2024-03-22 12:47:35
Simple, very elaborate ideas. Timbral searches that surround original swing forms, open dialogues. And improvisation as a path towards the unforeseen. There, to begin with, the music of Luis Nacht. He saxophonista central figure of that generation that revived the local jazz scene at the beginning of the new millennium, presents a new CDthe eleventh of his own vintage. Curanto It is called and was published last November by Club del Disco. Are seven own compositionswhich Nacht will show the Friday the 22nd at 10:30 p.m. at Thelonious Club (Nicaragua 5549)leading a quintet that is completed with Patricio Carpossi and Juan Pablo Arredondo on guitars, Carto Brandán on drums and Fermín Merlo on double bass.
With two guitars – a peculiarity of Nacht’s latest works – and the sax at the front, Curanto it’s a laboratory of short and forceful melodies, singing gestures that enter and exit a rustic and carefully disheveled sound plot. Between the graceful hymn that is repeated until the charm of “Re-Motian”the first theme, until the closing with the elaboration of the Brazilian Bachianas nº5 by Heitor Villa-Lobos, by “Teaching”, an original and attractive idea unfolds, which without long solos or instrumental sizzles rehearses a lucid combination between the individual and the collective. “My role as a composer and leader in the melodies is to take the music in different directions,” says Nacht in dialogue with Page 12. “From that place, thinking about the instrumentation of a group where little is agreed upon before the performance, is to think directly about a particular musician, about his sound, his expression, his personality,” adds the saxophonist.
“I have been working for a long time with Patricio (Carpossi) and Juan Pablo (Arredondo), who in addition to being very effective instrumentalists are true masters of sound art. They contribute a great breadth of sound resources to the group’s orchestration and, each with their own style, they manage to complement each other very well,” continues Nacht. “In general, I have a musical organization that allows everyone to find their place. On the album, the sound of Mariano Otero’s electric bass is a sea in which we immerse ourselves with certainties, as will surely happen with Fermín (Merlo) live. Above all, Carto Brandán’s contribution on drums is a form of freedom that contains us and encourages us to certain audacity. This complicity is the result of a group search of almost ten yearsabout a repertoire of very elaborate simple ideas,” reflects the musician.
In that laboratory atmosphere, the issues of Curanto, a name that refers to the Mapuche tradition of cooking with hot stones in a hole in the ground. “This music was composed between 2022 and 2023, thinking of an album of collectively improvised songs. There are no individual long solos, in that sense it is different from my previous albums. Everything is cooked together and slow, like Chilean curanto,” says Nacht and adds: “The music of Curanto They start from ideas that transmit emotions and every time we touch them we seek to surprise ourselves. “We never rehearse, precisely to start almost from scratch in each concert.”
–How do you feel that you matured as a composer since your first album, Night music (2001) and the different experiences that followed?
-I couldn’t say if I have matured as a composer. Sometimes I listen to previous albums and am surprised by a certain boldness, which I like and had almost forgotten. What I do think has matured in all this time is the group sound that I am looking for. There I feel that everything is more certain. The proposal and the trip. Composition and improvisation. That is what is distinctive about my music and what identifies us as a group.
–How do you regulate the proportions between what is scheduled, the spaces for improvisation and the individual contribution of each member of the quintet?
–I think that in the balance between abstraction and let’s say the “figurative” is the perfect recipe for a music that is nourished by the moment, the here and now, which is what we propose. In this context, the responsibility of each of the musicians is vital to achieve that balance. In the recording we plan to play several versions, with different guidelines, and experiment with total freedom. From what came out we chose the most effective version.
–How do you see the current jazz scene in Buenos Aires?
–Today in Argentina there are excellent music and musicians. We already have several generations that are very well trained, enthusiastic and creative. Within this panorama, there is a return to traditional languages and we must see what this idea of playing the music of the great geniuses of the past derives from. In any case, it provides work and people enjoy it, but jazz cannot stop looking forward. For jazz, the present is already the past.