Sunday, October 08, 2006
Orquesta Típica Cerda Negra at the Club Atletico Fernandez Fierro
Friday, October 6, 2006
“We have a sad past in Argentina. We have studied that past, and we are going to make the present as good as possible.” That was the send-off message from the stage as Orquesta Típica Cerda Negra finished their under-attended set at the Club Atletico Fernandez Fierro (CAFF) last Friday night.
Some of that sad past was laid out in detail by a massive poster that covered part of two walls in the back corner of the club. The poster, originally in German but translated into Spanish, outlined political and economic connections between corporations like Mercedez Benz, the Nazis, and the Argentine government of Juan Perón, the selling off of Argentine national lands to foreign companies like Benetton in the 1990s and the consequences it has had for indigenous groups, and the horrors of the last military dictatorship, during which as many as 30,000 civilians were kidnapped, tortured, and “disappeared” by the government under a policy of state terror. And this more than “sad” past is still frighteningly alive here today: the newspaper headlines of the last several weeks have been dominated by the current government’s increasingly desperate search for a key witness in the trial of a former police repressor and torturer who vanished the day before the trial concluded. The government and human rights groups fear that he may have been “disappeared” for having come forward to testify (though the use of that specific term has been highly controversial). The same night as this concert, nearly 100,000 people marched to the Plaza de Mayo, the main public square in front of the president’s house, demanding the reappearance of the missing witness alive.
The CAFF and the groups who play there are obviously deeply engaged with the political past of Argentina: what other music club would have this kind of poster on the wall? That said, the Orquesta Típica Cerda Negra has clearly studied their musical past as well. An ensemble of eleven members in the historically resonant orquesta típica format (a tango big band of bandoneónes, violins, piano, bass, ‘cello, and singer), the group ripped through nearly flawless renditions of tango classics such as Pugliese’s “La Yumba” and Piazzolla’s “Libertango.” The precision of their performance was all the more impressive because almost every member of the band is under twenty years old, with some of them as young as sixteen. I mean, my high school funk band was pretty good, but these kids are really talented.
The band really came alive, however, when playing their original compositions. These both drew upon and extended the musical vocabulary of the genre and the sonic palate of the orquesta típica in very interesting and original ways: they used dense and lush harmonies that moved in unexpected but not jarring progressions; they had moments of rhythmic counterpoint that were at once highly tense and totally static; and they had the most fluid, extreme, and effective use of dynamics I have ever heard in an orquesta típica. Most of the compositions were written, I think, by seventeen-year-old pianist and bandleader Agustín Guerrero, who has clearly been listening to his Debussy and Stravinsky records along with his Triolo and Pugliese tango discs.
Given the age of the group, the quality of their performance, and the strength of their original compositions, Orquesta Típica Cerda Negra, having studied the past, is not only making the present of tango music “as good as possible,” but laying the groundwork for the future as well.
Related Links
www.cerdanegra.com.ar
www.fernandezfierro.com/caff
“We have a sad past in Argentina. We have studied that past, and we are going to make the present as good as possible.” That was the send-off message from the stage as Orquesta Típica Cerda Negra finished their under-attended set at the Club Atletico Fernandez Fierro (CAFF) last Friday night.
Some of that sad past was laid out in detail by a massive poster that covered part of two walls in the back corner of the club. The poster, originally in German but translated into Spanish, outlined political and economic connections between corporations like Mercedez Benz, the Nazis, and the Argentine government of Juan Perón, the selling off of Argentine national lands to foreign companies like Benetton in the 1990s and the consequences it has had for indigenous groups, and the horrors of the last military dictatorship, during which as many as 30,000 civilians were kidnapped, tortured, and “disappeared” by the government under a policy of state terror. And this more than “sad” past is still frighteningly alive here today: the newspaper headlines of the last several weeks have been dominated by the current government’s increasingly desperate search for a key witness in the trial of a former police repressor and torturer who vanished the day before the trial concluded. The government and human rights groups fear that he may have been “disappeared” for having come forward to testify (though the use of that specific term has been highly controversial). The same night as this concert, nearly 100,000 people marched to the Plaza de Mayo, the main public square in front of the president’s house, demanding the reappearance of the missing witness alive.
The CAFF and the groups who play there are obviously deeply engaged with the political past of Argentina: what other music club would have this kind of poster on the wall? That said, the Orquesta Típica Cerda Negra has clearly studied their musical past as well. An ensemble of eleven members in the historically resonant orquesta típica format (a tango big band of bandoneónes, violins, piano, bass, ‘cello, and singer), the group ripped through nearly flawless renditions of tango classics such as Pugliese’s “La Yumba” and Piazzolla’s “Libertango.” The precision of their performance was all the more impressive because almost every member of the band is under twenty years old, with some of them as young as sixteen. I mean, my high school funk band was pretty good, but these kids are really talented.
The band really came alive, however, when playing their original compositions. These both drew upon and extended the musical vocabulary of the genre and the sonic palate of the orquesta típica in very interesting and original ways: they used dense and lush harmonies that moved in unexpected but not jarring progressions; they had moments of rhythmic counterpoint that were at once highly tense and totally static; and they had the most fluid, extreme, and effective use of dynamics I have ever heard in an orquesta típica. Most of the compositions were written, I think, by seventeen-year-old pianist and bandleader Agustín Guerrero, who has clearly been listening to his Debussy and Stravinsky records along with his Triolo and Pugliese tango discs.
Given the age of the group, the quality of their performance, and the strength of their original compositions, Orquesta Típica Cerda Negra, having studied the past, is not only making the present of tango music “as good as possible,” but laying the groundwork for the future as well.
Related Links
www.cerdanegra.com.ar
www.fernandezfierro.com/caff
