Leandro Díaz

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Leandro Díaz is best known as one of the *classic* vallenato songwriters. Here’s “Matilde Lina” sung by his son Ivo Díaz in the Smithsonian Folkways’s incredible, compilation Ayombe – fresh, elegant, and faithful to tradition.

Matilde Lina by Estrellas Del Vallenato

12 Matilde Lina (Paseo) 1

A few years ago I picked up Ocora’s Le Vallenato and was *floored* when I got to hear Leandro Díaz sing for the first time. These guys prefer it stripped bare, and “A Mí No Me Consuela Nadie” (“Noone can console me”) is one of the most powerful recordings I know…

A Mí No Me Consuela Nadie by Leandro Diaz

6AM No Me Consuela Nadie

This track reminds me of a great interview where Leandro Díaz explains that he has this great weapon to impress the audiences during a show: he’ll just start crying in the middle of a song. It works, I’m sure, though I have to wonder how much control he has over this “weapon”.

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I’ve been trying to find old recordings of Leandro Díaz for years with no luck. So I was really excited to find this compilation. (Not a promising cover, but if it has the name of Egberto Bermúdez on it, I buy it). This has a historical recording of Leandro Díaz on voice and guacharaca, el viejo Emiliano Zuleta on accordion, and Pablito Flórez on caja. They’re playing “La diosa coronada”, a surreal account of a heartbreak that Gabriel García Márquez chose as the opening to “Love in the time of cholera”.

Diosa Coronada by Leandro Díaz, Emiliano Zuleta, Pablo Flórez

Diosa Coronada

This compilation is just amazing, I might have to post some more tracks from it later.

Enjoy!

papicultor