Julio Preciado

Short biography

Before the mid of the 1980s, only a few famous ranchera singers tried to record with professional orchestras of the Banda of Sinaloa style. So the orchestras played quite only instrumental pieces.
During the eighties, a few singers whose most famous is M Lorenzo de Monteclaro abandoned the traditional nasal style of singing of the norteña music. Lorenzo de Monteclaro had a great impact because he was able to sing using ranges that are very high for most men. He experienced recording with various Banda de Sinaloa and was rather successful. Main orchestra in Mazatlan, then decided to incorporate full time singers in their members.
Julio Preciado is a legend because he was the first banda singer who became a driver of the success for the band he was in. Julio Preciado's years in Banda El Recodo are a reference for almost two or three generations of singers. Others singers, many of which were regionally famous also contributed maturing the style.
Touring with a famous banda like El Recodo is a very tiring and very intensive. Julio Preciado also innovated by creating his own banda for getting more power of decision on artistic choices and more flexible schedules. His departure from Banda El Recodo also proved that bandas are dependent of singing fashions in the global recording and entertainment industry and have to setup a policy to renew the style of their singers. The most evident and easy policy consisting in replacing the singers themselves. The separation of julio Preciado from Banda El Recodo inuduced a growth of the market of the bandas because his own voice had been widely accepted by the public, while the orchestra could rely both on the patrimony of songs he had made popular while sounding more up to date by relying on different singing technics.
Various alternative strategies nevertheless exist and Lorenzo de Monteclaro or Juilo Preciado are still successful singers. In 2022 and 2023, Julio Preciado participated in some events with Banda El recodo and looked very confortable at working with Giovanni Mondragon and Ricardo Yocupicio, the actual singers of the orchestra. Even if Giovanni Mondragon should probably now be considered as the most influential singer in the history of Banda El Recodo.