All systems tango
Tango Siempre
Wesley Memorial Church, 20 May
Few settings could have been more inappropriate for Tango Siempre’s concert of the sensuous music of the Buenos Aires bordellos, yet in what turned out to be an occasion where the profane very much triumphed over the sacred, Tango Siempre exoticised the Wesley Memorial Church. The opening number, Detox, with its virtuosic efforts from the guest saxophonist, Gilad Atzmon, got things off to a frenetic start.
Playing a repertoire of mixed compositions, Tango Siempre touched on styles far beyond the bounds of the classical Argentinean tango. From the Tango/Klezmer fusion of Cascada, a piece by the group’s violinist Ros Stevens to the Art Blakey-style drum solos by the other guest, Parisian drummer Steve Argüelles in El Compás, Tango Siempre crossed a dizzying number of borders. Sometimes this fusion did not quite work.
A piece by Goldfrapp’s producer, Will Gregory, entitled, Bow and Scrape, was poorly unified, hopping from the new age to a cross between Piazolla and Reinhardt. That said these cultural magpies also created, in collaboration with Atzmon, Nazareth, a piece possessed of an incredible evocative power and emotional intensity. Imitating the ney flute with his saxophone, Atzmon beautifully blurred the worlds of tango and middle eastern music together.
Pieces like Zhumba 2006 brilliantly showcased the collective talents of other members of the group, with the bassist Yaron Stavi really showing the go of tango. Although some of the electronic trickery provided by Steve Argüelles seemed at times tango•nouveau, his appearance in the second half added a pumping rhythm and some fascinating touches to the group.
From accordionist and emcee, Pete Rosser, to the pianist, Jonathan Taylor, the group played with a vim that transported the audience thousands of miles away from the drizzling Oxford night outside.
25th May 2006