Jorge Lopez Ruiz - 1978 - Un Hombre de Buenos Aires

Jorge Lopez Ruiz

1978

Un Hombre de Buenos Aires

01. El Grito Del Hombre 8:04

02. La Nostalgia Del Hombre 3:55

03. La Alegria Del Hombre 4:03

04. El Ruego Del Hombre 4:51

05. El Adios Del Hombre 9:05

Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass, Piano – Jorge Lopez Ruiz

Bandoneon – Dino Saluzzi

Double Bass – Hector Console

Drums – Pocho Lapouble

Electric Piano – Gustavo Moretto

Guitar – Oscar Lopez Ruiz

Percussion – Domingo Cura, José Maria Loriente

Piano – Pablo Ziegler

Soprano Saxophone – Andres Boiarsky

Trumpet – Victor Ducatenzeiler

Violin – Antonio Agri

Vocals – Donna Caroll

Jorge López Ruiz is one of the most creative and versatile musical talents to come out of Argentina. He is a bassist, trumpeter, composer and arranger familiar with many genres of music. He has done jazz, pop, and has written movie scores.

Like many other artists of the late '60s and '70s, López Ruiz deplored the turn that the political situation in Argentina was taking in most of the Latin American countries . Political fighting across the continent became increasingly violent as the military and the far right took control. In Argentina, two democratically elected presidents, Frondizi (1962) and Illia (1966), were overthrown by military coups. In 1966 a military dictatorship was imposed under the command of General Onganía, which generated a strong reaction of discontent and rebellion in the population; the demonstrations became increasingly violent and dangerous for both the protesters and the police.

On the other hand, the military responded in an increasingly brutal way to this popular rejection, with kidnapping, torture and summary executions. This was the climate in which Ruiz, and other artists, had to function.

Despite everything, they were able to produce tremendously creative and revolutionary work, both musically and in a political and social sense.

BA Jazz , the album with which Jorge López Ruiz debuted, was released in 1961. It was a mixture of covers and original material by the artist. A young musician named Leandro Barbieri took part in this album on the tenor saxophone. Later, Leandro would become Gato Barbieri, one of the Argentine musicians with the greatest international projection.

Alongside his impressive career as a musician, López Ruiz was the A&R director of la Trova Records, a leading Argentine label that made recordings of iconic Argentine artists such as Astor Piazzola. I am not going to talk about his teaching activity, which is also very fruitful, because it would take me a long time and perhaps it would be out of place here.

As a double bass player and composer, López Ruiz wrote music for more than sixty films and some forty plays. The list of his musical collaborations is impressive; among others, he collaborated with Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and João Gilberto, as well as with Argentine jazz figures such as drummer Pichy Mazzei in the early 1960s and saxophonist Chivo Borrao on the album En Vivo (1973).

From the late 1960s to the 1970s, López Ruiz's success was on the rise: he released magnificent works such as El Grito (1967), Bronca en Buenos Aires (1971) - both banned by the military dictatorship -, De Prepo ( 1972), Viejas Raíces (1975), Viejas Raíces II (1976) and A man from Buenos Aires (1978), a work that we are dealing with today.

Musicians like José Afonso, or Jorge López Ruiz, show us that music can be more than just a pretty decoration or fleeting entertainment: music can be the epicenter of a revolution. Because if it were not so, it would not be necessary for totalitarian regimes to prohibit it, when it questions and dismantles them, not only with words, but with the feeling of freedom that it transmits, something that in itself is a threat to any dictatorship.

To finish, A man from Buenos Aires is a concert in five movements, which wants to reflect the desires of the human being throughout his life, from the experiences of a man from Buenos Aires.

As you can see, the cream of the Argentine folk and jazz scene of the time intervenes on the record: from the bandoneonist Dino Saluzzi to the brilliant percussionist Domingo Cura.

The vocal group Buenos Aires 8 with Donna Carroll, although at times they sound a little old-fashioned to me , in general they do an excellent job.

A Man from Buenos Aires is an avant-garde work that is still current and current, which for me is very important to rescue from oblivion. The progressive and free spirit that emanates from his notes can be a great antidote to hardness of mind and heart.