Carlos Vives travels to his origins for his new documentary

Convinced that his role in the telenovela “Escalona”, about the life of Vallenato singer-songwriter Rafael Escalona (1927-2009), was the “spark that lit” his “wick”, Colombian singer Carlos Vives travels to his origins in the documentary “Return to Escalona” driving a blue “Ford”.

“If anyone wants to know history of vallenatothat route will tell you,” says the Santa Marta-born singer in an interview with EFE about the launch of this documentary that will premiere on Canal Caracol on May 1st on the occasion of his 30-year career.

The journey followed in the the piece begins with Vives in a Colombian city Valledupar, the “world capital of Vallenato”, where the artist asks Pachín Escalon, ​​the son of the Vallenato legend, for the blue truck with which the “teacher” performed his “races”.

Driving this Ford, Vives goes to Villanueva, in a suit La Guajirain order to convince accordion player Egidio Cuadrado, his partner in the vallenato group “La Provincia”, to record the album in Bogotá that they are releasing today in the world: “Escalona: It had never been recorded like this”.

“When the decision was made to celebrate 30 years, I said ‘we have to film Escalona’. It also had to do with the health condition of my colleague Egidi. It was an opportunity to give him a shock of joy, of life, to motivate him, to invite him to Bogotá, Vives added.

Old notebook of the romantic Escalon

On this return to the capital, square and live They stop at the Patillal farmhouse, where Escalona was born, to pick up an old school notebook that contains the lyrics of songs by the author of vallenato classics, such as “La casa en el aire”, “El amirante Padilla” ” or “The Brazilian”.

Custody of this notebook wrote Square During the years of dating Escalon, one of the accordionist’s sisters had it: Dina Luz Cuadrado, who was also one of the muses to whom the vallenato legend dedicated a song.

“While many authors from Vallenato sang to women, girls, Escalona sang with their own names. That’s why most of his songs are women’s names,” Vives points out, talking about titles like his “Dina Luz” or “Carmen Gomez”, song to the “perfect woman”.

This romanticism that characterized stagger, It is also glimpsed in the lyrics of songs like “Ford station wagon”a composition dedicated to a young woman whom he wanted to learn to drive in a van of this brand.

Actor 20 years later

The premiere of this documentary based on the road trip also taken by Escalona coincides with the return of Vives to the world of acting – after 20 years away from the sets – in conjunction with the recent launch of the series Disney+ “Bass Club”.

“Here, from time to time I dress up and do my crazy things,” he admits between laughs from the fifth floor of his Gaira Música Local record label, located in the Colombian capital.

Even the singer admits it, except for the role stagger in the series of the same name, in countries like Puerto Rico, some of his followers call him “Gallito” because of his performance in the series “Gallito Ramírez”, which deals with the life of a young man from Cartagena who dreamed of breaking out of poverty through boxing.

I’m sure you would like to say “many stories” about Colombia’s diversity in film, television and even cartoons, do you live He assures that he would like to continue his “drifting” between music and the world of acting that helped him overcome the shyness that characterized him when he was little.

“My mom was always very impressed by that I started acting at school that I was in the school choir or that I represented him in inter-school parties because I was always a very shy child”, the artist recalled after admitting that, despite this halt in interpretation, the scenographies are still a place to feel safe”.