lit a candle 4h agoI had Yo te nombro playing in the kitchen not twenty minutes before I saw this. Didn't know much about him beyond that record but it stopped me cold.
Their story
Carlos Alfredo Fredi was an Argentine folk singer, a second tenor baritone, best known for his years with Contracanto in exile in Spain and with Los Trovadores after the return of democracy. He died in Rafaela, Santa Fe, on 14 October 2026 at the age of 80, two months short…
Carlos Alfredo Fredi was an Argentine folk singer, a second tenor baritone, best known for his years with Contracanto in exile in Spain and with Los Trovadores after the return of democracy. He died in Rafaela, Santa Fe, on 14 October 2026 at the age of 80, two months short of his 81st birthday, after two strokes from which he did not recover.
Born on 19 December 1945 in Las Rosas, Santa Fe, he grew up in El Trebol after his father's dairy work took the family there. In 1963 he began professionally with Las Voces del Yaravi alongside Uvalter Ojeda and Juan Carlos Ferrero, later replaced by Hector Tito Muya. The trio won local recognition as working musicians though it left no commercial discography. Seeking a wider stage, Fredi moved to Rosario and in 1970 joined Contracanto with Luis Chango Naon. The group recorded for Qualiton, including Corazon del pais and Homenaje in 1973 and El Cristo Americano in 1975. After the 1976 military coup brought threats and censorship, Contracanto spent its final years in Spain, releasing Contracanto (1977) and Yo te nombro (1978) on Movieplay in Madrid.
Fredi returned to Argentina on 15 December 1979 and in January 1980 entered Los Trovadores as Pancho Romero left. He joined a renewed quintet with Quito Figueroa, Ramon Chiquito Catramboni, Miguel Angel Aguirre (later Poppy Scalisi) and Enzo Giraudo; the change deepened when historic tenor Carlos Pino left in 1982. Los Trovadores had helped renew Argentine folk song in the 1960s and had won Cosquin in 1963; in Fredi's decade the group turned toward songs of democratic recovery and renewed folk forms, recording Canciones (1980), Todavia cantamos (1982), Imaginalo (1983), Pequenas historias (1985) and Jose Pedroni (1989), the last setting poems by Jose Pedroni with guests including Antonio Tarrago Ros, Carlos Carella, Enrique Llopis and Silvina Garre. He left Los Trovadores in 1992, settled again in Rosario to promote folk music in the media, and in 2008 returned to live in El Trebol. Argentine press remembered him as a voice of Contracanto and Los Trovadores whose career bridged dictatorship exile and the democratic restoration.
Biography adapted from Spanish Wikipedia (Carlos Fredi, CC BY-SA 4.0), Pagina/12 (14 Oct 2026), Radio El Trebol / Rosario Noticias. Wikipedia ↗
Photos
1Carlos Fredi
by People Forever
that album got me through a rough winter, didn't know his story til now