Rafael Escalona Martinez was a prolific vallenato composer from the Valledupar region of Colombia, celebrated as one of the genre's greatest songwriters even though he did not play the accordion himself. Across the mid-twentieth century he wrote hundreds of narrative paseos and merengues — songs like 'La Casa en el Aire' and 'El Testamento' — that turned everyday coastal life into folklore, and he was a close friend of novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His compositions became the canonical repertoire that later interpreters, above all Carlos Vives, carried to wider audiences.

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1954

La Casa en el AireRafael Escalona