Search - Rodolfo Mederos, Tango Quintet & String Orchestra :: Tanguero

As a player (he is one of the masters of bandoneon, the button squeezebox that is the quintessential tango instrument), composer and bandleader Rodolfo Mederos has been a modernist with a traditionalist's heart. In his native Argentina he collaborated with rockers and jazz players well before it was acceptable to either rockers, jazz lovers, or tangueros. But he also knew his tango. For this, El tanguero is a perfect introduction to his work. The program is a selection from two recent releases by Mederos: Carlos Gardel by Mederos, a set of arrangements of classic tangos for bandoneon and string orchestra, and Tanguazo, an album of Mederos leading his young quintet playing his own compositions and a couple of tango standards. He sounds eloquent and at ease in his lush arrangements of "Cuesta Abajo," "Melodia de Arrabal," and "Golondrinas." (Curiously the romantic "El Dia Que Me Quieras," Gardel's trademark song, is here in a quintet version.) Most intriguing is Mederos's contemporary tango, the cinematic "Un Tanguito Para Valentin" and the urgent (Piazzolla-influenced) "Todo Ayer." --Fernando Gonzalez