Tango de Minas: Non Típicas

 

The quintet Tango de Minas presents a wonderful album with a quite different sound. Indeed, non-typically, besides piano (Claudia Glocksin) and vocals (Ursula Cuesta), we hear a cello (Johanna Stein), a saxophone (Miriam Neuhaus) and drums (Gaby Jüttner). The drums support the arrangements by Claudia Glocksin very differentiated; saxophone and cello accentuate the melodic lines of the songs with their specific ‘unexpected’ sound. The song selection is tasteful: often-heard old evergreens (i.e., El Choclo, Los Mareados) are next to wonderful pearls from Astor Piazzolla (i.e. Oda para un Hippie, Chiquilín de Vachín), flavored with a strange ‘spice’, the wonderful song Satumaa by Finish composer Unto Mononen. Singer Ursula Cuesta interprets these songs with expressive dynamic. We believe her that passion and madness, grief and pain are close together and often go hand in hand. The arrangements underline this empathically. Maybe their different (female) perspective on the male-dominated tango requires a new sound, too. The ensembles cites the ‘idiosyncratic’ singer Tita Merello they want to pay tribute to. One should listen to “Se dice de mi” (written by Canaro and Pelay) which is interpreted similarly ‘exaggerated’. Perhaps it is meant emancipatory, perhaps it is only a reversed cliché. Maybe the same songs have different sites and it is worth to notice them all: Love is a complicated thing. Anyway, this ensemble has an exciting non-typical ‘classical’ sound, and musically explores the range of emotions found in the different tango compositions. Very touching – and danceable!

Artist´s website: https://tangodeminas.com/