I was first introduced to Tango during my second year of college. It was the late 80’s and my musical tastes still ran a little closer to Tom Petty and Bon Jovi than to Chucho Valdes and Cachao. Despite my young and misguided nature, I was at college to study music and I looked to expand my musical horizons. So I took a world music survey class and heard a variety of new sounds. It intrigued me in a lot of ways, but more or less, it was still a major novelty to me. Then we got to a unit on Latin America and spent some time focusing on Argentina. I can remember the moment my instructor dropped the needle (yes, strangely enough, at that point, we still spent time dropping needles when listening to music) on our first Tango listening example – Astor Piazzolla’s song “Adios Noniño”.

From that moment, I was hooked on Piazzolla. I had never heard anything like it – it was so meaningful, so full of emotion, and so unique to anything I had been exposed to before. I don’t think that I heard anything else the instructor said, I was still hearing that sound in my head. Soon after, I visited all my local record stores to no avail. I didn’t know where to look, and when I found the right sections, there was nothing to buy. There no internet at the time and very limited resources, so sadly enough, my enthusiasm was duly squashed. Not too long after that, I got deeply into Cuban rhythms and Tango was put on the shelf. I’ve revisited Astor Piazzolla from time to time, but never in enough depth to bring it into a steady musical rotation.

That’s all changed recently with my discovery of bassist Pablo Aslan’s 2004 release Avantango. The album focuses on a fairly organic mixture of jazz and tango, really in a way that I’ve never heard before. One minute you feel like you are listening to a straight up piece of the Argentinean musical landscape, then you hear a fiery New York jazz tenor sax solo. Yet, the two blend into each other seamlessly. You can often tell when fusions of latin music and jazz are forced upon each other – two musics sitting side by side, but not really communicating. There is none of that here; you can feel the deep love and in-depth knowledge of both genres resonate in the performances. For me, that is the key factor in successful Latin Jazz; the point where we move past novelty into true involvement in both traditions simultaneously.

The repertoire is a mixture of original compositions and Tango standards rearranged. All of the original compositions are contributed by Aslan. He definitely brings a sense of New York into his Tango basis. You hear that edginess that goes hand in hand with the city, and the cosmopolitan mixtures of culture and tradition. In addition, you hear an emphasis on improvisation as a “soloist”, much as you would in a jazz standard. Many of the tango standards come from the Piazzolla catalog. Much of this makes sense; Piazzolla was a great champion of bringing jazz harmonies and “chance” into Tango. Aslan’s intimate knowledge of Piazzolla definitely comes through here, both in the playing and his choice of repertoire. The songs come from a wide spectrum of Piazzolla’s work – from “Deus Zango” which was originally heard on Piazzolla’s collaboration with saxophonist Gerry Mulligan to “Escualo”, written for Piazzolla’s violinist of choice, Fernando Suarez Paz (father of Leonardo Suarez Paz, the violinist on this album!). The balanced repertoire gives a sense of authenticity and innovation to the album, an intriguing combination.

The inclusion of Oscar Feldman on tenor sax and Diego Urcola on trumpet bring two important connections to the jazz tradition. In one sense, they bring a sonic relationship to the wind band roots of straight-ahead jazz that separates this music from traditional tango. The beginning of “El Enchantar” sounds like a jazz ballad with the call and response between trumpet and sax until the bandoneon enters, firmly rooting the song in tango. On “Verano Porteno” the sax plays in combination with the piano while the trumpet plays with the violin until the sax and trumpet move into counter rhythmic lines against the bandoneon and violin. Feldman and Urcola also bring their formidable traditional jazz improvisation chops into the mix that gives an undeniable connection to jazz. Feldman plays a particularly passionate solo on the album opener “Derviche” which firmly states that this is an exploration of tango and jazz. These two players leave no doubt that this album is a crossroads.

Another standout element of this album is the contribution of tango singer Roxana Fontan on three tracks. Fontan sings with an authority and emotion that could capture any ear. Every time these tracks arise in the album, there is a distinguishable change in pace and texture on the album that is refreshing. Vuelva al Sur finds a beautiful combination between jazz ballad and tango that Fontan navigates through with strength and insight. Muchacha (Ojos de Papel) is a rock song from Argentina, but the combination of Aslan’s strong arrangement and Fontan’s strong tango phrasing root it deeply in Avantango’s jazz-tango mixture. My favorite track with Fontan is Malena, a tango standard with just her voice and Aslan’s bass. The sound of Fontan’s voice against Aslan’s beautiful tone and phrasing is breath-taking. A true must-listen track.

After repeated listenings over the past couple of weeks, Pablo Aslan has definitely reignited by desire to explore tango with my bass. I believe that this album really shows the endless possibilities of this music and its unlimited beauty. Aslan’s bass playing swings like crazy and his soloing strongly projects his voice as an artist. In reality, I feel like I need to do a serious study of this music after listening to this album. I don’t quite understand how the bass works against the greater ensemble, and I’m a bit thrown on how the music is structured. Fortunately, Aslan’s website has some great written material on the music and suggests fantastic resources. I’ll definitely be following up on that, and hopefully incorporate some tango into my repertoire eventually.