Simón Díaz
Encyclopedia
Simón Narciso Díaz Márquez (born August 8, 1928) is a singer and Grammy Award
winning composer
of Venezuelan music
.
and musical traditions of the llanos
, the Venezuela
n plains. This style of music has since been performed by artists such as Argentina
’s Mercedes Sosa
, Brazil
’s Caetano Veloso
, Spain
’s Joan Manuel Serrat
, Peru
's Susana Baca
, Puerto Rico
’s Danny Rivera
, and Venezuelans Franco De Vita
, Soledad Bravo
and José Luis Rodríguez, among others. Many of Diaz's works have been adapted by symphonies and choral ensembles
throughout Venezuela, as well as being incorporated into the orchestral and choral arrangements of conductors
and composer
s of academic music.
Artists from various other disciplines have utilized Díaz's work. For example, German
choreographer Pina Bausch
included some of Díaz’s songs in her work “Nur Du.” Also, the film director
Pedro Almodóvar
included Díaz's song Tonada de Luna Llena, as part of the soundtrack
for his film "The Flower of My Secret", sung by the Brazilian artist Caetano Veloso.
Díaz has also performed in theater, motion pictures and television
. In the 1960s he became a comedian
in Venezuela. He had the leading role in 3 plays, and in films like "El Reportero" and "Isla de sal"; has produced and hosted 12 different TV shows, all of them devised to promote Venezuelan music. One of these shows, Contesta por Tío Simón, was devoted to teaching popular culture
to children. This children's show was on the air for 10 years, during which time Díaz's viewers began calling him “Uncle Simón.” Diaz had a daily radio show for twenty-five years which focused on folklore and Venezuelan music. He has recorded over 70 records and CDs and has made innumerable performances throughout his career.
Díaz is the author of “Caballo Viejo
”, which was recorded by the Gipsy Kings
as the hit
song “Bamboleo”. His compositions have been performed by artists such as Plácido Domingo
, Ray Conniff
, Julio Iglesias
, Celia Cruz
, Rubén Blades
, Gilberto Santa Rosa
, Gipsy Kings, Ivan Lins
, Joyce, Cheo Feliciano
, Juan Gabriel
, Maria Dolores Pradera
, Martirio
, Tania Libertad
, Ry Cooder
and Devendra Banhart
The Latin American TV Channel A&E MUNDO
produced a documentary
dedicated to Díaz under its “Biography” program that honors Diaz's many contributions to Venezuelan culture, the program began airing in September 2004.
, “The Great Ribbon of the Liberator’s Order”. He was given honorary doctorate degrees
by two major Venezuelan universities, Simón Rodríguez University
and Zulia’s Universidad Católica Cecilio Acosta.
On September 30, 2008, the Latin Grammy Awards
announced that it would honor Díaz with a Lifetime Achievement Award, (El Premio del Consejo Directivo). Diaz was awarded the 2008 Latin Recording Academy Trustees Award, presented by Venezuelan salsa
singer Oscar D'León
.
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
winning composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
of Venezuelan music
Music of Venezuela
The music of Venezuela is an expression of the Venezuelan culture, which contains diverse Music genres, traditional and moderns according with the features of each geographic region; although it is frequent to find different musical styles in the same region...
.
Career
Díaz has endeavored to recover the folkloreFolklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
and musical traditions of the llanos
Llanos
The Llanos is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the Flooded grasslands and savannas Biome....
, the Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n plains. This style of music has since been performed by artists such as Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
’s Mercedes Sosa
Mercedes Sosa
Haydée Mercedes Sosa, known as La Negra, was an Argentine singer who was popular throughout South America and some countries outside the continent. With her roots in Argentine folk music, Sosa became one of the preeminent exponents of nueva canción. She gave voice to songs written by both...
, 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...
’s Caetano Veloso
Caetano Veloso
Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso , better known as Caetano Veloso, is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo which encompassed theatre, poetry and music in the 1960s,...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
’s Joan Manuel Serrat
Joan Manuel Serrat
Joan Manuel Serrat i Teresa is a Catalan Spanish singer-songwriter.Serrat is considered one of the most important figures of modern, popular music in both the Spanish and Catalan languages...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
's Susana Baca
Susana Baca
Susana Esther Baca de la Colina is a prominent Peruvian singer-songwriter; two-times Latin Grammy Award winner. She has been a key figure in the revival of Afro-Peruvian music within Peru....
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
’s Danny Rivera
Danny Rivera
Danny Rivera is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter who was born in San Juan whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is well-known in Puerto Rico for his political activism.-Musical career:...
, and Venezuelans Franco De Vita
Franco De Vita
Franco De Vita is a singer-songwriter of Latin music. His first disc as a solo artist garnered three Spanish-language hits in Venezuela. He signed with the Sony label in 1988, and in 1990, his album Extranjero had a song that reached No. 1 on the U.S. Latin charts and won an MTV Video Music Award...
, Soledad Bravo
Soledad Bravo
Soledad Bravo , is a Venezuelan singer.Born in Logroño, La Rioja, Spain her father was a Spanish republican, moving to Venezuela with his family when his daughter was still at an early age. At 24, Soledad began studying architecture and philosophy at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, where she...
and José Luis Rodríguez, among others. Many of Diaz's works have been adapted by symphonies and choral ensembles
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
throughout Venezuela, as well as being incorporated into the orchestral and choral arrangements of conductors
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
s of academic music.
Artists from various other disciplines have utilized Díaz's work. For example, German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
choreographer Pina Bausch
Pina Bausch
Philippina "Pina" Bausch was a German performer of modern dance, choreographer, dance teacher and ballet director...
included some of Díaz’s songs in her work “Nur Du.” Also, the film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Almodóvar is arguably the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular...
included Díaz's song Tonada de Luna Llena, as part of the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
for his film "The Flower of My Secret", sung by the Brazilian artist Caetano Veloso.
Díaz has also performed in theater, motion pictures and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. In the 1960s he became a comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
in Venezuela. He had the leading role in 3 plays, and in films like "El Reportero" and "Isla de sal"; has produced and hosted 12 different TV shows, all of them devised to promote Venezuelan music. One of these shows, Contesta por Tío Simón, was devoted to teaching popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
to children. This children's show was on the air for 10 years, during which time Díaz's viewers began calling him “Uncle Simón.” Diaz had a daily radio show for twenty-five years which focused on folklore and Venezuelan music. He has recorded over 70 records and CDs and has made innumerable performances throughout his career.
Caballo Viejo
"Caballo Viejo" is a Venezuelan folk song created by Simón Díaz, which appears on the 1980 album Caballo Viejo. It has become one of the most important folk songs in Venezuela and is already regarded as a classic....
”, which was recorded by the Gipsy Kings
Gipsy Kings
The Gipsy Kings are a group of musicians from Arles and Montpellier, who perform in Spanish with an Andalucían accent. Although group members were born in France, their parents were mostly gitanos, Spanish Romani people who fled Catalonia during the 1930s Spanish Civil War. Chico Bouchikhi is of...
as the hit
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
song “Bamboleo”. His compositions have been performed by artists such as Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
, Ray Conniff
Ray Conniff
Joseph Raymond Conniff was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.-Biography:...
, Julio Iglesias
Julio Iglesias
Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva , better known simply as Julio Iglesias, is a Spanish singer who has sold over 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 15 best selling music artists in history,...
, Celia Cruz
Celia Cruz
Celia Cruz was a Cuban-American salsa singer, and was one of the most successful Salsa performers of the 20th century, having earned twenty-three gold albums...
, Rubén Blades
Rubén Blades
Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres...
, Gilberto Santa Rosa
Gilberto Santa Rosa
Gilberto Santa Rosa, also known as "El Caballero de la Salsa" , is a Puerto Rican bandleader and singer of salsa and bolero.-Early years:...
, Gipsy Kings, Ivan Lins
Ivan Lins
Ivan Guimarães Lins is a Latin Grammy winning Brazilian musician. He has been an active performer and songwriter of Brazilian popular music and jazz for over 30 years. His first hit, Madalena, was recorded by Elis Regina in 1970. Beyond his own performance of his compositions, Simone is his most...
, Joyce, Cheo Feliciano
Cheo Feliciano
José Feliciano, better known as Cheo Feliciano , is a composer and singer of salsa and bolero music.-Early years:...
, Juan Gabriel
Juan Gabriel
Alberto Aguilera Valadez , better known by his stage name Juan Gabriel , is a Mexican singer and songwriter who is one of the most famous living representatives of the Mexican ranchera, ballad, mariachi, and pop music....
, Maria Dolores Pradera
María Dolores Pradera
María Dolores Pradera is a Spanish melodic singer and actress, and one of the most prestigious voices in Spain and Latin America. She is also known as María Dolores or La Pradera...
, Martirio
Martirio
Maribel Quiñones or María Isabel Quiñones Gutiérrez in full, known under her stage name as Martirio is a Spanish singer born in 1958 in Huelva, Spain....
, Tania Libertad
Tania Libertad
Tania Libertad de Souza Zúñiga, known as Tania Libertad, is a singer who was born in Peru on October 24, 1952 and has lived in Mexico since 1978....
, Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
and Devendra Banhart
Devendra Banhart
Devendra Obi Banhart is a singer-songwriter and visual artist. Banhart was born in Houston, Texas and was raised by his mother in Venezuela, until he moved to California as a teenager. He began to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1998, but dropped out to perform music in Europe, San...
The Latin American TV Channel A&E MUNDO
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
produced a documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
dedicated to Díaz under its “Biography” program that honors Diaz's many contributions to Venezuelan culture, the program began airing in September 2004.
Awards and recognition
Simón Díaz was awarded the highest recognition conferred by the Venezuelan stateGovernment of Venezuela
|Venezuela is a federal presidential republic governed by a constitution. There are five branches of government: Executive, Legislative, Judicial, Citizen, and Electoral....
, “The Great Ribbon of the Liberator’s Order”. He was given honorary doctorate degrees
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
by two major Venezuelan universities, Simón Rodríguez University
Universidad Nacional Experimental Simón Rodríguez
Universidad Nacional Experimental Simón Rodríguez is a university in Caracas....
and Zulia’s Universidad Católica Cecilio Acosta.
On September 30, 2008, the Latin Grammy Awards
Latin Grammy Awards
A Latin Grammy Award is an accolade by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. Unlike the regular Grammy Award which primarily honors music produced in the United States, the Latin Grammy honors works produced anywhere around the...
announced that it would honor Díaz with a Lifetime Achievement Award, (El Premio del Consejo Directivo). Diaz was awarded the 2008 Latin Recording Academy Trustees Award, presented by Venezuelan salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
singer Oscar D'León
Oscar D'León
Oscar Emilio León Somoza, better known as Oscar D'León is a Venezuelan musician who became internationally famous for his salsa music. In Spanish, he is known as El Sonero del Mundo . His most famous song is perhaps "Llorarás," which he recorded in 1975 with his group La Dimensión Latina...
.
External links
- Simón Díaz Discography (partial) Simón Díaz Biography —Venezuelan cuatro blog Learn to play his songs —El cuatro venezolano blog Lets bring Simón Díaz to the 2009 Grammy—Facebook group Simón Díaz music Palabras para Simón - Lo afirmativo venezolano