The story behind "Bolero Para Marcelo"

In 2015, I signed up for jamplay.com - an online music school for guitarists. Marcelo Berestovoy's courses on flamenco and South American rhythms were excellent and he is online three evenings a week on the Jamplay chat for a Q&A session. Not only did I learn flamenco techniques from him, but he was also excellent at teaching music theory in a simple and entertaining way. Unfortunately, I never met Marcelo in person, but through the many evening sessions he is familiar to me like a good friend and I wanted to thank him with a song on the new album. Marcelo is Argentinian, a professional musician and is living in Dallas, Texas for many years. His mother tongue is Spanish. So what could be more obvious than to write him a Spanish song. A few years earlier, I had become acquainted with the Argentine bolero in one of his courses, and in the summer of 2021 I wrote "Bolero Para Marcelo" from a chord progression characteristic of this style. But who could sing to it?

The answer was found quickly. Our friend Sonja lives temporarily in Malaga and her friend Sandra is very active in the cultural scene there. Sandra put me in touch with Toñi, whose sister is a well-known and successful singer in Spain. I contacted Toñi via WhatsApp (thanks to the translator deepl.com ;-) and was very relieved that she was willing to write lyrics and sing despite her famous sister and her own music projects. I sent Toñi a backing track and in December 2021 she recorded the Bolero in a studio in Malaga.-

My friend Gabor was born in Hungary, is living in Germany for many years and is a virtuoso professional guitarist. A few days after Toñi's recording, I met Gabor in his studio in Wiesbaden. Although I had prepared the sheet music as a lead sheet, he simply wrote the chord progression on a piece of paper, put it on the floor in front of him and without any further preparation played that brilliant solo. The second take was already so perfect that I didn't have to adjust almost anything later during the mixing. At Christmas 2021, I finished the final version of the Bolero and sent an mp3 file to Marcelo. I think he enjoyed it.

Music connects people all over the world. And as Toñi so aptly wrote: "La música es algo maravilloso, conecta a personas de todo el mundo en el mismo idioma." (Music is a wonderful thing, it connects people from all over the world in the same language).

Lyrics and vocals by Antonia Rodriguez Carnero
Guitar solo by Gabor Pogello Racz
Key: A minor
Measure: 4/4
Tempo: 100

Meet Toñi on YouTube
Gabor appears on YouTube and his website
Marcelo Berestovoy appears on YouTube and his website