‘Les Luthiers, from L to S’: the Lutheran Bible | Babelia

The best and most rewarding way to get closer to the legacy of the Argentine group of musicians and comedians Les Luthiers is, without a doubt, to watch their videos or listen to their recordings, but since there is no shortage of fans of the group, here is this tribute book, fair and necessary, so that their followers know and better understand the history and ins and outs of this group that received the Princess of Asturias Award for Humanities in 2017 for having made the entire Spanish-speaking world laugh intelligently for more than 50 years, something that is not easy because, as we know, humor is a phenomenon closely linked to the local and the moment in which it occurs.

Written jointly by Colombian journalist Daniel Samper, who wrote the first editions, and by Álex Grijelmo, this new expanded edition also features textual cameos by Roberto The Black One Fontanarrosa and with photographs and new anecdotes of the group. The Luthiers from L to S It is, above all, a fetish that can also be used as a reference manual on Les Luthiers, due to its various appendices, for example the one entitled ‘Luthierian Shows’, which lists and details chronologically all the group’s shows, or the ‘Informal Instrumentology’, where all the instruments invented by the group are described, from those that make nods to the baroque, such as the shrimp counter-chitarrone, even those closest to Argentine popular culture, such as love herbalist or the cello legüero, a hybrid between the cello and the legüero bass drum.

The book makes us laugh in some sections, for example the one that tells the biography of Johann Sebastian Mastropiero, the fictional composer created by Les Luthiers who today is part of the history of music with as much right as Bach or Beethoven (“The only thing that is known with certainty about Mastropiero is that on Good Friday in 1729, the Leipzig Cathedral witnessed the premiere of a St. Matthew Passion (which, definitely, does not belong to him”). But the mission of this volume is not to replace the humor of Les Luthiers’ shows, a task fortunately impossible. In fact, in its pages we are told some drama, such as the altercation that the group had in 1971 with the actress and singer Nacha Guevara, who threw a broken glass at the face of Marcos Mundstock, the voice par excellence of Les Luthiers, that of the unmistakable narrator who, with the excuse of announcing the musical numbers that followed, provided us not only with the sensory pleasure of his fabulous vocal timbre, but also that of his linguistic wit. For some reason he was one of the guests at the International Congress of Language in Córdoba (Argentina) in 2019, where he offered a video conference in which he breaks down the logic or lack thereof of everyday expressions that we use in Spanish. The transcription of his lecture is one of the most valuable materials in the volume.

This book is primarily intended for those who already know and revere Les Luthiers, as it focuses on minute details about the life and artistic careers of each one—mainly the “historical” ones: Rabinovich, Mundstock, López Puccio, Núñez Cortés and Maronna—through interviews and profiles. If reading it enables those of the new generations who have not yet been captivated by their shows to immediately approach the work of these artists, it will be a great opportunity for those who are interested in their work. music mediators unusual, then the book will have fulfilled an important mission.

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