SUDAMÉRICA - O EL REGRESO A LA AURORA

Sudamerica is one of the finest releases from this Argentinian jazz outfit and one of the greatest to come out of the jazz fusion genre. It heavily features the saxophone, but throughout the album, the instrument never loses its flavor. Though the album is almost 100 minutes in length, there is hardly a boring or unappealing second ? it amazes me how Arco Iris can have so many different ideas to express and directions to take in just one album.

Packed with short 2-to-3-minute long, folksy instrumentals, this masterpiece could be described as a concept album in a similar vein as The Snow Goose by Camel. These short bridges build up to two epic jazz suites, Obertura and Hombre, my two favorite songs from the album.

Since I do not understand any Spanish, especially the lyrics, I cannot say much on what this album represents, except for the titles. From what the titles translate to, I assume the album describes some sort of spiritual journey that the main character (probably the person singing) experiences. In the first segment of the album, the protagonist learns what he needs to know in order start his journey (is his name Nahuel? is that a different character? who knows) from his "maestro" (teacher). The second segment entails the character's journey along with the pilgrims, whom he follows to "las colinas" (the hills) with his master. Correct me if I am wrong.

Overall, there is not much more to say about Arco Iris' magnum opus, though I wish there were a sequel (unlikely).