Efraín Orozco

• Name — Efraín Orozco • Birth Name — Efraín Orozco Morales • Background — person • Born — 22 January 1897 • Birthplace — Cajibío, Colombia • Died — 27 August 1975 • Place of death — Bogotá, Colombia

Orozco was born on 22 January 1897 in Cajibío, in the Colombian department of Cauca. His mother Amelia Morales taught him guitar as a child, and his father Cenón Orozco Salazar gave him a cornet when he was 8 years old. Orozco was taught cornet by Ignacio Tovar, and composition and flute by Juan Calambás. At the age of 12 Orozco played bass drum and cornet in the military band of Popayán, and afterwards he played in a tropical music orchestra in Buga. At the age of 19 he left Colombia and for five years travelled in Panama, Costa Rica, and Peru with his friend Leonardo Pazos. At 19 Orozco had already written the songs "Adiós a Popayán", "Enigma", and "Sandino" (about Augusto César Sandino).

Orozco moved back to Colombia and in 1927 became director of a music school. He moved back to Popayán and in 1932 formed his own orchestra, called Efraín Orozco y sus Alegres Muchachos. They toured Peru, spent three months in Chile, and ended up in Buenos Aires where they stayed for 19 years. In the 1940s Orozco renamed his band Efraín Orozco y su Orquesta de las Américas, at the recommendation of his friend Homero Manzi. In 1946 the band recorded a successful version of José María Peñaranda's song "Se Va el Caimán" with an extra verse, under the title "El Caimán". Members of the band included Colombians Carlos Julio Ramírez, Jorge David Monsalve, and Alejandro Tovar, as well as the Argentine pianist Luis Bacalof and singers Leo Marini, Carlos Argentino Torres, and Lita Nelson. Orozco was known in Buenos Aires as the "Maker of Stars" (Spanish: Hacedor de Estrellas) because of the success of the singers that worked with the band. In 1953 Orozco returned back to Colombia, on contract to the Club San Fernando in Cali, with singer Carlos Argentino Torres. Shortly afterwards he moved to Bogotá, and around that time wrote several successful songs. Orozco wrote the song "El Regreso" about the experience of returning to his hometown Cajibío after being away for so long. The song was first recorded by Beatriz Arellano, with arrangements by Jaime Llano González.