Wednesday, October 04, 2006
33 de Mano and Ricardo Reches at the Centro Cultural de la Cooperación
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
There is a regular Tuesday evening tango series hosted by the Centro Cultural de la Cooperación (CCC) on Avenida Corrientes which I try to make it to semi-regularly, though tonight was the first time I have been there in a long time. The place itself is very interesting. Privately funded by a cooperative Argentine bank called Banco Credicoop, the CCC is, according to their own literature, “a space dedicated to the arts and social sciences...whose orientation is inscribed in the principles and values of cooperation, which it affirms in an anti-capitalist sensibility and through social and cultural progress.” The CCC features several spaces for theatrical and musical performances, hosts lectures and discussion on all kinds of political and artistic topics, has an art gallery, a leftist bookstore, a cafe, and spaces for different research groups hosted by the institution, etc. The Tuesday night tango series can be hit or miss, but it books less well known performers that you would probably not hear elsewhere and it is free, so you can’t really go wrong.
Tonight the music was more of a miss, I am afraid. I saw a double bill of a group called 33 de Mano and a singer named Ricardo Reches. 33 de Mano is a trio of two guitars plus a singer. They concentrated on classic tango repertoire, especially that of bandoneón virtuoso and bandleader Anibal Troilo and guitarist Roberto Grela. The guitarists were quite good, though they seemed overly distracted by minute tuning issues and played in a somewhat lackluster, academic style. Maybe they were nervous, but their songs seemed more to fall off the page than to really end (though they were playing from memory). The singer was doing his part, though he too was rather unanimated. The audience, which seemed to be a mix of regular attendees (mostly senior citizens) and friends of the group, seemed to like it well enough, with someone calling out to the musicians to tell them how lovely they thought their selection of songs was. The hall for the tango concerts at the CCC is quite intimate, which facilitates these kinds of interactions between the musicians and their very vocal audiences, which are quite common.
The second group, Ricardo Reches, did not go over so well. Ricardo is a singer and guitarist who specializes in original tango songs. He was accompanied on a few of his songs by his brother Miguel Reches, who sang, and by his cousin Lucía Moledo, who played percussion. The songs were pleasant enough, though somewhat banal (stories about falling in love with a stranger on the train who gets off before you can speak to them, etc), and I have to applaud anyone who is trying to write new tango songs, which is no small task. The real killer for me, however, was the air of pretentiousness that Ricardo brought to the stage, with the performance falling flat under the weight of him trying so hard to seem like he was not trying at all. There were some nice musical moments, especially the quick vocal duets between Ricardo and his brother, who had an amazingly high, nasal voice. But whatever momentum was generated during the songs was completely dissipated by Ricardo’s on stage banter and repeated requests for applause. Others in the audience seemed to share my less than enthusiastic sentiment, with a steady trickle of people heading for the doors throughout the performance and no requests for the usually obligatory “otra” when the show came to an end. Ricardo has a CD titled Llega el Tren.
Related Links
www.centrocultural.coop
www.ricardoreches.com.ar
There is a regular Tuesday evening tango series hosted by the Centro Cultural de la Cooperación (CCC) on Avenida Corrientes which I try to make it to semi-regularly, though tonight was the first time I have been there in a long time. The place itself is very interesting. Privately funded by a cooperative Argentine bank called Banco Credicoop, the CCC is, according to their own literature, “a space dedicated to the arts and social sciences...whose orientation is inscribed in the principles and values of cooperation, which it affirms in an anti-capitalist sensibility and through social and cultural progress.” The CCC features several spaces for theatrical and musical performances, hosts lectures and discussion on all kinds of political and artistic topics, has an art gallery, a leftist bookstore, a cafe, and spaces for different research groups hosted by the institution, etc. The Tuesday night tango series can be hit or miss, but it books less well known performers that you would probably not hear elsewhere and it is free, so you can’t really go wrong.
Tonight the music was more of a miss, I am afraid. I saw a double bill of a group called 33 de Mano and a singer named Ricardo Reches. 33 de Mano is a trio of two guitars plus a singer. They concentrated on classic tango repertoire, especially that of bandoneón virtuoso and bandleader Anibal Troilo and guitarist Roberto Grela. The guitarists were quite good, though they seemed overly distracted by minute tuning issues and played in a somewhat lackluster, academic style. Maybe they were nervous, but their songs seemed more to fall off the page than to really end (though they were playing from memory). The singer was doing his part, though he too was rather unanimated. The audience, which seemed to be a mix of regular attendees (mostly senior citizens) and friends of the group, seemed to like it well enough, with someone calling out to the musicians to tell them how lovely they thought their selection of songs was. The hall for the tango concerts at the CCC is quite intimate, which facilitates these kinds of interactions between the musicians and their very vocal audiences, which are quite common.
The second group, Ricardo Reches, did not go over so well. Ricardo is a singer and guitarist who specializes in original tango songs. He was accompanied on a few of his songs by his brother Miguel Reches, who sang, and by his cousin Lucía Moledo, who played percussion. The songs were pleasant enough, though somewhat banal (stories about falling in love with a stranger on the train who gets off before you can speak to them, etc), and I have to applaud anyone who is trying to write new tango songs, which is no small task. The real killer for me, however, was the air of pretentiousness that Ricardo brought to the stage, with the performance falling flat under the weight of him trying so hard to seem like he was not trying at all. There were some nice musical moments, especially the quick vocal duets between Ricardo and his brother, who had an amazingly high, nasal voice. But whatever momentum was generated during the songs was completely dissipated by Ricardo’s on stage banter and repeated requests for applause. Others in the audience seemed to share my less than enthusiastic sentiment, with a steady trickle of people heading for the doors throughout the performance and no requests for the usually obligatory “otra” when the show came to an end. Ricardo has a CD titled Llega el Tren.
Related Links
www.centrocultural.coop
www.ricardoreches.com.ar
