Juan Hitters: septiembre 2010

miércoles, 15 de septiembre de 2010

Puente Celeste's "Nama"

MA Recordings has just released Puente Celeste's last effort. Recorded in Buenos Aires in April 2010, it features Santiago Vazquez on percussion, Edgardo Cardozo on guitar and vocals, Luciano Dyzenchauz on double bass, Lucas Nicotian on piano and accordion and Marcelo Moguilevsky on winds. This band of wizards produce an intoxicating blend of folklore, unique in its style and dexterity. A stunning recording, it was produced and recorded by Todd Garfinkle from LA. Juan shot the recording session and the photos were used also as the cover of this CD.

What's on the CD player this week

New film about Architect César Pelli

What's on the CD player this week

"Sound City": real to reel. Dave Grohl has put together many wonderful musicians and directed a documentary film called Sound City. The movie is about the sheer joy of playing and recording plain (or not so plain) rock music starring Chris Goss, Joshua Homme, Rupert Neve, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, Trent Reznor, Rick Rubin and Paul Mc Cartney to name just a few. The soundtrack is a true marvel, similar in a way to Slash's first solo album. It has been on steady rotation since I came back from Sydney.

Keith Jarrett at Teatro Colon

Tonight Keith Jarrett is improvising on the piano at Teatro Colon. It has been nearly three decades since I listened to "The Köln Concert" for the first time. The experience was revealing. It is probably one of the albums I have enjoyed the most. I clearly remember once driving with friends along a deserted road someplace in Uruguay while listening to Keith play the old Bösendorfer in Cologne. The compact cassette sounded awful, but I could do nothing but wonder: listening to this beautiful music recorded many years ago, in a far away city, while driving through this lonely country, was magic! Well, life has been good to me, and gave me the opportunity of contributing to ECM on Keith Jarrett's "Testament" album cover, a recording of two improvised concerts in Paris and London. This was a couple of years ago. Tonight I will be listening to the man himself, no state of the art recording or crappy cassette, just an incredible musician playing the piano. You bet I am looking forward to this experience.