Tango Sur is a new collaboration based in Melbourne, and we catch up with them, but first there is a brief look at the life and legacy of singer Jorge Maciel, and a quick round-up of What’s On. That’s this Sunday on Tango Capital, 7:00pm to 8:00pm:
- broadcasting on 2xxfm 98.3 in Canberra,
- streaming live and also on demand from http://www.2xxfm.org.au
Image: Tango Sur playing the Brunswick Green, Melbourne, on 30 April 2019.
One of the significant influences on the band is Danilo Rojas‘s professional status as a pianist and teacher, with a masters degree in jazz and improvisation; another is his Bolivian heritage, as the musics of the Andes also includes improvisation. Diego Neder is also from South America, but from Argentina, from Sante Fe, in the centre of Argentina’s folkloric heartland, and he plays electric bass rather than the acoustic guitar of that tradition. Salvador Persico is an Australian percussionist with Italian and South American heritage; his formal musical education at the Victorian College of the Arts is also slanted towards improvisation and his music is heavily influenced by Afro-Cuban and Latin American folk/popular music, Latin Jazz, 70’s Salsa and Reggae. Chris Maunders is also Australian and professionally trained at the VCA, and appears intent on restoring the chromatic harmonica to the importance it had in the development of jazz during the 1930s and 1940s. With themes of formal training, improvisation and interests in various musics from the Americas reinforcing each other there’s a lot to like there, but how does it all sit with tango? Listen in…
PLAYLIST:
- Felicia, recorded by Juan D’Arienzo on 1 September 1939. It’s; a tango with music composed by Enrique Saborido, first recorded in 1927, and has been recorded dozens of times since. It does have lovely lyrics by Carlos Mauricio Pacheco; they are a cry of loss from a Uruguayan expatriate who believes he will never see or smell the flowers and beaches of his homeland again, but I don’t think they have ever been recorded.
- Remembranza, meaning ‘Remembrances’; a tango recorded by Alfredo J Gobbi on 8 September 1948, with music composed by Mario Melfi in 1934, lyrics by Mario Battistella and sung by Jorge Maciel.
- La Vieja Serenata, meaning ‘The Old Serenade’; a vals recorded by Alfredo J Gobbi in 1949, with music composed by Teofilo Ibáñez, lyrics by Sandalia Gómez and sung by Jorge Maciel.
- Tropa, from the lunfardo meaning ‘Crowd’, it’s a tango recorded by Alfredo J Gobbi on 31 October 1950, with music composed by Ángel Raúl Vilar, lyrics by Pedro Blasco and sung by Jorge Maciel and Héctor Coral.
- Silueta Porteña, meaning ‘Shadow of a Woman from Buenos Aires’; a milonga recorded by Osvaldo Pugliese on 2 August 1956; music composed by Nicolas Luis Cuccaro and Juan Ventura Cuccaro in 1936, lyrics by Orlando D’Aniello and Ernesto Noli and sung by Jorge Maciel and Miguel Montero.
- Adiós Corazón, meaning ‘Good-bye, Heart’; a tango recorded by Osvaldo Pugliese on 29 May 1958; with music composed by Lalo Etchegoncelay first recorded in 1957, lyrics by Héctor Sapelli and sung by Jorge Maciel.
- El Motivo, meaning ‘The Motive’, and also known as ‘Pobre Paica’; recorded live from a performance by Tango Sur at The Brunswick Green, Melbourne, on 30 April 2019; a tango with music composed by Juan Carlos Cobián in 1920 and lyrics by Pascual Contursi.
- Como Dos Extraños, meaning ‘Like Two Strangers’; recorded live from a performance by Tango Sur at The Brunswick Green, Melbourne, on 30 April 2019; a tango with music composed by Pedro Laurenz in 1940.
- De Antaño from the ‘Good Enough For Gringos’ release in 2013, meaning ‘Of Days Gone By’; a milonga recorded by Tángalo with music and lyrics by Luis Rubistein in 1939, and sung here by Susie Bishop.
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