Monday, February 26, 2007
Omar Giammarco Quinteto and Malena Muyala at the IX Buenos Aires Tango Festival
Saturday, February 24, 2007
When inviting an Argentine friend of mine to go to this show with me she declined, instead choosing to go to a different festival event. She gave as her excuse the fact that “those guys don’t really play tango.” This is a criticism you hear a lot in Buenos Aires these days, especially regarding relatively younger musicians or people who try to change up tango even the slightest bit. That is not to say that everyone here is musically closed minded, just that the boundaries of tango—just like any so-called “national” genre—are policed pretty vigilantly in some circles.
In this case, it turns out that this perennial criticism was somewhat well deserved, especially regarding Giammarco, whose group was oriented around Uruguayan candombe, the Argentine carnival music called murga, and contemporary singer-songwriterism as much if not more than tango. Any and all of those genres were taken equally as launching pads and landing points for Giammarco’s original songs, which were arranged for a band that included guitar, violin, drums, accordion (not bandoneón), and several other instruments. I can understand why a tango purist would hate this band, but I thought they were a lot of fun, if at times overly ironic and acid. (Giammarco’s stage presence and personality is not the most instantly likeable). That said, the main drawback of the evening had nothing to do with the band or their music, but with the acoustics of the performance space, which was inside one of the massive exhibition halls at the fair complex known as “La Rural.” With the speakers pumping out volume suitable for a concert of thousands (there were probably several hundred people there, if that), some key features of the music—like the lyrics and the violin part—were drowned out in a relentless echo.
The following group, lead by lovely Uruguayan singer Malena Muyala, suffered some of the same fate, though as their instrumentation was oriented around a more quiet sound—bass, cello, guitar, bandoneón and percussion—they were not entirely overwhelmed by the acoustics of the space. Muyala also seemed more clearly centered around tango, though she lacked the typical aggressive sexuality that many singers rely upon. Instead, her music was more quiet and introspective, creating a seemingly intimate emotional space and leading the audience into it rather than banging them over the head with love and loss, which tango does so well. This kind of performance strategy made me think that Muyala could do well in the international world music circuit. Because of her engagement with other styles and genres, her sound is somewhat more accessible than traditional tango. That accessibility, almost ironically, makes the words she is singing seem less central if not less important to the overall effect of what happens on stage, which is so different from other tango singing styles where the words are key. I don’t know how much traveling she has done, but I can imagine her doing well in New York or Europe, as long as her audiences and producers there are not thirsting for the authentic.
Related Links
www.omargiammarco.com.ar
www.malenamuyala.com
When inviting an Argentine friend of mine to go to this show with me she declined, instead choosing to go to a different festival event. She gave as her excuse the fact that “those guys don’t really play tango.” This is a criticism you hear a lot in Buenos Aires these days, especially regarding relatively younger musicians or people who try to change up tango even the slightest bit. That is not to say that everyone here is musically closed minded, just that the boundaries of tango—just like any so-called “national” genre—are policed pretty vigilantly in some circles.
In this case, it turns out that this perennial criticism was somewhat well deserved, especially regarding Giammarco, whose group was oriented around Uruguayan candombe, the Argentine carnival music called murga, and contemporary singer-songwriterism as much if not more than tango. Any and all of those genres were taken equally as launching pads and landing points for Giammarco’s original songs, which were arranged for a band that included guitar, violin, drums, accordion (not bandoneón), and several other instruments. I can understand why a tango purist would hate this band, but I thought they were a lot of fun, if at times overly ironic and acid. (Giammarco’s stage presence and personality is not the most instantly likeable). That said, the main drawback of the evening had nothing to do with the band or their music, but with the acoustics of the performance space, which was inside one of the massive exhibition halls at the fair complex known as “La Rural.” With the speakers pumping out volume suitable for a concert of thousands (there were probably several hundred people there, if that), some key features of the music—like the lyrics and the violin part—were drowned out in a relentless echo.
The following group, lead by lovely Uruguayan singer Malena Muyala, suffered some of the same fate, though as their instrumentation was oriented around a more quiet sound—bass, cello, guitar, bandoneón and percussion—they were not entirely overwhelmed by the acoustics of the space. Muyala also seemed more clearly centered around tango, though she lacked the typical aggressive sexuality that many singers rely upon. Instead, her music was more quiet and introspective, creating a seemingly intimate emotional space and leading the audience into it rather than banging them over the head with love and loss, which tango does so well. This kind of performance strategy made me think that Muyala could do well in the international world music circuit. Because of her engagement with other styles and genres, her sound is somewhat more accessible than traditional tango. That accessibility, almost ironically, makes the words she is singing seem less central if not less important to the overall effect of what happens on stage, which is so different from other tango singing styles where the words are key. I don’t know how much traveling she has done, but I can imagine her doing well in New York or Europe, as long as her audiences and producers there are not thirsting for the authentic.
Related Links
www.omargiammarco.com.ar
www.malenamuyala.com
