Monchito Merlo receives homage at the Atlas Complex in Rosario along with invited artists

“Ever since I can remember, at the age of 3 I was already playing the accordion”. The speaker is Monchito Merlo, to whom the Rosario Musicians Union will pay tribute at the beginning of the “Essentials” cycle. The event includes performances by Sol García, Vicky Durand Mansilla, Valen Druetta, Joel Tortul and Homero Chiavarino and, of course, the honoree will receive recognition and will play some closing songs. The tribute to the great referent of chamamé takes place today, at 8:30 p.m., at the Atlas Cultural Complex (Mitre 6454). In dialogue with La Capital, Monchito Merlo remembers his beginnings and reviews moments of his artistic and personal history.

  —What memories do you have of your first touches in public?

—Since I can remember, at the age of 3 I was already playing the accordion. I learned from my father (Ramón Merlo), always looking, because he didn’t teach me, and it seems right to me, because I think that those who want to learn have to look for the paths that their heart, soul and spirit ask for. I looked and put my fingers as I saw him. And also, since my father had a job and my mother too, time was short, that’s why I learned by myself. When I was in first grade, at the José Ingenieros school there in Pueblo Nuevo, I already went with the accordion and played, that was the beginning.

  —And how did you get the first opportunity to play on stage?

It was when I was 10 years old. In Pueblo Nuevo the day of Our Lady of Peace was celebrated, precisely in the church of La Paz, they were patron saint festivities, a world of people. The day after the party I had to play in LT8, and I had an accident: playing with the boys at the stern, I went under the stage where Las Wilquis (female folkloric group) were singing, the stage fell, it collapsed and I happening, tac!, I woke up at the hour with water that was thrown at me because I was passed out, I was saved because Diosito said that it was not the moment. The next day I had to play on “El rancho de Ramón Merlo”, the radio program that my father had at the time, so the debut was postponed to the following week.

  —How did the possibility of recording the first album come about?

—I made my first recording when I was 13 years old. I recorded five songs, some of which belonged to me, for a set of Misiones at the Music Hall label in Buenos Aires. Back then he was composing. At the age of 15, my father made me record my first album: “El cambacito del litoral” (the little black man, in Spanish).

—When you finished school, did you immediately dedicate yourself solely to music?

—I did secondary school at the Drago school, in the southern zone. When I was in high school, I released my first album for the Magenta label, then I recorded for Microfón, a label owned or directed by Julio Márbiz. I wanted to be a radiologist, so I started studying at the medical school. I went three times nothing more. When I was in high school, I had given a CD to my history teacher, Dr. Baiochi. At college, I met her husband, who knew me and my father, and I told the doctor that I was studying radiology technician. He then he tells me: “and the music?”. I told him that I also had the group, that we traveled quite a bit to the north of Santa Fe or to Entre Ríos. “And how much do you earn with music?” He tells me. When I told him what he earned, he replied: “I recommend one thing to you, dedicate yourself to music, you are doing something nice, I listened to your records.” That’s when I came home and told my parents that I was stopping studying and that I was going to dedicate myself entirely to music.

  —In those times, parents advised not to dedicate themselves to music because things would not go well financially. What did your father advise you?

—No, quite the opposite, when I decided to dedicate myself to music, my father helped me, everything I am is thanks to him. What yes, he did not teach me to play the accordion, I learned by myself. He used to say: “those who want to learn music have to learn by themselves, it is the only way for one to internalize, love and delve into this so sacred thing that is music”. He helped me in everything, in the first recording he told me how to play, because Chamame music has its different rhythms and forms: there is the romantic style, the rhythmic or “pot” style and another more melodious, it all depends on the geography. .

—Why did the family choose Don Tarragó’s style?

“Actually there is a mix. My father and I were fans of Don Abelardo Dimota, a musician from Entre Ríos, an example for us, who dominated the minor key a lot, those from Corrientes dominate the major key more, Don Abelardo was “the father of the minor key”. I grew up listening to him and to Don Ernesto Montiel, who also interpreted the minor key very well. We also listened to Mr. Tarragó (Ros) and Mr. Isaco (Abitbol). That’s why I think ours is a musical mixture, a mixture in which a little bit of each of them appears, but with rhythm, with a lot of rhythm, there we are more on the side of Don Tarragó.

— What memories do you have of when you were close to Guarany and Tarragó as a child?

—Don Tarragó was like a second father, he lived one block from my house. When I turned 18, he went to play with his entire group, he was in all his splendor at that time “the king of chamamé”, he went to give me his music. At that age I used to play watching my dad who was my idol, I knew the names of others, but I didn’t know the immensity of what they were doing and the musical example they were leaving for us, those of us who came later, I saw everything as normal . Don Horacio Guarany came home when I was 11 years old, I fed him mate and he had no idea of ​​the size of his figure either. With time, Diosito finds us in life, I invite him to record a song and he tells me: “one song?, we are not going to record two”, that appears in a German film called “Chamamé”, where he sings “El duraznero ”. It is the magic of music that produces things that one never imagines, we are more and more surprised with this beauty that is music.

 —And what was your first hit?

—Later came others who surpassed it, but the first was “Paso Laguna” that I composed when I was 13 years old. It was at my father’s ranch and since he was a minor I had to register it with him. Until now we have to play this theme yes or yes, and it has hundreds of recordings. But then others came that surpassed it in terms of impact on people. “Por llegar a San Javier” today is a classic of ours and “Jineteando en Tostado” is very special too. I recorded it at the end of 1981 and it came out on an album from the beginning of 1982, a song that was widely listened to and loved in this area. Ivotí recorded it with a terroir version, with the smell of grass, with the smell of the countryside, played in a way that produced a tremendous impact. That Ivotí album, where “Jineteando en Tostado” is on, surpassed the sale in Argentina of “Thriller” (Michael Jackson), I verified this with the data and records. I love that first version of Ivotí and it moves me, because I imagine the peasantry having fun, leaving sorrows aside, and it makes me think that music is the vaccine that makes us forget all the problems that human beings have.

  —What place does the chamamé occupy in Argentina?

—After having been declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco, I think the idea that it was a music from the neighborhood, from under Saladillo or under Ayolas here in Rosario, from humble people, as happened with the tango that It was considered malevaje and with cumbia as well. Although there is still a lack of presence on the radio and on television, we are on the right path. Raulito (Barboza) says that it is impressive how they like it in Europe. I hope we hear it more often on the radio, it should be more widespread.