Hugo Díaz

Víctor Hugo Díaz (August 10, 1927 in Santiago del Estero, Argentina - October 23, 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) was a tango, folklore and jazz harmonicist. Díaz was born to a poor family in the small city of Santiago del Estero. At the age of five he lost his sight hit by a soccer ball, which led him to play the harmonica. Two years later, after a surgery restored his eyesight, he was already performing regularly for a local radio. All his life, in spite of a highly successful career, the ex-child prodigy remained loyal to the companions of his youth like the Abalos brothers and the great percussionist Domingo Cura with whom Díaz recorded on many occasions. His debut in Buenos Aires around 1944 resulted in a series of record contracts with Odeon Records, TK Records, Jockey and later, RCA. Although mostly known for his tango performances, his music has deep rural roots, above all in the provincial folkloric music he had grown up with: chacareras, zambas and milongas camperas. Nevertheless, such a brilliant musician could never really be confined to a single style or type of music. In 1953 during a European tour, Hugo Díaz had the opportunity to meet in Belgium with two admired musicians, Larry Adler and Toots Thielemans. The admiration was mutual since Thielemans never failed to pay homage to the artistry of Díaz. He also played in the United States with Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson, and in La Scala in Milan with Renata Tebaldi and Mario del Monaco. Díaz was to record the most important part of his musical legacy during the 1970s. Díaz was married to Victoria Cura, sister of percussionist Domingo Cura, and they had a daughter together, María Victoria (Mavi), born in 1961. Mavi Díaz went on to become an important part of Argentine rock and roll in the 1980s as a member of the Viuda e Hijas de Roque Enroll (Widows and Daughters of the Rock & Roll, Roque Enroll is how Rock & Roll sounds in spanish) band. The sound of his harmonica was captured in the song Milonga Triste included in the film The Tango Lesson, directed by Sally Potter. More recently as a background music in the 2006 Austrian film The Counterfeiters (2008 Foreign Film Academy Award winner) in which many tangos recorded by Díaz contribute to create the sad atmosphere of the film. The Argentine documentary film A los cuatro vientos (Spanish: To four winds) premiered in 2007. The film, deeply musical, is a homage to Hugo Díaz and includes many of his interpretations. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.