Quino Orrantia: ‘Ñañon Jurado was, for me, my Jedi Master’

When it was learned today of the death of Julio Cesar Jurado Acostaknown as Ñañon Jury, several artists echoed the sad news.

Jurado was the creator of the Guayaquil band Clip in 1985, and with the song Are you here the band achieved fame with the voice of Quino Orrantia (also keyboards), Rafael Peralta (guitar), Aldo Jalón (guitar) and José Tapia (drums).

Ñañon had been suffering from an illness and it was precisely several colleagues, friends and relatives who shared – months ago – on social networks a call to help pay for the musician’s medical expenses.

One of them was Quino Orrantia. When we interviewed him he was getting ready to attend the funeral of his great friend in Parque Jardines de Esperanza.

When asked about a moment he remembers most about Jurado, Quino says that an entire book could be made with interesting anecdotes about Ñañon. “Since I met him, when I saw him play in the group Uf, for me it was a musical revelation; It was like listening to a group so good because of the music they played. From there and since he called me to be in the group, which was already formed, because I was the last to enter, all the others are more original than me in the group. I believe that the teachings that Ñañon left us are the things that we will take with us and carry with us for life, because when he left the group we always remembered the things he told us. We share the teachings in life and emphasize them. At some point we told him: ‘Look, Ñañon, you taught us to do that and we continue to do it’. I remember that, during a gig at a telethon organized by channel 10, he was a singer and they wanted to put us in a corner with a snare drum, nothing else, not even the drums. And he said, ‘No, we’re not going to play.’ We peladitos told him: ‘Ñañon, come on, it’s television, they’re going to see us’. He answered us: ‘You have to make yourself respected; If you don’t make yourself respected first, you’re going to look bad. So, better not, why play? He always told us: ‘Don’t ask for support. Nope, none of that. Here the support has to come only if you are good; if you’re bad, they can never help you. So worry about being good.’ We had a lot of things on our minds, but he came with his experience and changed everything for us”, he relates.

Let’s remember that Jurado had already played in Marfil, in Los Gallardos “and a lot of other people. The best thing he left us was his teachings”, says Quino.

In the interviews he has given Orrantia has always referred to Ñañon as his teacher jedi. “That she took me out, rescued me from quicksand where I was musically involved. He told me: ‘Come here, I’m going to teach you something new in music. Look, there is this, like James Taylor, Chicago (a group led by Peter Cetera), so you can listen and get to know’. Then I began to see a whole musical world different from the one I knew. Ñañón was a lesson in morals, music and how to handle myself as an artist”, recalls Quino.

‘Ñañón’ Jurado, creator of Clip and declared great fan of Emelec, passed away

No hard feelings

In 1987, Ñañon Jurado separated from Clip. Moment that Orrantia remembers it like this: “Yes, there was a kind of distancing, because he left us with a half-finished album, that is, the only thing missing was for him to sing, and he never appeared. The disk was ready. He, for his reasons, which I think were worth it… He had met a girl and fell madly in love, whose relationship lasted until the end of his days. So it was worth getting out of the group if we look at it objectively. That distancing caused by Ñañon’s decision did put us in trouble, but in the same way we take it as a lesson. We said, ‘Let’s see how we come out of this, let’s get this record out, let’s find singers.’ And after a year we found the vocalist, which ended up being me.”

In 2006, Quino led the comeback of Clip without Ñañon. “Things were clear, because he knew that he had left the group, nobody told him anything else. Imagine, he was the creator. There was never a grudge after that. He was aware that our career continued without him, and that’s when we released other songs, other hits. Perhaps later, when the group stopped playing, back in 2012 or 2013, Ñañon did want to rejoin us. So we did some gigs.”

Disease of ‘Ñañon’ Jurado

Quino limited himself to commenting on the illness that Jurado had been suffering from. “I wouldn’t want to give a wrong diagnosis, but I know it was some kind of lung cancer; and, at the end, it went to the brain. Since October or November of last year we learned that it was happening to the brain. It is the only thing I can tell you, ”he pointed out.

The funeral, says Quino, will be attended by all the members of Clip. “We have always been in contact. Imagine, two years ago we did a Show to raise funds to cover the costs of Ñañon’s treatment. We’ve all been together ever since. Last year we made a documentary that hasn’t been released yet; but, well, very soon it will come out, in which Ñañon is also included. We even have plans to do a little tour with everyone who was part of the group; but, well, unfortunately with Ñañon it won’t be possible to do it, but we did other things last year that will remain in the memory”.

They will soon release a documentary – whose presentation was delayed by the pandemic. This will deal with Clip’s musical career and can also be heard It costs nothing to dream, soap opera theme song Valeria, along with Daniel Betancourt. “In any case, Ñañon is also part of this audiovisual production. It was incredible, because Jorge Luis Bohórquez (Borkis Music Entertainment) told me: ‘How cool that we were able to record with him’; including the song walk with youthat Ñañon composed”.

The last time Orrantia and Jurado spoke was at the end of December. “When she came to my house to talk about a job. Before coming she told me that she couldn’t walk, that she was in a wheelchair; but when he arrived, she got out of the car and we had the hug of life, which lasted more than a minute. It was something very exciting. That is the last nice memory I have of him”.