Beautiful secrets
Sam Calder | 10/09/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It seems pointless writing a review for this album. It's almost as if you will either come across it in the journey of your life or you will not. If the timing isn't right it will just waft past you like the scent of a beautiful flower that you pass walking along a darkened path that you can never find again.I was lucky enough to come across this album in late 1999 and I have a funny feeling that it will remain on my top-five-most-beautiful-albums list for a long time to come.It's not as if there's a particular person or event in my life that this album reminds me of, it's a sort of a collage of everything beautiful and tragic that has ever happened in my 42 years of living. It's a medium to a whole collection of memory-feelings all bundled up together.More than once I have dozed off (stone cold sober) while listening to this album and have "come to" sensing the most vivid yet indescribable feelings, particularly during the last two tracks.I agree with the other reviews of this album - each of which is personal. Unlike other reviewers I can't put any visual images to the music on this album. I can't even tell my closest friends what I feel some times when I listen to this album. I just feel it.This beautifully dark and sensual album is mood altering if you can allow it to get in."
Bandoneonology
M. Grigoryan | Santa Monica,CA | 08/07/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Argentinean Dino Saluzzi manages to be a great bandeonist and sound different from great Astor Piazzolla. His music is much closer to new age than to "nuevo tango" invented by Piazzolla and Co, his approach is more "down-to-earth" and "minimalistic" yet still bears an influence on Argentinean music . That's what makes him interesting for me and I love this album in particular because of "chamber sound" if you know what I mean. Like you seat in a big dark room next to a fireplace and the guys are playing for you. Five stars"
Beautiful
M. Grigoryan | 10/30/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
" Dino Saluzzi Cite de la Musique (ECM 1616) This is one nice record for Dino Saluzzi who has been around for some time now. I first heard of him many moons ago when he had released Kultrum, again on ECM. What an eye opener that was. Such passion and power. This particular recording is very down tempo for Saluzzi and features his son Jose (who played drums on a previous release by Saluzzi entitled Mojotoro ) on guitar. I am not familiar with Jose but he is a very competent and sensitive guitarist. Very reminiscent of Al Di Meola. With father Dino on the squeeze box and Marc Johnson on acoustic bass, you can not go wrong. Saluzzi will no doubt be taking over the title of king of the bandoneon now that Astor has departed by virtue of the fact that there are not too many bandoneon players with such a high profile around. Dino Saluzzi has a wonderful way of playing this instrument. Many a time have I heard him take a tune and bend and twist the notes to such a degree that the emotion not only pours out of his playing but also the listener. He is such a great musician and in case you are not familiar with his past he has worked in the past with folks like Charlie Haden, Enrico Rava and Charlie Mariano. Don't be fooled though. Even though he plays the bandoneon this is not the tango music of Argentina. It's not jazz either. If anything I guess it would comfortably sit in the world music section of my collection. The playing is of an intelligent nature. This is why I adore the ECM label. I have said it before and I will say it again. Consistency is what makes or breaks a label. Marc Johnson proves yet again what a great bass player and improviser he is. I first took note of him with another release on ECM entitled Bass Desires. The great thing about all these musicians are that they are relatively ego free and that they just get on with the job of playing and creating beautiful music. With the exception of one track, most of the music here has been composed by Dino Saluzzi. A beautiful album if ever I heard one."