Enrique Villegas

Enrique Villegas, the most important Argentine jazz musician, was born in 1913. His entire family was from San Juan but he was born in the city of Buenos Aires. On the same block as the bandoneonist Aníbal Troilo and the folklore pianist Adolfo Ábalos. His mother, Helena Reybaud, died when he was six months old and his father, Enrique Ulises Villegas, a dentist, lawyer and notary, became a breeder of fighting cocks and moved away from the city. So he was raised by his aunts.

He entered elementary school and at the same time began his journey at the Buenos Aires Music Conservatory directed by the composer Alberto Williams. He learned to decipher music before he learned to read and write. At the Conservatory he studied the musical structures of tango, folklore and classical music and at the age of nine he encountered jazz for the first time. He entered the college but his attendance was...

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