Jorge López Ruiz (1 April 1935 – 11 December 2018) was an Argentine

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 ...

double bassist,

cellist The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

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

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestrat ...

Biography

López Ruiz was born in

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. According to the 2022 Argentina census, census, the La Plata Partido, Partido has a population of 772,618 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 938,287 inhabit ...

. His younger brother was guitarist, arranger and composer Oscar López Ruiz. After starting out on

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

, he soon switched to double bass. In 1961 he released ''B.A. Jazz'', his first album as leader, with a quintet featuring

Gato Barbieri Leandro "Gato" Barbieri (November 28, 1932 – April 2, 2016) was an Argentine jazz tenor saxophonist who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and is known for his Latin jazz recordings of the 1970s. His nickname, Gato, is Spa ...

. On the recommendation of

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 ...

, he studied harmony and composition for

Alberto Ginastera Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (; April 11, 1916June 25, 1983) was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th-century classical music, 20th-century classical composers of the Americas. Biography G ...

in the mid-60's. In 1967 ''El grito'' was released, an orchestral jazz suite with López Ruiz as composer and arranger. Between 1967 and 1970, he was a musical director for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

in Argentina, working with a number of successful Argentine pop artists, such as

Sandro Sandro is an Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swiss, Georgian and Croatian given name, often a diminutive of Alessandro or Alexander. It is also a surname. Sandro may refer to: Given name or nickname Sports * Sandro (footballer, born 1973), Braz ...

and

Leonardo Favio Fuad Jorge Jury (28 May 1938 – 5 November 2012), better known by his stage name Leonardo Favio (), was an Argentine singer, actor and filmmaker. He is considered one of Argentina's best film directors and one of the country's most enduring cul ...

. In 1968, he was part of pianist Enrique "Mono" Villegas' trio, together with drummer Osvaldo López. In the early 70's, López Ruiz formed a

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

quartet together with saxophonist Horacio "Chivo" Borraro. In 1971 he released the album ''Bronca Buenos Aires'', where Borraro among others played. Both ''El grito'' and ''Bronca Buenos Aires'' were identified as reflecting a spirit of rebellion in face of the civil-military dictatorships that governed Argentina following the 1966

Argentine Revolution The Argentine Revolution (Spanish: ''Revolución Argentina'') is the name given to the civil-military dictatorship that overthrew the constitutional president Arturo Illia through a coup d'état on June 28, 1966, and governed the country u ...

. As a consequence, both albums were subsequently banned and pulled from the shelves. López Ruiz's two following albums, ''De prepo'' (1972) and ''Viejas raices'' (1975), were influenced by

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

. In 1978 he composed ''Un hombre de Buenos Aires'' for the city's 400th anniversary, featuring

Dino Saluzzi Timoteo "Dino" Saluzzi (born 20 May 1935) is an Argentinian bandoneon player. He is the son of Cayetano Saluzzi and the father of guitarist José Maria Saluzzi. Early life, family and education Timoteo "Dino" Saluzzi was born in Campo Santo, S ...

on bandoneon,

Pablo Ziegler Pablo Ziegler (born September 2, 1944) is a Grammy Awards winning Argentine composer, pianist, arranger based in New York City.Oteri, Frank J"Pablo Ziegler: Making the Music Dance" NewMusicBox, July 1, 2014; accessed July 9, 2014. He is an exponen ...

on piano, Andrés Boiarsky on soprano saxophone, and Donna Caroll on vocals, among others. After the 1976 coup d'état and the subsequent

military dictatorship A military dictatorship, or a military regime, is a type of dictatorship in which Power (social and political), power is held by one or more military officers. Military dictatorships are led by either a single military dictator, known as a Polit ...

, López Ruiz left

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

and emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. There, he released the album ''Encuentro en New York'' in 1978, which featured musicians such as

Eddie Gómez Edgar Gómez (born October 4, 1944) is a Puerto Rican jazz double bassist, known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio from 1966 to 1977. Biography Gómez moved with his family from Puerto Rico at a young age to New York, where he was raised. ...

(double bass), Anthony Jackson (electric bass),

Ray Barretto Raymundo "Ray" Barretto Pagán (April 29, 1929 – February 17, 2006) was an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent. Throughout his career as a percussionist, he played a wide variety of Latin music styles, as well as Lati ...

(percussion) and

Lew Soloff Lewis Michael Soloff (February 20, 1944 – March 8, 2015) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and actor. He was a founding member of the band Blood, Sweat & Tears. Biography From his birth place of New York City, United States, he studie ...

(trumpet), among others. López Ruiz returned to Argentina in 1990, and continued to record several albums and perform. In 2015, ''Bronca Buenos Aires'' was performed in its entirety, conducted by Jorge López Ruiz's son, Pablo López Ruiz. The same year, he received a

Konex Award Konex Foundation Awards, or simply Konex Awards, are cultural awards from the Konex Foundation honouring Argentine cultural personalities. History and purpose Konex Awards are granted by the Konex Foundation, created in 1980 in Argentina. The p ...

in honor of his career. He died in Buenos Aires in December 2018, aged 83.

Discography

As leader

* ''B.A. Jazz'' (VIK, 1961) * ''Interpreta a JLR'' (Trova, 1966) * ''El grito'' (CBS, 1967) * ''Folklore, ¿por qué no?'' (CBS, 1970) * ''Bronca Buenos Aires'' (Trova, 1971) * ''De prepo'' (Ten/Ballop, 1972) * ''Viejas raices'' (EMI, 1975) * ''Un hombre de Buenos Aires'' (Trova, 1978) * ''Encuentro en New York'' (Chango, 1980) * ''Contrabajismos'' (ATC, 1988) * ''Espacios'' (Music Hall, 1990) * ''Coincidencias'' (Redondel, 1994)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:López Ruiz, Jorge 1935 births 2018 deaths Entertainers from La Plata Argentine double-bassists Argentine jazz musicians Argentine jazz composers Argentine music arrangers Burials at La Plata Cemetery