Ecm Records
2006
Juan Condori
About This Album
Argentinean composer and bandoneon master Dino Saluzzi's group includes many family members including José Maria Saluzzi on guitars, Felix "Cuchara" Saluzzi playing saxophones and clarinet, and Matias Saluzzi is featured on acoustic and electric bass, with the great Italian drummer U.T. Ghandi on hand for this session recorded at home in Buenos Aires. Juan Condori is Saluzzi at his most relaxed and instinctive. This music is deeply embedded in the folk traditions of the region, as well as the tango and the ballroom music of the country, both rural and urban in an era long gone. The title of the set refers to an old childhood friend from an indigenous family who Saluzzi refers to as "an almost magical figure." Clocking in at over 76 minutes, this is one of those dates where one piece seems to naturally flow into the next, the warmth of the ensemble, and their instinctive familiarity with one another in the title track, where what amounts to a kind of memento mori is played for the namesake. The sounds of the mountains, the sunset, the trees and the lush valleys evoke a time that has always been previous. The interplay between bandoneon and acoustic guitar is simply as mysterious as it is mournful.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,4,5,6,8 and 9)

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