ELISEO PARRA

Traditional Music and Percussion

The need to accompany singing with percussion gave rise to a variety of instruments that included not only tambourines and tambourines, but also kitchen utensils such as: frying pans, mortars, spoons, mortars, cauldrons, etc… something logical if we take into account that the woman was the protagonist of this tandem. That’s right, of the informants who attended us in my years of field work, 90 percent were women. In the course the songs will be taught first and then the percussion, mainly tambourine and tambourine for being the most versatile, to later join both in the interpretation of the genres: bolero, seguidillas, sevillanas, charros, baile sanabres, Peñaparda, Maragatería, from El Alosno, etc. It will be necessary to bring a tambourine with skin and a square tambourine with a drumstick. Whoever is interested in a frying pan must bring a spoon and thimble to touch it. In short, the instrument is brought from home.

Self-taught, while he was a drummer for the rock group MiGeneración, he studied solfeggio and harmony at the Barcelona Conservatory during the 70s.
He played jazz for a short time and then studied at the Vallvidrera Music School while learning Latin percussion with Pedrito Díaz. He was a singer in salsa orchestras such as La Sonora Catalana and later he began to be interested in traditional music.
In 1983 he moved to Madrid to form the group Mosaico and recorded a tribute album to the great Segovian folklorist Agapito Marazuela.
Once again, he combines salsa with folklore and accompanies singers of all kinds.
In 1989 he met the anthropologist José Manuel Fraile Gil and with him began his role as a compiler for a large part of Spain. While recording several albums of his songs, traditional and Sephardic music with dr. Susana Weich-Shahak.
In 1996 he composed the music for the Romance suite that the National Ballet premiered at the Teatro de la Zarzuela with the Madrid Symphony.
In 1998 he recorded the album Tribus Hispanas, which represented a change of direction in his musical career. In 2001 he composed music for the play Peribañez and the Commander of Ocaña for the National Classical Theater Company.
Dedicated since then to concerts throughout the country, Europe, Asia, America and Africa, he has been able to alternate these with teaching work, first at the School of Folklore in Madrid and later at various venues in the capital, as well as intensive courses for 17 years. In 2019 he was awarded the Agapito Marazuela international folklore prize.
He has recorded 22 albums and has written a biography by the journalist Rafael Alba.