Carlos Brunelli: A Son in the Shadow of the Mago del Acordeón

Carlos Brunelli is known almost only through his father, the accordionist Feliciano Brunelli, whose 1964 Nuevo Cuarteto he joined. This is the family story behind that one fact.

At a glance

  • Son of the accordionist, pianist and bandleader Feliciano Brunelli (1903–1981), known as El Mago del Acordeón
  • In 1964 part of his father's Nuevo Cuarteto, which recorded tangos, milongas and waltzes for RCA
  • The main source is a 1997 portrait of Feliciano by his granddaughter, Silvia Inés Brunelli, in Revista Club de Tango

Fuente original: «Feliciano Brunelli: «El Mago del Acordeón»» (Silvia Inés Brunelli, Revista Club de Tango, 1997) · Resumen en español ↓

Carlos Brunelli belongs to one of the best-known accordion families in Argentine popular music, but very little has been written about him as a musician in his own right. He was the son of Feliciano Brunelli, the accordionist and bandleader called El Mago del Acordeón, “the wizard of the accordion”. In 1997 Feliciano’s granddaughter, Silvia Inés Brunelli, wrote a portrait of him for Revista Club de Tango. Carlos appears in it only once, as a member of his father’s Nuevo Cuarteto in 1964. We have not found an independent biography of Carlos, so this page tells the family story that his name belongs to and says clearly where the record stops.

What the sources say about Carlos

According to Silvia Inés Brunelli, Feliciano formed the Nuevo Cuarteto (“New Quartet”) in 1964, with his son Carlos among its members, and recorded tangos, milongas and waltzes with it for RCA. The tango historian Emilio J. Pichetti, writing on Todotango, describes the same moment a little differently: in 1964 Feliciano returned to the Victor label with an orchestra and with a new quartet led by his son Carlos. So the two sources agree on the year, the label and Carlos’s presence, but not on whether he was a member or the leader of the quartet.

Other claims that circulate about Carlos Brunelli, such as an orchestra of his own in the 1960s or particular compositions and hit records, are not supported by any source we could check, and we have left them out.

From Ossimo to Marseille

The family story begins with Carlos’s grandfather, the instrument maker Juan Brunelli. Silvia Inés Brunelli describes Ossimo, the Italian village the family came from, as a place where people built accordions. On 24 December 1890, she writes, Juan Brunelli sold his house and workshop there and left with his partner, Ardovina Bontempi, for Marseille. He showed his accordions at an exhibition in the city, did well and stayed. On 10 September 1893 he won a gold medal at a contest with 120 accordionists.

His shop in Marseille was visited by many musicians, among them three Argentines with whom he became friends: Alfredo Gobbi (the father of the bandleader of the same name), Ángel Villoldo and Enrique Saborido. Feliciano was born on 7 February 1903. Pichetti confirms the date and gives Marseille as the place of birth.

An accordion in the Argentine countryside

The family then moved to Rafaela in the province of Santa Fe. Silvia Inés Brunelli links the move to the First Balkan War, when Feliciano was nine, which points to about 1912. Pichetti dates the move to 1908. Feliciano learned the piano with a local teacher, Luis Richi (Ricci in Pichetti’s spelling), and the accordion with his father, whom he accompanied to his engagements.

The granddaughter tells how, in 1915, he took over from his exhausted father at a country party and played for an hour and a half. That same year he started working as a professional: playing for dances, accompanying silent films on the piano and touring the villages with a capilla volante, a priest’s travelling chapel in a tent, where his accordion drew the crowd and played the religious music. Later he led a trio of violin, guitar and accordion, with which he worked until 1933.

Buenos Aires: Vardaro, Troilo and the Cuarteto del 900

The violinist Elvino Vardaro brought him to Buenos Aires. With Vardaro, the guitarist Vicente Spina and a second accordionist, Alcides Fertonani, he formed Feliciano Brunelli y su Cuarteto Criollo, which played three times a week on Radio Splendid and recorded two of his own pieces for RCA Victor, Ilusión de mi vida and the ranchera La enana. The Discography of American Historical Recordings lists both titles on Victor 37481 by the Cuarteto Criollo Brunelli, with 9 September 1933 as the probable recording date. Pichetti also dates Feliciano’s arrival in Buenos Aires to 1933, while the granddaughter’s account suggests 1934.

In 1937, according to Silvia Inés Brunelli, Feliciano put together the Cuarteto del 900 with Vardaro on violin, Enrique Bour on flute, a young Aníbal Troilo on bandoneon and himself at the piano, heard on Radio Mitre. Pichetti names the same members.

El Mago del Acordeón

After that experience Feliciano presented a larger ensemble: fifteen musicians and a singer, billed as Feliciano Brunelli y su Orquesta Característica. An orquesta característica played a mixed repertoire for dancing (tangos, but also waltzes, pasodobles, rancheras and more), here with the accordion in front. The radio entrepreneur Jaime Yankelevich (Jankelevich in the granddaughter’s spelling) hired him for Radio Belgrano, where he remained an exclusive artist for 25 years. Pichetti counts no fewer than 763 recordings, nearly all for RCA-Victor.

In 1946, his granddaughter writes, Feliciano founded the Asociación de Directores de Orquesta together with Francisco Canaro, Héctor and Francisco Lomuto and Pedro Maffia, a fact Pichetti confirms. In the 1950s he recorded for the Music Hall and TK labels, and in the early 1960s the German firm Hohner built three electronic accordions for his orchestra.

The Nuevo Cuarteto and the last years

This is where Carlos enters the record, with the Nuevo Cuarteto of 1964. Two years later the story of the father ends: according to Silvia Inés Brunelli, his last public performance took place in Villa Gesell in the summer of 1966, and Pichetti also dates Feliciano’s last recordings to 1966. Feliciano Brunelli died in 1981; Pichetti gives the date as 27 August 1981.

His granddaughter closes with a family memory: when his father gave him his first instrument, he told him never to part with the accordion, because his future lay in it. The Brunelli name, she adds, still earns royalties, and the music is heard in Germany, Italy and Japan. Among the tango artists on this site, Carlos remains one of the least documented; if new sources on his own work turn up, this page will be updated.

Sources