Trio Fattoruso.

• Author: Holston, Mark
• Position: Harmonies From Small to Large Nation

Trio Fattoruso (Big World BW2025)

If it weren't for New York City record producer Neil Weiss, music by contemporary Uruguayan artists would be all but missing from the international marketplace. In the past decade, his Big World label has focused almost exclusively on Uruguayan music traditions and the country's most creative exponents.

A flagship release of the small label is the self-titled Trio Fattoruso, presenting one of Uruguay's most important music families in its latest incarnation. Pianist Hugo, perhaps the small nation's most internationally recognized instrumentalist, is joined by his drummer brother Jorge and the pianist's son Francisco on bass, continuing the tradition of the Trio Fattoruso his father started in the late 1950s. In the interim, Hugo led the group Opa, Uruguay's best known jazz fusion group in the 1970s, and collaborated with such Brazilian stars as vocalist Flora Purim, among many others.

This superb date documents the leader's ongoing fascination with classic fusion elements--the use, for instance, of synthesized strings, wordless vocals, and harmonically dense, rhythmically vibrant arrangements--while it solidifies his reputation as a first-rate improviser and composer. The album includes songs penned by Brazilians Roberto Menescal and Caetano Veloso, underscoring the harmonic relationship between musicians in South America's smallest and largest nations.

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