20.05.2020 | Artist

Dino Saluzzi @ 85

Birthday greetings to Dino Saluzzi, Argentinean bandoneon master, who is 85 today.

Dino’s first ECM album Kultrum was recorded 38 years ago. Since then his art has found expression in many formats on more than twenty further recordings, where he’s been heard in chamber music and orchestral contexts, as well with his family band, with jazz musicians, and alone. In each situation, he remains a unique musical narrator offering new insights into his homeland, history and memories.  As Dino has said, “If you’re authentic and open to receiving influences from your surroundings, surely you’ll express your surroundings.”

If Argentinean associations abound in  Dino’s compositions, he has welcomed many international contributors into his world – among them Anja Lechner, the Rosamunde Quartet, Marc Johnson, Palle Danielsson, Jon Christensen, Palle Mikkelborg, Enrico Rava, Charlie Haden, Pierre Favre –   and he has also lent his creative energies to the music of others: see for instance his contributions to  Giya Kancheli’s “Themes from the Songbook” or  Tomasz Stanko’s “From the Green Hill”.

The evocative quality of his work has been recognised by film directors who have incorporated the characteristic sound of his bandoneon into their works – from Jean-Luc Godard’s Nouvelle Vague and Histoire(s) du Cinéma to Fernando Meirelles’ The Two Popes. Listeners can look forward to more Saluzzi on ECM later this year, when a new solo album, Albores, will be released.

Photo © Juan Hitters