The practice of pairing music with poetry has a long history. Setting verse to music has become a way to amplify the emotional impact of the writers’ words. Argentinean percussionist and composer Minino Garay created a recording, Speaking Tango, that uses poetry to find the essence of the Argentinean tango in contemporary music, something that has been attempted in the genre at least since poet Horacio Ferrer collaborated with Astor Piazzolla.
Garay’s musical path has been a broad one. The jazz world has been his home for decades, but the percussionist also spent years perfecting his craft with Argentinean legends, like Mercedes Sosa and Jairo. Having lived 30 years in France, Garay expanded his musical interests into Brazilian and African music, recording with Hermeto Pascoal, Toumani Diabaté, Cheik Tidiane Seck, and Richard Bona along the way. These diverse musical interests inform the music that Garay creates.
Garay’s mother, Nury Taborda, a Córdoba based writer and teacher emphasized the importance of literature and poetry to him. Garay has continually returned to the written word for inspiration and continues to collaborate with Taborda in his music. He has also developed relationships with Argentinean poets Mutty Torezani and Adriana Cattanio. In 2000, Garay met Brooklyn born poet Dana Bryant, who introduced him to the work of The Last Poets, a highly influential African American poet collective that preached Black nationalism beginning in the late 1960s. Garay’s interest in dynamic poetry set to music continued to grow and manifest in his own creations.
The concept of Speaking Tango is to take the texts of old tango songs and adapt them to other types of music. For the past twenty years, Garay has worked alongside a number of composers and poets to create an amalgamation of music, tango lyrics, and original poetry, especially with Lalo Zanelli, whose collaboration was essential to the project. The outcome can be heard on Garay’s new album.
For the recording, Garay split the performances between two ensembles: one Argentinean and one French. Pianist Hernán Jacinto lends his expert touch to the record. Garay and Jacinto were joined in Buenos Aires by drummer Pipi Piazzolla and bassist Flavio Romero. The Parisian group included drummer Andre Ceccarelli, bassist Christophe Wallemme, and guitarist Manu Codjia. A handful of impressive guests amplify the music’s message throughout.
The wide-ranging texts cover a variety of topics, including politics, eroticism, and the realities of the world. The most prominent themes are the importance of being loved and the passage of time and its effects on the mind and body.
The recording begins with a setting of Adriana Cattanio’s poem “Ámame Online” to music by Wallemme and Garay, the text speaking of the transition of life from the physical world to the digital over a guitar heavy pulse. Zanelli and Garay reinterpret composer Cátulo Castillo’s classic tango “Desencuentro” into a 21st century lament on “Estas Desorientado.” Taborda’s exclamatory “Que Carajo” is stripped down to emphasize the text before building into an insistent refrain while Jean Marie Ecay’s guitar adds a blue tinge. The affecting vocals of Melingo provide a dramatic addition in expressing Taborda and Garay’s “Señora Doña Igualdad” over a strict tango rhythm provided by Zanelli’s pen and Leo Genovese’s piano.
Argentinean poet Baldomero Fernandez Moreno’s “En Lo Mas Profundo De Ella” finds a home over a jazzy 4/4 groove, Jacinto’s moving piano solo adding to the piece’s ennui. Poet Alex Pandev helps recite her and Taborda’s “Boca Con Boca,” which finds a home in the hazy Gerardo Jerez Le Cam and Garay composed ballad. Vocal and body percussionist David Linx provides a musical accompaniment to Taborda’s “Solo Con Un Beso.” Genovese and Garay create a haunting environment for Gustavo Adolfo Becquer’s “No Son Los Muertos,” heightened by Magic Malik’s lonely flute and voice.
The title track presents Taborda and Garay’s words over a martial beat and atmospheric guitar before launching into a dancing tempo of Lionel Suarez’s music that contains tango hints throughout. Garay and Eduardo Torezani’s “Los Chicos De Mi Barrio” is accompanied by Nicolas Genest’s music, Jacinto’s piano and Magic Malik’s flute providing an evocative backdrop for the text and a strong tango pull. The recording concludes with Taborda and Garay’s “Que Lo Parió!” with music by Zanelli, the melodic push of the words and Manu Codjia’s guitar building the tension without ever going too far.
Adding music to poetry adds an additional dimension the words’ emotional expression. Minino Garay takes his fascination with poetry and tango into another realm on his singular recording, Speaking Tango, as he pushes both mediums into uncharted territories.
