Argentina Bass

Argentina is a land of myth as much as a land of history. It was here that Maria Callas and Enrico Caruso sailed for such memorable performances at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires during their summer vacations. European musicians flocked to Argentina during the Second World War as a safe haven and because they felt at home with the elegance of the European-styled theaters, audiences, and ambiance. Additionally the vastness of the landscape and the huge Argentine ranches gave the country a cultural aspect reminiscent of the famed “American West” of the 1890s. But the open ranges still exist in Argentina today.

Welcome to Latin House Sessions, a panoramic perspective on Latin-influenced music with a party twist courtesy of Future World Funk DJ’s Russ & Cliffy. Over two hours of hand-selected tracks ranging from firing boogaloos to cookin’ bossas, from Latin house to Brazilian drum & bass.

It is a meaningful sign of the times that Astor Piazzolla is arguably one of the most frequently performed composers on the contemporary musical stage, even though he probably never aimed at writing “classical” music. True, one of the fundamental encounters of his life was with composer and teacher Nadia Boulanger, who mentored many of the most important avant-garde musicians of the second half of the twentieth century. And, under her guidance, Piazzolla did attempt to express his personality through the language of Western contemporary music. The results, of course, were very good, since nobody could question Piazzolla’s talent. Yet, when Piazzolla performed one of the tangos he had already written to his professor, she exclaimed: “Astor, all your classical pieces are well written, but the true Piazzolla sound is here, never leave it behind!”. And if the language of Piazzolla’s music does not correspond to that of the coeval European avantgardes, neither does it conform to the standards of the Argentinian tango tradition. It is precisely for his utter originality that Astor Piazzolla rightfully claimed and obtained a place in the pantheon of twentieth-century classical music. But it is also this originality that may puzzle those attempting to classify him within one of the established musical categories.