Monday, May 21, 2007
Dino Saluzzi Familia at the 6th Buenos Aires Jazz y Otras Músicas Festival
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Dino Saluzzi is one of those musicians who should be put in the “unclassifiable” section of your iTunes library. A master bandoneón player originally from the Salta province in northern Argentina who has spend long periods living in Buenos Aires and in Europe, Saluzzi sounds equally comfortable playing regional folk music, tango, modern jazz, and contemporary classical music, as attested to by his extensive and wide ranging discography as both a leader and a sideman. His original music sounds simultaneously committed to each of these styles, making it both highly complex but also deeply expressive and feelingful. His bandoneón playing echoes these same tendencies, ranging from edgy, almost crystalline improvisatory lines that bring to mind the work of brainiac saxophonist Steve Coleman to fantastically low, barely rhythmic rumblings that evoke both the oppressive heat of a summer in Salta and the origins of the bandoneón as a pipe organ replacement in poor German churches circa 1860. To that expressive range, Saluzzi adds an attention to sonic detail that, in my experience, is nearly unrivaled: you know a guy is serious about sound when he brings his own microphones and mixing equipment to the gig! This focus on sound makes Saluzzi the perfect artist for German music producer Manfred Eicher’s ECM record label, for which Saluzzi has been recording in one way or another since 1985.
Not only is Saluzzi a talented guy, but he also has a talented family: aside from Dino on the bandoneón, tonight’s band featured Dino’s brother Félix Saluzzi on saxophone and clarinet; his son José Saluzzi on guitar; his other son Matías Saluzzi on electric bass; and (I believe) his son-in-law Gabriel Said on drums and percussion. He even brought out his niece, whose name I did not catch (it was "something Saluzzi"), as a guest artist to play flute on a few songs. This kind of “family band” setup would surely feel gimmicky if they were not so damn good, and I left the concert convinced that there must be a gene for musical talent and creativity that has yet to be discovered. Either that or there is something special in the water back at the Saluzzi family home. Whatever it is, the Saluzzi familia, as individuals and as a whole, has got it. The concert unfolded as a series of flawlessly executed compositions of tremendous scope and range, each of which was approached with a calm, poised intensity that kept much of the large audience rapt despite the deliberately low volume levels, which made some passages sound like little more than a whisper. Guitarist José Saluzzi brought a particularly delicate touch to the group, shining on a folkloric-tinged homage to Argentine icon Atahualpa Yupanqui, which, like much of what played this night, was at once rooted in the sound and tradition of Argentine music and extended far beyond it.
But despite my ravings, not everyone in the audience liked the betwixt and between approach of the band as much as I did. After the second song a real heckler approached the stage—a young guy with a guitar bag over his shoulder and a whole bottle of wine in his hand—yelling “this is a jazz festival: play jazz, play jazz!!!” As the security guards gently escorted him away from the stage and out of the venue, Dino replied “This is the youth of today for you! A bunch of drunks and drug addicts!” This in turn elicited loud cries to the contrary from the largely young audience, who clearly did not appreciate being dismissed as a generation en masse because one joker who happened to be young acted out. A few more songs had to go by before the audience felt like it had really settled down from this incident, and in that time a small stream of people who clearly did not like what they were hearing also headed for the doors. At least they did not feel like they had to yell about it too.
Saluzzi’s music, for all its expressiveness, is not the most accessible, even compared to some of the modern jazz figures that are sharing the bill at this city government sponsored festival, so I am not surprised that not everyone enjoyed it. (I should also say that the vast majority stayed and gave the group a standing ovation and demanded encores in typical Argentine fashion.) But I also wonder, however, if there might be a more generalized hostility towards Saluzzi here in Argentina, because he won’t play tango (or jazz, or folklore, or...) “the right way,” or because he has spent so much time living abroad? I will have to ask around to really find out about that, but even Saluzzi found the tension coming from the audience noteworthy. “It is always hard to play at home,” he announced from the stage early in the concert. “Tonight, after the concert, I am not going back to the hotel, I am going to my house. I am at home.” Instead of responding to this with cheers, as I would have expected from such a speech in such a context, the audience let out little more than a murmur peppered with some lackluster applause, and waited for the next song to start.
Related Recording
Dino Saluzzi Group, Juan Condori (ECM) 2005.
Related Links
www.saluzzimusic.com
http://www.musicaba.buenosaires.gov.ar/
Dino Saluzzi is one of those musicians who should be put in the “unclassifiable” section of your iTunes library. A master bandoneón player originally from the Salta province in northern Argentina who has spend long periods living in Buenos Aires and in Europe, Saluzzi sounds equally comfortable playing regional folk music, tango, modern jazz, and contemporary classical music, as attested to by his extensive and wide ranging discography as both a leader and a sideman. His original music sounds simultaneously committed to each of these styles, making it both highly complex but also deeply expressive and feelingful. His bandoneón playing echoes these same tendencies, ranging from edgy, almost crystalline improvisatory lines that bring to mind the work of brainiac saxophonist Steve Coleman to fantastically low, barely rhythmic rumblings that evoke both the oppressive heat of a summer in Salta and the origins of the bandoneón as a pipe organ replacement in poor German churches circa 1860. To that expressive range, Saluzzi adds an attention to sonic detail that, in my experience, is nearly unrivaled: you know a guy is serious about sound when he brings his own microphones and mixing equipment to the gig! This focus on sound makes Saluzzi the perfect artist for German music producer Manfred Eicher’s ECM record label, for which Saluzzi has been recording in one way or another since 1985.
Not only is Saluzzi a talented guy, but he also has a talented family: aside from Dino on the bandoneón, tonight’s band featured Dino’s brother Félix Saluzzi on saxophone and clarinet; his son José Saluzzi on guitar; his other son Matías Saluzzi on electric bass; and (I believe) his son-in-law Gabriel Said on drums and percussion. He even brought out his niece, whose name I did not catch (it was "something Saluzzi"), as a guest artist to play flute on a few songs. This kind of “family band” setup would surely feel gimmicky if they were not so damn good, and I left the concert convinced that there must be a gene for musical talent and creativity that has yet to be discovered. Either that or there is something special in the water back at the Saluzzi family home. Whatever it is, the Saluzzi familia, as individuals and as a whole, has got it. The concert unfolded as a series of flawlessly executed compositions of tremendous scope and range, each of which was approached with a calm, poised intensity that kept much of the large audience rapt despite the deliberately low volume levels, which made some passages sound like little more than a whisper. Guitarist José Saluzzi brought a particularly delicate touch to the group, shining on a folkloric-tinged homage to Argentine icon Atahualpa Yupanqui, which, like much of what played this night, was at once rooted in the sound and tradition of Argentine music and extended far beyond it.
But despite my ravings, not everyone in the audience liked the betwixt and between approach of the band as much as I did. After the second song a real heckler approached the stage—a young guy with a guitar bag over his shoulder and a whole bottle of wine in his hand—yelling “this is a jazz festival: play jazz, play jazz!!!” As the security guards gently escorted him away from the stage and out of the venue, Dino replied “This is the youth of today for you! A bunch of drunks and drug addicts!” This in turn elicited loud cries to the contrary from the largely young audience, who clearly did not appreciate being dismissed as a generation en masse because one joker who happened to be young acted out. A few more songs had to go by before the audience felt like it had really settled down from this incident, and in that time a small stream of people who clearly did not like what they were hearing also headed for the doors. At least they did not feel like they had to yell about it too.
Saluzzi’s music, for all its expressiveness, is not the most accessible, even compared to some of the modern jazz figures that are sharing the bill at this city government sponsored festival, so I am not surprised that not everyone enjoyed it. (I should also say that the vast majority stayed and gave the group a standing ovation and demanded encores in typical Argentine fashion.) But I also wonder, however, if there might be a more generalized hostility towards Saluzzi here in Argentina, because he won’t play tango (or jazz, or folklore, or...) “the right way,” or because he has spent so much time living abroad? I will have to ask around to really find out about that, but even Saluzzi found the tension coming from the audience noteworthy. “It is always hard to play at home,” he announced from the stage early in the concert. “Tonight, after the concert, I am not going back to the hotel, I am going to my house. I am at home.” Instead of responding to this with cheers, as I would have expected from such a speech in such a context, the audience let out little more than a murmur peppered with some lackluster applause, and waited for the next song to start.
Related Recording
Dino Saluzzi Group, Juan Condori (ECM) 2005.
Related Links
www.saluzzimusic.com
http://www.musicaba.buenosaires.gov.ar/
