co-founder of Festival the Vallenato Legend rafael escalona

Rafael Calixto Escalona Martínez (Patillal, Cesar, May 27, 1926 - Bogota, May 13, 2009) aka "Master Rafael Escalona", was a Colombian composer, considered one of the greatest composers of the vallenato music. Escalona was Ambassador of Colombia to Panama under President Alfonso López Michelsen. Along with Lopez and Consuelo Araújo was co-founder of the Vallenato Legend Festival
Gradually he collected stories that would be the basis of his famous vallenato; the first was made ​​in February 1943, when he was only 15; followed more than 100 compositions, tunes where you can not only rebuild their lives, but also the old Magdalena department, consisting of the current departments of Magdalena, Cesar and Guajira; support that has been given to the vallenato music to make it identity card of a region and a country. Escalona has received many honors, awards and been diplomatic, but perhaps the biggest was the recognition that Gabriel Garcia Marquez made ​​him when he said "One Hundred Years of Solitude was no more than a 350-page vallenato".

  song jaime molina 

                                         and   the house in the air

the life of diomedez diaz

He was born on the farm "Carrizal", in La Junta, village of San Juan del Cesar, Guajira, 26 May 1957 From humble peasant background, he spent his childhood working as a laborer. As a teenager he accidentally lost the right to receive a stone with some friends when trying to reach a cluster of mangos eye.

At fifteen, he worked as a bike messenger on Radio Guatapurí Valledupar, why they were released his first compositions, "La Negra" and "The Cantor Campesino", later recorded by Jorge Quiroz and Luciano Poveda. In 1976 he made ​​his recording debut with the accordion Nafer Duran, brother Alejandro Duran, the album "Heritage Vallenata". The nickname "El Cacique Board" owes it to Rafael Orozco, who named it in his interpretation of "Sweetie My Life" (1975), song written Diaz

second vallenato king colacho mendoza

Nicholas Elias Mendoza better known as colacho
He was born on April 15, 1936 in Savannas of Manuela (Guajira). Son of Andres Mendoza and Juana Daza. It was the second king vallenato
Vallenato King in 1969, after King of Kings in 1987.
Colacho was considered one of the most authentic interpreters of classic vallenato. Made famous songs alongside Diomedes Diaz as Bajo el Palmar, Simulation, Te Quiero Mucho, My Boy, or you need.

At this point it is necessary to highlight some of the conditions that allowed Colacho Mendoza advantage of favorable circumstances and excel in the domain of vallenato: his humility and constant availability for the renovation and adaptation to changing one after another are life of an existing tradition. That particular and uncommon aptitude Colacho Mendoza allowed to become a bridge between the period of the founding of the vallenato style-that of Alejo Durán, Abel Antonio Villa, Pacho Rada Andres Landeros, Lorenzo Morales, Emiliano Zuleta Baquero and Luis Enrique Martinez, among others, and the present time, Colacho is transitioning between the farmer or employee who is a musician in his spare time and full-time professional live music, ie, between the stage accordion music was still traditional, folk,

history the LEJO DURAN

LEJO DURAN (Gilberto Alejandro Durán Díaz) (1919-1989)

Accordionist, singer and author. It was the first King of the Festival of the Vallenato Legend, which started in 1968 was born in El Paso (Cesar) on February 9, 1919, surrounded by a family of musicians: his mother Jane Frances Villareal, singer from drums, his uncle Octavio Mendoza who stood out as a composer and accordionist, and Luis Felipe Duran Nafer skilled on the instrument and his father who ran the accordion. His people skills, the message conveyed, the easy way to communicate, their stay in the friendship, the seriousness of their word, all of which, taken together, to him an admirable person. His first recording was made in 1950 for the Atlantic label Barranquilla and there Guepaje included the topic later known as The Trap. Love women and life, had 25 children in 18 loves. The April 30, 1968 on the stage "Francisco the Man" of Valledupar was crowned the first King Vallenato in the first edition of the Vallenato Legend Festival organized by the governor of the newly created department of Cesar Alfonso López Michelsen and "The cacica »Consuelo Araujo Noguera-. In 1979, the Colombian Institute of Culture decided to record live music from the most authentic accordion. He died in Monteria on November 15, 1989, a victim of diabetes and heart failure. At his funeral, and it was impossible to move past his coffin had to be "hand in hand" to the platform and then to the cemetery. Their music pays homage to the Vallenata woman Fidelina, Alicia Adored, Evangelina, Elvira, Reyita, Candy, Molly, Kate, Angela, Cornelia, La Niña Guillo, Mayito, Cholita, are just some examples of women as his muse work. His extensive work of more than 500 compositions is a true reflection of the people and the culture vallenatos of which there are over 300 registered works.