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Argentine Groups - N-O
- HAYDEÉ HOLGADO (v,g)
- OMAR CONSTANZO (b)
- JUAN LIBSTER (k)
- AUGUSTO MILHARDIC (d)
This outfit released a single and a symphonic album. Omar Constanzo (ex-Materia Gris) played bass. Songs like ‘‘Un lugar, un ayer y un amor para olvidar’‘ and ‘‘Claro de estrellas’’ (based on Beethoven’s Moon Light Sonata) are included in this unconvincing LP.
No reissues ... and you can forget all about it.
Formerly leader of the beat combo La Joven Guardia and briefly with Trío Comunión, Roque Narvaja launched a solo career with the help of his friend Litto Nebbia.
Octubre (mes de
cambios) was Narvaja's good folk-ballad debut album featuring Nebbia,
Cacho Lafalce, Cacho Arce, Domingo Cura, Miguel Cantilo and Jorge Durietz
(Pedro y Pablo). ‘‘De leche y miel’‘ is the most remarkable
tune.
His next effort featured an orchestra and the catchy ballad ‘‘Acuérdate de vivir... acuérdate de amar’‘-once again with a strong folklore-rock fusion. Deeply involved in this folklore sound, Narvaja formed Chimango, his back up band with Daniel Berardi on guitars and arrangements, Trapa on drums, Enrique Masllorens (ex-La Joven Guardia and Cuero) and Oscar Franco on bass. With this group he released his third album featuring the great song ‘‘Victoria’‘.
After the military coup of 1976, Narvaja moved to Spain. He recorded several albums of pop-melodic songs with considerable success.
All his albums are good, but a little too local.
His second album was reissued on vinyl, and the first one on CD.
Félix ‘‘Litto’‘ Nebbia was born on July 21st 1948 in the city of Rosario (300 Km North from Buenos Aires), in the province of Santa Fe. He learned music from his parents, both professional musicians.
In 1964, he joined The Wild Cats, soon to become Los Gatos Salvajes (the Spanish translation), and later on Los Gatos, the pioneers of beat rock sung in Spanish.
During a break in Los Gatos´ career, between March and October 1969, Nebbia recorded his first solo album. He also acted in El Extraño del Pelo Largo (title based on a popular song by beat group La Joven Guardia), a fictional, naive movie about the beat rock scene. Following the moderate success of the film, the record company released Nebbia's solo record in December.
The LP was a simple
pop song album, which included songs from the movie such as
‘‘Rosemary’‘.
The other members of Los Gatos returned from a USA visit, and rejoined Litto for a new album which was more rock oriented due to the inclusion of Pappo on guitar.
In 1970 Nebbia recorded a second solo LP on which he played all
instruments himself. The cover showed 
him with his
mother. This ballad album is full of pianos and acoustic guitars, and included
‘‘Los molinos nunca olvidan’‘ with a good wah-wah guitar and the long
‘‘Suite: alrededor de Monalisa’‘.
Following Los Gatos´ definitive break-up Litto formed two short-lived groups: Nebbia's Band and Huinca. Both of them released an LP.
On June 16th 1972, Nebbia was the guest star at Acusticazo (an all acoustic acts live event that released an album of the same name [Trova TL 54]), where he performed the song ‘‘Vamos negro’‘ with folklore percussionist Domingo Cura, strongly based on local rhythms. (A different studio performance of this tune was filmed for the rock movie Rock Hasta que se ponga el Sol).
‘‘Vamos negro’‘ was also released on single, as preview of Nebbia's next album: Despertemos en América (Let's wake up in America) in which the local folklore influence is remarkable. Besides Cura, the LP featured Cacho Lafalce on bass, Bernardo Baraj (ex-Alma y Vida) on sax and flute, Cacho Arce on drums and Chino Rossi on percussion. This very good effort included ‘‘Despertemos en América’‘ (on a different version than the single´s b-side) and Nebbia's own favourite and now classic ‘‘Si no son más de las tres (El Bohemio)’‘.
Litto began to get involved with jazz. For his next project he recruited jazz musicians Jorge González on acoustic bass and Néstor Astarita on drums. Joined by Bernardo Baraj, Gustavo Moretto (ex-Alma y Vida and later with Alas) on trumpet, Oscar Moro on drums, Ciro Fogliatta on keyboards (both ex-Los Gatos), and Rodolfo Alchourrón on orchestral arrangements, Nebbia released the excellent Muerte en La Catedral.
Muerte en La Catedral is a superb jazz, rock and folklore album. It includes ‘‘Vals de mi hogar’‘, ‘‘El otro cambio, los que se fueron’‘ (both my own favourites), ‘‘El revolver es un hombre legal’‘ with a good guitar solo by Roque Narvaja (ex-La Joven Guardia) and the long ‘‘Muerte en La Catedral’‘ with organ and guitar. The cover featured a great picture of Argentine painter Pérez Celis.
Nebbia stick with González and Astarista and performed under the no surprising name Litto Nebbia Trio.
With this jazz-oriented combo, Litto released yet another great album: Melopea, featuring the beautiful ‘‘Ventana sin cancel’‘ -another Nebbia's classic also released as a single with a no-LP b-side. The lyrics were mostly written by Mirtha Defilpo (Litto's wife in those days).
At this point Nebbia went deeper into jazz oriented songs and kept experimenting with tango, folklore and rock. He moved to Mexico, where he lived in a sort of political auto-exile between 1978 and 1981. During this period he recorded lots of albums, most of them never released in Argentina.
Back to Buenos Aires he returned with a memorable concert and an excellent album: Sólo se trata de vivir (RCA 50014).
Litto Nebbia, along with Luis Alberto Spinetta, is one of the single most important artists to be included in this book. He cannot be considered merely a ‘‘rock musician’‘ but a Musician in the most complete sense of the word. He is a prolific composer, lyricist, instrumentalist, singer, producer and record collector. Tired of being screwed by record companies, he created his own label -Melopea- on which he releases his own albums, along with lots of other artists (rock, jazz, folklore and tango) that would not have a chance on any other label. Thank you Litto for all your beautiful music!
Almost all Litto Nebbia's albums have been reissued on vinyl. (Note: the scarce original versions of the first two LPs featured an insert sheet with lyrics). All his albums are available on CD, most of them with bonus. Watch out: Despertemos en América and Muerte en la Catedral were both released on CD by Nebbia himself... but with crappy sound quality! How come?
After the release of his second solo album, Litto Nebbia formed this short-lived wind-instrument oriented combo.
Featured
players were Litto on piano, guitar and vocals, Cacho Lafalce on bass, Oscar Moro
on drums, Gustavo Bergalli and Roberto Fernández on trumpets and Rodolfo
García (ex-Almendra) on drums and backing vocals.
This was Litto's first attempt to play jazz. ‘‘Días de conflicto’‘ is my favourite song of the album. A preview single was also released.
The album is rare. It was reissued on vinyl and on CD with bonus tracks.
- RONÁN BAR (b,k,v) AB
- ADRIÁN BAR (g,v) AB
- JOSE LUIS GONZÁLEZ (d) AB
- PETTY GUELACHE (v) B
Formed in the late 60s, and despite having performed in early festivals like Pinap and BARock, this hard-psycho progressive group could not release an album until 1973.
Superángel was a
very good debut with moody hard music and inspired moments like
‘‘Nirmanakaya’‘ with a nice wah-wah guitar and sax solo by Chachi
Ferreyra. The ‘‘classic’‘ connection is explicit with the inclusion of
fragments from Schubert's ‘‘Symphony No 8 in B minor’‘. Daddy Antogna
(next on Ave Rock) and José Corride on percussion and Luz Kerz on vocals played as
guests. Loreley Bar drew the nice cover drawing.
Orion's Beethoven appears on the live film Rock Hasta que se ponga el Sol, performing ‘‘Nirmanakaya’‘, but they are not included on the soundtrack album.
Due to an accident at a live show, Jorge Liechtenstein briefly replaced drummer González.
In 1977, now a quartet featuring singer Petty Guelache (next on Bubu), Orion's
released a second 
more
traditional hard-rock album. ‘‘'Amistades desparejas’‘ sounds like
El Reloj, ‘‘Niño del tercer milenio’‘ includes a great
guitar ending and ‘‘Ella y los colores’‘ features Charly
García (ex-Sui Generis and La Máquina de hacer Pájaros) on
mellotron and Carlos Nozzi on cello.
At the beginning of the 80s, the Bar brothers and González joined José Luis Fernández on vocals and Horacio Várbaro on keyboards for a new edition of the group, now simply called Orions. They enjoyed considerable success with a more straightforward rock repertoire and released two albums: Volando alto and Asfalto Caliente. Drummer González died in between the two in a car crash.
Their records have not been reissued on any format and are very hard to get.
