Oda Para Un Hippie - Camerata Porteña

Camerata Porteña made its first visit to this blog a little over a year ago under the title, Pure Piazzolla. That video featured their performance of Escualo. Since that blog, they have posted a number of other videos including today's which features an unusual and rarely heard composition, Oda para un hippie. Piazzolla only recorded the piece once on the 1972 with his Conjunto 9 and it is now available on the reissue CD, Musica Popular Contemporanea Vol. 2, or as an mp3 single..

The Conjunto 9, sometimes known as the Nonet, was Piazzolla's largest ensemble. To create it he added a second violinist (Hugo Baralis), a viola (Néstor Panik), a cello (José Bragato) and a percussionist (José Corriale) to his existing Quintet. The music he wrote for the Conjunto 9 is different - most of it is a little more classical and a little less canyengue than later works. You will note an almost Mozartian cadence at the end of Oda para un hippie.

All of the Piazzolla covers by the Camerata Porteña are superb but I find their ability to play music written for the Conjunto 9 almost uncanny. They are similar in size (in fact, they are a nonet on their website but an octet is this video) but lack a second violin and percussionist and, in an unlikely move, gained a saxophone. They have not chosen to duplicate the Piazzolla sound but have very faithfully captured the intent of the music. There is only one other full video of Oda para un hippie on YouTube and while it is interesting, the group is a trio and simply does not have enough sound spectrum available to capture the intent of the music.

As to the title - there must be a story there but I don't know it. If the video does not appear below, click here.



To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.

Grace - Again

We have seen that face before, and heard those charts before but as long as Grace Jones takes Libertango (or in her case, I've seen that face before) on the road with a new act, this blog will be there. Today's performance is from London's Royal Albert Hall on Monday night, April 26. Six versions hit YouTube in the two days following the performance. Such is the dedication of Ms. Jones fans. And what is new for 2011? Well, maybe not much - the costuming is the same as we saw in Hollywood last year. But wait, that is a real person not a mannequin as a dance partner. Rumor has it, her crew misplaced the mannequin and one of the roadies took to the stage to replace it.

This could be one-of-a-kind video. Treasure it.

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To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.

Libertango - European Jazz Trio

Celeste from Kew Gardens, NY says this about the European Jazz Trio's version of Libertango in an Amazon.com review, "They take the song and interpolate it into something that softens my spine, uncurls my hair and puts me into a mood where I want to drink wine in front of a fireplace." I agree. Today's video is not new. Although it was posted today, it first appeared on YouTube in 2007 and is from the EJT 2005 DVD, An Afternoon in Amsterdam and the version itself probably dates back to the 1999 CD, Libertango. A smooth blend of Piazzolla and bossa nova, the version remains unique and one of the best jazz versions ever. It sounds as fresh today as it must have in 1999.

The European Jazz Trio was formed in 1995, and includes members Marc van Roon on Piano, Frans van der Hoeven on bass and Roy Dackus on drums. The group has recorded more than 25 albums, which unfortunately have never been distributed in North America. The groups latest album is Japanesque which is very appropriate since the group has found its greatest popularity in Japan. You will find quite a bit more of their music, including more video from the Libertango concert, on the EJT YouTube channel.

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To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.

Resurrección del ángel - Kreativ Ensemble

Resurrección del ángel was probably composed as incidental music for Alberto Rodriguez Muñoz's 1962 stage play Tango del Angel. It first appeared on a Piazzolla recording in 1965 along with Milonga del ángel which was definitely written for the Muñoz play. It is rarely heard - there were only six performances of Resurrección posted on YouTube in the last twelve months vs. 106 for Milonga. It deserves to be more widely performed.

The performance of Resurrección del ángel in today's video is by the Kreativ Ensemble joined by Federico Mondelci on saxophone and Omar Lonati on contrabass. Mondelci appears from the shadows to cover a bandoneón solo and then disappears for the rest of the piece. Mondelci is known for his arrangements of Piazzolla and if this arrangement is his, it is excellent. With no piano, bandoneón or electric guitar in the ensemble, creating an arrangement which still captures the essence of the original was a challenge, and a challenge well met in this case.

There is one other highlight in the video that deserves mention and that is the superb violin work of Sonia Domoustchieva. She has captured perfectly all of the emotion in Piazzolla's original. If we had a time transport machine, Ms Domoustchieva is one of very few contemporary violinists who could replace Antonio Agri or Fernando Suarez Paz in the quintet and instantly be accepted. You can sample Suarez Paz's take on Resurrección in this video.

This video is one of a series of Piazzolla performances that the Kreativ Ensemble did, several with Mondelci. You can find them all on the Arkovi YouTube Channel.

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To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.

Verano Porteño - Colegio Speiro

The city of Valparaíso, Chile has long been famed for its scenic hills and the unique cable cars which climb those hills. More recently it was in the news because of damage from the February 27, 2010 magnitude 8.8 earthquake. Today's video shows another reason Valparaíso should be in the news: students there are getting a great musical education thanks, in part, to PROMÚS, an organization for the music educators in Valparaíso.

Today's video shows students from Colegio Speiro, a Christian school in Valparaíso, playing Verano Porteño on a collection of instruments including recorders, guitars, flutes, xylophones, percussion and a melodeon. Libertango is the choice of 99.99% of music educators and it is refreshing and surprising to see a student performance of the more complex Verano Porteño. The group is well rehearsed and many of them are showing some real musical talent. The performance is one that any music educator in the world would proudly share on stage for fellow educators. The young people are being granted a true gift to be able to play one of Piazzolla's greatest works at such an early age.

My congratulations to the ensemble and to it's leader, Joaquin Ignacio Cisterna Gallardo. You can see more videos of music at the school at the Andreaxsx channel on YouTube.

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To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.

Destroy to Save?

Perhaps a few readers are old enough to remember the bleak days of the war in Viet Nam when journalist Peter Arnett quoted an American army major, "We had to destroy the village in order to save it." There is no comparison in the level of tragedy involved, but in some sense, Piazzolla's music is also being destroyed in order to save it. More than forty percent of the Piazzolla videos which appear on YouTube are in a classical mode. It seems likely that 100 years from now, classical musicians will still be playing Piazzolla's work - the music is being embedded in the classical repertoire. With the exception of Libertango, it seems less likely that jazz and pop musicians will do the same. Yet most of the classical musicians are abandoning the Piazzolla signature that makes his work unique. They make beautiful music but is it Piazzolla? They may be saving Piazzolla, but are they destroying Piazzolla in the process?

Today's video of Otoño Porteño features a piano quintet with an added bandoneón and contrabass. Not a traditional classical ensemble but a group which very effectively melds the classical and the nuevo tango. It is the kind of group that gives me hope that Piazzolla's music may survive almost intact. The group is led by Christiaan van Hemert who both plays the bandoneón and created the arrangement. Mr. van Hemert makes a very telling statement in the notes with the video, "The basis for this arrangement is the original quintet arrangement which I transcribed first (if you want to play Piazzolla I recommend never buying scores since they're crap - all the "Piazzolla-magic" is taken out of the commercial scores - just transcribe the music yourself). I then adapted it for this line-up with strings." Let's hope the classical music world will ultimately take Mr. van Hemert's advice. That is the way to save Piazzolla's music without destroying it.

Enjoy their excellent performance. You can also enjoy van Hemert's bandoneón work in the Dutch group Tango Dorado. If the video does not appear below, click here.

Note added 29 April, 2011: The group has now added the three additional "Seasons." They are excellent. I recommend them all: Primavera Porteña, Verano Porteño and Invierno Porteño.



To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.

Piazzolla Olympics

As the Piazzolla Olympics draw to a close, I Solisti d'Europa has been awarded the Gold medal in the Best Libertango Introduction event. In this event, judges award points for drama, style, musicality and length-of-time-before-it-is-apparent-that-Libertango-is-about-to-break-out. Many drama points were awarded for closed eyes, emotional mouth movement, and foreboding bass lines although the knowing grins from certain violinists led to a few deductions. The group scored very high in style as much of the introduction was reminiscent of a Piazzolla score from one of those 1950's Argentine film-noir movies. The group scored straight tens in the musicality category which might be expected from such a superb set of musicians. And finally, in the critical "break-out-time," their Libertango arrangement stretched the point of Libertango recognition for most judges all the way to one minute and forty seconds, a new world's record. Congratulations to I Solisti d'Europa for their big win.

The I Solisti d'Europa website needs a bit of work but from reviews I find of their concerts, the group apparently is staffed by leading players from the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI and the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala. It appears that the group was first assembled in 2007 by Luca Ranieri and still performs today. You can see and hear more of this fine chamber orchestra's work on their YouTube channel.

As to the other events, the Gold for Big Hair has been awarded to Vanessa for her performance of Milonga de la Anunciacion and the Gold for Best Costume and Staging went to Claudio Orsini for his orange suit and machine shop venue in his performance of La muerte del Ángel.

Don't miss the closing ceremonies featuring the Marching Bandoneóns performing Pedro y Pedro tonight at nine on ESPN.

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To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.