This post’s soulful, dark-eyed beauty is a domestic yak, Bos grunniens.
To the best of my knowledge, not one of Scotland’s emblematic domesticated bovines – its highland cattle – has reached the summit of Ben Nevis.
At 1,345 metres above sea level, Britain’s highest peak sits far lower than a yak would ever go.
Our featured yak has a rather tidy appearance, and a “Hollywood hero” jawline.
I think, therefore, that this yak’s bloodline includes at least one non-yak.
Still, this beast is mostly-yak, thriving at a little more than three Ben Nevises high…which is not even close to the top of a yak’s comfort zone.
(photo is copyright Doug Spencer, taken 16 October 2019 on the eastern half of the Tibetan Plateau, Qinghai, China)
Bos mutus – the domestic yak’s wild ancestor – is now very much rarer, and much warier.
We were lucky enough to see wild yak several times, but – by definition – not at such close quarters.
Musically, I am as well-stocked with tempting, yak-specific offerings as was Monty Python’s shop with any particular cheese.
However, Ojos Negros happens to be the titlepiece of a disc which is unlikely ever to lose its place in my “desert island dozen”; in fact, it would make my “top six”.
And the composer of Ojos Negro really did have dark eyes!
Vicente Greco (1888-1924) was a noted tango composer and self-taught virtuoso of tango’s emblematic instrument.
Often wrongly described as an accordion, the bandoneon is the bull elephant of accordions.
A 19th century German invention, the bandoneon was designed for use in churches.
It soon became rather more popular in Argentinian brothels.
Eventually, via 20th century nuevo tango, it gained an esteemed place in the world’s concert halls.
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) is undoubtedly “the colossus” of both genre and instrument.
However, his living compatriot Dino Saluzzi (born 1935) is also a remarkable composer.
As player – most especially as the more subtle, more interactive, more improvisatory one – Saluzzi is the greater musician, I think.
I feel no need to own all of Piazzolla’s recordings, but I still get very excited whenever Saluzzi adds something new to his catalog.
Particularly wonderful is his duo with German cellist Anja Lechner.
If I could only own six records, period, one of them would be their 2007 album, named for its one piece which is not a Saluzzi composition.
Their Ojos Negros is right “up there” with Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue – one of the select few albums which remains forever fresh.
You cannot (lawfully) listen to any complete track on any ECM album, gratis.
This video does not offer the album’s superb sound quality, and you may wish that the 2007 concert audiences’s cold and flu sufferers had embraced “self-isolation”.
However, the musicianship here is awesome in the sense that “awesome” once had, before inane overuse rendered that word meaningless: