Keith: Denis, of course I want you ask you about your new solo album, but as you are always involved in a few projects at the same time, perhaps you run down what they are?
Denis: Well, I play bandoneon and I've been involved in many groups as a soloist or also as an arranger, composer and musical director.
Right now, I've been offered to take over Quartango as the musical director and arranger, so, there's a lot of exciting decisions to take with that band. I'm also still playing with Tango Vivo which is my own Montreal-based tango band - we like to play in milongas. And strictly as a musician I play with Victor Simon, a very nice pianist from Argentina who plays tango, and I'm playing in his band called Ensemble Tango Montreal. Also I play on some projects; I play on World Violins with Anje Dibot ‚ playing in duet and trio with a nice violin player and ... well, I have a lot of projects. You will hear more of them when I have a CD with them. (smiles)
Keith: Tell us about the your new CD. It's entirely original work, yes?
Denis: Entirely original compositions, yes, it's called Cantos de Bandoneon, which means songs for Bandoneon - really what it is. There are 14 songs, but there's no singer, there is only the voice of the bandoneon. And the compositions are in the form of three separate pieces and each one has its own movement, its own evolution, its own stories.
The first of the three is called "Noche de Tango" and it's a new arrangement of a thing I've been playing for a while with Tango Vivo. I've re-arranged it and added a new piece for string quartet and bandoneon. The story is that of a man who - a tanguero - who goes back to Argentina and finds his world completely changed, so he has to find his own place anew.
The second part of the CD is called "Cantos Sin Palabras," which means songs without lyrics. It's about the years of the dictatorships in Argentina. It's about the people who have their lives taken over and their fates changed by those political events ‚ those who have to leave, those who are missing, to those who stay and live with their tears. There are seven of those Sin Palabras themes which are quite sad.
And finally, there are three more numbers which are inspired by my travels in Argentina - especially in the inner provinces (outside of Buenos Aires) where there is lots of interesting music also ... a lot of folk rhythms ‚ and I've tried to mix them with my own jazz improv background.
The CD is bandoneon with string quartet accompaniment. Very nice music.
Keith: It is. It's, in a lot of ways, "mood" music. For when you want to feel tranquil and reflective.
Denis: Yes. It's music for listening to. For people who've heard my work with Tango Vivo, we were a mix of dance music and ambient music. This one is more classically oriented. It's to sit and listen to the music and the interpretation also since I've been surrounded by very nice players.
Keith: Have you been playing a lot with musicians in Argentina?
Denis: In Buenos Aires, I had a chance to be invited by Daniel Binelli, the well-known bandoneonist who played with Pugliese and Piazzolla at the end of his life. We had a chance to play with him in Quartango several times in Toronto; and when I went to Buenos Aires we got together a few times and listened to each other's work and discussed everything about tango from his work with Pugliese to my projects of writing songs in French, and things like that. So that was really motivating since in many ways we are in the same genre. It's not old-fashioned tangos, it's something else.
I just more or less passed though Buenos Aires because my family is from San Juan, in the interior. And there I met a few bandoneon players - really nice, really passionate people. But for them to play Piazzolla is like to play the "nuevo stylo" and they can't do it. They have learned the tipica way of playing and they can't make both. So, they play the way they've learned at 10 years old and they play so well. It's really fantastic to see them. They know EVERY tango by memory (and there are a lot!) (Laughs)
And over there I've been listening a lot to folk music and going to what they call, peñas, which are jam sessions of old musicians.
But, the quantity of tango you can find there is not so big, since the very good players tend to travel outside the country to make their living. In Argentina, it's very hard to live by playing tango, so there very few musicians of quality left. They are hard to find. People who play bandoneon at the professional level are few ‚ and they are all old. To see this is quite sad because this tipica way of playing will be lost. Since there was no formal way of teaching it or codifying it, it will soon be very hard to find people with that way of playing. Playing in the Piazzolla style is not so difficult as the old tipica way because he had a classical background, so we musicians can relate to that. There is a new generation, but we are speaking of 100 people and mostly in Buenos Aires.
Keith: Denis, we're going into 2005 ‚ will there be more recordings coming from you this year?
Denis: Well, this recording is my first as Denis Plante, the soloist and not part of a band; and also as the owner of this new label called Flores De Necar ‚ which will specialize in producing tango projects. I have one project for this ready to record which will feature again string quartet but which this time will play Piazzolla stuff. And after that, I plan to make a new project with pianist Victor Simon, exploring folk rhythms and tango in a trio with percussion. And also I have to orient the future work of Quartango. That's all to come in 2005.
Flores De Nacar Web site
