I was born the 19th of September 1953 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Yes, I am originally from Montevideo, Uruguay, I was born there. I had a good childhood and adolescence, it was a good time of my life. I am afraid this answer will have to be a bit long. It all started with my dad; he loved old jazz music and I remember that when I was about 4 years old, we would have pasta food every Sunday, and after eating , he would close all the windows of the living area; then he would seat me in front of an old Phillips record player, and we would spent all the rest of the afternoon listening to old jazz records; I loved that because he was watching my reaction to the music, and he would ask me questions such as “did you like that tune”?; we would listen to Jazz Artists of the old school, such as Duke Ellington, (he loved Duke Ellington), Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, King Oliver, Louis Russel, Benny Goodman with Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli and many more.

He also loved all the music from the Golden Era of movies, and he loved to listen, (and he made sure I listened too) the film music of The Paul Stokowski Orchestra, and things like that you know, that type of Pop, Movie music I would say. Then, at age 7, my mother, who loved classical music and Tango music, seeing that my dad and I were so much into it, told me that I was going to start piano lessons with the neighborhood lady teacher, but only to complete my education, not to become a musician, she said; she wanted me to become a professional such as physician or a lawyer, but not a musician. So I had nearly two years of classical piano training and my teacher was really good; I could practice piano in her piano, and she would not charge me extra for that; in those practice sessions I got extra tuition, because she couldn't help giving me instructions; the thing is that at that time I didn't know that she was forming my hands in such a way that I can still play the piano today in a quite competent manner, and that other pianists took notice of my facility with my hands; the thing is that I just took all that for granted, because I didn't know it was so important; anyway, then the Beatles came and changed everybody's lives.

What really fascinated me about the guitar was the fact that was electric, that is why Charlie Christian, who I listened to with the Benny Goodman Orchestra, in those sessions with my dad, was my hero right from the beginning. There also was an argentinian, jazz player, who played exactly and sounded exactly like Charlie Christian and I loved his playing as well, his name was Oscar Aleman. No I don't have any siblings. Montevideo was a very nice town to grow up in those days. We would usually have dance parties at some friend's house, or go to some of the Friday or Saturday night big High School dances. In those days, the music scene in Uruguay was divided between the Tango Music lovers and dancers; The Cuban Music lovers and dancers; then you had your Carnival Music by Murgas and Parodistas, Samba Music from Brazil and the Candombe Llamadas which is an African Rhythm brought to Uruguay by the African People from the Republic of Congo in Africa. There was also a small, but growing Rock movement in Argentina which started with a TV show named “El Club del Clan” and bands such as “Jackie y los Ciclones”who played American Rock music but sang in Spanish. Then in about 1962 The Beatles came to the world scene and they captured the world's youth so there started to be a huge Rock movement in Uruguay of bands who played that Beatles' style Rock. It was so big that you could find a band rehearsing in a garage in every block of the neighborhood. The first group to make it big, in that genre were from Uruguay and they were called Los Shakers.

The Rock groups that had a great impact in me in those days were: “The Beatles”; “The Rolling Stones”, then “Los Shakers” (an Uruguayan version of the Beatles); and “The Rubber Stones” (an Uruguayan version of the Rolling Stones);those were bands that I saw live; (not the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, but the Uruguayan versions); then there were other groups and also musical genres which I loved just as much; for example I loved a group called “The Young Rascals”, at that time; also a group called “The Hollies”; but what I loved most was the SOUL music from the African People of the United States; I loved RAY CHARLES, OTTIS REDDING,THE SUPREMES, THE PAUL BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND, MIKE BLOOMFIELD AND AL KOOPER, ARETHA FRANKLIN, THE RONETTES that is to give you an idea what kind of music I started to listening to then. I met my first music and band mate at Secondary School, (the Spanish equivalent of High School); that is what it was called then; now they changed the names and they don't call it Secondary School anymore; I don't know what they call it now. He was a great drummer and we had at least two bands with me playing bass before we started Opus Alfa with me playing guitar. Opus Alfa was not the first group I participated in prior to Dias de Blues; I played in several groups before, most of them with my mate from Secondary School, but I also got I gig playing bass in a famous Uruguayan Night Club, (they were called “Boites” then) with also a famous Uruguayan band , “Los Mojos 4”, where I met Roberto Risso, who was the drummer of one of the first Uruguayan Rock groups, “Los Martin Brothers” which later became one of the biggest Urugu yan Rock groups, if not THE biggest, “Los Delfines”. At that time and thanks also to Roberto Risso, I met Dino, (he passed away now), who was the leader of the most famous Uruguayan Rock band of the time, “Los Gatos”, which later became “Dino y los Gatos”, who were also the founders of the famous “La Cueva de los Gatos”, (“The Cat's Cave), the Rock Temple of the City of Montevideo.

At that time me and my mate from Secondary School were listening to The Animals, Joe Cocker and found out about John Mayall Bluesbreakers, Cream, Jeff Beck, Keef Hartley Band, (all British Blues bands) and then one day I came across an LP by Jimmy Hendrix called “Axis: Bold as love”;it blew our brains, we couldn't believe those sounds. I copied some of those solos note by note, (actually I stole from everybody during that time, and I still do, that is how I learned to play, hehe); then we also listened to Johnny Winter and Edgar Winter the Albino brothers from Texas; Johnny passed away now; so with this incredible explosion of Blues oriented Rock coming from the fusion of British and American artists, we said we have to have a band to play that staff; so we found an organ player, (Atilano “Polo” Gil Losada, the organ player of Opus Alfa), and a bass player, Jose Luis, who just came back from the States, within the first Fender Jazz Bass to be brought to Uruguay and he came fresh from the States with hippie pants and sandals and all, so we said, this is it man, we got the good guys to play this type of new Rock; then one day we were rehearsing and this guy came knocking at the door, and said “ I saw your band on tv and you sound really good but don't have a vocalist, I am the vocalist for your band” he said; so he knocked us out with that introduction so he became the vocalist from Opus Alfa; his name is Jesus Figueroa and he lives in LA now.

He used to sing very similar to Joe Cocker and loved to sing blues so we started playing a lot of Joe Cocker's tunes, including his version of “With a little help from my friends”, that he did in Woodstock; so we can say that the music of the time led to forming Opus Alfa which became very big in Montevideo; however we wanted to be even bigger and wanted to enter the Argentinian market, but at that time Rock in Argentina had become very big, with some great artists, but you had to sing in Spanish; also Jose Luis, (the bass player who came back from the States, was going back to the States for good);so we needed a bass player, and decided to talk to Flaco Barral who also just came back from Argentina, but Flaco Barral would join on condition that the Band was to sing in Spanish;he had songs in Spanish so we said yes, but my mate from Seconday School didn't agree with singing in Spanish; so he left Opus Alfa; we called Jorge Graf to play drums and that is the line up with which we did the BaRock Festival (Buenos Aires Rock) and also the only LP which the band recorded; both things were done in the City of Buenos Aires Argentina; we had opened the Argentinian market; Opus Alfa was one of the top Rock bands in Uruguay and Argentina by that time. I liked all the other guys, they were genuine guys who wanted to play music which we all liked; you have to realize that at that time, we were a very small minority, people didn't like guys with long hair, let alone hippies etc; so I guess we shared not just the music but also the way we like to live, we didn't like oppression, or persecution of any type.

We were against everybody claiming to be the answer in your life; we respected everybody's right to live in whichever way made them happy, as long as that didn't affect, or hurt someone else, or trying to change the way you think. We liked freedom of life, freedom of expression, and love life and love people and wanted everybody to be happy; if there is a song that I will always love and which talked exactly about how we felt was a song by “The young Rascals” called “People got to be free”. Our first performance with “Dias de Blues” was at the Solis Theatre in Uruguay, Montevideo, as a opening act for a great Argentinian singer named Litto Nebbia, who was the leader of the Argentinian “Los Gatos”, (remember we had in Uruguay “Dino y los gatos” way before Litto Nebbia came with his “Los gatos”, which by the way the had a huge hit called “La balsa” which was one of the most famous songs of that time, so he was big you know, and then we asked him if he would let us open the show for him, that we played blues and bla bla bla, and he said yes, and we opened the show for him and we and standing ovation, so that is how it all started with “Dias de Blues”, we were playing blues a la Cream, or a la Jimmy Hendrix, I remember we use to listen to Hendrix “Band of Gipsies” for hours non stop with Jorge Graf the drummer and we both loved that trio and of course the great drummer Buddy Miles, for me and Jorge, that was the best trio and the best album we had listened and still is a great album, period.

The decision to form Dias de Blues was almost natural and we all knew that the three of us on our own could play for days non stop; we would improvise for hours and talk to each other musically; so the other two guys were aware of that; now Jesus, the singer he continued as a solo artist, and recorded two albums , and he used all of us as his musicians; then Polo the keyboard and organ player started a PA system hiring business and remember that all those things were new then so he made money, and Polo loved money; so everybody was happy, no one got hurt you know; is just that Dias de Blues, the trio, was a kind of monster on his own you know, a force which was not easy to stop, and if you liked that type of music, you knew that we were doing it, we were playing it for real; of course, we had to sing in Spanish, so it could never conquer an English or American speaking market; but we didn't care about that, all we care for and loved was that music, which was Blues rock jazz soul funk R n’ B you know everything based on that great feeling. Opus Alfa had a more kind of mild approach to the lyrics; they were ok, but not to address the problems of the Uruguayan Society at that time; with Dias de Blues the lyrics were more aggressive, trying to awaken people to the changes that were happening in the world and that Uruguay was still ruled by very old ideas, ideas which applied to generations before ours and therefore obsolete; but we didn't want to destroy the good things and laws from the past, we wanted for people to be free from established ideas which were forced in their brains by routine.

We wanted people to start using their own brains and be free but also to have the responsibility which that freedom requires. One thing is to be free and healthy, another very different thing is to be free and sick. The De la Planta contract came through Koyo Abuchalja, who was the president of the company, and also the singer and rhythm guitarist of one of the great Uruguayan rock bands, if not the greatest, “Los Delfines”; he had an arrangement with the greatest sound and recording engineer of the times, Carlos Piriz, who could use the ESTUDIOS ION, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for free, during the weekends; so what they did is they would pay for the return tickets and the hotel for two days in Argentina, but you had to record the entire album during those two days; now, when you think about it, looks like an easy thing to do, but when you actually start doing it, you realize is not easy and that was the challenge; to record in two days and entire album; but we had so much training by playing all the time, live or rehearsing which we didn't think twice about it; that was how the Dias de Blues vinyl was recorded; we had a great time; Carlos Piriz, the recording engineer was also a master of his trade, and he did an amazing job he was absolutely great to work with.

Now I don’t remember dates I have the vinyl in Uruguay, but you can check details in the album. Whatever, I told you what I remember, how it came about, and bla bla bla, but I cannot remember dates, or times, all I remember are images, of us in Argentina, and the trip, which by the way, in that trip, Jorge Graf the drummer, and I met two South African sisters who were traveling to Argentina in the “Vapor de la carrera”, that is what the boat which crossed the River Plate was called at that time; we became friends and we had a great time during the trip; Jorge Barral who was a little older than us, was traveling with his wife then; but we all joined at the table and had a great time. The album art was made by Celmar Poume, a great Uruguayan artist who passed away now, but who was ahead of his time; when we talked to him we were all crazy with the album art work of the Beatles's “Revolver”, so that is where the idea came from but the one who actually came with that idea was Jorge Graf the drummer. Jorge was a very creative person and great drummer. After 1973 things got really bad in Uruguay with the political problems and most of the guys from our generation realized that there was no hope of change or improving the state of things. Uruguay was a real mess...

Bertolone and his very rare Gibson 150 DC from about forty years ago when he was playing with Espirito, Australian Funk and Latin Fusion.

I remember one morning I woke up and went out on the street and there was a shooting with machine guns and the army was after some Tupamaros who were hiding in my neighborhood and they would shoot any body, so you know, if you didn't have a gun then, you were dead meat. So most of the people from my generation, who at the time were the youth of Uruguay had two choices, stay in Uruguay and face whatever happened there, or leave Uruguay; now at that time I was about to get married and my father was living in Australia so he told me to forget about Uruguay and come to Australia; and am I glad I did, I fell in love with this country. But I also love USA, and at that time I had to decide where I wanted to go, but you see, the music and the spirit of the times were in the USA, but Australia was new, my father was here, and he was somehow the person who introduced me to music, so I say I go to Australia, to me it was like that old TV show “Adventures in Paradise” with Captain Troy and his Kontiki yatch, I mean, it was like a different planet coming here, I love it.

Oh I will die playing music man, I played here ever since I came, and made a good living out of it during the seventies and eighties; but here I had to grow musically, so I played in many different situations; I recorded two albums in Uruguay, one is called Con Fusion, which is a more jazz funk soul fusion album, instrumental, and in 2018, I won the “Premios Grafittis” in Uruguay (it would be like the Uruguayan version of the “Grammys” in the USA), with my album “Viaje Imaginario”, (Imaginary Voyage)which is also in that jazz funk soul fusion genre.you can listen to “Viaje imaginario” in you tube; I also have my band, “The Lovecats” which I perform here in Australia, but this band is my band you know, the name is mine, and I did some performances in Uruguay while I was there, you can also see some of the videos of a live performance in youtube. Now about your last question, I really appreciate the fans and listeners of Opus Alfa and Dias de Blues, but to me they are part of my past, and I cannot live in the past; I live the present and I have evolved from the music of that time naturally into more fusion music; so I am glad I have that background, but I didn't stop there, you know, that was one station in this incredible trip called life, and I am traveling in this incredible ship called planet Earth, hehe, I hope you enjoy the interview.

CHEERS!!

Dakota Brown

Daniel Bertolone - Dias De Blues

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