Colombian guitarist and producer Ernesto "Teto" Ocampo, who accompanied Carlos Vives in the production of successful albums such as "Clásicos de la provincia" and "La tierra del olvido", died on Wednesday.
"My friend and music teacher Ernesto Ocampo has just died. Thirty years ago we recorded together our first album, 'Clásicos de la provincia; that sound of the guitar in 'La gota fría' that broke into vallenato for the first time was him," Vives said on his X account (formerly Twitter).
The singer-songwriter added that he feels "orphaned of a musical father" by the death of the 54-year-old guitarist, who for months had been battling cancer, according to his brother Tito Ocampo.
The singer-songwriter remembered Ocampo "with his guitar and his Arhuaca blanket" and said that after "La tierra del olvido", his second album, "he did not want to travel the world anymore and dedicated himself to his students and to undertake the leadership of musical archeology in Colombia and America with his group Mucho Indio".
"That is why the Sierra (Nevada de Santa Marta) and the older brothers and the notes of their Arhuaca flute will be heard forever when the magic mamos fly through the Sierra to remember him," he told the artist.