On Saturday, April 5, Peru lost one of its greatest popular artists, bearer of a tradition that, through the years, he spread and defended with talent and creativity. In times when Creole music -music from the Peruvian coast- is being modernized haphazardly or is concentrating on its most trivial aspects, as if it were just a good pretext for revelry and vulgar "chacoteos", don Oscar Aviles he combined the elegance of the drone with the brilliance of his double-string trills; the spark of the criollo of yesteryear with respect for the family, women and love for the country. Like Chabuca Granda , the great composer; Nicomedes Santa Cruz , the master of black music or the masters of Andean music who are still with us, Avilés protected our music and cultivated it until it became synonymous with a criollismo whose representatives, little by little, are abandoning us due to the action and the inexorable passage of time. These lines serve to honor him as it should, from this institution of teachers, because we know that his passion for music was not only demonstrated as a performer but also as a teacher.
Legend has it that he was born with a guitar under his arm, although in reality it was his family that injected him with a love for music, as his parents played various instruments at home. Since he was little, first playing the cajon and then with the guitar, which is another kind of cajon after all, he decided that his music was his, even though at first he had to hide from his old man to practice. In several interviews he has told Don Óscar that he hid in the wardrobe -that old furniture of the grandmothers, in which up to three children could be curled up- to discover the magic of the six strings.
When they were convinced at home that the boy had talent, they enrolled him and gave him a scholarship at the National Conservatory of Music, where he learned academics. But the neighborhood, the alley and the jarana called him and after two years of exercises and staves, he decided to become a popular song professional. From the age of 15 he was seen with Óscar Avilés in the various musical centers of Lima:in La Victoria, in Barrios Altos, in Breña, assimilating the styles of the waltz and cooking in his head a new way of playing it.
His history and his musical career are well known by all good lovers of classical Creole music: Los Morochucos , Creole Party Ensemble, Chabuca Granda , Alicia Maguiña , Arturo “Zambo” Cavero , La Limeñita and Ascoy , The Zañartu Brothers and in between, hundreds of recordings as a soloist in criollo format (guitar, box drum and castanets) or instrumental (along with violin orchestras) that made him, according to many, the First Guitar of Peru.
The author of La flor de la canela once said that if it weren't for Óscar Avilés , the Creole waltz would have “died of tun-de-te “, onomatopoeic reading of the time of val, the famous 3/4 that identifies the compositions of Johann Strauss and that served as the basis for our Creole music, as a popular adaptation of this European music. And it's true, Avilés changed the way of playing vals criollo with his drones, with his trills, with his silences strategically placed between the verses, with his creative transitions, written and arranged by himself.
His importance in the development of the waltz, the polka and the marinera from Lima is undeniable and, above all, measurable in achievements and record productions. More than thirty albums with his various ensembles and as a soloist, appearances in Peru and abroad, recognitions ranging from being considered Artistic Heritage of Latin America by the Organization of American States (OAS ) to the Magisterial Palms of our Ministry of Education, make it a genuine symbol of our musical art.
His death, understandable given his advanced age -90 years old- leaves a void that is very difficult to fill in a society that currently gives its applause indiscriminately to characters from every less artistic value. But his voice, his joy, his authenticity and above all, his unmistakable chords remain for memory and immortality.
We leave you with this tenth, written by a great friend and party partner of Don Óscar, Juan Urcariegui García (Lima, 1928-2003):
At eight years old
a boy plays the guitar
with talent, art, grit
and with a lot, a lot of skill.
His way of playing is liked
and convincing at the same time,
and some years later
someone asks “who plays?”
and a thousand mouths answer
>“Oscar Avilés plays”