidos of the National Reorganization Process.^[6]

Music[link]

In 1969, Spinetta's band, Almendra, recorded their first album. They started recording and playing intensevely and later it became successful almost overnight. Almendra composed its own songs and their lyrics were written in Spanish, something which was radically new for Argentina's music history. After two albums that were received with critical acclaim and continuous radio diffusion, the band split.

After a lengthy stay in Europe, Spinetta returned to Argentina and afterwards formed a new band: Pescado Rabioso. With a far more powerful sound and expressing through their songs and lyrics the tension of the streets in an increasingly violent Argentina, Pescado made their album debut in 1972. It was both a continuation of the creative stream of Spinetta and a drastic change in the style of his own music and lyrics. Later, the band recorded a second album. Although a third album, released in 1973 and called Artaud, it carried the band's name when there were actually already dissolved. Therefore, it was mostly a solo album by Spinetta himself. Partly based on the writings of Antonin Artaud, Spinetta exorcised many of the demons of his past in this album. This process would open the door to a new era in his music. In 1974 he formed a new band, Invisible. With his new band he recorded three albums: Invisible, Durazno Sangrando and El Jardín De Los Presentes. With Invisible, the new tunes were more harmonic.^{[citation needed]}

Luis Alberto Spinetta in 1977

After recording and editing a failed album in the United States in 1979, with lyrics in English and destined to the U.S. market, Spinetta returned to Argentina to record two albums with a short-lived Almendra Revival (one with original songs and the other live), and embarked on a new project: Spinetta Jade.^{[citation needed]}

The 1980s and beyond[link]

Spinetta Jade would prove to be a successful and innovative band; Spinetta was joined by some of the greatest Argentinan musicians of those and all times to help him build the new sound he was building since Invisible. The product: a blend of jazz and rock that was unseen in Argentina and that escaped the boom of symphonic rock that reached both the world and Argentina in the early 1980s. These four albums, Alma de Diamante (1980), Los Niños que Escriben en el Cielo (1981), Bajo Belgrano (1983) and Madre en Años Luz (1984), represent a defined style as well as the footprints of Spinetta's evolution. Spinetta and Charly García (with their respective bands at the moment, Jade and Serú Giran) joined efforts and gave what was probably the most important show in the history of Argentine Rock. After dissolving Spinetta Jade in 1984, Spinetta worked on an album with Charly, but eventually they abandoned their efforts. Only two songs remain of the ill-fated effort, "Rezo por Vos" and "Total Interferencia".^{[citation needed]}

By 1982, Spinetta had restarted his solo projects, and from then on would never leave them. Kamikaze (1982) puts together a number of previously unreleased songs (one gem is an early song he composed in 1965 called "Barro Tal Vez"). In Mondo Di Cromo (1983) Spinetta's new production, from 1986 to 1993, would include four solo albums (Privé, 1986), Téster de Violencia (1988), Don Lucero (1989), Pelusón of Milk (1991), a joint album with Fito Páez, another giant of Rock Nacional (La La La, 1986), and the soundtrack of the movie Fuego Gris (named after the film, 1993).

After a long hiatus, largely due to Spinetta's conflicts with recording companies, he finally opened a new period in his music with his new band: Spinetta y los Socios del Desierto. Three years (1997–1999) and four albums later, Spinetta had created yet another legend in Argentinian rock. Two studio albums, the double Socios del Desierto (1997) and Los Ojos (1999) would bring along a new sound. The band made an MTV Unplugged, Estrelicia (1998), which, because of its soft acoustics, contrasts with their live album, San Cristóforo (1998). As Spinetta said at the beginning of the first concert, "Fans de lo acústico, abstenerse" ("Fans of acoustic music, refrain"). In 1998, he selected the featured songs and artwork of a Greatest Hits album called Elija y Gane, which was edited the same year.^{[citation needed]}

The band dissolved quietly towards the end of 1999. Spinetta started a solo career, including Silver Sorgo (2001), Obras en Vivo (2002), a live album, Para Los Árboles (2003), Camalotus (2004), a single of three unreleased songs and one remix, and Pan (2006). In 2005, the he received the Konex Award for best rock soloist of the 1995–2005 decade. A number of books and TV documentaries have been devoted to him. Argentinian writer Eduardo Berti published a book about Spinetta, which includes a long conversation with Spinetta.^{[citation needed]}

Family[link]

He has four children: Dante, Catarina, Valentino and Vera. Dante Spinetta had a successful band in the 1990s (Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas).

Discography[link]

Almendra[link]

• Almendra (1969)
• Almendra II (1970)
• El Valle Interior (1980)
• Almendra en Obras I/II (1980, live)

Pescado Rabioso[link]

• Desatormentándonos (1972)
• Pescado II (1973)
• Artaud (1973)

Invisible[link]

• Estado de coma (1974, SP)
• Invisible (1974)
• La llave de Mandala (1974, SP)
• Viejos ratones del tiempo (1974, SP)
• Durazno Sangrando (1975)
• El Jardín de los Presentes (1976)

Spinetta Jade[link]

• Alma de Diamante (1980)
• Los Niños Que Escriben En El Cielo (1981)
• Bajo Belgrano (1983)
• Madre en Años Luz (1984)

Spinetta Y Los Socios Del Desierto[link]

• Socios del Desierto (1996)
• San Cristóforo (1998, live)
• Los Ojos (1999)

Solo[link]

• Spinettalandia y Sus Amigos - La Búsqueda de la Estrella (1971)
• Artaud (1973, released as an album of Pescado Rabioso)
• A 18´ del Sol (1977)
• Only Love Can Sustain (1979)
• Kamikaze (1982)
• Mondo Di Cromo (1982)
• Privé (1986)
• La La La (1986, with Fito Páez)
• Téster de Violencia (1988)
• Don Lucero (1989)
• Exactas (1990, live)
• Pelusón Of Milk (1991)
• Fuego Gris (1993, soundtrack)
• Estrelicia (1997, MTV Unplugged)
• San Cristóforo: Un Sauna de Lava Eléctrico (1998, Live)
• Elija y Gane (1999, greatest hits)
• Silver Sorgo (2001)
• Argentina Sorgo Films Presenta: Spinetta Obras (2002)
• Para los Árboles (2003)
• Camalotus (2004)
• Pan (2006)
• Un Mañana (2008)
• Spinetta y las Bandas Eternas (2010, Live)

Poetry[link]

• 1978: Guitarra Negra [[Black Guitar] ISBN 950-889-014-2 (For the 1995 edition of the book)]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Page (Spanish)
• Biography at Rock.com.ar (Spanish)