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CD Review: Tuned In
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Daily Commercial, CD Review: Tuned In >>
By: Chuck Campell
'Palermo Nuevo'
Tango Jointz
Escondida
Tango Jointz's marriage of tango to electronica isn't a novel idea, but its still fresh enough that "Palermo Nuevo" is engaging.
At this point electronic-music practitioners have jolted every genre, and tango has proven receptive to the tweaking. Both styles share some cultural ties-they're each liberating, attitude-rich forms of dance music spawned out of repression and cultivated in the underground.
The Gotan Project, for one, has successfully fused the two in recent years by reverentially "modernizing" tango with humming rhythms. However, some of the act's works have shocked the tango right out of the songs.
"Palermo Nuevo," named for trendy barrio in Buenos Aires, shows a bit more respect sometimes to the point that the electronica is nearly undetectable, or at least little more than a pulsing bass line.
Producer Claus Zundel (aka The Brave) plays up the sophisticated downtempo stylings of tango on "Palermo Nuevo," stirring in strings, keyboard, flugelhorn and bandoneon, the accordion-like instrument key to tango. The tracks strut by, paying smooth homage to Chet Baker's "Alone Together" one minute and offering an impressive cover of Miles Davis's "Nuit Sur Les Champs Elysees" the next.
Zundel writes much of the rest of the material, though there are two renditions of songs by tango king Astor Piazzolla "Libertango" and "Vuelvo Al Sur" - that both confidently pick through the firm punctuations and precise pauses typical of the genre.
Two vocalists play repeating roles: Listeners may need drink or two to find gruff-voiced Ricardo "Ricardito" Reveira charming, and a drink or two more than that to be seduced by cheesy chanteuse Belhna Cespedes.
Meanwhile, Zundel, like Gotan Project before him, can't resist couple of electronica-heavy aberrations to the "Palermo Nuevo" tone, spinning out the breezy "Espiritu" and "The Gaucho's Pain."
Such interruptions might disturb the tango aficionado, but those folks have mastered the art of looking the other way with an upturned face.
Rating(five possible): 3 and 1/2
Contact Chuck Campbell of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at www.knoxnews.com. 02/27/07
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