Pedro Aznar’s career covers almost the entire history of Argentine ¨nacional¨ rock. Bassist of the popular progressive rock band Seru Giran in the 70s, then accompanist of Charly Garcia on the album “Clics Modernos” in 1982, one of the best records of music in Spanish according to Rolling Stone. Until “El Mundo No Se Hizo En Dos Dias” (The World Was Not Made in Two Days), released in late December 2022.
There have been a total of thirty albums under his name. And Pedro Aznar also played 3 years with the Pat Metheny Group, in the 80s, at the time of the album “First Circle”, among others.
Pedro Aznar is a multi-instrumentalist bassist with a wide range of influences from jazz, folk and traditional Latin American music.
“El Mundo No Se Hizo En Dos Dias” was largely made during the pandemic. “This is my most personal album in many years,” says Pedro Aznar, 63. On this double album of 19 songs, you hear a lot of things: rap, a Chopin-like “Polonaise”, reggaeton, jazzy horns and, of course, folk and rock.
But all this in the Aznar way, a sort of Spanish-speaking Daniel Bélanger. Eclectic, curious, exploratory. With that high voice that is always right; it’s not for nothing that Metheny hired him. This new opus is a very good Argentinean vintage. A great musical Malbec!
For those of you who understand Spanish, you will discover a young man in his sixties who is very involved in current social debates: Corpoland attacks the domination of big business over governments and puts democracies at risk; “Salve” (Save) talks about a threatened planet; “1918 Revisitado” (1918 Revisited) evokes the Spanish flu pandemic more than a century ago. But there is also “Pilgrimaje” (Pilgrimage), an a cappella song in English, reminiscent of British folklore, a Spanish version of John Legend’s “All of You”, with acoustic guitars rather than piano. Aznar, who studied at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, loves to do counterpoint Spanish versions of English songs.
Eclectic, I tell you. But it all holds together anyway. Remarkably so.
¨Why should I listen to rock music in a language I don’t understand?¨ some friends sometimes ask me. ¨Do you really listen to Beck or U2 for the lyrics?¨ is always my answer. One always listens first and foremost for the originality of the music and the arrangements. And “El Mundo No Se Hizo En Dos Dias” holds up perfectly in that regard.
I have been to Argentina several times and I assure you: this country is a hundred times more rock than tango. A culture that is too little known in our country.
