Evan Lurie

• Selling Water by the Side of the River [Island, 1990] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Selling Water by the Side of the River [Island, 1990]
Fake jazz was all well and good, but fake tango? With world music already functioning as dinner music and background music here in the nonworld, why art it up with an extra layer of secondhand knowingness? Inconveniently, however, I liked the Lounge Lizard's bandoneon features, and my middle-aged friends kept asking what they were. Exactly how tango it all is I couldn't tell you, although Alfredo Pedernara would appear to be the genuine article and the four others would appear to be old friends of Evan. But compared to his choppy first efforts for Argentina's favorite accordion on 1988's import-only Pieces for Bandoneon, the new melodies flow with an ease that transcends the idiomatic. Must be world music. Also dinner music. And pleasantly acerbic background music too. A-