Eliseo parra biography template

FolkWorld #75 07/2021

© Pío Fernández

Sing and Drum

Eliseo Parra is one of the most experienced Spanish folk music artists, and he still maintains a prolific creativity even in these tangled days of Covid-19 in 2021.

Born in Sardón del Duero in 1949 (Valladolid, Castilla y León, central north Spain), Eliseo began as a drummer in rock bands in the sixties, then took classes at the municipal conservatory of Barcelona in the early seventies, a jazz musician in that city years later (Blay Tritono, la Rondalla de la Costa), and then in the late seventies and early eighties playing folk & salsa music with singers and bands like: Maria del Mar Bonet, Al Tall, La Sardineta, La Orquestra Plateria, Ovidi Montllor, Gato Pérez, Marina Rossell and Jaume Sisa.

In 1983 Eliseo arrived in Madrid and began to focus on the traditional music of his native region of Castilla, creating the ‘Mosaico’ group, and investigating the repertoire of the folklorist Agapito Marazuela (Segovia, 1891