Pedro Aznar

Pedro Aznar ranks among Argentina’s most commercially successful singer-songwriters and multi-instrumentalists. Equally fluent across rock, jazz, and folk idioms, he also publishes poetry. A central figure in the Argentine rock movement of the 1970s and 1980s, he later expanded his palette to become a prominent jazz vocalist, saxophonist, and second guitarist, contributing to three albums by the Pat Metheny Group. Directors throughout Latin America regularly turn to him for original film scores.

He pursued formal training in classical guitar, piano, electric and acoustic bass, percussion, and composition, first in Buenos Aires and later at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 1978 he formed Serú Girán, an ensemble that quickly became one of the most influential acts in Latin American popular music. The band dissolved in 1982 yet reconvened a decade later, issuing a platinum-certified studio album and drawing the largest concert audiences then recorded in Argentina. Pat Metheny recruited Aznar in 1983 after hearing a cassette of his home recordings; the resulting lineup toured internationally and produced the Grammy-winning releases First Circle, Letter from Home, and The Road to You, along with the soundtrack to The Falcon and the Snowman.

Aznar’s second solo outing, Contemplación, enlisted several Pat Metheny Group colleagues as accompanists. Within the ensemble he performed on guitar, saxophone, tuned and untuned percussion—including steel drums—melodica, voice, and whistle, while also composing or co-composing tracks for the group’s catalog. Two duet projects with Charly García—Tango (1986) and Tango 4 (1991)—both achieved platinum status; the latter received the ACE Award from the Argentine Association of Entertainment Critics for Rock Album of the Year. With ethnomusicologist Leda Valladares he documented Andean traditions on the album Grito en el Cielo.

For the cinema he has earned the SADAIC Award and three Silver Condor prizes for Best Original Score. Additional commissions encompass ballet, theater, gallery installations, multimedia events, video art, and a Concerto for String Orchestra and Synthesizers written for the Mayo Chamber Orchestra. In 1992 he released the poetry collection Pruebas de Fuego. The following year he recorded UNICEF-sponsored duets with Mercedes Sosa and Caetano Veloso to promote children’s rights. To date his catalog comprises six solo albums, three film scores, and appearances on more than forty recordings by fellow artists.