"Luis Jahn's Compromiso is a great road CD. His songs move you forward with an Argentinean flavor that tastes of yerba mate, and yet carry a universal message that reflects a serious contemplation of the human character.

11 MP3 Songs
LATIN: General, FOLK: Political



Details:
Luis Jahn
Biography

Argentine singer-songwriter-musician Luis Jahn hails from Gualeguachú, Argentina. Born in 1967, the sirens of music lured him after he heard "Sólo le pido a dios" ("All I ask of God") by legendary singer León Gieco for the first time. Largely self-taught, he's been playing guitar and harmonica and singing since the age of 16. He got his start in the music industry after moving to Buenos Aires and getting work as a sound technician for Argentine rocker David Lebón.

Jahn arrived in Chicago in 1989. His first record, Desconectado, was released in 1994 and is a both an ode in his covers of songs that influenced him as well as original songs. He continued the tradition of Latin American nueva canción (poignant, often political songs that flourished as means of expression for those living under Latin American dictatorships, especially in Chile and Argentina), with traditional folk sounds and instruments (made popular in South America by groups such as Inti-Illimani and Victor Jara), creating an intimate acoustic style of guitar and harmonica.

He's played at various Chicago locations, including the Hothouse, Décima Musa, Old Town School of Folk Music the now defunct Calles y Sueños as well as at peñas, benefits for various causes and relief efforts and at festivals throughout the Midwest. In 1998 he returned to Buenos Aires to share the stage with León Gieco and other South American legends, including Victor Heredia, Merecedes Sosa and Nito Mestre at a benefit for flood victims.

On his sophomore effort Compromiso, Jahn mines musical influences beyond Argentine rock and traditional South American folk music to include American rock and blues. The electric guitar and charango find common ground here as he collaborates with several well known Latino musicians, including Honduran singer-songwriter Guillermo Anderson, Marcos Sueiro and Eduardo Garcia from Spain, Mexican Renato Cerón, Raúl Fernandez of USA, Victor Pichardo of "Sones de México", Chilean Armando Alvarez and Breno Sauer of Brazil. Jahn has matured as a singer and songwriter, and the revolution and politics of a bygone era have been replaced by a hope for the future, both in his native country and in the urban streets of his adopted home of Chicago.

What people are saying about Luis Jahn and his latest CD, Compromiso:

"Luis Jahn's Compromiso is a great road CD! His songs move you forward with an Argentinean flavor that tastes of yerba mate, and yet carry a universal message that reflects a serious contemplation of the human character. Compromiso is at once humble, personal, political, and endearing. The production is an audiofile experience full of attention to detail and subtlety."
Juan Díes
Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago

"Luis Jahn belongs to that new generation of Latin American urban singer-songwriters...although influenced by the best of his Argentinean predecessors, he has found a voice and a guitar to tell his own stories."
Guillermo Anderson
Honduran Singer-Songwriter, "Del Trópico y Del Tiempo"


"Estamos pues, frente a un verdadero expositor de la trova, la nueva canción, el folclore y el rock que cuenta sus historias y su modo de pensar por medio de sus canciones"
Clara-Beatriz Jaramillo
El Otro, Chicago


"He's a 21st Century Troubador with his guitar and harmonica....he transcends borders as he regales us with tales of distant lands and city streets, combining the blues and rock of Chicago with the Latin American folk sounds held in his heart like a compass."
Anji Milanovic
Executive Editor, www.plume-noire.com