by Marvin Ramirez
Bass player Óscar Danilo Murillo at pianist Gullermo Guillen’s funerals. (photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)
Óscar Danilo Murillo was known, not only for his good bass playing in the San Francisco Latino music world, but for his tenderly character and simplicity as a human being, for which he was loved by most who knew him. He died approximate on Sunday, Dec. 20. He was 55 years old.
“He was someone who you can say, was never bitter, who lived a happy life,” said an unidentified man at the Driscoll’s Valencia Street Mortuary, where many of his musician friends came to pay their respect and to say good-bye during his two-day funeral services.
Known as El Poderoso (The Powerful), possibly after his short height and the strong sound his bass guitar projected, Mr. Murillo was well-known by most musicians who played Salsa and tropical music during nearly the last three decades in the Bay Area.
In music, the bass guitar is the instrument that is followed by the rest of the instruments; it is the sound that one can hear a mile away making building structures vibrate.
Mr. Murillo long music career spans back in Nicaragua, since the age of 16. Born in Managua, Nicaragua, on Sept. 25, 1954, he started playing rock music in the early 70 in the old Managua, before an earthquake destroyed the Nicaraguan capital to the ground on Dec. 23, 1972.
As many Managuans who fl ed the destruction of their city and who lost their homes, it is believed that Mr. Murillo, who worked for 12 years at Priority Parking in Downtown San Francisco, stayed in Managua a few years before leaving for Costa Rica, in search of new horizons in the music fi eld, since this country had become the mecca in entertainment for most Nicaraguans after the earthquake.
However, in 1979, he joined the popular group, Los Ramblers in Nicaragua, which took him to represent Nicaragua in Cuba’s festivals on July 1980. He returned to Cuba in 1981 to play at the Festival de Varadero.
At the time, Los Ramblers musical success was taking off, and they were invited to play in San Francisco in 1983, according to a band member, and it was during this tour that the members of the group, including Mr. Murillo, who was from Barrio Santo Domingo in Managua, decided to stay in the City by the Bay, which became their domicile up to this day.
The family of Oscar Danilo Murillo at the funeral house. (photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)
“He (Murillo) was an individual of good manners… a peaceful man who got along with everyone,” said Arturo Ibarra, the musical director of Los Ramblers.
Among the groups he played and recorded with, include, La Fórmula Infi nita, en San Francisco, Los Dandis, Los Gatos, in Costa Rica, Los Ramblers, with whom he recorded in Cuba the famous Calos Mejía Godoy’s song Alforja Campesina, Orquesta Borínquen and Sonora USA, Los Clarks in Nicaragua; and played with Macondo in Nicaragua, Orquesta de Roberto Lechuga and Orquesta Candente in San Francisco, Llama Viva in Nicaragua, Grupo Mestizo in San Francisco, Orquesta Marianao, Sol y Ritmo y Ana Daisy, in San Francisco, and Los Galos.
To his daugher Johana Lissette Murillo, who is blind, the loss is like losing more of her sight, but she has plenty to remember of him.
“He as the only one who took me to see Walt Disney movies,” when she was about 7 years old, before she lost her sight at age 16, said his daughter Johana Lissette to El Reportero.
She clearly remembers the sweet moments she spent with her dad, especially when he took her to watch the movie Bambi. Last time she was with Mr. Murillo was in May, in Los Angeles, when he came to visit her; and she was waiting to be united with him again the following weekend to spend this year’s Christmas with him. But this was not possible.
According to Johana Lissette, he might have died of asphyxia, after using an inhaler prescribed by the doctor, who prohibited him to drink alcohol when using the medicine.
After he didn’t showed up for work on Monday, his boss Antonio came to the house where he lived, and knocked at the door. But he only heard Mr. Murilo’s dog barking, said Johana Lissette. It was then that he called the police, so entering into the house through a another unit. Mr. Murillo was found dead on the floor. It is believed that he had been dead for two days. It is unknown if there was an autopsy performed.
Mr. Murillo is survived by his father Braulio Murillo, 82, who lives in Nicaragua; his mother Rosa Argentina Prado Castro, 80; two brothers, Omar Murillo, 51, and Héctor Prado, 36, two children, Danilo Murillo, 33, and Johana Lissette Murillo Wheelock, 36; and two grandchildren, Mauricio Emmanuel, 18 month-old, and Sofía Damilu, two-month-old.
The staff of El Reportero, but especially, its editor, Marvin Ramirez, send their most sincere condolence the grieving family.
