Fernando Otero - Pagina de Buenos Aires
ARTIST.....: Fernando Otero
TITLE......: Pagina de Buenos Aires
LABEL......: Nonesuch
URL........: http://www.fernandootero.com
RIP DATE...: Mar-30-2008
STORE DATE.: Jan-15-2008
GENRE......: Latin
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 69,3 MB
Track Listing:
01 - Chirimbolos 00:34
02 - La Vista Gorda 03:23
03 - De Ahora en mas 03:23
04 - Pagina de Buenos Aires 04:10
05 - Desde Adentro 02:23
06 - Piringundin 02:47
07 - Lejana 04:11
08 - Musica del Circo 03:26
09 - Ausencias 05:01
10 - El Momento 04:35
11 - El Circulo rojo 04:38
12 - Union 03:35
13 - Preludio 19 03:25
14 - Calendario 04:55
15 - Siempre Amor - Las ruedas siguen girando 02:05
16 - Sublevados 02:19
─────
54:50 min
Release Notes:
Argentine composer and pianist Fernando Otero found his voice as
writer, musician and bandleader when, at the urging of one of his
music teachers, he began to incorporate the indigenous sounds of
his native Buenos Aires into his work. He was just a teenager
then, but an exceptionally gifted one, a serious student of
classical music with an ability to master a variety of instruments
from a very young age. Otero had already begun to experiment with
rudimentary home recordings and was eager to start writing on his
own, though he gravitated more to a jazz idiom than a classical
one. Otero liked popular music too -- often learning as much from
the rock and jazz albums his older sister brought home as from his
formal lessons û but he had given little thought to the gorgeous
clamor around him.
As he recalls, a guitar and composition instructor, Marcelo Braga
Saralegui ôshowed me the possibility of developing something with
the roots of tango, the sound of tango. Not necessarily tango
itself, but the music I heard as a child, the sound in the
streets. I started working with a bandoneon player and tried my
first project, which I called X Tango.ö
Twenty years have passed since Otero opened his ears to this
wealth of ideas, and ever since he has pursued his vision of X
Tango. On his Nonesuch debut "Pagina de Buenos Aires", he does
evokes a feeling of Buenos Aires û something you can sense even if
youÆve never been there --through his innovative use of the
bandoneon, the accordion-like instrument at the heart of all
tango. But the world Otero conjures up is really all his own.
Tango is a jumping-off point for an instrumental sound that boasts
the improvisatory thrill of jazz within a more formal,
contemporary classical structure. In his last CD "Pagina de Buenos
Aires", his work is often short, fast-paced and intense, full of
enough dramatic stops and starts to astonish first-time listeners
-- and confound any couple that might be fooled into thinking this
is simply dance music.
As a composer, Otero is both rigorous and playful. His pieces at
times echo the elegant nuevo tango of Astor Piazzola, but they
also harbor a mischievous spirit that suggests Carl StallingsÆ
ingenious scoring for animated cartoons -- especially on tracks
like ôLa Vista Gordaö and ôDe Ahora En Mas,ö when piano, violin
and bandoneon seem to be chasing each other around a melody. He
counters this uptempo material with romantic interludes redolent
of vintage film scores on tracks like ôAsuncionö and ôCalendario.ö
ItÆs no surprise that the always adventurous Kronos Quartet has
commissioned a piece from him, scheduled to debut this fall.
Fernando Otero showcases the artist performing original material
in a variety of formats: with a quintet of piano, violin, cello,
acoustic bass and bandoneon; a trio of bass, bandoneon and piano;
a duo, featuring long-time collaborator, violinist Nick Danielson;
and on solo piano. The final two tracks are orchestral works
conducted by Otero and featuring a 25-piece ensemble, plus band-
mate Hector Del Curto on bandoneon. Though the majority of the
work is new, a few pieces had previously appeared on OteroÆs 2002
quintet session, Plan, released under the group name Fernando
Otero X Tango. Taken together, these tracks illustrate the
breadth, consistency and remarkable maturity of OteroÆs vision.
ôHis music is very expressive, ô says violinist Danielson, a
distinguished artist himself, who has performed with the New York
City Ballet Orchestra and played the title role in the recent
Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. ôItÆs not easy to play.
You have to play it with all your emotion.ö
Otero has clearly focused his ambitions on his compositions, not
the machinations of his career, which he has allowed to develop
somewhat serendipitously. He relocated to New York City a decade
ago, after brief stops in London and Madrid; Otero admits,
however, that he was drawn here by a romance, not according to
some master plan. He lives in a multi-ethnic Brooklyn neighborhood
that has not yet experienced the gentrification happening merely
blocks away. This bohemian refuge, teetering on the brink of
change, more than suits him; it seems to reflect exactly where he
stands as an artist.
While he remained unknown to the world at large, Otero had, for
some years now, been a well-kept secret among jazz and classical
insiders. His Plan CD has circulated among fellow musicians and
attracted them to his recitals. Otero has composed and performed
with several symphonies and chamber groups in the U.S. and Mexico,
and has also written for ballet and theatre companies. Actress
Salma Hayek introduced Quincy Jones to Otero at a Hollywood party;
Jones subsequently arrived unannounced backstage after Otero
performed a two-hour solo piano recital in Los Angeles, offering
advice, encouragement and an open-ended invitation to do a project
with him. (ôIt was as if Santa Claus had come backstage,ö Otero
jokes.) He has collaborated with one-time Bill Evans sideman Eddie
Gomez, flautist Dave Valentin and pianist/film composer Dave
Grusin, among others; he played with Chico OÆFarrillÆs Jazz
Orchestra at jazz @Lincoln Center; and, most recently, heÆs joined
clarinetist Paquito DÆRivera on stage and in the studio.
ôLast year,ö says DÆRivera, ôour trumpeter Diego Urcola called my
attention to Nicholas Danielson and Fernando Otero, whom he holds
in high regard. Intrigued, I attended a recital they presented in
Manhattan. I was so impressed by what I heard that I invited the
violinist to be part of my own concert at Jazz At Lincoln Center
and asked Fernando to record his wonderful æMilonga 10Æ with me on
my first self-produced CD, Funk Tango. Even since, Fernando has
become one of my favorite composers.ö
Otero was reared in an environment steeped in music and the arts.
His father, an actor, passed away when Otero was a year old; he
was brought up by his mother, Elsa Marval, an internationally
successful opera singer. His parents were first generation
Argentines. His maternal grandparents had emigrated from Spain,
where his grandmother had also been an opera singer; his fatherÆs
family had come from the South of France. As Otero recalls, ôMusic
at home was very natural. We had a piano, and everyone was singing
and playing --my mother, my sister, me. I didnÆt even think about
being a musician or not. I just was a musician. And I remember
being a musician all my life. I never thought about doing anything
else.ö
OteroÆs mother fueled his desire to master new instruments, absorb
new ideas. He was studying piano and singing at age 5; guitar by
the time he was 10. He also picked up the drums, accordion and
melodica. Says Otero, ôWhatever I requested from my mother that
had a musical aspect û whether it was a teacher, a show, an
instrument or a record û the answer was always yes.ö She took him
to hear symphonic music at the Teatro Colon, where she herself had
performed, and that piqued OteroÆs curiosity about playing with
and composing for an orchestra. Among those who taught him as an
adolescent was Domingo Marafiotti resident conductor of the
Symphonic Orchestra of the Teatro Colon, with whom Otero took
master classes in orchestration and conducting. Otero recalls,
ôThe teachers were serious û and the price my mother paid for the
lessons were serious too.ö He admired Igor Stravinsky and,
especially, Bela Bartok, whose music, he points out, also
incorporated folkloric influences. As he explains, ôThey were
representing their cultures and they were using their language to
express themselves and that was very important to me.ö The South
American influences he cites were all virtuosos as well as
iconoclasts,: Argentinian legend Piazzola, the Brazilian composer
Egberto Gismonti and Uruguayan multi-instrumentalist Hugo
Fattoruso.
Early on, the precocious Otero began to improvise his own
recordings at home: ôI liked to go into the bathroom where I could
get a natural reverb sound. I had two cassette recorders that I
used for overdubbing û it was all low quality, of course, as a
result of dubbing and dubbing on two tapes and adding tracks in
the bathroom with a guitar. IÆd stay there, making music --
singing, playing guitar or small drums, whatever portable
instruments I could get in there.ö As he grew older, Otero learned
how to navigate a real studio and he was often asked to produce
and mix other local artists.
For many years, the young Otero thought he would become a singer;
it was surely part of his musical DNA. He had vocalized at home
when he was a child and later, he would front his first three
bands. But instrumental music proved to be the most powerful way
for Otero to channel everything heÆd learned and wanted to express
about his extraordinary upbringing, about the music that had
shaped him, about Buenos Aires. Without singing a word, he
discovered how to tell a story, and itÆs one that has clearly just
begun.
Michael Hill
http://www.nonesuch.com/Hi_Band/albums.cfm?album_num=679