AUTOMATIC SUBTITLES hello facundo hey how are you
doing yes yes I'm really happy to uh to be talking to you today thank you thank you it's a pleasure
for me too so um I think a lot of people uh that have as friends on Facebook uh know you but uh
still I would like to ask uh can you give me a short introduction of who you are for those who
don't who are not familiar with you um okay my my name is facundo I am a bandoneon player I think
everyone that could know me from Facebook knows knows me
from Theo um I was playing bandonion the
last I don't know 17 18 years and I founded with one of my colleagues Ricardo vako we founded La
Juan D'Arienzo about 10 years ago so I just gave my life to tango and Lao was the project we were
working on all this time uh just one improvise question uh do you also dance I don't know if
I will use that word because it's too much you know yeah yeah I dance but not so much I I don't
think of myself as a good dancer you know but I I like to dance yeah
okay well maybe we'll hear
more about that uh in the interview but uh let's just begin uh in the beginning so okay tell
me something about your childhood about how you grew up you know I ER I grew up in Buenos I
am from buenos Ares um I'm 36 years old for now and I didn't used to listen tango music when I
was a child my parents didn't listen Tango I got this from my grandfather uh when I was 19 years
old so uh I started to listen Tango when I was about 18 years old and after one year of lis
tening
Leno I started to to play bonan before I mean in my childhood I I didn't have any contact with uh
any instrument and and tango music I I remember I really loved music and I really like to sing but
I was always listening rock and roll and this kind of music like now I mean I still listen this music
uh but they were normally Argentinian Rock uh what what I was listening but then I found Tango when
I was an adult I was already 19 and and I got this this path of tango and I started to pl
ay vanon and
okay I I made this my life how did you find tango music it's a funny story I think because uh I as
I told you I didn't have any contact with Tango I knew my grandfather was a bonian player but it
was just that it was not a wonderful crazy or great bonian player for me because I did not know
anything about Tango so I didn't had like the the the measure of who was this guy you know he was a
such a good bonian player and so when I was this age like 17 18 years old used to write a
lot of
poems poetry uh trying to write lyrics you know for I don't know I don't know why but I really
like it to to write this so I wrote something to my mom and she like it so much so you know how
moms are sometimes she ER she got the book I had with all my lyrics and she thought that maybe if
uh my grandfather wants to put some music to one of my lyrics we could do a a Tango together and I
can get a a medical insurance because of the rise of the music you know such a mom's idea so she
st
ole my lyrics and gave it to my grandfather ER and my grandfather was so respectful with me he
say it is not so bad it was really bad you know it was not Tango at all it was some fantasy things of
a teenager you know but he said if you would like to to write the Tango you need to listen tango
music so I came back home and I started to listen fans ER and after that I just fell in love with
with vanon and and the music and I asked him if he could teach me Bon but after one year I was one
year
listening tang and trying to write lyrics and going to his house my grand father and and showing
the The Poetry I was writing he say always like you know I don't know he didn't like it this but
after a while I I just fell in love with the sound of bandonion so in juaneno there is something that
is so characteristic from our side that is the VAR you know when the bandonion play so fast ti so I
remember I was always at night student something because I finished high school at this moment so
I was a student things I like listening music and I was listening Le zeine and then Fano and then B
and then ju again you know and this kind of mixing music uh and the VAR of my grandfather were always
like wow this this could be like Jimmy pige doing something so hard you know it is exactly the same
I mean it's so hard how they do this you know and after One S was let's say and I say how this guy
do this you know like with the same feeling so I fell in love with with bandonion and and I
go
t into into Tango because of this accidents yes um so I'm just wondering so it's strange
to me that so let's talk bit more about your grandfather after this question but it's strange
to me that you can be from such a family and then the generations are just not connected with each
other like your grandfather was just doing his thing but then his daughter uh or your father I
mean I don't know whose side it was but yeah my father Yes uh they are not connected to that and
you are you are like
uh a paino you don't really know about tongo either I mean it's so crazy to
me sometimes how that can exist yeah yeah yeah it was it was I am the only one from the family
from eight H Grand children my grandfather had the only one that get into tangle I mean that
felt interested in in him and his work you know it was such an accidental thing of life it was
not because I had any I don't know I it was not mandatory I just decided to do it I was grown I
mean I was not a child um but I think it
was I think not not just in Argentina but everywhere in
the western War I think in the 60s were the huge break between the generation of my parents and
my grandparents so they they just started to do all all the opposite things and Tango was in this
equation you know like Tango started to be from 60s and 70s the music of the old people because
they started to listen Tango not Tango like rock and roll this so TV shows and everything started
to be focused on young Generations and Tango start
ed to disappear um I don't know so this
is why my parents didn't listen any Tango when they were children they were like pushed to listen
the music of their PR when they grew they decided to listen their own music and and they found it
normally in rock or disco music in the 70s uh so my grandfather he was not a person he was a he was
not a like how do you say like a egocentric person you know he was not showing to everyone he was
a great person a great musician like having this credit of yo
u know what I did or something like
this he was so humble so actually I just saw saw him for the very first time playing when he when
I was playing bandoni we never see him okay not at home not in birth oh that's so that's so crazy
in a way I mean maybe it's natural but for me it just feels like something strange that it's so but
maybe it's because he was humble and didn't want to for it he didn't like this to I don't know to
show himself to everyone look what amazing I am you know he he di
dn't do that U I don't know
because this was all his life it was not when I when I started to to study I mean he was so old
at this time but when he was young was the same he was not going to play bonan in a birthday party or
something like this with my family like you know intimate I don't know why but it was like that so
nobody knew anything about this guy he was he was our grandfather but he was not a musician not a
great bandonion he was not an author he was not a composer he was the gr
andfather the just you know
so I I found I had a grandfather father and on him I found a friend I found I found a teacher I found
a colleague I found a lot of things you know fin in this person he was kind of I don't know Super
Wise person for me because he was so old and I was so young and we used to fight a lot because I
was yes I was 20 years old he was 80 years old you know like just two different words in our minds
you know so we and I and I was not uh uh I think I didn't respect so mu
ch him just because it was
him it was my grandfather so I was I had a lot of confidence to I don't know to contradict him or or
think different you know and he was like it was so half to Bear me yeah yeah but that's also love
right yeah I I miss him so much yeah so because he died um what year 2009 201 200 or9 okay and
you started in 2008 I started to play with him in 2008 Quin Orchestra I started to Studio with
him in 2006 so after two years I started to play with him and I played with him
the last year of
his life U and after that I started to play with the musicians from his War uh his orchestra we
make a quoted uh and I and I continue learning a lot about the St with his colleagues you know
the piano player double based player they were wonderful friends of him and my friends too H they
were two like grown people old people like 70 80 years old so I got a lot of uh Knowledge from
them during these years it was actually really nice to okay um let's return to that later um
let's now just return to the question um who was your grandfather just for people who are
not that familiar with the music the history of musicians yeah so what what did he do he was
Carlos lassar a grandfather he plays bandonion and he played 25 years with juand since 1950 to
1976 and after that he contined doing p style with the qued solistas Theo they was so famous in
70s and 8s here and and then with oresta wo to do big trips to to overseas like Japan Europe but my
grandfather before t
o play with juand dienzo in 1950 he already played with canaro with Koo with
Mna uh he was playing in the best orchestras ER in the forest when he was like 15 years old like he
was actually really young when he started to play with C it was it was funny because you know sorry
what year did he start do you know that he started to play professionally with Miguel cot when he
was about 15 years old I'm talking about the 1940 something like this okay so at this moment
the orchestra's used to pla
y in cabetes you know so er my grandfather was 15 years old he was not
underage so he couldn't go there so he played very well at 15 years old he was already conducting a
an orchestra in his neighborhood like a children Orchestra these kind of things uh he was called
to to play with a professional Orchestra for money you know it was money involved there and uh he
got just one order from the conductor and it was if the police come in you have to hide yourself
under the stage I mean it was no
t important how he played he was a child you know but the police
can't have can't find you here with short pants you know you are you are underage so you you can
be here so he started to play there and and then he didn't so he was playing with many orchestras
my grandfather composed about close to 800 or, Tangles I there there many many many tangles of
my grandfather and many of them were recorded for juo but other like recorded some some things from
my grandfather and So within the orchest
ra uh was he the lead Bon player and darano or uh when he
started to play no uh in 195 50 ER he was already salaman in the orchestra and the first bandonion
he was Eladio Blanco I think at this moment and he was so young my grandfather was 25 years old when
he came to the fan Orchestra was the most popular Orchestra in Argentina at this moment so to get
into that it was so important for him it's like you know if you are a football player and you
got a contract with Real Madrid something lik
e this he like going to the best thing you can you
can find in the market H but of course there were older people than him working from before so he
was not getting the orchestra conduct at all but after some years close to 60s he started to be the
arranger of Orchestra so many of the arrangements from 57 when salaman made his own Orchestra 57
to 76 are my grandfather music when he used to run at this moment he was um he had to H write
a new Tango or a new Arrangement every week so this was
his show like a new Tango every week
a new song every week so it was the whole day like with the instrument and composing and it was
this is what my father remembered you know because I was not there it was the whole day working so
hard uh at home yeah yeah that's why your father saw it probably yeah yeah yeah at home but in
this moment there were the there was a lot of work in Tango so at night they used to play like
two or three times sometimes finish de belonga and go to the radio to to
play there and come back
home like midday to sleep you know like it was so normal this kind of like like backwards because
it was so popular tangle so there were many covers with music every night so so uh he used to work
a lot but during the day he had to find time to write music too so it was the whole day working
on music yeah just like you yes yes yes we try to do the same uh but we we dedicate a a lot of time
to things that are actually not related yes like being the manager or being
the community manager
and I don't know making a flyer for Facebook you know there are things they they are not going
to do in their lives but we have to do because it this is 2024 we have to do yes yeah so that's
that's one of the topics we're going to talk about today I think that's very interesting a lot of
people don't really know that probably but yeah back then uh were different types so it's kind
of a maybe a stupid question for someone who's a musician like you for me to ask but for
example
if I think of darano from the late 50s or maybe early 60s like El Ultimo Cafe um so for example he
he he could have made the arrangement for that the way dariano played that song my grandfather Yeah
Yeah so so for example if I think of a dariano from those years uh it's it's quite possible
that uh that he wrote the arrangement for the darano version yeah yeah because that's what it
comes down to right like you have a song and it was usually uh a popular song at the moment and
then
an orchestra picked it up and they wrote their own Arrangement so that's that's what your
grandfather did for example yeah yeah he had to do this or a new song oh yeah I mean this was the
the the mandatory for him so when he if he didn't have a new song he took another song like from
I don't know something that maybe [Music] P or P or whatever it's not important who play it
and record it and he make an arrangement for likea there there are some little things I
can listen about the arrangeme
nt that I I feel okay this is my grandfather oh that's cool yeah
yeah some the endings from the 60s are are like so this is so L you know okay he used to have
it in a lot of his s same patons yes yes yes um yeah I guess I can ask more about that but
let's just focus on um on your own uh history so you told us that you uh began studying bonon
and then you um you pretty much asked your your grandfather can you teach me and then you started
learning with him so let Let's uh yeah yes he got he
got a bandonion for me from one of his students
at this moment he had a lot of a lot of students at home and and I just came on and started to
play this like it was a huge machine um and it was I I found in the in taking lessons with him
a wonderful challenge to go every week there and and show him I could do it I really think at the
beginning my grandfather didn't have any he didn't trust I I was going to like continue doing that
because it is so normal when we are young that you start som
ething today and I don't know like you
go to the gym and after 15 days you you already forgot you were member of a gym you know and you
change and you are playing guitar and after two months you are learning Chinese and you are young
I think yeah yeah I think he thought I was not going to I was going to get so bored so so easy
so fast uh because it's so hard at the beginning the instrument Bandon is so hard the first months
you you are it's so hard to play anything in yes the first month I
tried it too when I was 19 yeah
yeah yeah yeah but I didn't uh I didn't go through with it so yeah at the beginning it it could be
so hard uh then when you start you you didn't know anything about music right about like uh reading
music about no it's so hard like I had the same as you it's so hard if you know nothing I remember
the first lesson I took with him he told me do you know how to read music and I said of course you
know I I didn't want to say no but I knew it was this five lines a
nd in the middle ER it was a she
I was wrong because it is a b you know so I came back home and I started to study everything in
in a wrong I mean I started to find the scales in in a in a wrong way because I didn't know how
to how to read so the following week I came back and I say I play and he said what are you doing
you know I said this is not like this I mean this line is she no this is B oh okay everything
is wrong yeah had to start again yeah so yeah I really didn't know anything The
ory Harmony I
didn't know anything and this made it so hard at the beginning but the same after one year I was
playing B in in Bandon wow it it was so I really spent a lot of hours uh playing scale playing
every this method called Ambrose I was playing all the the ex exercise every day like every week
new exercise so I was uh working really hard when I when I started to play B it was like wow okay
this I I really want to do this this is I I can do something so beautiful and so complex and s
o I
felt so proud about this this uh achievement uh so I didn't stop I couldn't stop it was so nice yes
um sorry for the very specific questions but um I would like to know what did you like so much about
the bonon like before you even started you chose it right so why yeah ER I remember hearing quo and
the power of the instrument the the VAR and the power of the instruments the the B were something
that I feel if if I can play this I am I'm the best you know I don't know why I had this ide
a but
this is like being Jimmy pige in in a bandonion you know like if you play Bist uh I could play
guitar too but I don't know I had my grandfather and I was listening that I felt when I started to
listen Tango when I was yes 18 years old I I felt I was uh like an adult I was listening tango music
you know I felt this was so serious I my mom told me many times like uh she was walking through my
room and she listened tangle and thought thinking herself you know like what is this guy doing
you know why he's listening Tang music and I was listening tangle reading books you know I felt so
smart I don't know why so SN you know like it was really really really nice but it was the sound of
bandonion the powerful of the instrument the power that they you can ra open this and make like an
explosion that took me and made me feel maybe I can try at least try you know and and then I
just fell in love you know there's not a lot of logic there yeah so yeah go ahead when when I
started t
o St bandonion I started to stud history at the University too and I still study history
I maybe one day I will get my degree you know but I dedicated my life to to music and I had a
teacher and she was asking to everyone to make a short introduction about thems so I said I stud
history and I play Von and and she told she told me oh you really like money right like it's it's
like choosing two things that you are not going to maybe you don't yeah okay yeah yeah yeah yeah
it's hard yeah yeah
yeah yeah in an ironic way like yeah you really like money right oh you know
yes it's true I don't have future I'm going to be a musician and history teacher you know like but
there were just the things that I felt passion for yeah so was was that it was just a passion I just
developed and and I don't know now I'm 36 years old and I think it's the only thing that I found
in life that it was always loyal to me I mean if I put my time my energy there it always give me
something back my Bon is
is always there for me so I don't know it's it's a relationship that
is magical yes it's beautifully said um can you answer the same question about tango music itself
do you have any idea maybe you you were talk you said one thing about the the the variationist
variations but what else um because it's quite to me I'm asking that because it's quite interesting
to me that you're like two generations later and you like something a lot that's old and you're
not the only one who has had I mean
I'm also like I'm a few years younger than you I had the same
thing happen to me that I just like Tango music uh it cannot always be explained into words but
why do you think it uh yeah any idea know tango tango music it's I am I am Argentinian and I am
from buire Port you know and yes ER tango music is the the most uh clear picture of us we have
here so when you when you get get into Tango you get into yourself because you can just see your
grandparents there walking on the street like not
listen this music they didn't have like Walkman in
the forest you know like but this music is their sound it is the music of the frequency we had at
this moment and it is the most Argentinian thing we have uh as a how do you say like music way at
this moment if you listen to music on on the 70s Tango started to be something that I feel it is
not trying to make a picture of us like a x-ray of of of our culture you know Tango is something that
you can see it is from another time if you want
to go to 70s and and try to figure how people works
in Buenos AES at this moment you need to listen Ro and roll you're not going to to listen tango
music uh but Tango it is this picture of Argentina and Buenos from the 40s from the 30s from the 50s
you can really see there and I I have not just I mean my grandfather was bonian player my in my
mom's side my my grandparents were mongos you know that they met in milonga they were dancing
Tango all their lives not professional but they were mil
ongas and when I listen juo I I just I can
oh close my eyes and and see my family you know it is it is us and I found this with juano and with
tryo the first years of tryo in the forest I can just see how we were how we are I can see my
grandparents my uncles everything you know it is the way we talk the way we behave the way I do
this with my hands when I'm talking now without in like instinctive you know it is this is so Italian
it's so Spanish it's so there are many things that are mixed
in tango music you know so when I found
Tango I just fell in love because it's in a way like fall in love with yourself with who we are
uh it's so important to listen the lyrics to understand the the moments you know to to go there
H but for us it's so easy because it's it's how we talk is always telling stories about us yes uh so
um to go back to the the years that you learned music so you were able to study for three years
I think with your grandfather or uh kind of yeah yeah yeah kind o
f like two two years and a half
three years six seven eight oh yeah maybe more than three years so and you then you started also
working with him rather soon after two years or something I think you said that yeah I started to
play with him in his orchestra in 2008 uh and we played together like about one year until he died
because he died like suddenly it was not something that day in the hospital and then he died oh right
okay so he was working until the last I don't know two three days o
f his life he was on the stage
uh and he started to feel not so good so he keep the secret he didn't want to tell anyone so he
went to work every day feeling not so good and finally he he went to the hospital and I so during
all this time we were working together and after that I started to to play with his musicians in
a quet and the orchestra at the same time uh and then in 2012 after like four years after my my
grandfather died I I founded laeno it was the the main goal of laand was to m
ake uh an orchestra
typic Orchestra uh with young people I mean the the main idea was not to to call like uh great
musicians that were like 70 years old but to get like 10 musicians we with uh I don't know good
musicians but with no long careers like uh I don't know 25 28 years old we were all that age uh and
there were a lot of musicians at this moment and like now and so we make an orchestra with young
people and it was like crazy for for everyone in the milongas it was it was no normal t
o see
uh orchestras with young people so there were some groups but little groups but an orchestra
it was like so so new thing suddenly uh and he was so successful from the beginning on is it
was like kind of explosion at the beginning here yes uh yeah yeah yeah um so maybe one
more question about your learning process so I don't really know how to phrase it but I'm
I'm interested in how you got from this stage of like being this beginner to playing professionally
rather fast just within a
few years like it's a lot of practice is there anything else or any
interesting anecdotes you can tell about that those times yeah okay the first thing I I I am
convinced about that like uh I was not prepared to do anything of the things I did when I did it
I mean when I when I when I went to play the very first time with my grandfather I had to play 12
songs or 14 songs and I knew free I got the stage knowing that I was not going to play I think eight
or nine songs because I didn't have a
ny time to study ER it was so another accident in my life
but ER my grandfather want me to rehearse with the orchestra so I could play with some other
musicians you know so he prepared a rehearsal with the with the orchestra and we were going to
play free songs Okay free songs I study this a lot and I went to the rehearsal I played with all the
musicians it was like wow you know it was my very first time I was playing with other people like
this uh and the owner of this place called La Vent
ana it's it's a Tango house here in Argentina
for foreign people the only it was a Tuesday and the owner say he plays very well I want him to
start to play on Thursday and I I didn't have a suit I didn't I have my hair longer so I had
to cut my hair the following day I had to get a suit and I had to go to work on Thursday without
knowing any song you know and my grandfather said he's not ready to play on Thursdays he's going
to be on the stage bye-bye and he left you know and I on Thursday
I was like white on the stage
like so afraid and The Pianist Alfredo monosa he told me ER in in Spanish you know I'm trying to
translate he say something like all the cards are on the table he say it means like there's no way
out way back you know you are on the stage so I I will PID to see my face I was so afraid about
it but every day I started to play the songs and try to practice to practice and after one month
or one month I had I was already playing all the songs though it was so acci
dental and with Lao it
was similar too because I was with Ricardo and we were talking like why we don't make this Orchestra
we need young people we need to bring this to the milonga we have to make it and trust that this is
going to be successful uh and we were three people talking there drinking a beer before to play with
another Orchestra we had we were playing at this moment and and they say okay let's go tonight we
are going to tongas and we are going to say these people the organizers
that we have an orchestra
called lauan daro and and we are looking for gigs you know but we had not no Orchestra we had just
a dream you know so we started to talk that day and the following day we we had two shows and no
Orchestra okay we have two two shows confirmed and we were three people drinking a beer you know so
we have to make an orchestra now H so after one week we got the musicians and after two weeks
we had one rehearsal and after three weeks we were on the stage with I don't kn
ow everything
was so improvised and people was like Wow know like this is amazing uh and I was conducting this
Orchestra from the beginning I was not ready to do all this things uh but every time I I had the
opportunity to I don't know to do it I was brave enough to to do it like conducting or or playing
for the very first time I don't know I I just did it it is much better if you are prepared you
you feel more comfortable but uh but you know you need you don't need to be afraid if if if th
e
opportunity comes it is going to come in the way life wants and and you have to take it so yes so
maybe another U stupid question but why was it so important for you guys to have young people on on
board because we had the ambiti of playing uh in in milongas I mean at this at this moment we were
playing with three people we we were playing in a in an orchestra Monday to Monday like every day
of the year in a place for tour people here you know there are many Tango places in Argentina bues
that the tourist comes with crusiers or or having holidays here to Argentina and they go there and
they eat some meat and they drink wine and they see a Tango show with dancers and musicians live
so this places open the doors every day but we didn't want to play anymore there we wanted to to
go to milonga and give our music wo to to dancers because this is why juo exist for dancers so we
wanted to go to play to milongas and all the the the musicians I was playing with at this moment
the m
usicians that were so old they didn't want to quit to this job because they had a sure yeah
yeah it was a salary it was I mean they did they they were not expected to make changes in their
lives yeah have any ambitious plans you know they already playing in the whole War during decades
you know I'm not going to change now but I was 23 24 you know like I really wanted to travel I
really wanted to go everywhere and I wanted to go to different milongas to play on different stage
every night if
I could so this is why we wanted H young people because young people are thirsty
you know thirsty you say yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah thirsty of uh working knowing place traveling
being successful like like have this energy to to go forward not so this is why we we got young
people and at the same time we wanted to break the idea of the Tang of Music it was something
just for old people uh so every everyone has to be young uh and this this picture of us at
this moment it was like wow you know
there are 10 young guys playing Tango what is this you
know it was not so normal uh so uh many people told me musicians that nowadays I have the their
groups or or they play somewhere they they told me that at this moment they they when they saw
Leno they thought so you can make an orchestra you know I could I didn't imagine to make an
orchestra because it's it's a lot of people it's so hard so but when we did it ER it became
like like a possible idea so they started to be a lot of young p
eople orchestras like big orchestras
like 10 people 12 people it was not normal at this moment I think it was maybe one maybe just one now
they they are like I don't know 10 15 with young people yes it's good to be a Pioneer right kind
of kind of yeah I I like to think that that we we open some ideas to other musicians to to arrive U
to to be brave to to follow this this ideas know to make an orchestra or play some Styles like okay
I like p no let's play P or Troy or whatever so I like to t
hink that Lao open a bit the the way
of of of this plans yes yes um so uh one more question last question about your your granddad um
so in the beginning he seemed a bit skeptical but um do do you feel like he was uh was impressed
with you in the end that he he he like he he he appreciated how how his legacy would be
inherited by someone instead of just dying out because sometimes music genres they just die
out because nobody does anything with it but with Tango it still works now because t
here are young
people playing it so it's a bit of a suggestive question I'm not sure if it's even true at all or
I'm not sure if you even find it important as a question but it's just what I feel that would be
appropriate to ask my grandfather was a he was so I don't know how to say this in English like when
people is so serious and so you know like it was It was a grown person you know he was 80 82 years
old so he was always so serious and so calm and so I don't know how to say he was not
someone that
was going to to express a lot of feelings this is what it was so hot uh but I learned to see you
know between I don't know patterns we have when we talk when we laugh this kind of things I started
to knew not just my grandfather but as I told you like I started to be his friend I started to be
his colleague I started to play every day Monday to Monday with him during almost one year and we
came back every every day together from the from work to his house and then and then I co
ntinue
to my house and talking a lot about politics about religion about I don't know many things
about music of course so I started to to find this guy it was one day that it was actually the
day ER because then everything started from from there ER I told you I had I had this rehearsal uh
that I knew free songs and finally I I got a job you know okay my grandfather had a a tour little
tour like two weeks I think it was in Holland 2006 2005 something like this it was in Holland uh in
Amst
erdam and some some little places that he want to play there and so he told me uh if I could go
to the library to make copies of all the music all the orchestra so there were like 30 songs for
10 instruments it was like kind of like a tone of paper I had to copy you know and this moment it
was not like home uh like now you home have your printer and you start to print you know it was I
had to go to this place to copy everything I took like five hours copying the music so I was playing
a lot
of b and a lot of arrangements but I didn't have have any music from juand Orchestra hin so I
told the guy in the library from this song I want two copies from this one just one from this one I
want two copies so I started to take music for me then I gave all the music back to him and I got
like six songs something like this so I Ste the fre songs and after some weeks I went to his house
and I said grandpa I want you to listen this and I started to play the varita Loc Hotel Victoria
this k
ind of famous songs and he started to laugh so much like I think it was the the first time I I
really saw him like happy about what I was playing you know like and he said this like H when do
you want to start to play with Orchestra you know because I was actually playing his music oh come
on you know I'm not ready for that I'm not ready for that so after that ER that moment I did ER he
he told me he wanted to make a rehearsal with his orchestra so I could play these songs with him
and afte
r this rehearsal I was working with him so H I think this this day when he was laughing H
like so happy because I was playing varis I think it was the the the time he actually directly
showed me that he was proud about what I was doing uh then when he died ER his colleagues told
me that H he was always talking about me you know he was always saying no my grand my grandson is
playing very good you know like I can't believe how he's improving so fast but he can play back
in one year or this k
ind of thing like Shing was so proud about me but he was not going to say this
to me you know but he was talking about this with some colleagues so when I got this i i fa so you
know like touched too because it was so hard for him I think to to show this I don't know tender
words or this kind of things he was not this kind of person but but I know he was so proud and
I hope he is you know because we were doing so much for for his music yes but it's a really
special story I'm glad I I have t
he opportunity to record this and that people can hear about
this because it's uh it's just this is really a Tango story but it's not like uh something you
read on Wikipedia it's it's very personal but it's also very typical for me of what tango music can
do and and and yeah yeah it's it's beautiful um so is is there any like why were you playing B did
you did you need like uh General musical education apart from just T go to play back you mean yeah
yeah no you need to read music I think ju
st that okay I mean you can play bandonion is so it's
so hard because there are not many methods for bonan no every every teacher has his own school
you know no nobody this not like violin or piano that you have like 500 years of uh develop in
schools and you you can choose your own School you abandon is something that it's so amateur
in this way in the last 20 years it started to change a lot but and you can find a lot of music
written for bandonion actually but when I started it was like
two or three books and then it was
piano music so B it is it is so important and uh it helps so much for the freedom of both hands in
in bandonion do do you become so good at playing with if you play B uh it helps a lot to recognize
the keyboard to work on different tone tonalities uh to play different Melodies at the same time
like the right and left hand like independent it is so so I think in the piano is the same
it is so important for technique too but ion I think is so so important U
so then I don't know
I think if if someone that plays clav you know like perfectly listen me playing Bak in Bandon is
going to say this is not B you know or something like this but as an exercise it is wonderful
you came how to read music you came up with it yourself or was that your grandfather's idea no
it was his idea he this to all all his students ah yeah of course yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah he was
always like B B and B this was the the his method you know like if you play back then you
can manage
everything so and and I agree actually because you get a lot of technique in with your hands h of
course there are many things you can play apart from Bak but uh for technique particularly
Bak is amazing so I think everyone is going to to recommend that because just playing
tango music might not be enough to learn [Music] uh I don't know uh I I really don't know
it's it's not just uh how to you say it like the development of a of an student I think it has
to be uh it has two par
ts I mean have fun so you can play Tango or everything you like but you
need to develop your Technique because then you are not going to to improve you're not going to
play well so if if you want to actually improve you have to develo the technique and you have to
play scales you have to play boring things you know like scales are are precious I don't know
how to say in English same yeah yeah like uh I don't know found all the chords in the keyboard I
mean the recogniz of the keyboard in Ba
ndon is so important and it is not a a a line like piano or
or strings you know like violin you go like from from low to high and you have this line you
know is a kind of Labyrinth you know so all this technique works for that of course there are
there are musicians that in bandonion on any any instrument that they learn to play what they want
without any Theory without any Studio like listen but it is not what a teacher is going to tell you
like just enjoy you know if if you have if you go
with a teacher they are going to give a technique
scales arous B I don't know find like there's another book called hanon for piano it is so
popular for pianist when they are beginners it's like this kind of students you know that's working
on the scales in different tonalities we were always working with this and this is so necessary
for the instrument then you can you can use all this knowledge you have for playing Tango or
what you want yeah it's interesting right because people who are
not very familiar with music they
just see you playing on a stage and they see oh that's that's really like uh skillful uh but they
don't really understand how much work goes into actually getting to that stage where you can play
so well right it's like uh hard work yeah yeah and for you there was a many days uh full-time job
kind of thing to to eight hours a day just to get uh to get there yeah it's uh it's very interesting
yeah the beginning it was like this yeah um so you told us that y
ou began with the orchestra um you
actually told me before the interview you told me that you actually uh have to have the rights to
the Eno name I didn't know it was so formal can you can you tell me how that happened and what
it what what what it means when juo was in the last years of his life in the 70s he decided to
play sh in in television at this moment and he told my grandfather to make a quarter and he
did this qued with two singers with Oswaldo Ramos and Alberto cha and they did a
qu called
solistas de because juo gave to him the right to use his name so he could go to to the
rest of the country different clubs and places like little towns playing and bringing
quino's music with the original singers and original musicians from the orchestra I mean
they were the first bandonion the piano the double base and the first violin of the original
Orchestra they were the solist you know so with the two singers and Alberto cha was so loved
everywhere he he went he was such a
Lov person so he started to to work with the name then Pino
died and his family gave the rights again to my grandfather and he was working with solistas
and um when my grandfather died ER my the the the ER owners of the right I mean the owner of
the right right it was the wife of his brother because ferino didn't have any children so the
rights came first to his brother and then to his wife so I got in touch with this woman because
I wanted to make the juand dieno and we wanted to to have
the right to to use the name so he he
she gave me the the right to use the name of P to create the orchestra yeah I think it's interesting
how that was like a right like it's it's legally protected probably I never realized that um that
it's actually protected name it makes sense right yeah yeah yeah and it it was really important
and it was a kind of you know at this moment I was so young so it was huge responsibility I I I
got like okay I I I I need to to bring this flag as as far as I ca
n you know like this this was so
important for me too a huge Challenge and and it's it's so crazy how I see back sometimes and I say
wow we actually did a lot with the 100 because we played in I don't know how many countries now
we did I don't remember how many tours around the world and we record a lot of Records you know
and and we are present always everywhere so uh I think we we actually gave a lot to this and it
is paid already yes yes yes so how was it like uh to start doing all these
tours and um yeah
maybe you should just tell us bit in general about um what it takes to to organize this whole
um Orchestra because you said before that there's also a lot of management and a lot of different
skills that your grandfather didn't need to have but you do because it's different times can can
you talk a bit about that we are we are musicians but but we are managers we we are communities we
organize the food and the kilometers we have to do with cars and the insurance health in
surance
and everything we had to do for a tour is just managed by by me and and Ricardo I mean we are we
have to do everything around so planning tours is really hard because we are 10 people we have
to move a lot of people around Europe for 45 days like maybe 25 or more cities 10 11 countries
every time we go um so there is a lot to organize it's not hard uh it's not easy it's so hard it's
so physically tiring to make tours and we have to be so prepared for that it's not not an easy thing
um so it's not just being a a musician I mean the music and the stage is the the part that that
people see but behind of this of course there is a lot of the lot of sh and organizing tours
it's so hard I mean my grandfather didn't have to do this because they had normally like a manager
that just do this you know uh like selling the orchestra or talking with organizers or deciding
where what are we going to eat in the afternoon you know these kind of things they were just
going to sound ch
eck and playing so they had a lot of time to dedicate to music and and we don't
have all this time sometimes it's it's impossible H not to study some hours but to I don't know
play bonio three hours and then compose like five hours I don't have this time I had to do I I
have to send emails today to a lot of people that in Europe for the tour so I'm not going to have
this time so how come you don't have a person like that is that just not feasible anymore in these
times a person who does the
administration yes every person that it'ss on the company you know
it's a person that needs to be paid and it it's so hard to be much more people I we are already 10
and if we want to be a it would be a pleasure for us to have like I don't know 10 people working
for all the organization of laand and but the the the B are not ready for that I mean we we
don't we don't have budget to to have a manager or someone that I don't know make clothes for
us or H rent an Studio to rehearse every week
I mean we don't have this Tango environment it
it's uh it's so little and it is not so I mean it it's so big around the world but it is not
something that you can I don't know grow so much I we were feeling that we touched the roof
of of this environment some years ago and it is really hard to to to grow you know like I don't
know to make this company in in a way like bigger it would be amazing but for now it's impossible
yes uh but you also told me that it's also the reason why for exampl
e you learned English and
you like um you told me before interview that it's also actually challenging you all the time
to grow it's never boring because you need to do so many many things and arrange so many things
yeah you you you need to it's a like what I said at the beginning like I was on the stage and it's
not important how afraid I was I had to just stay there and play you know and sometimes you have
to face a lot of challenges like yeah learning new languages like uh that it I don'
t know it's
uh mandatory because you start to travel and you have a sound check and and you can't communicate
with the people that is the sound Engineers for example and you need to speak English at least
uh I started to L to to Studio some German years ago not enough to to talk but but I was student
some months and and it was so necessary because we were going every year to Germany and and
there were a lot of times that we didn't have opportunity to communicate to have a good town
stage a
nd these kind of things it was so important okay German German was so hard you know like I
need to leave there to learn German I think but English for example yeah it was a necessity for
me to to talk to work was so important but yeah it also made you grow in all kinds of ways like
to have all this responsibility uh for so many people yes yes yes uh it's not just that I mean
the talking with a sound engineer but everything related to I don't know let's say like flights
or emergencies you ca
n have in the tool yeah you have to talk in English I mean you're not going
to communicate in Spanish everywhere so if you are in Sweden or Germany or England you need to
make an emergency call and and you have to speak in English at least at least so uh it wasn't
necessity but there are a lot of things that H we we had to face in these years like normally we
could do everything very well uh it's just it was just one time when we couldn't fight it was the
pandemic H we were on a tour in USA
and we were like uh I don't know like like escaping from a lot
of obstacles to continue with this tour because we needed visas for Canada and we didn't have them
and we had to go to Washington I mean Ricardo flly flew to Washington to make visas there uh while
I was giving a worship in in Texas you know and playing there without him and the following day we
met in somewhere so everyone was traveling around USA to make fix things you know it was so hard and
finally we got it and when when w
e were in Canada uh after this wonderful Festival in Montreal
we had to come back to USA and I told Ricardo I really think we are unstoppable you know like
no nothing can can stop us you know we can manage everything it's I can't believe it and after some
days it the pandemic started it was bigger than anything I saw before like okay we have to come
back home you know we can do nothing to this yes yeah we had to come back rushing because the the
borders were going to to close and I remember
that to say ER we are unstoppable man and after some
days we were changing the tickets in Los Angeles to come back to yes okay this is bigger you know
yes but I think it was the only time we had things to to to manage uh that we couldn't because it was
actually the first tour we did in Europe dado we were talking with the he said I have a friend that
he's a priest on a church here in Argentina maybe I can talk to him because it would be amazing to
go to to Rome to the Vatican and have an i
nterview with the Pope and and I was listening to him like
always like okay he's talking seriously you know like like yes it would be amazing how can we do
it so we need to do this and that okay let's do it you know and and we got it I mean we we got an an
an invitation to go and we get our we shake hands with the Pope in the first tour we did we took a
picture you know it was we play some some bonum to him was just of course two minutes we were with
him we shake hands and say oh Argentina
you know I love Tango what what do you prefer juano oh
yes juano ju so it was he's Argentinian so it was really but every time we we we had dreams he
was like okay let's do it we could I don't know I think we are so unconscious and this is a kind
of a positive thing sometimes yes yes yes so let's use the was there anything else you wanted to add
to that um I don't know I I just would like to invite all the people to to search and and listen
our music they they can find everything we do in i
n Spotify and YouTube and and Instagram Facebook
you can follow us this is so important for us and listen our music and we are going to come back to
Europe now in May May and June we are sharing our shows and gigs everywhere there in in Instagram
so you can find all the information there we are going to play about I don't know how many shows we
have like 25 28 shows in about 35 days we going to visit a lot of cities in Germany in in Denmark
Sadia Sweden and we are going to Holland too we ar
e going to play in denhard uh we are going
to Lisbon Tango Festival again it's kind of our family Festival we go to Spain we are going to
be in Italy in France in Switzerland so we are going to do a lot and and if you would like to to
to see our music and dance with our music uh you are invited well I think people if they listen
to this they'll probably be even more motivated to come listen um because they understand uh
everything that that uh that's behind something like an orchestra that
you can just search on
YouTube and you can listen to it but they don't know everything that's going on behind it it's uh
I think it's very interesting to get this behind the scenes type of view and that's also what
I would like to um like the remaining time in the interview I just wanted to focus on on on one
thing um because you said something earlier that I thought was interesting you said like I feel
um a certain responsibility for the heritage of darano and I've also understood that lik
e dariano
the sound darano is really your thing and that's also what you do so can you talk a bit about um
about this style and and uh uh what it means to you and and why is it so why why this so important
for the dancers you know I I think I fell in love with with quino because it it was the most this
is weird right but the most rock and roll style of Tango when I when I found it I remember to
to listen a lot about a lot of Troy love when when I was young too H I still do it of course
but
at this moment I I remember to to listen lot his singers troo singers they were amazing and the
orchestras were so so complete and so big but when is this beit of quino was like something else
for me I I can just H find a kind of vibration there that it is mine it's my thing I don't know
uh how to explain it with words it's a feeling you know it's just a feeling that I feel like this
is amazing you know it's it's it's it happens with other another things like tryo troyo fantino
for example
I really loved it always I really love this music it is this uh I don't know I can make a
picture of uh an ordinary Common People guy in the 40s uh moving on the street with this Rhythm like
H vibrating on this Rhythm it is not the same uh the Tango I don't know too in the 60s where where
I I can listen a lot of academic development you know with a lot of strings and and Arrangement
are so like I don't know symphonic you know it is crazy it's amazing of course everyone loves
this too and i
t is nice to dance it too but it is not this Rhythm thing that I don't know it was I
don't know it was something for common people and this this idea of the music of the common people
I I found this in not not many styles juano troyo with fantino but then it started to change a lot
so fast H tanturi toui with Campos tanturi with c TI this is so amazing this kind of Tango this
danceable and and I don't know in Spanish or L we we are going to say canero canero means when you
are kind of U not
arrogant but H when you show off you know when you walk like this like this Mafia
guys this kind of things it this kind of vibration is this music and the lyrics are talking always
about regular people I mean there's not normally like H I don't know in English if you say like the
blueprints you know it's always talk about stories that are real for the people so when the PE when
people listen to this they they can feel touched because they live the same like with love with a
brother with my
mom with this kind of things it is so dramatic it is so Italian you know it is so us
but uh I think juu was in the 30s and the 40 was like just perfect for this and then Tango became
so popular and then a lot of academic things came to to tango music to make it better but to H
erase a bit this this Mark of common people so I like everything but this styles that are
so close to the normal common Ordinary People I I really like it more yes and I guess that's what
you're still doing so it has
it has survived from the 40s uh and 30s and 50s onto the present day
yeah yes um maybe just one improvised question um like darano has many different styles there's
a darano from the late 30s there's darano from the 40s and then there's darano uh in in you know
later so M are you particularly inspired by one of these eras or not or do you just play everything
like it's yeah bit of a fake question everything yeah we play a bit of everything but not so much
about not so much from 30s it's th
e the the the forest I think is when the orchestra found a
development sound in this style with salamangka in the piano and this this is the sound that I
think everyone is going to try to to play when they play queno and the arrangements are more
related to this or to the 50s and 60s because I I I work with the original music of my grandfather
I mean he had all the music so the arrangement are from him and then I wrote new Tangos played some
Tangos that that are mine with lyrics music and s
ome arrangement or these kind of things but uh I
I think since 40s the orchestra has started to to have better sound better musicians better better
[ __ ] music you know so I think 40s and the late 60s are the the best for me the late 60s maybe
with the new technology for recording the band onions and the orchestra sounds like explosive
like I really love it it's like wow the sound is so like com I don't know it's so so nice and the
forest with depending with single but I don't know Ma for
example this kind of things I don't know
it's so hard to to make something better and more beautiful than this it's so beautiful uh and bz
for example in the latest this is crazy and how they could keep the style in the 60s after all
the development of orchestras it it is so hard and they they were working a lot to to have like
different kind of singers like romantic singer but at the same time this early 30s and 40s singer
that talks about Tiff and and knives and these kind of things so th
ey were they continue doing
everything they they didn't change to something like okay Tango it was in the 30s and the 40s was
something a bit like dark and you know border and in the 50s every family was dancing Tangos in
clubs with children so it was not the same so everyone started to to make something more for
the whole family and juo keep kept this Alberto cha sound with Lardo uh tips and this kind of
stories that I we like people that I don't know have fights on the street this kind of
things uh
that actually people love to hear at this moment like like my grandfather you he always talk about
Alberto CH he was so l so I like the whole thing in juo but there there are things in the early
40s and the late 60s that for me are like wow this is crazy I can't believe it yeah what is
your favorite song oh oh I really don't know I change all the time okay yeah yeah yeah I now
I I can say bad Exposition I think the version of quino is one of this explosive things that I
I don't
know I can't believe it I think it's so hard to to make this it's so so nice but in two
weeks I I I am in love oh you made it another another opinion okay well it's uh I could have
asked many more things um but um I think this was an interesting um conversation with some uh like
specific uh uh things we we talked about and um yes I'm I'm happy how it turned out and uh yes I
think people uh will really enjoy this um all this inside information that's in this interview uh and
that's of course
the most interesting part about in interviewing a musician is that you get to all
these insights you don't really uh read on the internet all the time like it's not really very
common it's just yeah I like that yeah yeah it's a but I think it's the the most beautiful things
to talk uh because all all the things that you can find on on stage or I don't know on a movie or
or a book has a story behind that it's how this was done and and it is so easy for me to to to
tell this because we have
a lot of anecdotes to tell so every time I I I have to talk about the so
this story different kind of things come out and and it's so beautiful for me to I Really to yes
yes uh so thank you for uh today and uh I hope to meet you in person at some point so uh let's see
how we can make that possible but it's uh yeah it was really interesting to meet you and uh well
thanks for the uh conversation oh no please it's a pleasure thank you very much and of course I
would like to see when we go to E
urope too yes
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