TWO GOOD: Jorge Marti, left, and Jorge Palacios perform at the Katara Drama Theatre. Photos by T K Nasser
Argentine duo Jorge Palacios and Jorge Marti took the audience at the Katara Drama Theatre on a musical journey to the coast of Rio de la Plata. By Anand Holla
In a few frenetic bursts of fingerpicking, Jorge Palacios and Jorge Marti had transported the audience at the Katara Drama Theatre to the coast of Rio de la Plata, along the border between Argentina and Uruguay.
As part of the celebration of National Day of Argentina and also of 40 years of bilateral relations with Qatar, Escordando, the classical Argentine duo gave Doha a taste of authentic tango music over the weekend.
Palacios and Marti, who started Escordando in 2008 in the Argentinian city of Neuquen, are also guitar professors. While Palacios was born in Argentina, Marti was born in Uruguay, and the two are committed to showcasing Rio de la Plata’s sounds and folklore to the world. “We play traditional music from Rio de la Plata, and it’s different in how a lot of it involves dancing as an integral part,” Palacios said, after the gig.
Their one-hour show explored a range of complex rhythms and intricate guitar playing that spanned across the cultural heritage of the different provinces of Argentina.
For instance, their performance featured gato, a dance from the North of Argentina, chacarera and chamame from North-East, and huella, a folk dance that appeared in 1820s and slowly disappeared at the beginning of the 20th Century.
And, of course, there were some tango pieces like Tango Suite by Astor Piazzolla, Organito de la Tarde by Catulo Castillo. They also performed compositions of Latin American greats like Alberto Ginastera, Leo Brouwer, Remo Pignoni, and Sergio Assad.
Although the duo’s musicianship was spectacular, it was decidedly focused on rhythms, grooves, odd time signatures, and technical proficiency – not a lot on melody. Purely for that reason, the concert seemed more academic than one would have expected.
Marti said, “While the melody is often filled in by the singer, the charm of traditional music is in its structure itself.” Palacios said, “In tango music, the rhythm is more complex and richer than the melody or the lyrics. But that’s the beauty of it.”
The Argentine Tango, the cultural expression of the Rio de la Plata area, dates back from somewhere in the second half of the 19th century. Back then, the cities were brimming over with immigrants, mostly from Italy, Spain and other European countries. As Buenos Aires turned into a melting pot of cultures, a new culture of the portenos emerged, of those whose lives revolved around the docks.
Though tango originated from the society’s poor and the disadvantaged in tenement blocks and in street corners, it eventually captured the imagination of both the classes and the masses. Tango represented music and dance that celebrated life and breathed love. After all these years, what sets it apart is how all-consuming and passionate a music-dance form it is.
That’s perhaps why tango has been called a four-legged animal with two beating hearts, or that tango can save your life, and break your heart. Palacios and Marti do a fine job of flying the flag of the spirit of tango, by picking delicate notes with as much as care as working through a flurry of arpeggios. “To us, playing traditional music is everything,” Palacios said.
Rossana Cecilia Surballe, the Ambassador of Argentina to Qatar, said, “‘Escordando’ means awakening in Portuguese, and these two guitarists invite us to arouse our feelings and emotions.” With their fingers frantically dancing up and down the fret board and unleashing a sea of rhythms, they sure did.
BELOW:
CULTURAL BRIDGE: Rossana Cecilia Surballe, the Ambassador of Argentina to Qatar, delivers the opening speech at the event.