Personnel: Alejandro Sanz (vocals); Ludovico Vagnone (acoustic & electric guitars); Josemi Carmona (Spanish guitar, mandolin); Vacinte Amigo (Spanish guitar); Alfredo Oliva, Mei Mei Luo, Scott Flavin, Orlando Forte, Joan Faigen (violin); Tim Barnes, Chauncey Patterson, Debra Spring, Steve Svensson, Diane Wiseberg, Scott O'Donnell (violas); Chris Glansdrop, Susan Moyer, Keith Robinson, Luisa Bustamante (cello); Santiago Carmona (baritone saxophone); Hammadi Bayard (saxophone); Lulo Perez (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jorge C. Dobal (trombone); Emanuele Ruffinengo (piano, keyboards, synthesizer, programming); Janet Clippard (acoustic bass); Alfredo Paixao (electric bass); Alfredo Golino (drums); J. Jimenez Chaboli (percussion).
Engineers: Renato Catele, Roberto Maccagno, Joel Numa.
Recorded at The Hit Factory and Criteria Studios, Miami, Florida.
EL ALMA AL AIRE won the 2001 Latin Grammy Awards for Album Of The Year and for Best Male Pop Vocal Album. "El Alma Al Aire" won the 2001 Latin Grammy Awards for Record Of The Year and for Song Of The Year. The album was also nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album.
While a quick glance might cast Alejandro Sanz as another Latin pop heartthrob in the mold of Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, et al, he's much more than that. For one thing, EL ALMA AL AIRE, despite its success, isn't riding the gravy train that began with the aforementioned cover boys in the late 1990s; Sanz was making fine music way before all that pop furor took place. For another, the songs here never avail themselves of the sledgehammer hook/do-or-die production aesthetic behind the crossover appeal of those artists. In fact, Sanz's music bears only a nodding acquaintance with Anglo pop/rock.
Unlike so much "Latin pop," Latin musical elements predominate on EL ALMA, as the acoustic guitar and syncopated percussion that are central to so many of the arrangements here attest. Sanz is a pure romantic, and EL ALMA AL AIRE is full of soft, lush tunes that will tug at your heartstrings, whether you speak Spanish or not.
