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Timoteo "Dino" Saluzzi (ARG), b. May 21, 1935, was part of Erling Kroners "Dream Quintet" with Quique Sinesi (g) and featuring Dino Saluzzi (band) at the JAZZPAR 1998 Project.
Trained by his father, who, besides working at a sugar cane factory barely able to support the family, also was a folk-musician, Dino Saluzzi started playing the bandoneon at the age of seven. (The diatonic variety of the accordion was developed by the German: Heinrich Band.) While studying in Buenos Aires he began to play professionally and became member of the symphonic Orquesta Estable at Radio El Mundo. He met Astor Piazolla as the term "tango nuevo" began to be aired. He became member of Enrique Francini's tango-orchestra in 1955 hence forming his own group El Pen Tango.
A new septet was formed in 1970 working with folklore as well as tango. Saluzzi was featured on Gato Barbieri's record "Chapter One: Latin America" in 73 and gained recognition outside tango circles due to his virtuous and deeply felt bandoneon-playing and improvisation. He worked as arranger and soloist for Enrique Mario Francini's Sinfonica de Tango which brought him to Japan in 77. In Europe his Cuarteto Dino Saluzzi made headlines in 79 where he also co-founded the experimental chamber ensemble Música Creativa. From the 80s onwards Saluzzi collaborated with numerous European and American jazz musicians. He toured and recorded with George Gruntz Concert Band and recorded solo "Kultrum", also singing and playing percussion, in 1982-83. Since he has toured Europe and recorded and performed with Enrico Rava, Louis Sclavis, Charlie Mariano, Al DiMeola, Anthony Cox and many others, inevitably able to maintain his strong identity in each context - albeit most profoundly when he performs on his own conditions.
In Saluzzi's hands, the bandoneon sometimes has the harmonic qualities of a cathedral pipe organ, at other times it sings lyrical melodic lines, paints abstract soundscapes and tells evocative stories. Saluzzi's CD "Cite De La Musique" should be required listening for lite jazz cats aspiring to break through superficialities and play truly enrapturing music, Dan Ouellette ends his review in Down Beat.
The Argentinean bandoneon master Dino Saluzzi has freed the tango from its fixed structure, employing virtuous runs, uneven metres, blue notes and jazz phrasing. He is a purist of sound. Tango for Saluzzi is concentrated emotion: yearning, rebellion and rapture. He attempts to express the widest range of feelings. He is concerned that his music should not fall into an eclecticism that has feebled several variants of Latin American music. He seeks a flexible, vital and real form beyond conventions. Saluzzi's approach is a compositional one, influenced by his classical studies but strongly biased by his folk roots, be it tango, candombe, candina, or milonga. Saluzzi has always maintained that his folk roots are the most crucial element of his music.
The discography of Saluzzi is extensive with numerous recordings in Argentina and on the ECM-label - one of them, "Once Upon A Time - Far Away In The South" (ECM, 1985), with Palle Mikkelborg, Charlie Haden and Pierre Favre. The ECM-recording, "Mojotoro", is the first of his European releases recorded in Argentina with a band comprising family and friends.
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