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Kind: News, Opinion Music Genre: Latin Categories: Entertainment, Arts, Music Published: January 12, 2010

Argentinian Jazz by Julio Santillan and Marta Gomez at New York's Blue Note Club

By DIETRICH MATTHÄUS

The Blue Note jazz club in New York is well-known for its diverse programs, often featuring headliners who are not New Yorkers. The club chain, with outposts in Japan, South Korea and Italy, was founded in 1981 and is not to be confused with the considerably older record label carrying the same name. In fact, in the 1990s, the Blue Note – the jazz club – also had its own record label, Half Note Records, which produced albums of memorable concerts at the club. In spite of a promising start, the label never reached a prominence on the jazz scene, and – as the name suggests – remained a half attempt. Several significant recordings, recorded at the Blue Note in Greenwich Village, in Manhattan, have, however, been released on other far more successful labels. The most important one may be "Keith Jarrett At the Blue Note", a CD box-set on the Munich based ECM Records, featuring his trio, Gary Peacock on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums.

Guitarist Julio Santillán's and singer Marta Gómez' Argentinian Jazz in New York album on Blue Music Group (recorded July 2006, released 2009) is a new acquaintance, also recorded at the Blue Note jazz club. These artists are more prominent in the folk music world than household names among traditional or modern jazz fans. The music by these artists is, however, very compatible with listeners who favor melodic and Latin Jazz, and as the name of the album suggests, the group consists of musicians with an equally adept jazz background, such as bassist Fernando Huergo, who has lived in New York for a long time. Marta Gómez is signed on Chesky Records, and uses roughly the same group on her solo career recordings as on this remarkable collective album, which contains compositions by Santillán, and lyrics by the Argentinian poet great, Jorge Luis Borges. The recording is a well-captured live release, although the drummer Franco Pinna's contribution is for my taste just a hair too low in the mix. The performance energy contains typical pros and cons of a live recording. Some of the missing details, which may be better captured in the studio, are here well compensated by an overall rhythmic togetherness and a tight approach toward a groove. These are helpful as the style is based on a tight groove, upon which the freely interpreted melody rests.

The songs belong to the Chacarera tradition, a South American folklore, which is alive in Bolivia, Chile and northern regions of Argentina. This music, a descendant from Spanish flamenco and Indian tribe music, fits well in a jazz context and will probably be introduced by these pioneers as a vital part of the jazz repertoire alongside several Brazilian and Afro-Cuban directions. All song titles and lyrics are in Spanish, which is a natural element of this music. But for those listeners who are inspired by the lyric contents equally or more than by the music itself, it would be helpful to have English translations available. But even without understanding the lyrics, this is very enjoyable and positively approached music, which will be a good addition into the collection of many new fans very soon.

argentinian.bluemusicgroup.com

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