Roberto Parra

Just like his siblings Hilda, Violeta, and Eduardo, singer-songwriter and poet Roberto Parra went on to become one of the most important exponents of Chilean folkloric music. Born Luis Roberto Parra Sandoval on June 29, 1921, in Santiago, he spent most of his childhood in the cities of Chillán and Lautaro, where he and his siblings began performing together to help their family after the death of their father in 1929. By the time he was 14, he had already mastered the guitar and was playing gigs at circuses, cabarets, and venues in southern Chile. Roberto Parra spent the next couple of years traveling and performing around the country and, in 1938, he formed the duo Los Hermanos Parra with his brother Eduardo. Over the next few years, he worked a series of odd jobs to make ends meet while he continued to study Chilean folklore. In the late 1950s, he settled in the port city of San Antonio and was hired to sing with the orchestra Luces del Puerto. There, he met a performer known as La Negra Ester, who would inspire his 1980 poetry book Décimas de La Negra Ester and a subsequent stage adaptation of the same name that became one of the most iconic pieces of Chilean theater. It was also during this time that he developed a highly personal style that combined the traditional Chilean cueca with references to urban culture and influences from tango, bolero, and jazz. These would later be known as "cueca chora" and "jazz guachaca." In 1965, Roberto Parra made his recording debut on 20 Cuecas con Salsa Verde (credited to Trío Los Parra), followed by Las Cuecas de Roberto Parra (1967), which featured the classics "La Vida Que Yo He Pasado" and "El Chute Alberto." In the following decades, he collaborated with his nephew Ángel Parra on the LP Las Cuecas del Tío Roberto (1972) and further refined his jazz guachaca sound on albums like Los Tiempos de La Negra Ester (1990) and El Jazz Guachaca (1990). He continued to be involved in several projects, including a biography of his sister Violeta and a play titled El Desquite, right up until his death on April 21, 1995, at the age of 73.

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