Pablo Aslan: Tango Salon Comes To The Rose Theater

For over two decades, bassist, composer and bandleader Pablo Aslan has melded the elegance and melancholy of classic Argentine tango with the American jazz language. Guest artist Paquito D'Rivera and a unique cast of Argentine musicians join Tango Jazz pioneer Pablo Aslan to play the intricate rhythms of the tango.

March 26-27, 2010, 8p.m., Rose Theater

Go to jalc.org for ticket information.

Jazz at Lincoln Center
Frederick P. Rose Hall: Broadway at 60th Street
http://www.jalc.org/

Featuring

Nicolas Ledesma, piano
Abel Rogantini, piano
Pablo Agri, violin
Gustavo Bergalli, trumpet
Daniel Piazzolla, drums
Michael Zisman, bandonoen
Raul Jaurena, bandoneon

Recorded in Buenos Aires, Argentina, featuring a superb ensemble of tango and jazz musicians, "Tango Grill," the new recording by Argentine-born, New York-based bassist Pablo Aslan, is a brilliant follow up to "Buenos Aires Tango Standards" (Zoho Music, 2007).

A pioneer and leading figure in tango jazz, a growing new style that blends the repertoire, instrumentation and vocabulary of tango with elements of jazz, Aslan set out here to reinvent twelve 20th century tango classics on the fly. The result is tradition with a razor's edge.

The very title, "Tango Grill," alludes to la parrilla, which translates literally as the grill, but it's also the bandstand term tango musicians use for improvised arrangements.

Aslan's group in "Tango Grill" includes established tango masters such as bandoneón player Nestor Marconi (the bandoneón is the melancholy sounding button squeezebox that is the quintessential tango instrument) and young pianist Nicolas Ledesma. But also drummer Daniel Piazzolla, the grandson of the late New Tango master Astor Piazzolla, and himself a leading figure in tango jazz as both player and bandleader, and trumpeter, composer and bandleader Gustavo Bergalli, an early believer in tango jazz.

The music in "Tango Grill" is not a fusion, in which the total is usually less than the sum of the parts, but rather, it suggests a musical bilingualism. For these musicians, this is lived-in music, the sum of a lifetime in both tango dancehalls and jazz clubs.

Pablo Aslan has performed and recorded with Grammy Award Winners Shakira, Joe Lovano, Gary Burton, Paquito D'Rivera, Lalo Schifrin, Pablo Ziegler, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

http://www.pabloaslan.com/

Pablo Aslan Tango Grill (Zoho ZM 201003) Street Date March 9, 2010 http://www.zohomusic.com/
Pablo Aslan, bass (all tracks), Nestor Marconi, bandoneon (tracks 1,2,4,6,7,9,11) , Nicolas Ledesma, piano (tracks 1,3-5,7-10),
Abel Rogantini, piano (tracks 2,6,11) Ramiro Gallo, violin (tracks 1,3-5,7-11), Gustavo Bergalli, trumpet (tracks 2,3,5,6,8,10,11),
Daniel Piazzolla, drums (tracks 2,3,5,6,11)