Dino Saluzzi

Composer, arranger, and world-class bandoneon player Dino Saluzzi was born in 1935 in Campo Santo, Argentina, the son of multi-instrumentalist and composer Cayetano Saluzzi, and spent his childhood in Buenos Aires, where he was a member of the Orquestra Estable at Radio el Mundo. By the age of 14 he was already leading his own bands (his first was Trio Carnival) and by the ’80s, he had developed his unique bop-inflected and decidedly postmodern approach to the tango, an approach that has him artfully straddling the musical past, present, and future with casual yet acute balance. For all his association with the international avant-garde, Saluzzi still maintains his allegiance to the regional folk traditions of his youth, and that connection gives his sometimes fragmented compositions an uncommon center of gravity. Saluzzi’s lengthy discography includes the albums Kultrum, Once Upon a Time: Far Away in the South (both from 1985), Volver (1986), Andina (1988), Argentina (1990), Mojotoro (1991), Rios (1995), Cite de la Musique (1997), Senderos (2005), Juan Condori (2006), and Ojos Negros (2007). Encuentro, with Anja Lechner on violincello and brother Felix Saluzzi on tenor saxophone, along with the Metropole Orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley, was released on ECM in 2010. For 2011′s Navidad de los Andes (Andean Nativity), Saluzzi collaborated once again with Lechner and his brother Saluzzi. The same year the accordionist, violinist Gidon Kremer, and vibraphonist Andrei Pushkarev co-headlined the tribute date Giya Kancheli: Themes from the Songbook. Saluzzi didn’t record again with his own group again until 2013. That summer, he entered a Buenos Aires studio with his son José Maria on guitars, brother Felix on reed and winds, and his nephew Matias on bass, as well as guitarist Nicolas "Colacho" Brizuela and percussionist Quintino Cinalli. The resulting album was issued as El Valle de la Infancia in the summer of 2014. ~ Steve Leggett