Tango musicians bring bandoneon to life in new historic recording

Though born in Germany in the 19th century, the bandoneón reached Argentina and Uruguay a few decades later and soon became the iconic melodic soul of tango music. Now, a new recording brings all of its master players together. Deceptively small with the shape of a cube, it triples its size with bellows in the middle that route air over metallic reeds and has buttons played by both hands. It has a rich, melancholic, and sharp sound distinct from traditional accordions, which allows for immense emotional expression. Bandoneón players soon became as important as the tango singers, with names like Aníbal Troilo, Pedro Laurenz, Leopoldo Federico and Astor Piazzolla, who became as legendary as Carlos Gardel himself This month, in a historic event for tango and Argentina’s musical heritage, three-time Grammy nominee Pablo Jaurena and famed founder of El Arranque Orchestra Ignacio Varchausky released Fueyerías, a recording project that pays tribute to the emblematic musical instrument. This monumental production brings together 31 outstanding bandoneón players from different generations and stylistic backgrounds, playing historical recoveries, new compositions, and new arrangements.  The list of musicians is a true who’s who of bandoneón history, with famous masters Víctor Lavallén (90), Rodolfo Mederos (85), Néstor Marconi (83), Lisandro Adrover (80), and Daniel Binelli (79), alongside prominent representatives of later generations, including Jaurena. The recordings were made in many cities around the world, like Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Tokyo, Paris, Madrid, and Medellín, making the album a meticulous and unprecedented document that includes a video counterpart for each song. The album will be presented live on Saturday, May 30 at Buenos Aires’ La Carbonera, and will reach Córdoba in July. A labor of love Fueyerías began in November 2023. Jaurena recalls an afternoon where he was drinking mate on the patio of his home in Córdoba, thinking about his next step after the whirlwind that followed recording Retrato del aire, a brave and unusual album of bandoneón solos that was nominated to the Latin Grammy. He remembered a bandoneon quartet he had recorded during the COVID lockdown and started “pulling the thread to see where it might lead,” as he told the Herald. He soon discovered there was a whole body of repertoire for bandoneón ensembles, music that had been sitting untouched for years, that hadn’t been played in ages, whose scores were lost, or that had never been officially released. “That’s when the idea really took shape, and a month later I met with Ignacio in a café in Buenos Aires and told him about it: an album of bandoneón ensembles, recorded with different bandoneón players,” he said. Ignacio Varchausky was delighted with the project and was onboard. “I immediately realized that it was something without precedent, and that’s always attractive for the people invited to take part, and obviously also in terms of communication and promotion.” The next step was playing around with ideas, concepts, and possible repertoires, a fascinating ping-pong between two tango lovers, collectors and archeologists of sorts. They also realized that Fueyerías involved two key coordinates. One is that it gives the general public access to bandoneón-centered formats that may seem exotic or unusual, but are actually quite a familiar practice for bandoneón players. The other one is the fact that, although the recording involved more than 80,000 kilometers of travel and collaborations from many countries, the album was still conceived from a completely Argentine perspective, undertaking “small collective epics in order to create something meaningful from the end of the world,” as Varchausky says. Jaurena adds that they soon realized that many musicians were already eighty or ninety years-old. One of the first they called was tango maestro Julio Pane, who died before making his recording. But his son Leandro “Yoyo” Pane played an unpublished arrangement that his father made for Pedro Maffia’s Abandono. In addition, another detail of this independent production is that each session was filmed by director Yael Szmulewicz. Videos will be released on a monthly basis. Tango today Both Pablo Jaurena and Ignacio Varchausky have an intense schedule of activities outside Fueyerías. Jaurena plays bandoneón in the Orquesta Provincial de Música Ciudadana de Córdoba, as well as touring with his sextet and recording sessions with pop artists Shakira, Ricardo Montaner, Milo J and Trueno. Varchausky is a producer and cello player who founded Orquesta El Arranque in the mid-Nineties, when a new generation of tango bands helped revitalize  the genre. He is also the artistic director of the educational program of Orquesta Escuela de Tango Emilio Balcarce. They agree in saying that tango enjoys good health nowadays, with an amazing amount of talented musicians, composers and arrangers actively making new music. Plus, the milonga circuit is alive and kicking, with many clubs where locals and tourists love dancing tango, and new musicians practice their chops while having a steady job. “Last year, 187 tango albums were released! Unbelievable! Tango is more alive than ever,” says Varchausky. “It’s also a moment that allows projects like this to happen, thanks to global communications and social media that helped us contact bandondeón players,” says Jaunena.  “We have to reinvent ourselves in this new context, and I always believe that, like Spinetta used to sing, tomorrow is better.” Cover photo by Monique Feil