Artistic information

Genre (s) Cumbia, paseo, porro, chicha, merengue, Andean cumbia, Peruvian cumbia,
Argentine cumbia, Mexican cumbia, charanga, vallenato / cumbia vallenata.
Period of activity First training 1980-1987, second training 2014 to date.
Label (s)
Original production company: Midas Records (Industria Fonográfica Peruana S. A.
INFOPESA)

Distributors: Sony Music BGM (Mexico), Mastereo (MasterEstereo, Mexico), Discos

Famoso (Ecuador), Discos FM (Colombia), Industria Nacional del Sonido (INS)
(Colombia)
Web
CuartetoContinental.com website
Members
Pancho Acosta - Guitar, arrangements and musical direction
César Silva - accordion
Vocalists
Julio Mau Orlandini †
Claudio Morán
Julio Cesar Prado Guerrero †
Raúl Serrano †
Julio Cesar Mejia
Oscar Hidalgo
Antonio Ortiz
José Luís Calderón - Kidney

Musical support members, choirs and arrangements

"Pochito" Bracamonte
Hugo Reyna
Oscar "Pitín" Sanchez
"Tito" Mauri
Fidel Valencia
Carlos Vidal
Jorge Avalos
percussion by Juan Canevello y Pineda (Timbales)
Walter Villa (Huacharaca and huiro)
Paul Villa
"Tio" Papita (congas)
Paco Zambrano
Ramón Siú (Bongo)
José Novoa "Piranha"
"Chest" (Low)
Choby
[edit data on Wikidata]
Cuarteto Continental, also known as El Imbatible Cuarteto Continental or The
Authentic Continental Quartet among others, is the name of a group of tropical
music originating in Lima, Peru, a concept adapted from the Colombian cumbia by
music producer Alberto Maraví for Peru under the Producer Industria Fonográfica
Peruana with magnetic media.

The group began its activity in 1980 and disintegrated in 1987 at the initiative of
its producer and director Alberto Maraví, who lost his recording laboratories in
the Shining Path terrorist attacks, destroying the hearing material printing
machines. As of 2014, a formation of the group emerged, which acts in official
Infopesa presentations.

The Continental Quartet in its first formation was led by various Peruvian
vocalists, at the request of Alberto Maraví a casting was carried out to integrate
the group, having various formations throughout its first existence, among which
Claudio Morán, César Prado, Julio stand out. César Mejía, Julio Mau, Raúl Serrano
among other singers and musicians of the time, basing their interpretations in the
style of Colombian cumbia with accordion.

Index
1. Background
2 Musical origins, concept and release
2.1 Generality
2.2 Bases
2.3 The first long play
3 Evolution and peak
4 Desertions and groups that emerged under the same concept
5 About the registration of the name of the Infopesa grouping
6 Musical and style contributions
7 Diffusion abroad and its influence
8 Musical legacy
9 Attempted fraud and usurpation
10 Discography
10.1 Edited in Peru (Partial)
10.2 Edited and / or imported abroad (Partial)
11 Famous and stylish phrases in recordings
11.1 General
11.2 Individuals
12 See also
13 References
14 External links
Background
Within the musical history of the Peruvian cumbia there were various musical trends
derived from Colombian origin fused to the rhythms and idiosyncrasies of Peru,
among which were the northern cumbia, the coastal cumbia, chicha, jungle or Amazon
cumbia and Andean cumbia among other variants. typical of the Andean country that
had emerged since the 1960s.

By 1980 the success of Peruvian Cumbia musical compositions and recordings had
spread and consolidated to various countries on the continent, reaching the rest of
South America, Central and North America, regions where various adaptations of
Peruvian musical compositions were made and also commercializations of the same to
a greater or lesser extent, and in the aforementioned year, the new very particular
sound of cumbia recordings that differed from those made at the time burst into the
Peruvian music market, resuming the Colombian cumbia genre with accordion coupled
with the sounds and rhythms typical of Peru, under the tutelage of its producer
Alberto Maraví who summons the best cumbia musicians who paraded through various
groups such as Los Mirlos or Los Destellos to integrate them into a new project
that would be called "Cuarteto Continental".

Musical origins, concept and release

Generality
For decades, Colombian cumbia groups, such as Aníbal Velásquez Hurtado, Andrés
Landero, Policarpo Calle, Los Corraleros de Majagual, Aniceto Molina, Lisandro Meza
among others, had successfully reached accordion cumbias in various countries, as
well as with other Colombian airs such as the Joropo, Porro, Pasaje, Gaita among
others, but, within Peru there were few groups that were dedicated to the Cumbia
accordion genre from their neighboring country Colombia since they had followed
their own line of creating cumbia in the adapted style Peruvian sometimes with
Guaracha, is when the visionary Alberto Maraví created the Cuarteto C
projectontinental, and although the name or reference of "Cuarteto" as a concept of
name and musically speaking, already existed in Colombia since the 60's with the
group "Cuarteto Imperial" that recorded internationally for CBS Columbia with a
cumbia style with accordion that released hits such as "Río Mamoré" a Bolivian
river, (re-recorded by the same "Cuarteto Continental" under the title of "Río
Marañón" readapted from the name of a Peruvian river) among others, its influence
had already spread to various South American countries, Thus, the nascent Peruvian
group takes up and intensifies the Colombian style of accordion cumbia for the
country's market, also taking up the concept of long-duration mixes of musical
themes lasting at least ten minutes, previously experienced under various names
such as for example the "Continuados" and "Mosaicos" by Colombian groups, and in
Ecuador they were called by Ecuadorian groups as "Continuous parties" in this case
in pa Particular of the Peruvian group Cuarteto Continental performs the so-called
"Pegaditas" or "Pegaditos".

Bases
Cuarteto Imperial a group from Colombia based in Argentina launches the so-called
"Supermosaico Imperial" from 1978 published by CBS popular in various countries in
the south of the continent and in particular in Argentina it was the combination
(mosaic) or uninterrupted mixture of themes of different rhythms in mostly Cumbia
united in two tracks of at least 15 minutes, the material of the Imperial Quartet
included the Colombian cover songs of other groups and their own compositions made
by Heli Toro, but registered in Argentina as "La pollera colorá", "El Caimán ","
Santander de Batunga "," I want Amanecer "," 777 days "," If I had money I would go
to Mar del Plata "," The downpour "," Río Mamoré "," Trinidad "," Cumbia sobre el
mar ", "La burrita", "Eva María", "Do the little step" among others.1

The concept of mosaic appears for the first time in the LPs of Nelson Henriquez
from Venezuela in the year 1973, later the "Cumbias in mosaic" would also be taken
explicitly by various groups and record labels in Argentina, Mexico and Ecuador, as
mentioned. , Cuarteto Imperial in Argentina, La Sonora Dinamita in the mid-80's
under the Discos Peerless label in Mexico under license from Discos Fuentes,
although even before Dinamíta, the Mexican group Los Gatos Negros by Tiberio
González recorded for Discos Orfeón the so-called "Mosaico Gato "in 1976, which
consisted of various songs such as" Pato a la Olla "," Casa de Tiberio "," El
palomo ", but it did not last more than 7 minutes, and in 1978 in Ecuador, from
Guayaquil, Los Vallenatos del Guayas who also record an LP for Discos Aguilar,
cumbia with accordion and choirs, called "Parranda y cumbia" that lasted
approximately 10 minutes per track, also using accordion for the execution of the
cumbia, so the concept uninterrupted music was very popular in the mid-1970s.

Another of his musical integrations of the Peruvian group was the musical
accompaniment of electric guitar in counter-beat derived from the Mexican cumbia of
the 60's and 70's (compare with the recordings of the Mexican Xavier Passos of
1970), thus shown in his musical mixes of pegaditas cumbias. From the 80's "La
cadenita", "eight days ago", "La cosechita", which is detached from the bass sixth
of the Mexican norteño music, Mexican cumbia that had already spread within the
exchange of folklore between different listening countries from cumbia, first to
Colombia and then to the rest of South America.

In addition to the above, the new "Continental Quartet", mainly, also, integrates
within its instrumental those of electronic cut, which would be one of the
antecedents of the most modern and electronic sound of cumbia that years later
would evolve into the so-called Technocumbia , that is, the use of synthesizers,
and electronic drums, this, together with the aforementioned, form a unique amalgam
of its kind, which differed from what was done in Peru against its competitors
Discos FTA and El Virrey and in Colombia in terms of he mixture of musical genres
of Colombian cumbia and Peruvian cumbia, as shown by the musical recordings of the
time of other Peruvian record companies such as Sono Radio, or El Virrey, the group
also used the effect called Fuzztone of the electric guitar, which consists of the
deformation of the sound of the strings by means of pedals that perform different
effects of pitch change and a lever that varies the tension of the strings that was
of no use in Colombian groups that used accordion and that the Continental Quartet
had combined derived from the Peruvian cumbia.

Within his recordings, the pure influences corresponding to the various trends and
genres of Peruvian cumbia are included, thus, within this fusion of genres and
rhythms, they also mix and show traits of Andean cumbia, coastal cumbia,Northern
cumbia (closer in gender to its neighboring country Colombia), and Amazonian cumbia
(of different influences and typical of the region and in addition to its proximity
to Brazil).

In addition to all that musical background, the culmination of their particular

style is given by the singers who embodied their particular interpretation fused to
the themes depending on the theme of each of the lyrics, thus, within the singers
who paraded through the group, It can be seen that there were singers of the most
diverse styles of base vocalization for a certain musical court, and even more so
the ability to interpret tropical rhythms, thus, in broad strokes, it can be
inferred that Claudio Morán had the ability to adapt to the romantic style of the
group by have a very "soft and lilting" timbre, shown for example in "La
cosechita", while Julio Mau Orlandini adapted more to the tropical style of cumbia
due in large part to his ability to reach high and low tones without difficulty.
for example in "Adiós Paloma", César Prado, had the characteristic of singing
cumbia with a voice that also reached low and high tones, but more typical of the
Salsa, shown in "Pollera Amarilla" within one of the volumes of the pegaditas
cumbias, while Raúl Serrano showed more adaptation towards the more properly Andean
or folklorist cut of voice, also showing the theme "Amanejando" from those LPs, and
so on. Many more no less important singers with different tones, nuances and styles
would also parade that would create a culmination of Cumbia with an accordion for
Peru, indicating that, all without exception, they had the ability to interpret
tropical rhythms without difficulty while preserving the particular cut of each
one. .

Finally, the instrumentation and equipment that the group possessed, despite not
being so complex, appeared to be that of a group of more members, however, the very
characteristic thing was the use of the accordion, the bass without any (direct)
subsequent effect , drums or bass drums and timpani (called tarolas in the north of
the continent and box in part of South America), congas (called tumbadoras in the
north), and finally as said, the electric guitar as a base, accompaniment and even
direct coupling of requinto or called a guitar "solo" in conjunction with the notes
exerted by the accordion in its songs.

The first long play

His first success in the Peruvian market was the Long Play called "Cumbias
pegaditas (Volume I), a 33 rpm LP that, as a first instance, brought together the
re-recordings of successful Colombian cumbias from various groups and styles, but
significantly based on the concept of the material of the Imperial Quartet and its
"Supermosaico Imperial" of 19783 of which they re-recorded most of the diverse
subjects contained in that LP, combined with some others of other groups, mainly of
successes of Los Corraleros de Majagual thus containing in the first volume the
themes that include "So beautiful and so presumed", "Festival in Guararé",
"Downpour", "Harvest of women", "Fisherman", "Guepa 'je", "Charanga Campesina",
"Los sabanales", "Eva María", "La burrita", "Do the little step", "Santander de
Batunga", "777 days", If I had money I would go to Mar del Plata, "Goodbye Goodbye
Heart", "The green ribbon" and even the Italian hit adapted to Spanish by Rafaella
Carra "Fiesta" from 19 77, the production, developed by the arrangements and
musical direction of Pancho Acosta, shows various singularities little shown in the
country, among which stand out the interpretation of a song and its change of tone
towards other songs made by a Peruvian group, the step From one song to another he
had insertions of his own musical arrangements on Colombian and Argentine themes,
whose musical director, arranger and lead guitarist was the former member of Compay
Quinto, Francisco Acosta Ángeles (Pancho Acosta), as well as vocalization of the
second voice and the performance of the chorus of the same. On the accordion the
teacher César Silva, on the timpani the teacher Orlando Pineda, on the bass Máximo
Pecho (later Pancho corrected it) with these members the interpretations left aside
the more indigenous Colombian style of peasant interpretation, for, with the
arrangements musical performances, to perform more stylized and refined
interpretations in terms of framing and tuning, thus reaching a high interpretative
level distinguishable from that of foreign productions, except and even with the
meticulousness with which the productions were made, there was only one theme
within one of the so many later volumes of "Cumbias pegaditas" in which an error of
interpretation and detuning occurred, made and not corrected during post-
production, apparently what happened, as can be seen in the audio of the recording,
was that the bassist did not press the string correctly on the frets of the bass
during plucking, strings of that instrument that have a great tension so probably
slippedor the finger going out of tune and leaving a gap of low, temporary and very
short sounds that is almost imperceptible due to the accompaniment of the other
instruments, the choirs and interpretation of César Prado in the phrase "Look at
her! Look at her! Look how she dances there is a catch of men ... ", it is not
noticeable in reproductive equipment that lacks filters below 500 Hz, nor in
shelving type (treble and bass), but it is patently noticeable in equipment with
graphic equalizers of up to 30 bands.

Within his first production, the first voices of Claudio Morán and César Prado and
the second voice of Pancho Acosta stand out. And the choirs to Raúl Serrano, who
also sang 2 songs, in them they combine and mix various hits, to the genre of
cumbia, charanga and merengue mainly, the voices and choirs are perfectly coupled
both in framing and tuning, obtained from the musical bass and experience
Previously in other groups that had both musicians and singers, finally, this first
volume had brought together the best musicians and singers of Peruvian cumbia as a
peak of talent from the Andean country in Cumbia, material that would be the
spearhead for the various future successes of the group.

Due to the type of LP and its diameter of 30 cm plus the length of each face, the
audio quality in the recordings is high, so his musical appreciation allowed him to
hear the high range of auditory frequencies of each instrument, even the more
varied generated by the accordion, they were also made to two channels, in
stereophonic, another particularity is that on the covers of the same, photographs
of the members of the group were not included, except in some LPs they were
included in the part rear, or front, as is the case of the LP "Alegría y Amor"
where Julio Mau Orlandini intervenes.

Evolution and peak

After the devastating success of the LP "Cumbias Pegaditas" LP that was released in
countries such as Colombia and Argentina under the Midas Records label, even
reaching countries such as Germany by import, the group told how in its beginnings
various vocal leaders, had at Former vocalist of Los Destellos, Claudio Morán who
had launched himself to success with for example "Jardín de Amor" and Julio César
Mejía, later, according to his recordings, he would join the vocalist Julio Mau
Orlandini who belonged to Jorge Rodríguez's Los Mirlos Grández, who had achieved
fame with songs like "Mentirosa", thus, had already combined a great background of
musicians, the most talented and experienced in terms of Peruvian cumbia, and thus
several successes are achieved within the "Continental Quartet". Peruvian covers
mainly of the chichera wave or adapted Andean cumbia, plus the Colombian hits that
would appear in their repertoire, "Sarita Colonia" (a cover by Grupo Maravilla and
Los Mojarras), "Goodbye Paloma", "Tumbahembra", "Joy and Love", "Bad conscience",
"So beautiful and presumed", "La cosechita", "Torments", "Cumbia from the sea
inside", " Little by little "," Río Marañon "," Aventurera "," You are a liar ","
Path of treason "," The delinquent "," Cocoon of roses "," Cumbia de Oriente ""
Huayayay "among numerous other hits, as well For the most part, his repertoire of
recordings were, among others, Peruvian compositions, but with great Colombian
influence.

Its popularity was extended to the interior of the country, especially to the north
since it received more musical influence from its northern neighbor Colombia, thus,
its fame reaches the countries closest to Peru.

Although the group in its beginnings as a project, had only made re-recordings of
Colombian and Peruvian cumbias, also within the concept of "Cumbias Pegaditas"
songs would be recorded not only from cumbia, but from other genres and including
repertoires from countries such as Argentina. with the song "Dare to look at me
from the front" by Los Wawancó and Mexico with "Trigo Verde" from the Vaskez Super
Show or "Cumbia del logrero" by the Mexican group of the Pedraza Islas Super Grupo
Colombia brothers as well as several covers of Bolivia, Chile among other countries
of classic folklore adapted to cumbia, later he would record exclusive songs. The
continental musical catalog contained in the group's materials was very ambitious,
they would even include a tribute to a composer and popular singer in America,
making in 1985 the LP Éxitos de Oro that includes "Pegaditas Cumbias de Leo Dan"

Desertions and groups that emerged under the same concept

Years later, around 1984, Claudio Morán, one of its main vocalists, had left the
group to join "Cuarteto Universal" of the record label Discos Horóscopo de Juan
Campos, the production company that would successfully launch the Cumbia Andina
group that same year. Red Painting by Alejandro Zárate, "Universal Quartet" would
become a musical rival for the Infopesa group, later in 1986, Los Continentales
under the lead voice of César Pradowould have a particular success over Argentina,
before his death (where after his descent, the group takes its identical
vocalization style with another singer to try to preserve the style of the late
singer as noted in the song "Paloma del alma mía "), likewise, Raúl Serrano as the
main vocalist, makes recordings for the Mexican market, re-recording the Bolivian
song from Los Kjarkas" Huayayay "which already had different versions, including
the" Continental Quartet ", Raúl Serrano would make it for the northern company
Discos Peerless in 1986, under the license of Nazareno Producciones, produced by
Mrs. Ticky Dicásolo and delivered to Mr. José Luis Vela de Predisa, for its edition
in Discos Peerless, Raúl Serrano records extensive material with an integration of
Peruvian musicians called Grupo Fantasma appearing in mythical LP series of the
Mexican market such as "Tequendama de Oro" and "The album of the year", even a
complete LP by Grupo Fanta was released. sma edited by the northern company;
Finally, until 1986 Julio Mau Orlandini had been part of the Julio Mau group and
his Cuarteto Imbatible before his death in an accident in northern Peru. All the
previous groups would conserve and diversify the "cuartetero style" in their
recordings. to make Cumbia with an accordion derived from its predecessor group
"Cuarteto Continental", even, as can be seen in the recordings, all these groups
invariably called themselves "that of the pegaditas cumbias", except for the group
"Sexteto Internacional" by Julio César Mejía who together with his ex-group
"Cuarteto Continental" he will record various songs with a style more typical of a
technocumbia with Andean mix and other themes, with derivations of Salsa, also
using the concept of "pegaditos", without abandoning the "cuartetero style" records
various mixed songs for the SonoRadio label for the Peruvian market, which was also
replicated for the Mexican market with the LP "Cargamento Tropical" by Sexteto Int
International "of Peerless Discs in 1986.

The following year, in 1987 his last recording was made, Volume 9 of Cumbias
pegaditas with the singer Antonio Ortiz who continues to be active, afterwards the
project the Continental Quartet has continued in force together with its director,
owner and producer, Alberto Maraví, with who are preparing a new record production
to be launched in 2014.

About the registration of the name of the Infopesa grouping

The "Continental Quartet" maintains its registration in the distinctive signs
office of Peru, Indecopi del Peru, who deliver certificates of registration of
names and brands with a validity of ten years with the right of renewal months
before their expiration. In this way, the original name of the group is still
registered with Peruvian entities without any variation of the registrant who is
Alberto Maraví, who owns the registration, ownership, rights, and delegation of
licenses that were attached to the files since 1980 and with a recent renewal that
expires until the middle of the year 2022, the year in which the registration would
be endorsed by the owner to continue with the possession of all the rights of the
group.

Musical and style contributions

The group was characterized within Peru for being one of the first to include
electronic cutting instruments such as the synthesizer and electronic drums in its
recordings, including long-duration songs, although the electric guitar is not
exclusive to the group since It had been used within the Peruvian concept of cumbia
by Enrique Delgado and his group Los Destellos, the "Continental Quartet" was one
of many that used it varying its use as mentioned before, coupled with Fuzztone's
own Peruvian Cumbia style ( but not exclusive within cumbia music in general), and
mainly the imposition of the accordion style that would be inherited for various
later groups and to date. The quality and arrangements of the musical themes were
superior to the original recordings, making a more refined cumbia in
interpretations. This same thing was inherited to the later groups that were
detached from it.

Diffusion abroad and its influence

Infopesa's main market was Peru, but its recordings reached the surrounding
countries, its songs within the recordings were dedicated to the provinces of the
Andean country such as Tarapoto, Saposoa, Pucallpa among other cities and regions,
but they also spread (thus also commercially) his dedications to countries such as
Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador, his record company, did not show
the distribution to the north of the continent, so countries like Mexico did not
know of the group's musical material because, apparently, The associations and
agreements of Infopesa and the companies of the northern country corresponded to
other musical conceptions that were successful in Mexico where it was