Sleeve Notes

The tango was born at the end of the 19th century in the poorer districts of the important Argentine cities, a type of dance music with African influences. It was heard in small groups that usually included the violin, the piano and the bandoneón, a kind of concertina that arrived from Germany in the 1890’s. However, what nobody could imagine was its rapid development; in less than twenty years it became possible to hear it in the most important Dance Halls and concert halls.. A role for singers as soloists became increasingly more frequent, and in the 20’s and 30’s the Tango was launched away from the frontiers of Argentina with intrusions in North-American films and with the universal fame of some singers such as the great Carlos Gardel.

Carlos Gardel, film singer and actor who became a naturalized Argentinian, is considered the most important ‘tanguero’ (tango man) in the first half of the 20th century. According to some investigators he was born in Toulouse, France, on the 11th December, 1890, and according to others he was born in Tacuarembó, Uruguay on the 11th December of 1887. In either case he lived from infancy in Buenos Aires. He died on the 24th June, 1935, in Medellín, Columbia, in an airplane accident.  When Gardel died he was at the height of his career, and millions of followers were crying with news of his death. His last years were bathed in glory; popularly the people said “Gardel sings better and better every day”. A verse of his tango ‘Volver’ (in English, ‘Return’) became a famous saying across all of Latin America “Twenty years is nothing”.

The version of Jaso – Johnstone for accordion and cello of ‘Por una cabeza’ is marked by the continual dialogue of the two instruments, where melodic moments and improvisations are interspersed. This precious melody is heard present in the film “Tango Bar”, filmed in 1935 in Long Island (New York). It has been used in at least four films in the decade of the 90’s. It is basically of a happy character but is at the same time sad, due to the frequent changes between the major and minor modes.

 ‘El día que me quieras’ comes from the film of the same name, also of 1935. The version of Jaso and Johnstone is most sensitive and individually personal. It is included here as a kind of special homage to this great figure who, together with Astor Piazzolla, has defined the course of the tango in the 20th century.

The Tango is without doubt the most sensual and passionate of all the salon dances. When it hit across all of Europe, the Pope Benedict XV protested in strong language saying “It is a scandal that this pagan and indecent dance is destroying the social and family life, it is danced even in the Pope’s residence!”.  It is true that perhaps the tango is the dance where the most understanding and intimacy is asked of the couple, and this has to reflect in the interpretation of the music.

Astor Piazzolla was born in 1921 (Mar del Plata) at the beginning of this period of tango expansion. However, he grew up in New York where he first made contact with the bandoneón. At only 13 years of age he was contracted by the then famous Carlos Gardel!  Piazzolla, after many years of study and trial, arrived at the perfect fusion between classical music, the tango, and his jazz influences, to be able to produce works with the soul of “tango” and with all the mastery of an important classical composer with his dissonances, counterpoints and complex structures, without losing his great sensitiveness as a composer of delightful melodies. 

This mastery is noticed immediately with ‘Libertango’, hereby presented in an improvised virtuoso version of Javier López Jaso. The biting rhythms and the harmonic tension of the phrases are accentuated in this interpretation for solo accordion.

‘Adios Nonino’ has a very important reason of being; it was written after the death of the father of the composer. It is surely one of his most well-known works, and one of the most arranged (in fact, it should be pointed out that David Johnstone himself has orchestrated the version of Bragato of this as a concerto piece for solo cello and string orchestra). The interpretation of Jaso and Johnstone has authenticity – the base of their version is that very fabulous free transcription of José Bragato, the favourite cellist of Piazzolla and one of his most closest collaborators in the 1950’s and 1960’s). His writing for cello and piano is always grandiose; from this Jaso introduces many new fusions and a clear tendency towards the jazz world – something that Piazzolla himself liked. 

Javier López Jaso is one of the most notable Spanish accordionists in the current musical panorama. With a solid classical career behind him, his musical evolution has taken him to the road of jazz and improvised music. His work ‘Vivencias’ originally dates from 2002 – for cello and accordion – but in this recording he has enriched the writing with a rather more modern jazz-like language. His Fantasía para Nahia’ is a piece for Accordion solo, with small flamenco influences, ‘Piazzollian’ ideas, and jazz harmonies. In this piece one can clearly see his musical evolution – it dates from 2008.

David Johnstone, British, but also with Spanish nationality, is, like Jaso, a musician who is open to new worlds, with a pleasure for the ‘fusion’ music. His Le Petit Tango’, for Cello solo, is a small contribution to the almost non-existent repertoire of tango-like pieces for this instrument without accompaniment.  It is in ternary form – A-B-A – and was conceived as an innocuous joke, and at the same time a little homage to Astor Piazzolla (Le Grand Tango of Piazzolla is a work that Jaso and Johnstone have played tens of times). The piece is dedicated to the Argentine Rodolfo Zanni, cello professor in Catalonia (Spain), and a colleague of Johnstone in the tango world.

The virtuoso ‘Bulerias’ of Mario Escudero in this version of Thomas-Mifune/Johnstone  is not tango as such, but is a perfect example of concert music performed by Johnstone showing his delight for fusion music and music of its ‘roots’. 

Credits

Remembering the great Carlos Gardel in the 75th anniversary of his death (2010)   

All versions and arrangements in this CD  are by Javier López Jaso and David Johnstone

Productor/Producer: Javier Ecay
Toma de sonido/Sound: Javier Ecay
Masterización y postproducción /Mastering and Post-production: Txuma Huarte (Estudios Binario)
Grabado en/Recorded in: Sala de Actuaciones / Concert Hall,
Escuela de Música del Valle de Elorz (Noain, Navarra) / Music School of the Valle de Elorz (Noain, Navarre)
Fecha / Date: Agosto 2009 / August 2009
Fotos: Zeta Audiovisuales