Search - Fernando Otero :: Plan

Tango for the new millenium

Marie Jost | Chapel Hill, NC United States | 03/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Take equal parts Piazzolla, jazz and classical music, throw them together, blend and pour. What you have is Fernando Otero's X-Tango Quintet and PLAN. Otero is an astonishing contemporary composer equally at home in the usually segregated worlds of tango, classical music and jazz. He is conservatory trained, which shows in the virtuosity of his compositions and performances. He has assembled a tremendous group of musicians from the worlds of tango, jazz and classical to play his works, which range from the angular to the sumptuously romantic, and breathe surging life into them. This album is simply ravishing. Otero is a real iconoclast in the world of tango, and a damn fine composer in any idiom. The multimedia track gives you an all too brief taste of the group live. If they come to your area, do what you must to see them live. Fernando Otero is one of the most important tango composers alive today and stands at the head of the heirs of Piazzolla. It doesn't get any better than this."