By Matt Micucci
Musician, composer and band leader Dino Saluzzi has been named as the winner of the Premio Konex de Brillante. The presentation will be taking place on Nov. 10 in Buenos Aires’ Konex Cultural Centre.
Dino Saluzzi was born in Campo Santo, Salta Province, located in the Northwest of Argentina. Despite spending most of his youth in Buenos Aires, Salta left an impact on his musical career, and he would see the vividness of his musical sketches as “an imaginary return” to the little towns and villages of his childhood.
It was in his childhood that Saluzzi started playing the bandoneon, and he quickly became a master improviser and composer of music beyond genre. His discography includes solo music, duets and trios, chamber music, orchestral works, meetngs with classical and jazz musicians and ongoing collaborations with members of his family.
In 1982, he landed a contract with the ECM label, which resulted in several records and collaborations with European and American jazz musicians including Charlie Haden, Charlie Mariano and Al Di Meola.
Saluzzi, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, is, with cellist Anja Lechner, the subject of the documentary El Encuentro, and his evocative and expressive music has been incorporated into films by directors including Jean Luc Godard and Pedro Almodóvar.
The Konex Foundation’s Prize for Argentinian populat music is given once a decade, and is one of Argentina’s highest awards. Previous winners include Atahualpa Yupanqui (1985), Mercedes Sosa (1995) and Horacio Salgán (2005).