Café de los Brujos

It always amazes me how some of the people I really look up to are so humble. Today I spent the afternoon talking and sharing music with maestro Osvaldo Montes. The sincerity and the generosity you see beaming from his eyes are unmatched. I have met him several times in the past and each time he as been nothing short of being extremely generous and at the same time very sincere in his good heartedness. To me he exemplifies ”buena onda”. And yet to be so humble with all that he has done and accomplished makes you love and respect him even more. It reminds me of my first visit to Buenos Aires where Oscar Himschoot had set up a meeting for me with maestro Gabriel Clausi to see his bandoneónes. Back then I had no idea who Gabriel Clausi was. When I arrived at maestro Clausi’s house, he was watching SoloTango. I barely spoke Castellano and he barely spoke English so we communicated mostly by facial expressions and hand gestures. But he was incredibly nice and you could see the love of tango pouring out of his eyes and how much he wanted to share that love. I later learned who he was by reading a biography on Astor Piazzolla. I was amazed at how humble he was, simply no attitude at all, just love for the music. Humility is a quality I highly respect and is something I always strive for.

There has been a rumor around that Carlos Di Sarli had 10 violins in his orquesta. Some cite this as the reason why it is difficult to reproduce his sound. After listening to Orquesta de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires play Bahía Blanca tonight, I am very inclined to believe this rumor. The 10 violins and 2 violas in this orquesta were amazing. It really makes you appreciate good strings which are so hard to find nowadays in tango orquestas. The main reason being that tango orchestras usually do not pay as well as symphonic orchestras, so most talented string instrumentalists who play tango do it for the love of the music. Anyways, the rich sound those strings were able to produce tonight with the arrangment of maestro Carlos Garcia really openned my eyes (and ears) to what Bahía Blanca was intended sound like. I think Carlos Di Sarli would have been proud. The rich texture of that many strings really brought out the soul of the piece. Again, words can’t do it justice. But it got me thinking… how great it would be to have an orquesta in the style of Di Sarli with 10 violins!!! …Now if I can find some pictures to prove that this rumor is actually true

A week ago I got the chance to catch a young group of musicians play. It was a cuarteto and the contrabajo kept grabbing my attention. His technique seemed impecable and he applied the adornments at just the right time without overdoing it. It was also the first time I had seen a bassist play sitting down on a tall stool and he bowed the bass as a cello (using its high register) through some of the sections - more so than any other arrangements I have heard. His arco technique was also impecable. I had never witnessed so many different ways of creating different sounds from a bass. There must have been at least fifteen different sounds he was creating. I was simply blown away at how one can use the upright bass in tango. From using various parts of the bass for percussion, even the bow itself, to varying the arco technique and plucking technique. A couple of my Argentine musician friends have commented in the past that the contrabajo was a completely different beast in tango. I believed them when they said it but I had no idea of the degree.  

I also caught the second year formation of Orquesta Escuela de Tango (directed by Emilio Balcarce) a few weeks ago. The entrada was free but since I arrived a little late I was not able to get a good seat. The performaces in Casa de la Cultura are usually held in a tiny room with a very low stage. If you were not sitting in the first three rows, you might as well just close your eyes and listen. Since the stage is pretty small, the piano and the bandoneóns were playing on the floor in front of the stage. It was impossible for me to see them being seated in the twentieth row. But it turned out to be a good thing because it forced me to watch and listen to the string section since they were the only ones playing standing up on the tiny stage. I have a bad habit of only paying attention to the bandoneóns at concerts  Needless to say, the violins blew me away. Their sound that night was much better than the last time I heard them in CC San Martín. Perhaps it was because they were the second year formation or perhaps it was the sound system, who knows. Anyways, you could tell that a lot of work went into trying to reproduce the sound of the golden era by studying the techniques of the old days. Ramiro Gallo, the lead violin was impecable as always and the whole group played very well together. I had no idea how much preparation and technique went into playing the violin for tango. Places where I thought a down bow would be used, they used an up bow (which after I thought about it, it made more sense). The various positions of the bow to the various percussive effects. Their careful attention to dynamics. And lastly, how well they all played together (especially when they played soli). Those two nights have really openned my mind and allowed me to gain a much deeper appreciation for the strings in an orquesta típica. The strings are definitely a different beast in Argentine Tango.

Bueno, voy a escribir un poco en español. Si hay algunos errores, por favor mandame la correción.

Esta noche fui a un concierto de un orquesta más joven. Ellos tocan en estilo de Di Sarli y tienen su arreglos propios. Además, ellos tienen algunas composiciónes originales. Era un placer de eschuarlos. Bueno, voy a continuar en ingles…

Listening to them made me realize how important the bass is. Their bassist had groove and he provided a strong foundation for the whole orquesta. With his groove, he could have carried the whole orchestra on his back. I have always known how important the bass is in an orquesta típica, especially with the arrastre. But understanding it by words and understanding it by listening are two different things. It is extremely difficult to convey this experience with just words. Perhaps it was also more evident because the bassist and the pianist were the stronger players in the orquesta - who knows? One thing is for sure, without a strong bass and a piano, you have no foundation, no orquesta. After seeing these guys tonight, I thought to myself… Dang, I hope one day to have a bassist that feels the music, has a kickass groove, and flow like the one I saw tonight (if I ever get a chance to start an orquesta típica).

At the beginning of this year I had decided to fully live my life in the moment. The process of arriving at this decision was gradual, slow and took about a year. I came to realize that I had been living my life very cautiously in order to avoid hurting others. I would seldom share my affections and let my significant other know how wonderful I felt, how wonderful they made me feel, or how wonderful I thought they were in order to not mislead them. I wanted to be absolutely sure that I would always feel this way about them regardless of time & circumstances (until my dying days sort to speak). I eventually realized that by being so cautious & protective I was not really fully living my life. It is better to live in the moment, fully share what you feel and fully indulge in what you feel. To do everything with zest, go with your gut, and be in the moment. Change is a certianty and whether or not it affects how you feel about a person is something that you can never be absolutely certain of. So you mind as well live in the moment. Because if I do, at that exact moment in time & life I was who I was, and was completely honest & true to what I felt. And as the title suggests, change is inevitable, and you may never get the opportunity to explore and/or experience that moment/situation/circumstance again. Live life and be true.