Saxophonist Javier Girotto and accordionist Vince Abbracciante were due back in Italy after concluding in mid-November a successful three-week South American tour organized by Violipiano Music with famous South American festivals and the valuable support from various Italian institutions abroad.
The two closing dates saw the Argentinian Girotto play in his native town at the Cordoba Jazz Festival, appearing with the Orquesta Provincial de Música Ciudadana at the Teatro del Libertador San Martín and, on the tour’s final gig, next to Abbracciante at the Teatro Real.
“Their music has a property that provokes, moves, gives energy, whether it is a tango in Piazzolla style, a lullaby or a composition by Luis Bacalov,” said Cordoba Jazz Festival press officer Mariano Barsotti. “Little by little they traced the themes of their album Sanctuary, but they didn’t do it in a mechanical way: they gave their best in every track, in every solo.”
Girotto built a stellar reputation by blending his tango roots with the love for jazz that he refined in the USA and in Italy, where, in the 1990s, he obtained Italian citizenship through Apulian relatives. Despite a younger age, Abbracciante, also born in Apulia, is a renowned virtuoso who has found a perfect match with Girotto; the duo was formed seven years ago and released Santuario, their first album in 2021.
Earlier Argentinan concerts took place in Mendoza, Salta and San Carlos de Bariloche, a mountain resort that hosts the Camping Musical Bariloche, where the duo performed in a hall that offered a stunning view of a lake and Andean peaks as background.
“They delighted us with their talent, blending jazz, tango, Latin American music and the European sound of the accordion,” the Bariloche organizers said. “Thanks to Violipiano for having made this possible from Italy.”
The tour started on October 29 in Santiago de Chile and Viña del Mar. “It was wonderful, with a formidable and very warm public. It was a great surprise,” Girotto said about the Chilean dates in an interview with the radio of the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Argentina.
Puerto Montt was the third Chilean stop of the itinerary that also had a Peruvian date in Lima.
Violipiano produced the event with assistance from the Italian Culture Institutes of Santiago, Cordoba, Lima and Buenos Aires. Other partners were the Festival de Jazz Chileuropa Santiago, Viña Jazz Festival Internacional, Espacio Contemporáneo de Arte and Vivo Cultura, Festival Internacional de Jazz de Puerto Montt, Teatro Pirandello, Pro Cultura Salta, Camping Musical Bariloche and the Cordoba Jazz Festival.