-
Recuerdo tango
RECUERDO TANGO is the second of Mariela Franganillo’s tango shows that I have seen, and like the previous one, Tango Connection: Love Stories, it is distinguished by a feel for dramatic structure that goes beyond that of a revue whose main purpose is to showcase the history and virtuosity of the dance. Franganillo – in…
-
Voces del tango
Amidst the exceptional diversity of tango – orchestras, dance shows, milongas, club tango – it is easy to forget the tango song. I do not just mean those singers who front full bands or the passionate and accomplished amateurism of the tango bar. I am also thinking of the tango canción as a sort of…
-
Tangolandó
I have said so much about Sofía Tosello as a tango singer, and about the Afro-Peruvian fusion project, Tangolandó, of which she is half, that I assumed last Sunday at the Blue Note that I would snap a picture for social media, promulgate a caption, and let it go at that. But it remains true…
-
La Chicana
Last week was my second time seeing La Chicana at the Buenos Aires tango spot called Torquato Tasso. This innovative band was founded by Dolores Solá, Acho Estol and Juan Valverde in 1995, but what defines them for me is the metallic resonance of Solá’s voice and the acerbic wit of her interpretations. That wit…
-
María de Buenos Aires
That which is good about Beth Greenberg’s production of Ástor Piazzolla’s MARÍA DE BUENOS AIRES for Opera Hispánica is so very good that one doesn’t even want to think about that which is awkward or even bad about it. The supertitles are dreadful, no matter how difficult the surreal imagery of Horacio Ferrar’s libretto is…
-
Tango Mediterraneo
Tango Mediterraneo is a welcome addition to the options we have in New York to listen to live tango music. It has a distinctive sound, sharp and individualized in its instrumentation, and is fronted by Stratos Achlatis, the accordionist and singer, whose dulcet – I want to say honeyed – voice adds just the right…
-
Tangolandó • Fain-Mantega
It was, to be sure, a night of non-standard tango at Joe’s Pub. Tangolandó, fusing tango song with a distinctive Afro-Peruvian rhythm, closed out a program that began with the Dúo Fain-Mantega, consisting of piano and flute, the latter one of the early instruments in tango orchestras, along with the harp and violin, but not…
-
Tangolandó
We all know, or think we know, what tango is, and TANGOLANDÓ, just out as a digital release, has some of the best tango singing by one of the best New York based Argentinian artists, Sofía Tosello. Fewer of us know what landó is: it is a driving Afro-Peruvian rhythm that is instantly recognizable once…
-
Tango Conspiracy
On a late Wednesday night in the Malbec Room at Novecento, I listened for the first time to Tango Conspiracy, a band fronted by the guitarist-singer Jimena Fama whose music is self-described as “Electro Dub,” “Funk,” “Tango,” “Lounge,” and “Bassa Nova.” My prejudices for dancing tango bend toward the traditional repertory, but I must say…
-
Tangolandó
I spent Thursday night at Terraza 7 Train Café, where, as this vertiginous view suggests, Tangolandó sent me reeling. It was not just the boldness of the sound, which backs tango, sung in its own time by Sofía Tosello, with the Afro-Peruvian rhythm known as landó, arranged by the guitarist and impresario of the project…