Alfredo de Jesús Gutiérrez Vital (born April 17, 1943), known as Alfredo Gutiérrez, is a Colombian
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...
player, composer, bandleader, and singer.
He was a founding member of
Los Corraleros de Majagual, and led the group until 1965.
He later released albums with Los Caporales Del Magdalena, with his band the Estrellas, and as a solo artist.
Gutiérrez won the "King of Vallenato" prize at the
Vallenato Legend Festival three times.
He is known for his ability to play the accordion with his feet.
Biography
Alfredo Gutiérrez was born on April 17, 1943 in the village of Paloquemao,
Sucre
Sucre (; ) is the ''de jure'' capital city of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the sixth most populous city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high ...
to Alfredo Enrique Gutiérrez Acosta, an accordion player, and Dioselina de Jesús Vital Almanza, a
cumbia
Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Africans during colonial times. Cumbia is said to have com ...
dancer.
Gutiérrez learned accordion from his father.
At the age of 8 he sang with Los Pequeños Vallenatos in
Bucaramanga
Bucaramanga () is the capital and largest city of the department of Santander Department, Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth-largest economy by GDP in Colombia, has the lowest unemployment rate and is the ninth most populous city i ...
, with whom he recorded records for labels Turpial (Venezuela), Onix, and Rondador (Ecuador).
Sometime in 1959–1961 Gutiérrez founded
Los Corraleros de Majagual alongside
Calixto Ochoa, César Castro and
Eliseo Herrera.
Gutiérrez left Los Corraleros in 1965, and was replaced on the accordion by
Lisandro Meza.
Gutiérrez formed his own group called Alfredo Gutiérrez y sus Estrellas, with whom he recorded more than 60 albums, mostly for
Discos Fuentes and Sonolux.
Notable compositions by Alfredo Gutiérrez include the songs "Festival en Guararé", "Ojos Indios", "El Envenenao", and "La Trabajadora".
Awards and recognition
The Vallenato Legend Festival
Gutiérrez participated in the accordion competition of the
Vallenato Legend Festival for the first time in 1969. He told ''
El Heraldo'' that he withdrew early from the competition because he felt that
Consuelo Araújo, organiser of the festival, disliked him, which she denied.
Gutiérrez went on to win the competition in 1974, 1978, and 1986.
Others
Gutiérrez has won three
Golden Congos at the
Barranquilla Carnival, and several other awards in Mexico and Venezuela.
He twice won the World Accordion Championship in Germany.
His album ''El Más Grande con Los Grandes'' was nominated for "Best Cumbia/Vallenato Album" at the
2007 Latin Grammy Awards.
In popular culture
Gutiérrez appeared in the documentary film ''El Acordeón del Diablo'' (2000) from German director Stefan Schwietert.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutierrez, Alfredo
1943 births
Living people
Colombian accordionists
Vallenato musicians
21st-century accordionists
People from Sucre Department