Fito Paez Abre CD

"Al Lado Del Camino" won the 2000 Latin Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song. ABRE was nominated for the 2000 Latin Grammy Award for Best Rock Album and Best Engineered Album.

ABRE was nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album.

Argentina's Fito Paez is one of the few pop-rockers in the Latin arena to produce tunes with equal amounts of socially conscious grit and commercial viability. At times loosely associated with the progressive New Song movement, he has shared the stage on many occasions with such towering cancionistas as Mercedes Sosa. He's a fine singer and pianist, but it's clear on albums such as ABRE that his ramble-on flow is highly informed by his less than honey-voiced hero, Bob Dylan.

With its dulcet spirituality, radio-friendly sheen, and hard-pounding guitar and piano work, ABRE is his strongest effort since EL AMOR DESPUES DEL AMOR. Thick with ethereal sound filters and modulations, the title track is a soaring call for the enlightenment of humanity. Equally anthemic is "Al Lado del Camino," with its throaty organs, insistent, rolling guitars, and fervent account of a metaphysical rambler's life spent by the side of the road. "Es Solo una Cuestion de Actitud" is assisted in its unflinching positivity with a high-octane infusion of Tower Of Power horns and brawny guitar riffage. Non-Spanish speakers may be put off by the occasional derivative touch of blues-rock from El Norte, but there's plenty here to enjoy regardless.

Recorded at Right Track Studios, Buenos Aires, Argentina & Right Track Studios, New York, New York.

Personnel: Fito Paez (vocals, piano, keyboards); Guillermo Vadala (guitar, keyboards, bass); Gabriel Carambula, Lucho Gonzales, Ulises Butron (guitar); Nestor Marconi (bandoneon); Dave Mann (alto saxophone); Andy Snitzer, Rick DePofi, Lawrence Feldman (tenor saxophone); Roger Rosenberg (baritone saxophone); Jeff Kievit, Tony Kadleck, Jim Hynes (trumpet); Mike Davis (tenor trombone); Herb Besson (bass trombone); Claudio Cardone (keyboards); Shawn Pelton (drums, programming); Ube Reyes (percussion); Anita Alvarez De Toledo, Robin Clark, Diva Gray, Curtis King, Donna Kloepfer, Frank Filipetti, Fito, Mary Ellen Devaux, Mucci, Alan, Ale, Maquina (background vocals).

CMJ (5/22/00, p.31) - "...Solidifies his commercial viability as a student of the Beatles with an Argentine slant, while maintaining a 'rocanrol' appeal by the sheer power of his Dylan-esque poetry..."