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Review
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Los Angeles Times, Review >>
Too often, it takes an out sider to recognize great music in our own back yard, especially when it comes to Latin America's exciting but commercially ignored folk genres. Thanks to this Berlin-based label, a whole world of Argentine music known as Chamame comes to us through its premier exponent, accordion master Chango Spasiuk. This joyful and beautiful music is the result of a confluence of cultures in northeast Argentina, Mbya-Guarani Indians, Creoles and European immigrants.
Spasiuk, of Ukrainian ancestry, was born in the small province of Misiones near the Brazilian border, an area known for its rain forests, rivers and yerbu mate plantations. Now in his mid-30s, he started playing accordion at 11 and has made six successful albums, but this is his first recorded for export. Far from sounding rustic or rural, the mostly instrumental, acoustic work boasts a sophisticated sound that infuses earthy traditions with jazz influences and classical touch.
Surprisingly, Chamame echoes certain elements of Mexican country music, its sorrowful duets with guitar, its bouncy polkas and lively jarabes. But Spasluk's piano accordion sounds fuller and deeper than the button accordion used by Mexican nortefio bands.
Like norteno, though, Chamame was once a marginalized rural dance genre. Through his passion, mastery and commitment, Spasiuk has elevated this folk art from the remote red lands of his birth to a dignified place on the world stage.
-A.G. 02/27/05
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