The bandoneonist Néstor Marconi, central figure of the tango universe for several decades, celebrates this Saturday 18/6 with a concert in front of his quintet at the National Auditorium of the Kirchner Cultural Center 60 years of career.
An elegant, outstanding and virtuoso performer, composer, arranger and orchestra conductor, Marconi also has the particularity of being one of the last links between the golden age of tango of the 50's orchestras, having played with many of its greatest exponents, and the new generations that have been approaching the porteño music since the 90's to this part.
In this sense, his work at the head of the Emilio Balcarce Orchestra School was crucial, with which, together with other musicians of his generation, he made available to young people all the knowledge of the tango heritage, as well as the Juan de Dios Filiberto Orchestra of Argentine Music and the Buenos Aires Tango Orchestra.
In 1962 and at the age of 20, the musician born in Álvarez, near the city of Rosario, who first played the piano and at the age of 11 took up the bandoneon, joined the orchestra of José Basso, passing through the city of Santa Fe, starting a journey full of discoveries and that led him to play, be and share, with some of the greatest of Buenos Aires music: Aníbal Troilo, Ástor Piazzolla, Enrique Mario Francini, Armando Pontier, Héctor and Atilio Stampone, Pedro Laurenz, Leopoldo Federico, Osvaldo Tarantino, El Polaco Goyeneche, Floreal Ruiz, among many.
"I was with the greats of that time, I started with Basso's orchestra, in 73 I began as a soloist with the Vanguartrío, which was an almost explosive proposal, I was the link between generations with myself, always trying to learn, listening and watching everyone", he says as a quick review and responding to that function of transmission pulley of a giant heritage that he had to play in tango.
"I never denied anything, from D'Arienzo to Piazzolla, if you will, because that's what I tell talented young people: to listen to everything because in tango as in classical music, saving distances, you have to know Vivaldi to get to Stravisnski, through Mozart and Beethoven, you have to know everything and then, of course, make your way", he adds in words that supports his own career and compositions that are sustained in the heritage and also propose new sonorities.
"For me, Piazzolla opened a great path that had to be followed without repeating it; it is something I tell young people, that they have to soak up what Ástor, Troilo, Federico did and then look for themselves, because they left a path to follow", emphasizes the musician who, besides tangos, composed suites and orchestral works and played with outstanding classical ensembles such as the orchestras of the Colón, Gothenburg, Oslo, Toulouse, Vancouver, Montreal, among others.
"For me everything was important: playing, writing, composing, orchestrating, teaching, I still do it and will continue to do it as long as I can," he assures in a succinct 60-year tour.
Speaking about the bandoneon, an instrument forged in different traditions but which found itself in Buenos Aires, Marconi points out that "this is where the musical form and technique of the instrument was completed".
"It's like adopting a child of months and raising it and loving it, you become the father even if the biological father is someone else, with the bandoneon it's the same: here it was given the accent, the form, the technique and it grew in parallel with tango, it was simultaneous, tango and bandoneon went hand in hand", he assures.
Now, he emphasizes, "you can play any other music with the bandoneon, but you play two notes and tango appears".
Continuing with the tour of the instrument he adds: "Technically it has progressed a lot, from Arolas to our days and all that happened here. I had German students in Granada, Spain, who were amazed at the expressiveness of the instrument, because for them it was always a harmonium that accompanied Christmas carols, but it was here where the bandoneon found its measure and its expressive possibilities as an instrument".
He also does not deny the different stages he has gone through and how this has had an impact, and he elaborates a trajectory from the beginning to the present.
"There was an impasse, it is difficult for me to say, but when I landed in Buenos Aires in '62 it was a crazy way of working, we did a double bill every night between two nightclubs and on Saturdays and Sundays popular dances in clubs like River or Independiente, then came a downturn and, I think, the repercussion that tango had abroad infected us again", he says.
He adds that, also in recent years there has been a certain change of perspective, "because before there was the discussion of what was and what was not tango, but it happened in jazz and in Brazilian music as well, things that at one time were said not to be, then they were and people ended up accepting them".
"Fortunately, we are at a time when 'Adiós Nonino' is as popular as 'La cumparsita', where everyone has the freedom to propose their own thing, even if it is rupturist or goes back to the past, because that is what one likes, but always from their own perspective," he adds.
Likewise, he disputes the idea of the massiveness and popularity of tango and speaks instead of the worldwide scope it acquired.
"Maybe now it is not so massive locally but it is worldwide. Troilo once left the General Paz, went to the United States and did not know about it, he was focused here, he said, half jokingly, that beyond the General Paz there was nothing but then tango began to travel around the world and I who had the good fortune to travel I can assure you that there are many and unusual places where tango is heard and danced and I am not talking about Italy or France", he recalls.
This Saturday's concert will start with the trio he composes with his son Leonardo on piano and double bass player Juan Pablo Navarro -with whom he has been working in a duo for years- with the classic "Taconeando", which Marconi says "is very traditional but I always liked it because it has material to be avant-garde".
The trio will be joined by Pablo Agri on violin with improvisations and solos by each of them in their own version of "Los mareados" and then Esteban Falabella will join on guitar to have the quintet at full strength and perform Marconi's compositions such as "Tiempo cumplido", "L'atelier", "Tango Leo", dedicated to his son, "El día que me quieras", among many other compositions that will be performed at the CCK.
SOURCE: Télam