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Latin America / Venezuela / Caracas

Oscar Dudamel, the father of Gustavo Dudamel, director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Simón Bolívar Orchestra of Venezuela, has been a musician for many years. Every Friday and Saturday, he receives applause from the public in the place where he plays the trombone since a small stage with “La Otra Banda de Dudamel” the Agraz ensemble, a salsa group whose main course is the songs of the duo made famous by Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón.

On Sundays, Oscar Dudamel has to be on the other shore and applaud standing up, as parents do, swollen with pride at the talent of their son who, with baton in hand, conducts a world-renowned Symphony Orchestra and if he think about it, his musical vein germinated from the brass bands of charanga, salsa and guaguancó.

After 10 at night it is difficult to find a place in “The Temple of Salsa”, the tickets are not sold out, but the tables and the best stalls of this place located on 7th Street that crosses Bolivar Avenue in Maracay, there fanatics and amateur dancers meet. of salsa and logically admirers of Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón

Oscar Dudamel on the trombone is accompanied by Charly Guzmán, a talented young man who, at just 18 years old, shows the gifts of his voice; Oswaldo Agraz (musical director, piano and backing vocals), Gerardo Vargas (bass), Vicente Guzmán (timbale), Júnior Narváez (bongo), Diego Camus (conga and backing vocals), Ventura Prieto (trombone) and Johan Figueroa (alternate trombone). It is about the same format, instruments and identical distribution (the trombones next to the vocalist) of the orchestra that captivated him.

And it is that music often also enters through the eyes, as Oscar Dudamel says, who knew he wanted to be a trombonist when he saw Willie Colón at La Feria de la Alegría holding his instrument while puffing out his cheeks, in that In this way, it is known that the first approach of the today brilliant, young and valued Orchestra Director Gustavo Dudamel to music, was not appreciating the Tchaikovsky that he likes to conduct so much, on the contrary, it was appreciating the music that came out of the trombone of his beloved dad.

The previous June, Oscar paid homage to Hector Lavoe as usual, for commemorating years of his death. “Héctor Lavoe died on Monday, June 29, 1993 at 11:45 in the morning”, an event that he remembers with the accuracy that sad events mark, but despite the pain, with satisfaction and pride, he mentions that his son Gustavo de Only 29 years old, before entering the stage he repeats a special ritual: “Before entering New York to direct, someone asked Gustavo: ‘“Master, what are you listening to? Tchaikovsky? and Gustavo replied: ‘No, Tito Rodríguez because he gives me swing'”.

If someone were to say that Gustavo Dudamel owes a debt to Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe for his vocation as a musician, he would not be wrong, or acknowledge his father, who has often referred that his son’s versatility is due to the fact that he always listened to popular and classical music. . “I listened to more salsa than Beethoven, that’s why it has so much rhythm,” he says with a laugh.

“I am his number one fan. He fulfilled the goals that I, due to various circumstances, could not fulfill, he made the dream that I wanted come true. He has reached where I would have liked”, reveals the father, who sees in his son an extension of his, “ .

In a life marked by music, a soundtrack for falling in love could not be missing. It was during the visit of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico to Barquisimeto in the late 1970s that Oscar noticed Solange Ramírez, his wife and Gustavo’s mother; Today, 30 years later, when Falsaria sounds in Maracay, the song leads him to remember that indelible moment.

Gustavo Adolfo, as his mother calls him, began playing the güiro before he was four years old; later he would build his own battery out of biscuit tins and safety helmets.

Gustavo received his first knowledge of music from his father, who was then a trombonist with the Lara Symphony, who had plenty of passion to play and lacked patience to teach. He wanted to be a trombonist, like his father, but his small arm could not reach the instrument.

“I imagined that Gustavo was going to be a musician,” he says. “I told him: ‘You have to be the best or among the best and never lose your principles or forget where we come from.'”

At the age of seven Gustavo played the timpani with La Banda Actual and at the age of nine he arranged for this salsa orchestra in which Oscar played for 16 years and with which he met again after many years.

Gustavo decided on the violin, an instrument that adjusted to his size, and at home, father and son had the habit of studying while walking. There were times when one would bend down for the other to pass, so that the slide of the trombone and the bow of the violin would not trip over each other. However, popular music and academic music finally made their own meeting.

Oscar does not shake his hair, but he inflates his lungs with force and from that mouth-to-mouth breathing with his instrument, he manages to get the best out of it…. The father speaks of his salsa orchestra with the same pride that the son (Gustavo) does of his classical musicians.