Journey across the Atlantic with two peerless pianists: Spain’s Domínguez delivers an electrifying take on the traditional flamenco; Grammy-winner and Astor Piazzolla veteran Ziegler showcases the vitality of Argentina’s New Tango in the post-Piazzolla era.
In this inspired pairing of trios, the musical legacies of both Spain and Argentina are explored by two thoroughly modern
pianists, Chano Dominguez and Pablo Ziegler.
Barcelona resident Dominguez has firm roots in tango.
His first instrument was guitar, the traditional sonic foundation
of the Spanish genre. Once Dominguez took up piano
and keyboards, he dove into rock music, eventually returning
to tango, albeit in a jazz piano trio format with double bass
and drums.
Pianist and educator Carlos Torijano explained the two
schools of expression of incorporating piano into tango in his
article “The Flamenco Piano, from J. Romero and A. Pavón to
the Present Day.” In one, players strove to have the piano emulate
the guitar’s prior roll, while in the other pianists brought
“elements that come from different musical genres into flamenco,
fundamentally from jazz. This group includes Chano
Domínguez, the standard-bearer of this collective.”
If bandonéon player and composer Ástor Piazzolla is the
undisputed king of new tango, then Pablo Ziegler is one of its
crown princes. The Buenos Aires Music Conservatory alumnus
played with Piazzolla from 1978 until the master’s death
in 1992. He still “plays straight from the beating, bleeding
heart of nuevo tango, with its Argentinean mix of swagger
and sweetness,” (Guardian, UK), all the while expanding
the music through jazz principles, as on his Tango and All
That Jazz album, featuring SFJAZZ Collective vibraphonist
Stefon Harris.
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