Luis Salinas (born 24 June 1957) is an Argentine jazz guitarist who plays electric and nylon string guitars. His music includes elements of

bossa nova Bossa nova () is a style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a "different beat" that altered the harmonies with the introduction of unconventional chords and an innovativ ...

samba Samba (), also known as samba urbano carioca (''urban Carioca samba'') or simply samba carioca (''Carioca samba''), is a Brazilian music genre that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century. Havin ...

Afro-Uruguayan Afro-Uruguayans are Uruguayans of predominantly African descent. The majority of Afro-Uruguayans are in Montevideo. History For most of the colonial period, the port of Buenos Aires (see Afro-Argentines) served as the exclusive entry point fo ...

candombe ''Candombe'' is a style of music and dance that originated in Uruguay among the descendants of liberated African slaves. In 2009, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed ''candombe'' in its Repre ...

salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: A ...

boleros Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...

, and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

. He blends traditional South American musical forms with improvisational modern jazz.

Early life

Luis Salinas was born in

Monte Grande Monte Grande is a city which forms part of the urban agglomeration of Greater Buenos Aires. It is the administrative seat of Esteban Echeverría Partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It was founded on April 3, 1889, by a company named ''Soc ...

and was raised in Villa Diamante, where he lived until the age of 10. After a flood in 1968, he moved back to Monte Grande. His father and stepfather were musicians. He first learned from his father, a "

one-man band A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical or electronic contraptions. One-man bands also often sing while they perform. The simplest type of "one-man ban ...

" who played the high-hat with one foot, the kick drum with the other foot, the guitar, and the harmonica. He used to performed in the Argentine province of Chaco. Salinas's first time playing the guitar was at the age of five with his stepfather, accompanying him on a

chamamé Chamamé ( Guarani for: party, disorder) is a folk music genre from Northeast Argentina and Argentinian Mesopotamia. In 2020, Chamamé was inscribed in UNESCO's Intangible cultural heritage list after it was nominated by Argentina in 2018. C ...

. After hearing him and his father playing music, or after being in a musical environment, he used to stay in his room and practice what he had heard. He owned his first guitar when he was twenty-seven years old. He borrowed guitars from friends in the neighborhood until they realized he kept them too long, and then they refused to lend them to him. He is self-taught. His best teachers were the records he played by his favorite musicians, which included

Joe Pass Joe Pass (born Joseph Anthony Jacobi Passalaqua; January 13, 1929 – May 23, 1994) was an American jazz guitarist. Pass is well known for his work stemming from numerous collaborations with pianist Oscar Peterson and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, an ...

Wes Montgomery John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. Montgomery was known for an unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a dist ...

Oscar Alemán Oscar Marcelo Alemán (20 February 1909 – 14 October 1980) was an Argentine jazz multi instrumentalist, guitarist, singer, and dancer. Career Alemán was born in Machagai, Chaco Province, in northern Argentina. He was the fourth child of seven ...

, and Baden Powell. He learned from a Brazilian guitarist at the pub El Papagayo, where he started his career and eventually playing at the pub for eight years.

Career

From 1985 to 1991, he worked with Egle Martin, an Argentinean singer, dancer, and producer and played on her bossa-nova album ''El Arte Del Encuentro''. In 1993, Swedish pianist Anders Persson invited Salinas to play at the

Umeå Jazz Festival Umeå Jazz Festival (Swedish: ''Umeå Jazzfestival'') is an annual jazz festival held in Umeå, Sweden. The festival comprises some 30 concerts held mainly at Umeå's folkets hus People's Houses (russian: Народный дом) were originally ...

, followed by a tour of Sweden. He signed with

GRP Records GRP® Records (Grusin-Rosen Productions) is a jazz record label founded by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen (producer), Larry Rosen in 1978. Distributed by Verve Records, GRP® was originally known for its digital recordings that focuses on its jazz ...

in 1995 and recorded his debut album, ''Salinas'', for that label in March 1996 with musicians from

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, pla ...

's group. He played at the 30th edition of the

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

. On August 22, 1997, he played to 30,000 concert-goers at the Palabra de Guitarra Latina show in

Palma, Mallorca Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of Mallorc ...

, Spain. One week later, at the Guitarras del Mundo festival in Buenos Aires (August 26–31), he was one of main attractions, playing three concerts at Buenos Aires's

La Trastienda Club La Trastienda Club is a prominent '' café-concert'' style venue in Buenos Aires. The club was established in 1993 in a late 19th-century building originally housing a corner grocery in the Montserrat section of Buenos Aires. Seating 400 with sta ...

. His second album, ''Solo Guitarra'', included a version of "

You Are the Sunshine of My Life "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" is a 1973 single released by Stevie Wonder. The song became Wonder's third number-one single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and his first number-one on the Easy Listening chart. It won Wonder a Grammy Award f ...

" by

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

Collaborations

Salinas has also worked with Adolfo Abalos,

Biréli Lagrène Biréli Lagrène (born 4 September 1966) is a French jazz guitarist who came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt–influenced style. He often performs in swing, jazz fusion, and post-bop styles. Biography Lagrène was born in ...

Danilo Pérez Danilo Pérez (born December 29, 1965) is a Panamanian pianist, composer, educator, and a social activist. His music is a blend of Panamanian roots with elements of Latin American folk music, jazz, European impressionism, African, and other music ...

Dave Holland David “Dave” Holland (born 1 October 1946) is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for over 40 years. His extensive discography r ...

Hermeto Pascoal Hermeto Pascoal (born June 22, 1936) is a Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist. He was born in Lagoa da Canoa, Alagoas, Brazil. Pascoal is a significant figure in the history of Brazilian music, mainly known for his abilities in orches ...

, María Graña,

Mercedes Sosa Haydée Mercedes Sosa (; 9 July 1935
at BrainyHistory.com – 4 October 2009), sometimes known as ' ...

Paco de Lucía Francisco Sánchez Gómez (21 December 194725 February 2014), known as Paco de Lucía (;), was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer, and record producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he was one of the first flame ...

, Sylvain Luc, and

Tomatito José Fernández Torres, known as Tomatito (born Fondón, 1958), is a Spanish roma flamenco guitarist and composer. Having started his career accompanying famed flamenco singer Camarón de la Isla (with Paco de Lucía), he has made a number of ...

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

asked him to play with

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. Salinas replied that he would do it if it was acceptable to King. He got a response from Universal that said King was fascinated by his music, which Salinas found hard to believe. He met King at the soundcheck and King said, "You can play the last song, and if people like it we can keep playing some more". They ended up playing four more songs.

Critical reception

Judith Schlesinger writing in

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

describes the song "Blue Zamba" on his debut album as "a lovely solo track that belongs squarely in the tradition of the great Latin acoustic players, but with a whiff of

as well. All told, a very promising debut."

Discography

* 1995 ''Aire de Tango'' (

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

) * 1997 ''Salinas'' ( GRP) * 2003 ''Música Argentina, Vol. 1'' * 2003 ''Música Argentina, Vol. 2'' * 2003 ''Rosario'' (GRP) * 2003 ''Sólo Guitarra'' * 2004 ''Ahí Va'' * 2005 ''Salinas y Amigos en España'' (

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

) * 2006 ''En Vivo en el Rosedal'' ( Dreyfus) * 2006 ''Música Argentina'' * 2007 ''Folklore, Vol. 1'' * 2007 ''Folklore, Vol. 2'' * 2007 ''Muchas Cosas'' (Sony BMG) * 2007 ''Sólo Guitarras'' (Frank Andrada) * 2008 ''Sólo Guitarra'' * 2008 ''Tango'' * 2009 ''Día 2 Tango 8'' * 2009 ''Día 2: Luis Salinas En Vivo'' * 2009 ''En Vivo: Día, Vol. 1'' * 2016 ''El Tren: Sólo Guitarra''

Awards

Gardel Awards * 2003 – Best folk album, ''Música Argentina Vol 1 y 2'' * 2004 – Best Jazz album, ''Ahí va'' * 2006 – Best Jazz album, ''Salinas y amigos en España'' * 2007 – Best Instrumental album, ''Muchas Cosas'' * 2008 – Best Conceptual album, ''Clásicos de música Argentina y algo más...'' Latin Grammy nominations * 2006 – Latin Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental album, ''Salinas y amigos en España'' * 2008 – Latin Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental album, ''Tango''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Salinas, Luis Living people 1957 births GRP Records artists Verve Records artists Argentine jazz guitarists