became acquainted with Nito in the late 80s and he then told me that he was born in Arroyo Seco, province of Santa Fe. He was short but robust and strong. He was thoroughly romantic —he was continuously falling in love—, reluctant, with a good talk, and with marked features of shyness. An example: despite he had been in my radio program many times I never succeeded in making him speak in front of a microphone. A long talk he made about Troilo was not an exception because he recorded it, alone at home, with a tape recorder. He later handed that cassette to me.

But, of course, he enjoyed and talked in every meeting with friends. Always bohemian and generous, when he was over eighty years old, he won an expensive car in a raffle. He preferred the money to the automobile because his income in SADAIC was poor. However, those who finally were rewarded by that prize were mainly his friends. So he formed several groups that he weekly reunited with an invitation to dinner. I was in one of them at a table with Juan Vasallo and other friends: Silva Sarmiento, Juan Carlos Rodríguez and Ángel Giuseppetti.

The times we spent together were many and, of course, with much talking. A brief summary of them follows.

«Logically, the inborn tendencies of men are shown in the early years of life and is so frequent in those cases linked to music. In my case, some young aunts of mine, unknowingly, lit the fire. They used to celebrate birthdays with balls at home. Music was provided by a friend who brought an accordion. When it was quite late and I had to go to bed, I refused to go drawn by the sounds of the musical instrument.

«Later I was attracted to violin, but my father —a music lover— was reluctant to buy me one, because there were no music teachers in town and he was afraid that I would learn to play it without a musical knowledge. My first teacher was a man named Mazziota who led the music band of our town. He knew nothing about violin playing but he taught to read music. Later Barchialla appeared adn I had my first violin lessons and, thereafter I was with Dionisio Harrington —who used to say he was a friend of Heifetz’s— who gave a lot of important advice.

«My career began almost for free in the tango orchestra led by Antonio Nofri, which, due to financial reasons, became Trío Nofri. The leader on bandoneon, my violin and on piano someone named Herman García and a singer was included. Later I joined another local orchestra, the one fronted by Ricardo Faglia with which we appeared in Rosario. It helped me to decide settling there.

«In 1937 I joined other outfits, today forgotten. One was the one headed by the team Barbato-Abatti, the former was brother of the pianist Emilio Barbato. Then came Los Provincianos led by Lincoln Garrot. The name of the aggregation was my idea after I had spent some time with the group. It was modeled after OsvaldoFresedo’s style, which was the one I admired throughout my lifetime. With Garrot I wrote my first charts. By that time I studied harmony with Richard Engelbrecht, conductor of the Symphonic Orchestra of Rosario.

«I was summoned by LT1, the local radio station, to put together an orchestra to play an international repertory, but I was eager to form a tango orchestra. I formed it and went to Buenos Aires. I arrived just at the time of the union strike so we were unable to debut. Someone recommended me to Miguel Caló. In 1947 I joined his outfit and stayed until 1951. During that time I managed to make a tour of Mendoza as member of the Manuel Buzón Orchestra.

«In 1952 I was in Uruguay playing in the aggregation led by Juan Esteban Martínez “Pirincho”. Thereafter I returned to play with Víctor D'Amario a short season at the “El Chantecler”. The following year, for the first time, I played with Aníbal Troilo’s orchestra at the performances of his play El patio de la morocha. Simultaneously, I appeared with Atilio Stampone, and when Carlos Figari split with Troilo to form his own orchestra, I followed him. Later I joined Pichuco again and I was precisely in his last performance at the Teatro Odeón in the evening of May 17, 1974. Time later I went to Japan with Leopoldo Federico, it was in 1976, and in 1977 I joined the string ensemble led by Antonio Agri».

Nito’s discography is not quite big: Exposición de tangos, a long playing record published in December 1966 with the following players: Atilio Stampone (piano and celeste), Omar Murtagh (double bass), Atilio Corral and Domingo Mattio (bandoneons), Roberto Di Filippo (English horn), Domingo Rulio (flute), Josué Ríspoli, Claudio González, Luis Cantafio, Carmelo Cavallaro, Eduardo Walczak, Miguel Silvestre, Esteban Romano and Di Paolo (violins), Cayetano Viana (viola) and A. Barone (cello). They were twelve pieces, all written by him, some in collaboration. With the following dedication: «To the memory of my father who taught me to understand and feel popular music through the Italian songs he brought from his beloved Capri».

In 1975 his second long-playing record was released. It also included twelve numbers, four of them already issued in his previous release but now with different arrangements. The personnel was: Domingo Mattio and Daniel Lomuto (bandoneons), Domingo Rulio (flute), León Mamés (English horn), Kicho Díaz (double bass) and ten violins: Abramovich, A. Bernabás, Cavallaro, Julio Graña, Walczak, Romano, Di Paolo, R. Fernández, E. González, F. Oréfice, Enri Balestro and Francisco Varady (violas), Llacuna and Echeverría (cellos). On some tracks Di Filippo (oboe) and Orlando Tripodi (drums) and his daughter Alicia (celeste).

Osvaldo Fresedo, with Carlos Barrios on vocals, committed to record “Cuando llegue el invierno”, arranged by Roberto Pansera, in December 1953. The Echagüe-Laborde Orchestra recorded his tango “Yo no digo que todas” for Philips in 1957,

His latter unpublished works were the lyrics of “Hernán se fue”, about the death of his friend, the jazz violinist Hernán Oliva (1988) and “El viejo Moffa” (1989), in memory of a barber and musician of Arroyo Seco.

He lived for many years on the ground floor of a building located on Arenales and Vidt. Like other times, one morning he went to visit the friends of his hometown that he never forgot and, surely it was his feeling and wish, he remained there forever.