In 1919, José Martínez would leave Canaro’s orchestra to form his own. Canaro himself confessed some time after that, he thought, it would greatly weaken his orchestra:

“Bandoneonists were scarce and I turned to Minotto Di Cicco, who worked in Montevideo. And since he had nothing to envy Fresedo, he prevailed shortly after…

The problem came when José Martínez decided to form his own orchestra to premiere with it at the cabaret L’Abbaye, at Esmeralda Street. That was a regrettable casualty!

I supplanted him with Luis Riccardi, a pianist with a good technique… and I had to put up with the complaints from Royal’s clientele.

They noticed the change and missed the typical Martínez beat. It took me a lot to convince the clientele of the cabaret!”

He was, as a performer, a player with a very good technique and a great command of his instrument.

He used to impress his audience playing very elaborated embellishment notes —known in the milieu as «verduras»—.

One way in which he displayed his skills was playing two bandoneons, one with each hand, which were vertically placed on the floor.

As it was customary by that time, the financial situation was difficult so besides attending grade school he had to help his father who was a cobbler in the afternoon and in the evening he had to shout out the sixth edition of the newspapers in the streets.

In spite of the hard times he was little by little collecting cents to buy an accordion with only eight bass notes which he learned to play.

Then he and his brother José —who had a good voice— went out to play serenades around the neighborhood.

He composed around 200 pieces.

But with “Canaro en París” and “Seguime si podés” it would be enough to take him into account.