“Piazzolla originals are played with new élan and the ones that must have incurred the ire of the late master—“Laura” and “Lullaby of Birdland”—are re-imagined with absolute mastery that somehow missed the mark before.” To...
Paquito D’Rivera with the Pablo Aslan Ensemble – Tango Jazz: Live at the Lincoln Center (Sunnyside Records – 2010)
One of the greatest love affairs in music is the one between folk music and dance. This extremely covert relationship has spilled over into contemporary music as well—more so in musical excursions in Europe (where even Igor Stravinsky sang its praises with compositions of his own) and in Latin America. One of the most beloved of all these affairs is the storied one of the tango, a voluptuous one between characters born in countries as far removed as [...]
Pablo Aslan – Tango Grill (Zoho Music – 2010)
To the unsuspecting ear, Pablo Aslan may sometimes appear to be just a fabulous bassist, with sublime technique and a virtuoso of limitless possibility. But dig a little deeper, especially into this album, Tango Grill and the impossible will seem to appear. Aslan takes the relatively rigid structure of the written music and dance form, the Tango, into a stratospheric space where [...]


