Diego Janssen (born December 9, 1981, in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

) is a

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

. His debut album 'El hijo de' was nominated for the Premios Graffiti, the Uruguayan equivalent of the Grammys. Critics have called 'El Hijo De' one of Uruguay's best albums of the decade - breaking ground for a new evolution of candombe. He has been awarded a Uruguayan National Music Award twice in the jazz fusion category. As a composer he does not cling to any particular style, although there's a clear tendency to experimentation and the fusion of elements of Uruguayan roots music (

candombe ''Candombe'' is a style of music and dance that originated in Uruguay among the descendants of liberated African slaves. In 2009, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed ''candombe'' in its Rep ...

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

), as well as the influence of his time in the studio as a producer and his academic studies in music and technology.

Early life

A self-taught guitarist he started playing rock, pop and Uruguayan folklore as a teenager. His early influences included

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

and

Nirvana Nirvana, in the Indian religions (Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), is the concept of an individual's passions being extinguished as the ultimate state of salvation, release, or liberation from suffering ('' duḥkha'') and from the ...

, Uruguayan stars of

Jaime Roos Jaime Roos (born November 12, 1953, in Montevideo) is an Uruguayan singer, composer and record producer. In 2000, he won a Silver Condor Award for Best Score Musician in El Amateur. He has French blood from his father's side. His grandfather mi ...

and Totem and the flamenco guitarist,

Paco de Lucía Francisco Sánchez Gómez (; 21 December 194725 February 2014), known as Paco de Lucía (), was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer, and record producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he was one of the first flamen ...

. He formed his first rock fusion band in 2000 and at the same time he decided to drop out of college where he was studying engineering to dedicate himself full-time to music. He began a degree in composition at the University School of Music in Montevideo and in parallel studying sound, acoustics and recording studio design.

Musical career

Since 2008 as a producer he has recorded and produced more than thirty albums in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. He's hands-on, participating or leading production, recording, mixing and / or mastering, and at times as a session musician. In 2016 he was nominated for Best Producer in the Premios Graffiti for his work on the album 'Nidal' by dark rock band Buenos Muchachos. During this period he participated as guitarist in a number of bands including Trelew, Damián Gularte, Ojos del Cielo and Sebastián Jantos. And at the same time he deepened his exploration of roots music from Uruguay, and elsewhere in Latin America and North America. In 2010 as part of the duo Afrosambas with percussionist José 'Pepe' Martínez, he recorded a set of instrumental versions of compositions by Baden Powell,

Astor Piazzolla Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (, ; March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed '' nuevo tango'', incorporating elements fr ...

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

and

Eduardo Mateo Ángel Eduardo Mateo López (September 19, 1940 – May 16, 1990) was an Uruguayan musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and arranger. He played a key role in the development of modern Uruguayan music, blending rock, Latin music, bossa nova, p ...

. His debut solo album 'El Hijo de'https://diegojanssen.bandcamp.com/ 'El Hijo De' online won critical acclaim as well as a nomination for the Premios Graffiti in 2016 in the category Candombe Fusion. The album is an instrumental journey of experimentation and changing sound climates, where elements coming from across the world collide.

Blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre, genre and form of rock music, rock and blues music that relies on the chords/scales and instrumental improvisation of blues. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electri ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

meet contemporary

and milonga, going through both psychedelic and other more manic moments, generating a tribal feeling from a modern optic. El Hijo de received support from FONAM, the Uruguayan fund for music.

Discography

* '' Afrosambas'' (2010) * '' El Hijo de'' (2016)

References

External links

Diego Janssen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Janssen, Diego 1981 births Living people Uruguayan guitarists Uruguayan male guitarists Uruguayan songwriters Male songwriters Uruguayan musicians 21st-century guitarists 21st-century male musicians