Rodolfo Mederos

March 25, 1940, marked the arrival of Rodolfo Mederos into the world in Buenos Aires, where the future bandoneonist, composer, and arranger later attended the University of Córdoba and found his strongest creative spark in Astor Piazzolla. At twenty he launched Octeto Guardia Nueva and earned the chance to open for Piazzolla at a Córdoba concert; the enthusiastic reception prompted him to relocate to Buenos Aires just fifteen days afterward, committing fully to music instead of continuing his biology coursework.

Years of hardship followed in the capital, lightened chiefly by the 1966 Producciones Matus release Buenos Aires...al Rojo!, before Mederos departed for Paris in 1967. Two years later he returned to Argentina to enter Osvaldo Pugliese’s orchestra, remaining through 1974 as both bandoneonist and arranger. He next established his own ensemble, Generación Cero, which issued Fuera de Broma in 1976 and De Todas Maneras in 1977 on Trova Discos. A solo project, Todo Hoy, appeared under his own name in 1978; after a five-year recording hiatus he resurfaced in the mid-1980s with Buenas Noches, Paula (1983) and Verdades y Mentiras (1984), both issued by Sony.

In 1984 Mederos helped create La Escuela de Música Popular in the Avellaneda district, where he taught for many years and gradually shifted his focus toward instruction. Recording nevertheless resumed near the decade’s close, yielding Reencuentros (1989), Tanguazo (1993), Carlos Gardel por Rodolfo Mederos (1992), Mederos Quinteto (1994), Mi Buenos Aires Querido (1995), El Día que Maradona Conoció a Gardel (1996), and El Tanguero (1998), the majority of which reached international markets unlike most of his earlier domestic releases.

A Latin Grammy nomination for Best Tango Album arrived in 2000 for Eterno Buenos Aires (1999), recorded with pianist Hernán Posetti, violinist Damián Bolotín, guitarist Armando de la Vega, and double bassist Sergio Rivas. The following pair of albums also garnered recognition: Las Veredas de Saturno (2000) received a Gardel Award in 2001, while Tangos (2000), a collaboration with Nicolás “Colacho” Brizuela, earned a Latin Grammy nomination that same year. Mid-decade saw the launch of the Comunidad-Intimidad-Soledad trilogy—Comunidad (2006), Intimidad (2007), and Soledad (2007)—with the opening installment bringing another Latin Grammy nomination for Best Tango Album in 2007.