american clavé
Silvana Deluigi – voice | Pablo Ziegler, Gustavo Beytelmann, Osvaldo Calo – piano | Fernando Suarez Paz, Alfredo Triff – violin | Horacio Malvicino – guitar | Steve Swallow – electric bass | Renaud Garcia Fons, Horacio Hurtado, Andy Gonzalez – bass | Robby Ameen – percussion | Walter Castro, Horacio Romo – bandoneon
Recorded May, October 2000; January 2001 at Studio Acousti, Paris (engineer: Cayuela). Estudio del Abasto al Pasto, Buenos Aires (engineer: Alvaro Hernan Villagra). Sorcerer Sound, New York (engineers: Jon Fausty, Dick Kondas). Mastered March 2001, January 2002. Sterling Sound, New York (engineer: Greg Calbi). Produced by Kip Hanrahan for american clavé and Artcore. Cover layout by capoeira graphics and Katir Hildreth. Photos by Lillian Birnbaum. Thanks to Heinz for doing more than just signing checks.
Tracklist: 1 / La Cumparsita (Gerardo Matos Rodriguez, Enrique Maroni, Pascual Contursi) 2 / Cuesta Abajo (Carlos Gardel, Alfredo Le Pera) 3 / Sonamos el Tango (Kip Hanrahan, Carlos D’Allesia) 4 / Tangologie (Horacio Malvicino) 5 / Discepolin (Homero Mazni, Anibal Troilo) 6 / Mariana, Mariana (Edu Lobo) 7 / La Guitarra (Atahualpa Yupanqui) 8 / A la Una Yo Naci (traditional Sephardic song) 9 / Milonga for Three (Astor Piazzolla) 10 / Maquillaje (Homero Exposito, Virgilio Exposito) 11 / Te Amo (Chico Buarque) 12 / Gorrion de Hoy (interlude) (Pablo Ziegler) 13 / Sobre la Tierra (Out into the Fields) (Jack Bruce, Peter Brown) 14 / Me Vuelves Loca (Armando Manzanero) 15 / Milonga en el Viento (Pablo Ziegler, Eladia Blazquez) 16 / Gorrion de Hoy (finale) (Pablo Ziegler)
Arrangements by Kip Hanrahan, Steve Swallow, Astor Piazzolla, Pablo Ziegler, Horacio Malvicino
Producer’s asides:
A brief note about the singer: Any song Silvana touches becomes tango, and any tango Silvana touches becomes hers. That’s obvious when you see her perform on stage, on film, at dinner, whatever – and that’s the real reason making this record made sense. I mean, I’d already said everything I had to say about tango through the work I did with Astor. But as I learned to understand what music is possible (still possible) in tango through Astor’s art, I learned to understand what sexuality is possible (still possible) in tango through Silvana’s art. And, with Silvana’s sultry glower, the record needed to be made. Also, it’s not really about tango, or whatever you’d want at that moment to call it, it’s about the music that surrounds her.
Brief notes about two of the songs: two reasons “Milonga for Three” is on Silvana’s record: 1/Astor let me take this vocalese off the original piece, and replace it with the melody played by a bandoneon (his, on the first recording) or sax, or whatever, on the condition that sometime in the future I’d write words to replace it. I actually wrote words I kind of think are OK, about a lover returning the jewel of the night to it’s rightful owner, but Astor’s no longer around to fight with me – then OK it; or love it, fight with me – and then OK it; and I won’t change or finish any work we started without that confirmation. But on this vocal record, Silvana’s record, even without the words, it was integral to the flow and deepening of the moods. B/ Astor and I recorded “Milonga for Three” twice: once – rough (as designed) – with what was (intentionally) almost a pick up band for “The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night” (amcl 1019) and once – polished – with his last band, the sextet for “57 Minutes with Reality”. But although he performed it live with his “classic” quintet, we never got to record it rough -as in a whore house with half drunk musicians hating and loving each other – with the players he was closest to through that last decade. So, although we’ve been asked an uncomfortable number of times to try to get the classic Piazzolla quintet back together again for a record, or a tour, or whatever, and I’m always annoyed by the question and decline (I mean, Astor was one of my closest friends in this life, and we did some of our best work together, but I don’t want to be shackled to his ghost forever (nor [a very educated guess:] would his ghost like to be shackled to me). (And what are we going to do? Perform each concert with a hole in the middle of the stage?) This actually seemed the time to approach that reunion, ’cause, in this case, the record is in the aural image and form of Silvana, not el Troeasma, it is free of Astor’s ghost’s total supervision. One note about “Sonamos el Tango”: I’ll swear every word Silvana sings is true.
A brief note about the players: Man it was good to work with Malvi, Pablo and Suarez Paz again, and with Swallow, Garcia-Fons, Profi Alfredo and Robby in the mix, one fuck of a band has formed around this brilliant, sultry Tanguera. It’s really so much larger musically than Tango, it actually approaches what she really needs for her art. But, as you now, it’s not about the players, it’s about the music that fills the space between them. – Kip Hanrahan (Virginia 2002)
When Kip Hanrahan asked me a couple of years ago
whether I was interested in doing a record with him, I immediately said yes. But when the moment came to decide on a title, I did not know what to propose. What kind of name could describe something which sounds different from everything I’ve done – and heard – before. I spontaneously pronounced the word “Yo.” It was the simplest expression for me, having given everything I had, including my very own musical and emotional self, into the hands of a musician and producer whom I trust blindly.
For me, Kip is the only person capable of recognizing, understand, and transforming into a record my ages old desire to trespass the musical conventions of a music which is mine: which I grew up with, which I love – but which I had to leave behind in order to confront it from a new angle – and make it mine: the tango.
So therefore “Yo” stands for a record whose songs may sound familiar, but are completely personal to me. Most of them have been with me since my early youth. Some I had inherited from Argentine popular culture, some came to me from Brazil. Some were offered by Kip and his friends, who all helped me to realize this dream: to look back on my town, my country, my culture, my life – and my music. — Silvana Deluigi
CD version (incl. shipment cost world-wide)