Formed in Lima in the late 1960’s by Nelsón Canevello Pardo, who served as the group’s director and lead guitarist. Truly a family affair, the group further consisted of Nelsón’s brothers Fernando (AKA Papi) on backup guitar and bass, Reynaldo the timbalista, Germán on the guiro and maracas, and Juan played the bongos at the tender age of 11! One member of the group was not a brother, but according to the liner notes of the first LP, he was considered as such, tumba and quinto player Pancho Lema. Based off of photos on the albums it appears Pancho was replaced by the time the third LP was released but I can’t confirm this.
The group signed with Fabricantes Tecnicos Asociados (FTA) in the latter half of 1969.I know the group had their own label CANPAR (CANevello-PARdo) but I’m only familiar with Los Ecos release on the label. If you have any other tracks released on the label please let me know. At a later point in their career Los Beta 5 started adding vocals to their songs as sung by Chango (Eugenio Chavez).
As far as I can tell, Nelson died of a heart attack (year unknown), Reynaldo died of Parkinsons (year unknown), and German die of cardiac arrest. Juan lives in Callao and is the leader of his group KOMBINACION PERFECTA. Fernando’s whereabouts are unknown.
perumbia.com 