TANGO DE BUENOS AIRES (Daniel Binelli - Julian Plaza - Astor Piazzolla)

Album review

Tango de Buenos Aires is a stripped down set of tangos performed as duets between Daniel Binelli on bandoneon, and pianist Linda Thomas. It is interesting to hear Binelli in such a stripped down fashion, as opposed to his other releases arranged for larger bands, in that his virtuosity can be studied with great detail. Also in this setting, his songs, by necessity, have less of a free jazz-oriented influence than some of his other work, but other influences and styles creep out over the duration of the album. There's an (obviously) strong tie to modern classical composers, and also to the accordion music often associated with French cafés and the seedy after-hours clubs where the tango has its roots. These are lovely performances, very much worth checking out as the duo peruses melodies by some of the composers that sparked the "tango nuevo" movement. Binelli's mentor, Astor Piazzolla is, of course, represented via four tracks as are Aníbal Troilo, Gerardo Hernán Matos Rodriguez, and Binelli himself. Tango de Buenos Aires is a wonderful album, although less grandiose than Binelli's band-oriented recordings, and makes a nice introduction to the tango as more than just music to dance to.

© Gregory McIntosh /TiVo