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Artist
Eliseo Parra
12+ albums
spainpercussiontradicionalspanish folkhispanosphere
about
Eliseo Parra is one Spain's leading performers and researchers of folk music. He has traveled to small villages to rediscover old songs, musical instruments and learned how to play some instruments in the traditional style. He reconstructs folk music by adding modern elements. His background may seem surprising to some. He began as a rock musician and afterwards became interested in jazz and Caribbean rhythms. Eventually, he ended up rediscovering Spanish folk music. Parra was born in Sardón de Duero (Valladolid). He began his musical career in Barcelona, in the late 1960s, as a drummer in several rock groups. In 1971, Eliseo Parra recorded his first LP with the group Mi Generación; an album that featured his own songs. During six years Parra combined his work with the rock band with the solfeggio and harmony studies at the Municipal Conservatory of Barcelona. Around 1976 he took part in the then burgeoning Barcelona jazz scene, also known as Movida Zeleste, by joining Catalan jazz Blay tritono and later the Rondalla de la Costa. In 1979, Parra recorded with Mallorcan diva María del Mar Bonet on Saba de Terrer, an album dedicated to traditional Mallorcan tunes. He collaborated with Bonet yet again on her album Gavines and Dragons. That same year he moved to Valencia to join the group AL Tall with which he had already collaborated previously on the albums Cancos de Vi and Taberna. As a new band member, he participated as performer, composer and arranger on the L
