Tango Tinto: Camino Esquivo

The quartet Tango Tinto describes themselves as a “traditional quartet specialized in Argentinian Tango”. Their musicians are Gerardo Agnese (bandoneón), Bárbara Varassi Pega (piano), Virgilio Monti (double-bass), Vincenzo Albini (violin), and as singer Rubén Peloni. 

While their repertoire usually includes traditional composers (Pugliese, Troilo, Arolas, Plaza, D’Arienzo, Canaro, De Caro, Piazzolla etc.) to please the dancers at milongas and festivals, they increasingly add their own songs. For their 3^rd album Camino Esquivo seven tracks were written by themselves, i.e., four by bandoneonista Agnese, two by pianist Varassi Pega and one by their singer Peloni. The others are the 1949´s tango “El último organito” by Acho Manzi, the 1932´s tango “La casita de mis viejos” by Juan Carlos Cobián, Ricardo Brignolo´s “Chiqué”, Luis Brighenti´s “Ensueños”, and “Inspiración” by P. Paulos. They even arranged the old tangos a bit ‘nuevo’ to make them fit to their musical preferences.

While music like this can easily be somewhat boring, particularly when musicians intend to impress their audience with their skills, Tango Tinto do not make this mistake. They have the necessary verve and passion, they change tempi and atmosphere even within a song to attract their followers - and they have their singer Rubén Peloni with his warm timbre. He balances the vibes the ensemble creates with pure emotions.

Gerardo Agnese´s song “Voy a volver” is one of the wonderful moments of this album: The piano opens with discrete melodic and harmonic progressions, Peloni sings the beautiful melody with relaxed passion, violin and bandoneon respond with elegant melodic phrases, and the double-bass gives clear structure. For me, one of the album´s highlights. Further, Rubén Peloni´s “El rioba de la ex” comes along as a lively milonga-candombe and has the necessary elements to convince the dancers. Other songs need their time to unfold, i.e., the bittersweet “Sin tu manos” by Tango Tinto´s bandoneonista (Piazzolla surely would have been pleased about this reference).     

Plaza Francia: A New Tango Song Book

Plaza Francia can be seen as the legitimate successors of Gotan Project, with Argentine Eduardo Makaroff (guitars) and Swiss-born Christoph H. Müller (e-piano, synthesizer and programming) as composers and producers, and French actress-singer Catherine Ringer of the 80^th avantgard-rock-pop project Les Rita Mitsouko as interpret of their songs. 

Gotan Project (featuring Katalan singer Cristina Vilallonga) left a deep impact with their influential 2001 electro tango release ”La Revancha del Tango”. When they split it seemed difficult to fill this gap. Then in 2014, Müller & Makaroff published their new songs as a beautiful mélange of tango, French pop songs and diverse other ingredients. Surprisingly, the Gotan Project ‘relicts’ Müller & Makaroff had no big problem to underline that they are still highly relevant for the contemporary tango music scene. Their songs are fascinating and grooving, have good progressions and catchy melodies.

The trio was supported by additional musicians, i.e., Gilberto Pereyra and Facundo Torres (bandoneon), Romain Lécuyer (double bass), Gustavo Beytelmann (piano), Earl Harvin (drums), a string quartet and a brass section (arranged by tango composer-pianist Gustavo Beytelmann), and others. Müller & Makaroff clearly left their former electro tango approach and present their new tracks as contemporary tango-chansons with elegant acoustic arrangements. 

Catherine Ringer sings with her characteristic ‘low register’ voice which fits perfectly to these modern tangos. For me, the main melodic line of the “Cada vez” chorus is not really suited for her vocal range and this is the only minus among so many plusses which makes this album attractive and a warrantor of pleasure, i.e., the grooving La mano encima (the only track with sequencer bass) or the wonderful elegiac “Cenizas” with its melodic progression alternatingly headed by brass section and strings and bandoneon in the chorus (my personal highlight of the album).

With a winking eye the lyrics of this “New Tango Song Book” were reproduced with guitar chords in the CD booklet; obviously to facilitate that the younger generation of musicians can learn them more easily. Several are indeed essential and will surely find their way to the international dance floors.  

Otros Aires: Perfect tango

Waiting for a new Otros Aires album is always a difficult task. I think of all those all the well-known tracks, some associated with specific memories. I remember Miguel di Genova´s contagious cheerfulness during a life performance. – Then, I became aware that ten new songs are going to be released, and that I would have the chance to hear them very early. Wow. It is clear that I began with a positive bias. 
At the first, we hear the typical groove oriented Otros Aires songs with Miguel´s distinctive voice, Diego Ramos´s elegant piano, Martin Paladin´s drums, and two alternating bandoneon player, namely Matias Rubino and Ernesto Chino Molina. Musical director Miguel di Genova adds guitar flavor, and - of course - electronica effects.  
“Solo esta noche” charms the listener with the voice of Afghan-Irish singer-songwriter Meghan Kabir. This duet track was written by Megha Kabir, Fin Dow-Smith and Miguel di Genova. It definitely has something special. Also the Grace Jones cover “I´ve seen that face before”, the pop version of Piazzolla´s “Libertango”, is convincing in its own way. While the amazon´s version is subtley aggressive and more direct, the new version is very relaxed. All the others songs are written by Otros Aires´s mastermind, Miguel. They follow a proven and tested formulation - great grooves enriched with discreet electronica effects, a solid piano fundament, characteristic bandoneon lines, and basic melodies which lure the electro tango fans on the dance floor. “Amor o nada” is one of these tracks with a compelling hiphop beat. “Bailando sin paraiso” and “Perro Viejo” are tempting dancefloor seducer with addictive potential. 
The American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou is cited on the backcover: “Everything in the universe has rhythm, everything dances”. She knew “why the caged bird sings”, Otros Aires have opened the cage doors.

Tango Fusión: A los amigos

A chamber music quartet (i.e., Lothar Hensel, bandoneon; Dragan Radosavievich, violin; Ulf Borgwardt, violoncello; Oliver Potratz, double bass) and their friends are playing a selection of rather old, modern and also new tangos. Apart from the songs of Astor Piazzolla, Horacio Salgan, José Luis Padula, Armando Pontier and Nestor Marconi, for this project mastermind and arranger Lothar Hensel asked contemporary tango composers to contribute a characteristic song. Miguel Varvello (bandoneon), Jorge Retamoza (baritone saxophone), Ramiro Gallo (violin), Luis Borda (guitar), Saúl Cosentino (piano), and Andrés Gavaida (vocals, guitar) did agree and send sheet music which as the basis for the recording process of the quartet. Then they were invited as guest musicians for their songs, too. For Lothar Hensel´s song “Freunde y Amigos” we hear the quartet together with Ramiro Gallo, Luis Borda, Miguel Varvello and Jorge Retamoza - who recorded their audio tracks independently and send it to the musicians in Berlin who mixed them. That´s how modern live changes collaboration processes.

Be prepared that this chamber music fusion quartet surprises the listener with fascinating facets of contemporary tango music – even the bit older pieces of music come along with new and colored clothes made available by arranger Lothar Hensel.

Several of the new tracks are worth to recommend: “Un amigo en Berlin” by Jorge Retamoza with its dynamic melodic and rhythmic complexity, baritone saxophone accents and a `cool groove´ right in the middle, “Lautatro” by Ramiro Gallo with its sugar-sweet violin lines and a relaxed pulse of the double bass, “Hoja otoñal” by Andrés Gavaida with its picked violin and guitar arrangement, and a wonderful chorus sung by the composer with his warm and pleasant voice, “Controversia” by Miguel Varvello with atmospheric melodies brought forward by the disputing bandoneon, violin and cello, “Tango de los muertos” by Luis Borda with jazzy guitar voicings and a fascinating melody progression, “Carismático” by Saúl Cosentino with piano and bandoneon solos and wonderful melodies by violin and cello which invite to dance. 

For me, TangoFúsion´s album is among the outstanding productions within the last years: Dynamic virtuosity and bitter-sweet passion.