Biography:

Egidio Rafael Cuadrado Hinojosa ( Villanueva ; February 26, 1953 – October 21, 2024) 1 was a Colombian musician , accordionist of vallenato music , Professional Category Vallenato King, member since 1985 of the group Carlos Vives and La Provincia and supporting actor in the Colombian television series Escalona . 2 3

Along with Vives, Egidio won several awards including several Grammys .

Path

Born on February 26, 1953 in the municipality of Villanueva , La Guajira . Son of Agustín Cuadrado and Cristina Hinojosa, from whose union were born Egidio, Heber, José and Dina Luz.

Dina Luz married Rafael Escalona and became the muse of numerous vallenato songs. 6

Egidio began playing the accordion at a very young age, at the age of 6. 7 He participated in the accordion competitions of the Patronal Folk Festival of his native Villanueva in its beginnings, an event that preceded the Cradle of Accordions Festival in Villanueva. 5

Vallenato Legend Festival

Amateur King

In 1973 Egidio participated in the Vallenata Legend Festival in Valledupar , in the “Amateur King” category, which he won as best accordionist.

Professional King

In 1983, Egidio participated again in the Vallenato Festival, this time in the professional category, but he came second, after being beaten by accordionist Julio Rojas . The following year, in 1984, Egidio competed again, facing accordionist Orángel “El Pangue” Maestre , also from Villanueva, who was the winner. 5

Egidio decided to participate for the third time in 1985, finally winning the contest for King of the Vallenata Legend Festival, a professional accordion category.

On the accordion Egidio played the songs: 8

• Amparito: rhythm sound by Lorenzo Morales
• Puya puyá: puya rhythm of his own authorship.
• El Mejoral: Rafael Escalona ‘s walking rhythm .
• Old Sara: merengue by Rafael Escalona.

The jury was made up of accordionists Alejandro Durán , Lorenzo Morales , Emiliano Zuleta Baquero , Adolfo Pacheco and journalist Juan Gossain . 8

Carlos Vives

After acting together in the Caracol Televisión series Escalona under director Sergio Cabrera in 1990, 7 Egidio recorded with Carlos Vives two vallenato musical productions under the Columbia Records Sony Music label ; Escalona: a song to life in 1991 and then Escalona ”Volumen 2” . 2 After the success of the series and the popularity of Vives playing the composer Rafael Escalona , Vives decided to create a vallenato music group with fusions of rock and pop, giving life to the group La Provincia , with Egidio as accordionist.

In 1994, Egidio recorded the album Clásicos de La Provincia with Vives under the label Sonolux (Colombia) / Discos Philips/Polygram (International). From this production, the song La gota fría by Emiliano Zuleta Baquero was internationalized , which is played on the accordion by Egidio.

Credits:

Wikipedia