The beginnings Cuarteto Zupay was formed in Buenos Aires in 1966 and debuted in May 1967, at the initiative of the brothers Pedro Pablo García Caffi (baritone) and Juan José García Caffi (first tenor), who were joined by Eduardo Vittar Smith (bass) and Aníbal López Monteiro (second tenor). In the first two albums, the group used the name
Cuarteto Vocal Zupay, then simply Cuarteto Zupay after the third one. The word
Zupay or
Supay is a
Quechua term that corresponds to a demon-god of indigenous origin who was the protagonist of many legends and ancestral dances in the northwestern region of Argentina, historically and culturally linked to the
Andean civilization. The Zupay is an ambivalent figure defined by
syncretism who has been assimilated to the
Devil of Christian culture but that is also worshiped as Lord of the Depths or
Salamanca. Unlike what happens with the Christian Devil, "the indigenous did not repudiate the Supay but invoked it and worshiped it out of fear, to prevent it from harming them". Playing with the name, the group would title their tenth album
La armonía del Diablo (English: Harmony of the Devil) years later. Furthermore, their seventh album's cover adopted a symbolic image that was used henceforth as
isotype of the group, consisting of an inverted black triangle with a smiling devilish face in the center and painted in red, which corresponds to the folkloric description of Zupay. Ultimately, a significant photo of the quartet surrounding a Zupay mask (like the one used in the
diabladas of the
Oruro Carnival in the
Andean altiplano) was included on the cover of the anthology
20 grandes éxitos, released in 2007. Juan José García Caffi, a classically trained musician and arranger in that first stage, gave the group the style of a
chamber music ensemble inspired by the
madrigal renaissance, while Pedro Pablo García Caffi imposed a strict discipline of rehearsals, which earned him the nickname "García Gaddafi", but who also established from the beginning a criterion of excellence and professionalism that was unusual at the time.
Folklore sin mirar atrás (1967–1969) Cuarteto Zupay debuted in May 1967 at La Botica del Ángel, owned by Eduardo Bergara Leumann. Located in Lima 670, La Botica del Ángel was one of the strongholds in Buenos Aires where artists linked to what was then called "the new Argentinian song" were promoted, which sought to break away from the traditional schemes of the tango-folklore duality, with unclassifiable singer-songwriters such as
Nacha Guevara and
María Elena Walsh—the latter would be the author with the greatest presence in the historical repertoire of the quartet.
Les Luthiers also debuted that year, with a proposal of unparalleled musical humor.
Los Gatos also debuted with
La Balsa, giving rise to a genre that adopted the name of
rock nacional. At the time, Argentina was governed by a
military dictatorship led by
Juan Carlos Onganía that less than a year before had overthrown the
radical president
Arturo Illia. Shortly after debuting, Los Zupay released a single album that attracted attention, performing a daring version of the
Marcha de San Lorenzo a capella. A few years later, the military regime banned another version,
psychedelic rock and very humorous and informal, made by the band
Billy Bond y La Pesada del Rock and Roll. In December 1967, the group released their first album
Folklore sin mirar atrás (English: Folklore without looking back), with a title that was shared by their second album, released the following year.
Folklore sin mirar atrás Vol. 1 includes the two songs of the first single,
Marcha de San Lorenzo and
Añoranzas, and others among which stand out
Antonino, a Spanish traditional,
Zamba del nuevo día, by Armando Tejada Gómez and Oscar Cardozo Ocampo (which would become a classic of the group) and
Chacarera de la copla perdida by Lupe García Caffi and Juan José García Caffi. The album also features a rendition of
Camino del indio (English: Road of the Indian) by
Atahualpa Yupanqui which prompted a sour remark from the author: "Los Zupay, those who asphalted the road of the indian". Thematically, the album contains songs of a more varied style, among them
Los castillos, by María Elena Walsh, who would become the group's favorite author;
Mi pueblo chico by Pérez Pruneda and Adela Cristhensen, also released as a single with great success;
Por un viejo muerto, by Damián Sánchez and Bernardo Palombo, a song with social content about a homeless old man freezing to death in the street; and the well-known tango
Milonga triste by Sebastián Piana and
Homero Manzi. He was replaced by the, then tenor, Eduardo Cogorno, who was performing in the
Coro Universitario de Arquitectura, although J.J. García Caffi would again be in charge of the vocal and instrumental arrangements in the 1972, 1973 and 1977 albums The group then consisted of two tenors (L. Monteiro and Cogorno), a baritone (P. P. García Caffi) and a bass (Vittar Smith). That same year, Los Zupay also began to perform
multimedia shows, combining music with projected images (initially slides and films later) and dramatic or poetic texts. The first was
Juglares, with vocal arrangements by
Mónica Cosachov—pianist and founder of the
Camerata Bariloche—and photographs by Juan Carlos Castagnola, accompanied by the group's third album that was released in 1970 with the same title.
Juglares shows a remarkable evolution and marked the consolidation of the quartet's own style where the boundaries between folklore and tango seem blurred within a broader framework dominated by freedom of form and a new sound. The album had tracks that would become fundamental in Cuarteto Zupay's repertoire, such as
Si Buenos Aires no fuera así by
Eladia Blázquez,
Chiquilín de Bachín by
Horacio Ferrer and
Astor Piazzolla,
Jacinto Chiclana (a poem by
Jorge Luis Borges set to music by Astor Piazzolla),
El violín de Becho by the Uruguayan
Alfredo Zitarrosa,
Romance del enamorado y la muerte (an anonymous Spanish song from the 15th century), and two
protest songs (a genre that had a great development through Latin America at the time),
Margarita and the tigres, a humorous
chacarera by Mónica Cosachov against the
ruling military junta, and
Canción de cuna para gobernante, by María Elena Walsh, against the Latin American military dictatorships, which became a classic.
Juglares features prestigious musicians such as Mónica Cosachov, playing piano and
harpsichord,
Cacho Tirao on guitar, Pedro Pablo Cocchiararo on
bassoon and Antonio Yepes on percussion. Between 1971 and 1972, the group underwent three changes. As Cogorno went to study singing at the Escuela Superior de Canto de Madrid, López Monteiro and Vittar Smith retired. The three were replaced, respectively, by the tenors Gabriel Bobrow and Rubén Verna—coming from
Les Luthiers—and the bass Javier Zentner. Pedro Pablo García Caffi remained as baritone, already acting as the leader of the group and who would be the only singer to be part of all the quartet's line-ups until its dissolution. That same year, they released their fourth album,
Si todos los hombres..., with arrangements by Juan José García Caffi and Javier Zentner.The album includes, among others,
El viejo Matías by
Víctor Heredia (a song of social content that will become a classic of his repertoire), two songs by María Elena Walsh,
Vals municipal (dedicated to Buenos Aires),
Aria del salón blanco (parodying the dictatorship),
Milonga de andar lejos by Uruguayan
Daniel Viglietti (by then one of the most popular Latin American protest singers), and two songs by Atahualpa Yupanqui (
Viene clareando and
Indiecito dormido). In March 1973, the elections were held in which
Peronism triumphed—after 18 years of proscriptions—ideology to which some of the members of the quartet adhered. that due to its wide popularity, led the group to do a second national tour the following year.The play is a central milestone in the group's career, not only because of the success that followed but also because it is one of the finest products of one of Cuarteto Zupay's permanent goals, that of going beyond the limits of purely musical language to develop forms of expression that combine different arts and languages. It is an evident
anti-imperialist plea against the military
coups d'état happening in
Latin America at the time, justified by the National Security doctrine promoted by the United States, opposed by a proposal of national
liberation movements founded on
popular sovereignty.
Triunfo del pueblo El triunfo es de los hombres que hacen la tierra, la muerte es de los vivos que la saquean. La tierra se quiere justa, injusta quieren que sea los que desde afuera vienen y la saquean y la saquean. That same year, they prepared two shows,
Canciones que canta el viento, with anonymous songs from the folkloric songbook and poems by Atahualpa Yupanqui and Jaime Dávalos, and
Pequeña Historia de la Canción Popular, based on texts by musicologist María Teresa Melfi, which they presented in schools, popular libraries, unions, and neighborhood clubs in Buenos Aires.The album opens with a song composed by Walsh in 1972,
Como la cigarra, which would become one of the emblematic songs of the
return to democracy in Argentina ("
tantas veces me mataron, tantas veces me morí, sin embargo estoy aquí, resucitando"), as well as
Canción de caminantes. The album includes two songs that already belonged to the group's songbook, such as
Vals municipal and above all
Serenata para la tierra de uno ("
por todo y a pesar de todo/mi amor yo quiero vivir en vos"), in the style of a love song, which would also be associated with the historical moment.
Requiem de madre is a
feminist song,
El Señor Juan Sebastián combines the
baroque of
Bach and the group's own style, while
Manuelita la tortuga pays tribute to the powerful influence of María Elena Walsh on several generations of Argentine children. The album ends with the allegorical sadness of
Postal de guerra, which had been taken as background track the previous year to make the film for the show
La vuelta de Zupay!:Ay... ¿cuándo volverá la flor a la rama y el olor al pan? Lágrimas, lágrimas, lágrimas...
—Postal de guerra, by María Elena Walsh.In late 1981 and early 1982, large mass demonstrations were held against the military dictatorship and then the
Falklands War, which ended with the Argentine defeat and the collapse of the regime, forced to call elections for the end of 1983 and without the power to establish conditions. In that framework, Cuarteto Zupay released its tenth album,
La armonía del Diablo (English: The harmony of the Devil). has a variety of meanings. The most obvious alludes, almost literally, to the music of Los Zupay. But the expression "harmony of the Devil" also refers to the
tritone or augmented fourth interval, a dissonant harmony of three
whole tones, forbidden in the Middle Ages by the
Catholic Church for attributing it to the Devil. Finally, the group suggests a third meaning by saying on the back cover that "harmony", figuratively, means "friendship and good correspondence". It opens with
Zamba del nuevo día, one of the emblematic songs of the
cancionero Zupay, already included in the first album, which this time has the author of the music Oscar Cardozo Ocampo, playing guitar and piano. Then comes
El sueño grande ("
somos Latinoamérica, no lo olvidemos nunca más"), by
Sergio Denis. The third track of side A is
Vidala del nombrador, by
Falú and Dávalos, with the recitation of the
salteño poet Jaime Dávalos. Track four is
Fuego de Animaná ("
ayer nomás salió el pueblo") by
Isella and T. Gómez, with the recitation of Armando Tejada Gómez, followed by another one of their hits
El viejo Matías, with the voice of its author
Víctor Heredia, in his return to the country anticipating the joint recitals that they would perform that year and in 1984. Side A closes with
Riu riu chi, an anonymous Spanish piece from the 16th century, which they perform together with the medievalist ensemble Danserye. Side B of
La armonía del Diablo opens with the tango
Chiquilín de Bachín by
Astor Piazzolla and
Ferrer, with
Leopoldo Federico on bandoneon. Then follows
Canción de cuna para un gobernante ("
que ya te están velando los estudiantes") by María Elena Walsh, with the instrumental group Gente de Buenos Aires (Horacio Malvicino, Daniel Binelli, Adalberto Cevasco and Enrique Roizner). Track four is
La baguala which they sing with Chango Farías Gómez, historical inspirer of South American vocal groups. Víctor Heredia, who suffered the disappearance of his sister María Cristina, a union activist, became one of the authors who best expressed the tragedy of the dictatorship. Two years later, Cuarteto Zupay would include Heredia's song
Informe de la situación within the album
Memoria del pueblo. Also during that year, a new version of the album
Canciones que canta el viento was released. In January 1983, Zupay along with Juan Carlos Gené and Pepe Soriano, revived
El inglés, the play they had to cancel when the military dictatorship took power seven years before. The revival was performed at the Teatro Regina in Buenos Aires and then it was performed all over the country in a national tour, presented even at the
Cosquín Festival. The success and the audience it attracted, as well as the return to Argentine theater of Juan Carlos Gené, one of the most important playwrights in Latin America—then exiled in Venezuela—turned the staging of the play into one of the most representative cultural events of the post
Malvinas War and the retreat of the dictatorship. by María Elena Walsh, in a powerful cover that became one of the band's classics. Immediately afterwards comes
Solo le pido a Dios by
León Gieco, a song written in 1978 that was a symbol of the popular cultural mobilization of young people during the Malvinas War. The third track is
Señora violencia by Miguel Cantilo and Piero, a condemnation of violence beyond the ends pursued, a theme that is repeated in
Cuentos de la jungla, the last track of side A, also by Cantilo. The other two tracks on side A are
Milonga del muerto ("
no conviene que se conviene que se sepa que muere gente en la guerra"), an anti-war poem by
Jorge Luis Borges, with music by Sebastián Piana; and two songs by
Charly García,
Inconsciente colectivo-Los dinosaurios ("
los amigos del barrio pueden desaparecer, pero los dinosaurios van a desaparecer"), this last song emblematic of the disappearance of people crimes that characterized the Argentinian dictatorship. Side B opens with
Informe de la situación ("
duele a mi persona tener que expresar/que aquí no ha quedado casi nada en pie") by Víctor Heredia, a song defined as "chronicle of the tragedy of a generation and a country", followed by M. E Walsh's
Balada del Comudus Viscach, a
parody of the average man without ideals. Track three is
Aquí hay las madres..., an unusual song of García Caffi and Verna dedicated to the
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, followed by
Levántate y canta by Isella and H. Negro. The last two tracks of the album are
Coplas de mi país by Piero and José Tcherkaski and
Nueva zamba para mi tierra by Litto Nebbia, in a more accelerated and energetic version than the one they performed the previous year in
Nebbia-Zupay.... Following the artistic line on Argentinian Popular Music, pointed out since the beginnings of the group, the album includes songs coming from traditional folk music, tango and national rock, without altering the stylistic continuity of the interpretations. Among the musicians accompanying Cuarteto Zupay on the album are Litto Nebbia, Lalo de los Santos (bass), Norberto Minichilo (drums), Manolo Yanes and Babu Cerviño (synthesizer), Mauricio Cardozo Ocampo (Spanish guitar), etc. These were two Cuban musicians, founders of the Cuban
nueva trova, rigorously banned in Argentina throughout the dictatorship, whose songs had circulated among young people from hand to hand, in clandestine recordings. Cuarteto Zupay performed three songs in those memorable concerts:
Para el pueblo lo que es del pueblo, together with Silvio Rodríguez and Piero,
Ojalá, together with Silvio in an anthology version that became one of the main songs of their songbook, and
Canción con todos, together with the rest of the artists, in another anthology version. The concerts were recorded in a double album released that same year under the title
Silvio Rodríguez - Pablo Milanés en vivo en Argentina. , Los Zupay and
César Isella got together to sing to the poets
Pablo Neruda,
María Elena Walsh and
José Pedroni. On May 5 and 6, 1984, Los Zupay, César Isella and Víctor Heredia came together to perform two joint recitals at the
Estadio Luna Park. The show was called
Canto a la poesía, where each one contributed songs from their repertoire with lyrics by their favorite poets: María Elena Walsh for Cuarteto Zupay,
Pablo Neruda for Víctor Heredia and
José Pedroni for César Isella. The recitals were a success and the live recording of them was released that same year, in a double album with the same title,
Canto a la poesía, selling 300,000 units. by Alberto Favero and the Uruguayan poet
Mario Benedetti, which would become a popular hit;
Ojalá by Silvio Rodríguez and
Sinceramente tuyo by
Joan Manuel Serrat. The album also includes romantic songs from Argentine folk music (
Tonada del viejo amor, by
Falú and
Dávalos), from
tango (
Cuando tú no estás by
Gardel and
Le Pera) and from
rock nacional (
Cuando yo me transforme by Nebbia and Ingaramo). In this album, Los Zupay decidedly incorporated the Latin American songbook, adding a song by Silvio Rodríguez song, two songs by
Pablo Milanés (
Para vivir and
Como si fuera primavera with lyrics by
Nicolás Guillén) and one by
Violeta Parra (
Que he sacado con quererte). Finally,
Mis ganas by
Jairo and María Elena Walsh and
Álamos de primavera (
no me dejes morir donde no debo) by Víctor Heredia are included. The album also features the group AfroCuba as guest musicians. This is an unusual album in Argentinian popular music, by a group of established artists making an album entirely dedicated to children. Reflecting on art for children, Walsh has said:Among the literati, the activity of writing "for children" is often considered in a somewhat derogatory manner. Among other things, children do not manufacture literary prestige: they do not write chronicles in newspapers, award prizes or offer scholarships. by Joan Manuel Serrat; in
Patria es humanidad, a
flamenco style song based on a phrase by
José Martí, by Alberto Favero and Mario Benedetti; in
Fragilidad ("
acero y piel, combinación tan cruel") by
Sting, a song against violence; and in
Ciegas banderas ("
ya no quiero más banderas en mi mundo/que se enfrenten como gallos en la arena") by Víctor Heredia. The album also includes several songs reflecting on the human condition such as
Levántate y canta ("
¿Por qué caerse y entregar las alas?/¿Por qué rendirse y manotear las ruinas?") by Isella and Héctor Negro,
A redoblar, by Mauricio Ubal and Rubén Olivera, emblematic song of the resistance to the Uruguayan dictatorship by the group Rumbo,
Balada del ventarrón by
Chico Novarro and
María Elena Walsh, about the permanently renewed challenges that life presents,
Piedra y camino ("
soy peregrino de un sueño lejano y bello") by Atahualpa Yupanqui, and a song by Rubén Verna and journalist Carlos Abrevaya, titled
Todo está por hacerse todavía ("
porque allí donde sea el fin será el principio"). The album ends with a song by María Elena Walsh,
El viejo varieté, which says in its final verse:¡A escena los artistas, mientras el mundo exista no se suspende la función!During 1989 and 1990, Los Zupay presented the show
Con los pies en la tierra, together with the Banco Provincia Choir, at the General San Martín and Alvear theaters in Buenos Aires, and the rest of the country. In 1991, they launched a new show,
Y ahora.... qué hacemos?, based on a book and with the participation of the journalist and humorist Carlos Abrevaya, at the Teatro General San Martín in Buenos Aires. Abrevaya had stood out for his joint work with
Jorge Guinzburg in the comic strip
Diógenes y el Linyera and the magazine
Humor®, and later in the television program
La noticia rebelde, which revolutionized criticism and television language from the first year of the democratic era. The main reason was that, with the takeover of
Peronism in 1989, Pedro Pablo García Caffi started to give priority to his desire to devote himself to classical music conducting. In 1990, he produced an album for the
Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the
Teatro Colón and, at the beginning of 1991, he presented to the then mayor of the Municipality of Buenos Aires,
Carlos Grosso, a project to restructure the Philharmonic, which would finally materialize with his appointment as General Director in 1992. The final line-up of Cuarteto Zupay was Pedro Pablo García Caffi, Eduardo Vittar Smith, Rubén Verna and Gabriel Bobrow. == Discography ==