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Nicolas Mendoza Daza, also known as Colacho Mendoza (Born April 15, 1936 - Died September 27, 2003), was born in a small village called Sabanas de Manuela in the municipality of Barrancas, La Guajira Department, in northern Colombia. Mendoza was a professional Vallenato accordion player and was crowned king of accordion players on many occasions in the Vallenato Legend Festival. He is considered one of the best accordion players of all time in this genre, having shared stages throughout his career with some of the most prominent Vallenato singers including Diomedes Diaz. He also composed many Vallenato songs. According to Gabriel Garcia Marquez he was the best interpreter of Rafael Escalona's songs.
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
Mendoza was born April 15, 1936 in the small village of Sabanas de Manuela, located in the Municipality of Barrancas in the northern La Guajira Department. He was the son of Andrés Mendoza and Juana Daza, whom were the first to encourage him to learn music. This encouragement developed his early childhood dreams about learning to play the accordion in Jagua del Pedregal, the instrument that he would learn to play by himself. He was considered a quiet, noble-hearted and simple boy by his friends, and his parents considered that he was a man of few words - just those necessary to communicate his desire. What really made him show his personality was the happiness he expressed when playing the accordion, through the music that became his way of communicating.[1]
[edit] Accordion player
He was crowned King of the Vallenato Legend Festival in 1969. In 1987 he participated in the King of Kings competition in the Vallenato Legend Festival, an event in which only previous kings can participate, and won, defeating Alejo Duran. He played with prominent vallenato singers such as Alfonso Zuleta, Jorge Oñate, Diomedes Díaz, Silvio Britto and Ivo Luis Díaz.
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