Litto Nebbia
Encyclopedia
Litto Nebbia is a singer, songwriter and producer prominent in the development of Argentine rock
.
to Martha and Félix Nebbia, in 1948. His parents were struggling musicians, though during his early teens, Litto left secondary school to join a friend, keyboardist Ciro Fogliatta, in a band ("Wild Cats"). The duo moved to Buenos Aires
in 1963, and lived hand-to-mouth in a Balvanera
ward tenement. They appeared in a television show, Escala Musical, a number of times, and became regulars at a popular neighborhood recital hall, La Cueva.
Nebbia and Fogliatta formed "Los Gatos
" in 1966. The group became known for their all-night performances, and composed most of their own songs, many in the well-known neighborhood café, "La Perla del Once" (facing Plaza Miserere
). One such composition, La balsa (The Raft), was written at that location by Nebbia and the ill-fated songwriter Tanguito
on May 2, 1967, and following its release on the RCA Victor label on July 3, sold over 250,000 copies.
The album, which also included Moris Birabent
's Ayer nomás (Only Yesterday) was the first local rock production to outsell either American
or British rock
titles locally, and the milestone became known as the birth of Argentine rock. The Argentine edition of Rolling Stone Magazine, in a 2007 retrospective, named the melancholy La balsa number one in the list of the 100 best albums in Argentine rock. Commercially, the album rescued the struggling group. Invited to perform the hit on television following its release, the group could only see themselves when the show aired at the kindness of an appliance store owner, who tuned a window display set to the program at their request.
Controversy ensued shortly after the hit's release however. A contentious debate soon arose as to whether Nebbia or Tanguito had contributed more to the composition (particularly after the latter's tragic, 1972 death). La balsa also aggravated officials in General Juan Carlos Onganía
's conservative dictatorship, who stopped short of banning a song they believed encouraged escapism
and drug abuse
, but retaliated by shuttering La Cueva, whose stage had become the focal point for local rock groups (including Los Gatos). The band itself began losing cohesion, as well: guitarist Kay Galiffi relocated to Brazil
, and Nebbia left the group in 1969; by 1970, Los Gatos had dissolved.
Nebbia began a solo career with RCA Records
, and his first album, Litto Nebbia, benefited from having a number of its tracks included in local filmmaker Julio Porter
's El extraño de pelo largo (The Long Haired Stranger). His work drew from the folklorical Chacarera
genre in 1971 and 1972, and in 1973, he founded the Litto Nebbia Trio, whose repertoire centered on jazz
. Nebbia produced folk rock
duo Pastoral's En el hospicio (In the Hospice) in 1975, enjoying success in his first foray into record production.
The advent of a new dictatorship
in 1976, and his subsequent intimidation and detainment, forced Nebbia to seek exile in Mexico
, however. He remained creatively productive in exile, and released some of his most successful albums during this era, including Canciones para cada uno (Songs for Each of You) in 1978, and Sólo se trata de vivir (It's Only About Living), in 1981. Expecting a daughter, Miranda, and heartened by an improving civil liberties climate, Nebbia returned to Argentina in 1982.
His return was followed by the Rosariazo, a May 1983 concert in which he was joined by Silvina Garré, Juan Carlos Baglietto
, and Fito Páez
, among others; his 1986 release, Demasiadas maneras de no saber nada (Too Many Ways to Know Nothing), was his fiftieth. Martha Nebbia, his mother, had recently converted a former Villa Urquiza
shoe store into her new residence, and invited her son to install a recording booth there. Reunited with Salvador Barresi, the recording engineer from his days with Los Gatos, they improved and equipped the ad hoc space, which was opened as a recording studio
in 1988, and which Barresi named El Nuevo Mundo ("The New World").
El Nuevo Mundo Studios led to Nebbia's 1989 establishment of Melopea Records, which he named after both the Ancient Greek
music theory
, and his own, 1974 album of that name. Melopea Records became known for discovering and promoting new talent, as well as producing unreleased tango compositions from decades earlier. Some of these latter included works by consular figures in the genre, such as Juan Carlos Cobián, Enrique Cadícamo
, and Roberto Goyeneche
. Nebbia was named Illustrious Citizen of Buenos Aires in 2002.
Los Gatos, save for drummer Oscar Moro
(who had died a year earlier), were reunited for a revival in 2007. Nebbia presented a nine disc anthology of Argentine rock in 2010, and hosted a gathering of fellow Argentine rock
greats on 9th of July Avenue
as part of official celebrations of the Argentina Bicentennial
. Two of the most influential in the genre, Charly García
and Luis Alberto Spinetta
, acknowledged Nebbia and Los Gatos as inspirations for their own beginnings.
Argentine rock
Argentine rock , is composed or made by Argentine bands or artists, in the Spanish language. For nearly half a century it has been a major popular genre, and it is considered part of the popular music tradition of Argentina alongside Argentine Tango, and Argentine folk music.The moment when...
.
Life and work
Félix Francisco Nebbia was born in RosarioRosario
Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....
to Martha and Félix Nebbia, in 1948. His parents were struggling musicians, though during his early teens, Litto left secondary school to join a friend, keyboardist Ciro Fogliatta, in a band ("Wild Cats"). The duo moved to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
in 1963, and lived hand-to-mouth in a Balvanera
Balvanera
Balvanera is a neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina.-Origin of Name and Alternative Names:The official name, Balvanera, is the name of the parroquia centered around the church of Nuestra Señora de Balvanera, erected in 1831.The zone around Corrientes avenue is known as Once after Plaza Once de...
ward tenement. They appeared in a television show, Escala Musical, a number of times, and became regulars at a popular neighborhood recital hall, La Cueva.
Nebbia and Fogliatta formed "Los Gatos
Los Gatos (band)
Los Gatos were an Argentine rock group of the late 1960s, members of the founding trilogy of Spanish-language rock in Argentina.- History:The group got their start in 1967...
" in 1966. The group became known for their all-night performances, and composed most of their own songs, many in the well-known neighborhood café, "La Perla del Once" (facing Plaza Miserere
Plaza Miserere
The Plaza de Miserere is one of the main plazas of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is located in the heart of the Balvanera neighborhood. It was supposed to be the name of the Line A—Buenos Aires Metro station located below it, but the station is more popularly known as Plaza Once, and is located...
). One such composition, La balsa (The Raft), was written at that location by Nebbia and the ill-fated songwriter Tanguito
Tanguito
José Alberto Iglesias , better known as Tango or Tanguito, was an Argentine rock composer and singer...
on May 2, 1967, and following its release on the RCA Victor label on July 3, sold over 250,000 copies.
The album, which also included Moris Birabent
Mauricio "Moris" Birabent
Mauricio "Moris" Birabent is an Argentine rock musician.-Life and work:Mauricio Birabent was born in Buenos Aires in 1942. He took guitar lessons at age 12 and, in subsequent years, began frequenting local piano bars and jazz clubs. The son of an engineer, he enrolled at the Otto Krause Technical...
's Ayer nomás (Only Yesterday) was the first local rock production to outsell either American
American rock
American rock is rock music from the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and country music, and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music. The creation of American rock music was highly influenced by the British Invasion of the American pop...
or British rock
British rock
British rock describes a wide variety of forms of music made in the United Kingdom. Since around 1964, with the "British Invasion" of the United States spearheaded by The Beatles, British rock music has had a considerable impact on the development of American music and rock music across the...
titles locally, and the milestone became known as the birth of Argentine rock. The Argentine edition of Rolling Stone Magazine, in a 2007 retrospective, named the melancholy La balsa number one in the list of the 100 best albums in Argentine rock. Commercially, the album rescued the struggling group. Invited to perform the hit on television following its release, the group could only see themselves when the show aired at the kindness of an appliance store owner, who tuned a window display set to the program at their request.
Controversy ensued shortly after the hit's release however. A contentious debate soon arose as to whether Nebbia or Tanguito had contributed more to the composition (particularly after the latter's tragic, 1972 death). La balsa also aggravated officials in General Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía Carballo was de facto president of Argentina from 29 June 1966 to 8 June 1970. He rose to power as military dictator after toppling, in a coup d’état self-named Revolución Argentina , the democratically elected president Arturo Illia .-Economic and social...
's conservative dictatorship, who stopped short of banning a song they believed encouraged escapism
Escapism
Escapism is mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an "escape" from the perceived unpleasant or banal aspects of daily life...
and drug abuse
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
, but retaliated by shuttering La Cueva, whose stage had become the focal point for local rock groups (including Los Gatos). The band itself began losing cohesion, as well: guitarist Kay Galiffi relocated to Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, and Nebbia left the group in 1969; by 1970, Los Gatos had dissolved.
Nebbia began a solo career with RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
, and his first album, Litto Nebbia, benefited from having a number of its tracks included in local filmmaker Julio Porter
Julio Porter
Julio Porter was an Argentine screenwriter and film director known as one of the most prolific screenwriters and film directors in the history of the Cinema of Argentina....
's El extraño de pelo largo (The Long Haired Stranger). His work drew from the folklorical Chacarera
Chacarera
The Chacarera is a dance of Argentine origin. It is a genre of folk music that, for many Argentines, serves as a rural counterpart to the cosmopolitan imagery of the Tango...
genre in 1971 and 1972, and in 1973, he founded the Litto Nebbia Trio, whose repertoire centered on jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. Nebbia produced folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
duo Pastoral's En el hospicio (In the Hospice) in 1975, enjoying success in his first foray into record production.
The advent of a new dictatorship
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
in 1976, and his subsequent intimidation and detainment, forced Nebbia to seek exile in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, however. He remained creatively productive in exile, and released some of his most successful albums during this era, including Canciones para cada uno (Songs for Each of You) in 1978, and Sólo se trata de vivir (It's Only About Living), in 1981. Expecting a daughter, Miranda, and heartened by an improving civil liberties climate, Nebbia returned to Argentina in 1982.
His return was followed by the Rosariazo, a May 1983 concert in which he was joined by Silvina Garré, Juan Carlos Baglietto
Juan Carlos Baglietto
Juan Carlos Baglietto is an Argentine musician and composer. He is one of the iconic figures of the musical movement called Trova Rosarina....
, and Fito Páez
Fito Páez
Rodolfo "Fito" Páez Ávalos is an Argentine popular rock and roll pianist, lyricist, Spanish language singer and film director.-Early career:...
, among others; his 1986 release, Demasiadas maneras de no saber nada (Too Many Ways to Know Nothing), was his fiftieth. Martha Nebbia, his mother, had recently converted a former Villa Urquiza
Villa Urquiza
Villa Urquiza is a barrio or neighborhood of Buenos Aires city, capital of Argentina. It is located between the barrios of Villa Pueyrredón, Belgrano, Villa Ortúzar, Coghlan, Saavedra and Agronomía. Its limits are the streets and avenues Constituyentes, Crisólogo Larralde, Galván, Núñez, Tronador,...
shoe store into her new residence, and invited her son to install a recording booth there. Reunited with Salvador Barresi, the recording engineer from his days with Los Gatos, they improved and equipped the ad hoc space, which was opened as a recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
in 1988, and which Barresi named El Nuevo Mundo ("The New World").
El Nuevo Mundo Studios led to Nebbia's 1989 establishment of Melopea Records, which he named after both the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
music theory
Music theory
Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
, and his own, 1974 album of that name. Melopea Records became known for discovering and promoting new talent, as well as producing unreleased tango compositions from decades earlier. Some of these latter included works by consular figures in the genre, such as Juan Carlos Cobián, Enrique Cadícamo
Enrique Cadícamo
Enrique Domingo Cadícamo was a prolific Argentine tango lyricist, poet and novelist. From an initial Symbolist bent, he developed a distinctive, lunfardo-rich style from an early age, and by 1925 he had his first piece, Pompas de jabón, sung by Carlos Gardel...
, and Roberto Goyeneche
Roberto Goyeneche
Roberto Goyeneche was an Argentine tango singer of Basque descent, who epitomized the archetype of 1950s Buenos Aires' bohemian life, and became a living legend in the local music scene.He was known as El Polaco due to his blond hair, and thinness, like the Polish immigrants of the time...
. Nebbia was named Illustrious Citizen of Buenos Aires in 2002.
Los Gatos, save for drummer Oscar Moro
Oscar Moro
Oscar Moro was an Argentine rock drummer.Oscar Moro was born and raised in Rosario. Moro joined a childhood friend, Litto Nebbia, and three others in forming the pioneer Argentine rock and roll band Los Gatos, in 1966...
(who had died a year earlier), were reunited for a revival in 2007. Nebbia presented a nine disc anthology of Argentine rock in 2010, and hosted a gathering of fellow Argentine rock
Argentine rock
Argentine rock , is composed or made by Argentine bands or artists, in the Spanish language. For nearly half a century it has been a major popular genre, and it is considered part of the popular music tradition of Argentina alongside Argentine Tango, and Argentine folk music.The moment when...
greats on 9th of July Avenue
9 de Julio Avenue
Avenida 9 de Julio is a wide avenue in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Its name honors Argentina's Independence Day, July 9, 1816.The avenue runs roughly one kilometer to the west of the Río de la Plata waterfront, from the Retiro district in the north to Constitución station in the south...
as part of official celebrations of the Argentina Bicentennial
Argentina Bicentennial
The Argentina Bicentennial is a series of celebrations and observances celebrated on May 25, 2010, and throughout the year. They commemorated the 200th anniversary of the May Revolution, a sequence of historical events that led to the Viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros' being ousted from office...
. Two of the most influential in the genre, Charly García
Charly García
Charly García is a singer-songwriter, pianist and keyboardist from Argentina with a long career in rock music, forming successful groups such as Sui Generis and Serú Girán, cult status groups like La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros, and as a solo musician.-Early years:Charly García was the eldest son in...
and Luis Alberto Spinetta
Luis Alberto Spinetta
Luis Alberto Spinetta , is an Argentine musician. He is one of the most influential rock musicians of South America, and together with Charly García is considered the father of Argentine rock. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the residential neighbourhood of Belgrano...
, acknowledged Nebbia and Los Gatos as inspirations for their own beginnings.