Luis Salinas

Luis Salinas is an Argentine jazz guitarist who plays both electric and nylon string guitars. His music includes elements of bossa nova, Brazilian samba, Afro-Uruguayan candombe, salsa, boleros and jazz. He blends traditional South American musical forms with improvisational modern jazz. Luis worked for Egle Martin, a well known Argentinean singer, dancer, and producer from 1985 to 1991 and played on her bossa-nova album "El Arte Del Encuentro." In 1993, Swedish pianist Anders Person invited Luis to play at the Umeå Jazz Festival, followed by a small tour of Sweden. Luis was signed by the GRP Records in 1995, and recorded his debut album Salinas for that label in March 1996 with various musicians from George Benson's group. Luis played at the 30th edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival. Judith Schlesinger writing in All Music Guide describes the track "Blue Zamba" on his debut album as "a lovely solo track that belongs squarely in the tradition of the great Latin acoustic players, but with a whiff of Joe Pass as well. All told, a very promising debut."
On August 22, 1997 Luis Salinas played to 30,000 concert-goers at the "Palabra de Guitarra Latina" show in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. One week later, at the Guitarras del Mundo festival in Buenos Aires (August 26–31), Salinas was one of main attractions, playing three concerts at Buenos Aires' La Trastienda Club.
His second album Solo Guitarra included a version of Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life."

Luis Salinas was born in Montegrande on the 24 of June 1957. He was raised in Villa Diamante and lived there until the age of 10. After a big flood happened in 1968, he moved back to Montegrande. His dad and stepdad were musicians. Hes first learned from his father. His father was an “orchestra man”, playing the high-hat with one foot, the kick drum with the other foot, the guitar and the harmonica. He used to performed at “El Chaco” province in Argentina. Salinas first time playing the guitar was at the age of 5 with his step dad, accompanying him on a Chamame. After hearing him and his father playing music, or after being in a musical environment, he used to stay in his room and practice what he had heard. He owned his first guitar when he was 27 years old. He used to ask for guitars to borrow from his friends in the neighbourhood, until people started realizing that he stayed with the guitars he borrowed for a long time, so they stopped lending them to him.

He is self taught, and his best teachers where the records he played from his favourite musicians, which included Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Oscar Alemano, Baden Powell and some others. For learning chords, it was very useful for him going to a pub called “El Papagayo” and watching a Brazilian guitarist play. Salinas learned a lot from him and ended up playing in that same pub for 8 years, which started his carrer.

• B.B King. Universal Music Group asked him to play with B.B king at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Salinas told them that he would only agree to do it if King was fine with it. Salinas got a response from Universal that B.B king was fascinated with his music, which to Salinas, being as humble as he is, felt like a lie. He met B.B king at the sound check, and King said: “You (Salinas) can play the last song, and if people like it we can keep playing some more”. They ended up playing four more songs.
• Mercedes Soza.
• Danilo Perez
• Tomatito
• Bireli Lagrene
• Silvain Luc
• George Benson
• Paco De Lucia
• Dave Holand
• Maria Grañia
• Hermeto Pascoal
• Adolfo Abalos

• Salinas 1997
• Solo Guitarra 1999
• Rosario 2001
• Ahí Va 2003. Includes performances by Daniel Maza, Facundo Guevara, Sebastian Peycere, Jose Reynoso, and Reynald Colom.
• Musica Argentina 2003. Includes "Salgan" and "Despues".
• Luis Salinas y Amigos en Espana 2005
• Muchas Cosas 2006
• En Vivo 2009
• Sin Tiempo 2010

Gardel Awards

• 2003 – Best folk album “Musica Argentina Vol 1 y 2”
• 2004 – Best Jazz album “Ahí va”
• 2006 – Best Jazz album “Salinas y amigos en Espania”
• 2007 – Best instrumental album “Muchas Cosas”
• 2008 – Best Conceptual album “Clasicos de musica Argentina y algo mas..”

Grammy awards and Nomintations

• 2006 – 7th Annual Latin Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental album “Salinas y amigos en Españia”
• 2008 – 9th Annual Latin Grammy nomination for Best instrumental album “Tango”