Argentine composer-performer Dino Saluzzi is a bandoneonista, a master of the button-box accordion that was invented in 19th-century Germany but is best known as the native voice of the tango. Born in 1935, Saluzzi has had a wide variety of musical experience in various genres such as folk, jazz and tango, but his own very individual music defies easy classification, definitely haunted by the wistful soul of tango but perhaps reaching a little further, toward Argentina's native heritage, alloying the sense of longing and nostalgia with exquisite delicacy and understatement.
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Milanese pianist and composer Stefano Battaglia has walked on both sides of the classical and jazz street with ease and comfort. Whether performing Bill Evans or Pierre Boulez, he plays with integrity and authority. The double-disc Raccolto is his ECM debut, and he performs in two different settings to illustrate his tremendous gifts as both an improviser and a composer. His romantic leanings and sometimes pointillistic playing reveal his influences, from Evans to Paul Bley to Keith Jarrett. He carries his mentors with ease inside his gig bag. Disc one showcases Battaglia in a jazz trio setting with bassist Giovanni Maier and percussionist Michele Rabbia (who plays on both discs).
Argentinean composer and bandoneon master Dino Saluzzi's group includes many family members including Josй 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."