The long-awaited album by the Argentinean bandoneon giant Saluzzi and German cellist Lechner, known both for her work with the Rosamunde Quartet and her explorations outside it. It was, for instance, Lechner’s interest in Tango Nuevo that made the ongoing Saluzzi/Rosamunde “Kultrum” collaboration possible in the mid-90s; Anja and Dino have toured widely as a duo, too. Jazz Review editor Richard Cook described one of their concerts as being “as close to perfection as any music-making I can recently recall". Essentially chamber music with inspirational roots in Argentinean traditions “Ojos Negros” puts the emphasis on Saluzzi’s finely-crafted compositions but also has a strong improvised component.
Ojos Negros
Dino Saluzzi, Anja Lechner
- 1Tango a mi padre
04:16 - 2Minguito
06:56 - 3Esquina
08:38 - 4Duetto
06:00 - 5Ojos negros
05:48 - 6El títere
10:15 - 7Carretas
06:25 - 8Serenata
08:43
The Absolute Sound’s 2007 Golden Ear Music Awards
Vibrations, Le disque du mois
Before virtuoso Argentine musician–composer Astor Piazzolla came along in the mid–50’s, the bandoneon (button squeezebox) was primarily known as a sailor’s ‘toy’ accordion.
Twelve years after his death, there’s but one cat with instrumental and compositional chops audaciously iconoclastic enough to walk in El Maestro’s boots: Dino Saluzzi.
The album finds Saluzzi beautifully linking up with Lechner, cellist of the Rosamunde Quartet, to take tango to a dark noirish place that Piazzolla lovers dream of.
Tom Terrell, Global Rhythm – May 2007
Their program at the Skirball Center was a masterful display of cross-cultural chamber music. … Lechner’s cello phrases employed the full panoply of the instrument’s extraordinary potential, from sonorous low tones to high harmonics, from jazz-like pizzicatos to the metallic sounds of sul ponticello.
The effect, combined with the intensely atmospheric sound of Saluzzi’s bandoneon, was mesmerizing.
The music was further enhanced by the remarkably synchronized rubato playing. Even in the passages that simmered with an undercurrent of tango rhythms, the time flowed like a living, breathing entity, with Saluzzi and Lechner combining their phrases with the impeccable grace of a pair of elegant, sensuous dancers.
Solo selections provided an opportunity to display their individual improvisational skills. But this was an evening for togetherness, for duo playing of the highest quality.
Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times (April 21, 2007)
The combination of bandoneon and cello sounds exquisite. The rasp of the former curls against the plangent cry of the cello like an old lover. Saluzzi and Lechner take that textural relationship to rapturous places, performing seven Saluzzi compositons and Vicente Greco’s title work with passion and breathtaking drama.
DownBeat (May 2007)
Lechner has been able to get inside of this music and especially become one with Saluzzi, whose music, at this point, transcends tango. The resulting performance is beyond category…
Whatever it is – and Saluzzi would say, “I play music” – its emotional impact derives from a delicate intimacy that emerges from the music’s depth and breadth. Lechner, as a playing partner, has tapped into Saluzzi’s ability to communicate directly to the listener. They are talking to us, or better, we are overhearing a musical conversation with all artifice discarded, and what is left is from their hearts to ours. …
Ojos Negros is another gem in the ECM catalogue of gems, and will continually show new faces and reflections no matter how many times it is heard.
Budd Kopman, AllAboutJazz (April 20, 2007)
The duets between the Argentine bandoneon player and the German cellist are obsessed with romance and injected with filigree. The new Ojos Negros can be wickedly intricate, but the lithe nature of the musicians’ interplay always makes it disarmingly natural.
MacNie, The Village Voice (April 18-24, 2007)
The art of the Argentine bandoneon player Dino Saluzzi occupies the gray areas among tango, jazz and classical chamber music. … Ojos Negros, his new duet album with the classical cellist Anja Lechner, is a slow, luxurious version of that gray. It relates to specific musical styles and histories only in passing. Moving through original harmonic routes, thick with intelligent emotion, the record is original, easy to understand and difficult to absorb. Its small dramatic gestures keep momentarily stunning you.
Ben Ratliff, The New York Times (April 9, 2007)
Lechner, Saluzzi’s longtime collaborator, is an ideal duet partner. She’s an insightful interpreter and a performer who listens closely and responds with sensitivity. She also plays with great immediacy, a distinctive elegance, and an achingly beautiful tone.
Saluzzi has perhaps taken the bandoneon further than anyone who’s ever played. … Together, they achieve an exquisite balance, and at times, such as on “Minguito,” they sound as one sonorous voice. Even as they skirt conventional musical form, Saluzzi and Lechner evoke a deep sense of sadness and beauty that’s universal to human experience.
Ed Hazell, Jazziz
Wenn Saluzzi seinen Balg flüstern und rauschen und singen lässt, schafft er Erinnerungsräume von leuchtender, suggestiver Schönheit. Eine melancholische Magie geht von seinen eigenen Geschichten aus, und aller verfallen ihr, an denen noch eine Sehnsucht zieht, ein namenloses Heimweh nach Irgendwo und Langvorbei. …
Am vollkommensten gelingt diese Magie der Erinnerung, der Entwurf von wechselnden dunkelfarbigen Seelenlandschaften, wenn Saluzzi allein ist mit seinem Bandoneon. Dachte ich, bevor ich seine jüngste CD hörte, ein Duo mit der Cellistin Anja Lechner. … Die ungleichen Instrumente verschmelzen zu einem Einklang, zirkeln tänzerische Rituale, entwerfen spielerische Dialoge, verschlingen und entschlingen sich – nicht auszumachen, wo der Diskurs improvisiert, wo er auskomponiert ist. Jazz? Ach was, einfach intimste Kunst von großer Intensität und Vollkommenheit.
Peter Rüedi, Weltwoche
Hier zuckt kein Tanzbein, dominiert kein Milonga-Machismo, was vielleicht daran liegt, dass Saluzzi aus der hübschen Provinzhauptstadt Salta in den Kordilleren stammt und nicht aus Buenos Aires. … Anja Lechners Finesse und wundersam verhaltene Phrasierung tragen zum ungewöhnlichen und dennoch so argentinischen Charakter dieser Musik entscheidend bei – Sehnsucht nach dem Gewesenen. Eine stille Sensation.
Volker Tarnow, Partituren
If I were to tell you that four month into 2007, I already had a nomination fort he year’s best-sounding record, you might think me daring. If I told you that it features bandoneon and cello, you’d probably think me barking mad. But there it is. … What’s astonishing about the music is the amount of tonal color the two instrumentalists coax out of not just their instruments, but their interplay. Melodic lines shift effortlessly from cello to bandoneon and back again. Both Saluzzi and Lechner are superb continuo players, keeping the performances moving forward without endlessly recapitulating the same passages.
Wes Phillips, Stereophile
This is a wonderful recording that offers great musical delight
The music, primarily compositions by Saluzzi, is wistful, playful, melodic, melancholy, joyous, and always expressive.
This is truly irresistible music!
W. Nehring, The Sensible Sound
“As close to perfection as any music-making I can recently recall”
Richard Cook, Jazz Review, on the Saluzzi/Lechner duo in concert
Chamber music with inspirational roots in Argentinean traditions: “Ojos Negros” puts the emphasis on Dino Saluzzi’s finely-crafted compositions – and adds the beautiful old tango by Vicente Greco that is the album’s title track. Interplay and improvisation also have roles to play in a recording that follows six years of duo concerts as well as ten years of collaboration between bandoneon master Saluzzi and the Rosamunde Quartet, of which cellist Anja Lechner is a founder member. They have taken their time to get this right.
A classical musician firstly, Anja Lechner’s interest in tango goes back some 25 years, when she formed a duo with pianist Peter Ludwig to play their German interpretations of the idiom. She gave her first concerts in Argentina in the early 1980s and made a point of looking for tango’s master musicians. But she first encountered Dino Saluzzi at a Munich concert where he played solo bandoneon. “He was playing a music that was really his own. When we finally began to play together I can say that I entered a new world.”
The shared work has been a gradual process of becoming freer with the material while respecting it, resulting in a very integrated music. Saluzzi praises the cellist’s commitment and stylistic independence: “Anja has become part of the music without losing her own identity. I think this is very important. She doesn’t try to imitate the tango players. She has her own sound and character, and this makes our project together culturally richer.”
Richard Cook, Jazz Review, on the Saluzzi/Lechner duo in concert
Chamber music with inspirational roots in Argentinean traditions: “Ojos Negros” puts the emphasis on Dino Saluzzi’s finely-crafted compositions – and adds the beautiful old tango by Vicente Greco that is the album’s title track. Interplay and improvisation also have roles to play in a recording that follows six years of duo concerts as well as ten years of collaboration between bandoneon master Saluzzi and the Rosamunde Quartet, of which cellist Anja Lechner is a founder member. They have taken their time to get this right.
A classical musician firstly, Anja Lechner’s interest in tango goes back some 25 years, when she formed a duo with pianist Peter Ludwig to play their German interpretations of the idiom. She gave her first concerts in Argentina in the early 1980s and made a point of looking for tango’s master musicians. But she first encountered Dino Saluzzi at a Munich concert where he played solo bandoneon. “He was playing a music that was really his own. When we finally began to play together I can say that I entered a new world.”
The shared work has been a gradual process of becoming freer with the material while respecting it, resulting in a very integrated music. Saluzzi praises the cellist’s commitment and stylistic independence: “Anja has become part of the music without losing her own identity. I think this is very important. She doesn’t try to imitate the tango players. She has her own sound and character, and this makes our project together culturally richer.”
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