Keith: What comes to mind as the first tango music you remember hearing?
Roberto: Umm ... a valsecito my first teacher gave me to learn, "Uno Peqeño Carnival." It was a study piece, you know?
Keith: How old were you when you started to play the bandoneón?
Roberto: 8 years old. I studied with a master from the city where I was born, Chacabuco. But it was not a method training - not organized. 2 or 3 people getting lessons at the same time. Some days I didn't practice the lesson, so I had to pretend to know it (smiles). Years later, I began to study with more enthusiasm and much love. Listening to records, I would transcribe from them, copying out the arrangements and then play along.
Keith: Who were your favorite bandoneónistas at that time?
Roberto: Leopoldo Federico - and until today he is my favorite. Aníbal Troilo, Osvaldo Ruggiero, Oscar Almada (in Troilo's orquesta). There were so many talented musicians ...
Keith: What was your first professional job as a musician?
Roberto: All the time we had groups. The singers came from the capital city and we accompanied them. Floreal Ruíz, Roberto Goyeneche, Alberto Marino, all of them. But really, we weren't what you would strictly call professional. We just accompanied the singers.
My first actual professional job was in 1978 when I began playing with the orquesta of Maestro Osvaldo Pugliese.
Keith: Can you tell us about meeting him for the first time? Did you have to audition, or ...
Roberto: Si. Pugliese made a concert at Chacabuco. At this time, 1978, the orquesta had 3 bandoneóns. I was having a conversation with members of the orquesta. A friend of mine told them I play bandoneón. They said, oh, well, come to Buenos Aires and play for the maestro because he is looking to add a bandoneón. So I went, and I played for Osvaldo Pugliese. I was very impressed!
When I finished, Pugliese said, "We are looking for a bandoneón, so we are listening to several musicians. Give us your number." I was happy to play for Pugliese. But really, I didn't expect that something could happen.
A week later, he called, and he told me to come to Buenos Aires. And I said, oh, I have to play again, a new selection.
Keith: What did you play the first time?
Roberto: Los Mareados, a song of bandoneon, guitar and bass from Piazzolla. Pugliese didn't like it. He wasn't interested if you were playing with good harmonics, a good arrangement, a lot of notes ...
So he say, "Play a tango tango - not a new modern arrangement." So I played El Pollo Ricardo. But I hadn't prepared it - I just played like a popular musician without arrangement, yes? And it was that that convinced Pugliese about my playing. He wanted to know if I could play real tango, not just elaborate arrangements.
Bueno, now I'm back a week later in Buenos Aires and I think I have to play another audition. And when I arrive, I find out that I don't have to play again - I am a member of the orquesta! Incredible! (Big smile, chuckle).
Keith: How old were you then?
Roberto: 38.
Two months later, he made a tour of 3 months in Japan, 2 weeks in United States. For me it was to be like in heaven. So interesting. Immediately I'm travelling around the world. My life changed. I left my life in a countryside city and moved to Buenos Aires and begin to spend all my time in music: studying, recording, writing arrangements ...
Keith: What were you doing as a job or profession back home?
Roberto: My papa was a wood seller. He owned a lumber company and a mill. I worked in the mill cutting wood, using very precise saws. I worked with my hands. (Shows me the middle finger of his left hand. Starts to chuckle. It is permanently bent inward near the top). Here I cut the tendons one day - ready for the bandoneón! (More laughter around the table).
Keith: Roberto, you've just joined the Pugliese Orquesta ... how did you learn the material? How were you incorporated into the group?
Roberto: One month I spent before my first concert rehearsing. Studying and rehearsing. Although the orquesta played by memory, I was able to do the parts at the first concert.
Keith: What was Pugliese like to work for? Was he tough, was he kind, how would you describe working for him?
Roberto: Very kind. Si, si, si.
There were 4 or 5 younger than me and we became friends. Daniel Binelli, the violin Fracini, the cellist Pucci, ahh ... bueno ...
Keith: What was your original chair (position) in the orquesta?
Roberto: I was 4th at the beginning. After 2 years, Daniel Binelli leave the orquesta (he was 2nd bandoneón) and Pugliese told me to play 2nd bandoneón. That's in 1980. In 1984, Arturo Pernón the 1st bandoneón leaves. Now there was a little problem because some of the other bandóneonistas had been longer in the orquesta than me. But Pugliese choose me because I knew how to compose, and I played Pugliese's way better than the other bandoneons.
One year after I was the first bandoneón, I had to play Teatre Colón. A big concert - all the famous musicians play there! I was so happy! (laughing) It was a good concert!
Keith: Last night, I was 4 feet from your bandoneon as you played the last set. And when you played Desde el Alma, I felt I was hearing the famous Pugliese recording of it from Teatre Colón. I knew it was you. To be so close to that moment gave me a thrill, señor.
Roberto: (becomes more animated) I think ... obviously, Pugliese is dead. He's not here. But, within our orquesta, he is a spirit - the maestro. We have reached a point, where, perhaps we have the inheritance of his style.
(Editor's note: At this point, as he continues his train of thought, Roberto requests to be "off-the-record." He finishes his thought, muses a bit, and there is general laughter at his humorous summation remark. Diego cracks a joke in response. Duration off the record: 1:05).
Keith: When the maestro died, it was natural for you to begin to lead your own orquesta, but at that time there weren't many orquestas playing for dancing. When you started Color Tango, you could have gone in a different direction like most musicians. We dancers around the world are so grateful to you for your part in bringing dancing orquestas back.
Roberto: The roots of the tango is with the dance. In 1960 when the tango tipica orquestas collapsed, and the concerts and the small groups begin playing for listening, people don't dance; so, a new branch begins only for listening.
Nowadays, in the milongas in Buenos Aires, several orquestas play for dancing.
I don't agree with the thesis that there is music for listening and music for dancing - that you must distinguish - that you can't play music for dancing in a concert, you know. If you play for dancing, that music is good for concerts, too.
Keith: If you were a dancer, you would love your music!
Roberto: (laughs) I can't dance!
I can play like Piazzolla or Troilo - by my heart is in Pugliese's style.
Keith: How much do you compose? Do you do it because you have a new CD to make ... or are you writing all the time?
Roberto: All the time. I am writing a new tango now, on the tour. Tango a Pugliese (on the new CD) was composed for Osvaldo. I didn't have much time to do it because we had an international tour with his widow, Lydia Pugliese (Uruguay, Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Italy). I wanted to dedicate this tango during the tour, so I had to write it fast. But normally I try to compose without pressure and only with inspiration.
I also have tangos to sing - but there is no singer in Color Tango. There is no demand for singers.
Keith: I like it that your music is instrumental.
Roberto: Si? (smiles and reaches across to firmly shake hands).
Keith: Tell us about your bandoneón.
Roberto: I change them a lot because I have a hard, aggressive style. I break them. The one I play now is a Premier. A German restorer called Rocco made it like a new one. It was made between 1938 and 1945 - I don't know exactly when. The bellows is new, not original.
Keith: Are you always looking for an instrument somehow "better?"
Roberto: Si. But, the instruments are disappearing in Argentine. It's difficult to find them. Foreigners have been buying them up. Now, Rocco is the new general manager of the old factory and is beginning to manufacture Double A again in Krefeld, Germany. The same.
Keith: Is it possible to make them just like the old ones?
Roberto: The problem is that the harmonic tongues, when you tune the bandoneon, was a tungsten and metal compound. It is very difficult to make it the same. They are going to use material from Russia and they hope it will work. But the wood will be better.
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The 6th CD, recorded June, 2003 | |
Keith: Do you still improve, get better?
Roberto: Si. And the satisfaction is coming from - the group is always getting better. We are growing and thinking we have to compose and play better all the time. And I enjoy seeing the people happy, like last night, when we play.
We feel very proud that our music, tango, reaches so deep in the heart of all the people - especially here in Montreal. In this city we realize that the people really feel the tango when we are playing. And this is the most joy and satisfaction a musician can feel when he is playing.
As Pugliese said, the tango is an unofficial ambassador without the diplomatic baggage. It's an Argentine embassy without credentials.
(An hour had flown by. It was time for them to go to another appointment. But there were so many questions still to be asked. To be continued in the future from Roberto's recording studio in Buenos Aires ...)
Color Tango website
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Roberto Álvarez.
