Power Tango Trio. A string Trio
It recalls the Argentinian roughness of backyard gatherings, concerts in dark basements, garages, smoke-filled rooms... it's a tango that dances, with virtuoso strings, joy, and wildness.
The atmosphere of the city vibrates in these tracks. This group reflects the Buenos Aires of yesterday and today: it sounds, it sparkles and it raps, with a lot of poetry.
THE POWER TANGO TRIO IS THE FRUIT OF A MEETING BETWEEN TWO ARGENTINE GUITARISTS, ONE LIVING IN PARIS, THE OTHER IN BUENOS AIRES, AND A FRENCH DOUBLE BASS PLAYER LIVING IN MARSEILLE. COMBINING TWO GUITARS WITH A DOUBLE BASS IS A COMPLETELY NEW CHOICE IN TANGO, AND ONE THAT THE TRIO INTENDS TO EXPLORE.
Our Trio seeks to reconnect with the origins and spirit of tango through the resonance of its 16 strings, the highlighting of melody, and a style of playing that is both raw and deep, "neighborhood" and authentic, immersing us in the bars of the barrios of Buenos Aires. The origins of tango lie in the strings, above all the guitar, an instrument that embodies 3 aspects of music: melody, rhythm and harmony. The trio combines guitars with the sonic and rhythmic density of the double bass.
The Trio has chosen to play traditional tangos that conjure up the popular notes of neighborhood tango, while at the same time bringing something new and contemporary to the way they play. There's a strong influence of gypsy jazz, a way of attacking melodies on the guitar with a swinging rhythm driven by Javier Diaz Gonzalez.
Many of the tracks on the album are tangos known only through the great tango orchestras such as D'Arienzo, Di Sarli, Pugliese and Troilo. Here, the challenge is to give a string trio all the energy and rhythm needed for a milonga. The album will liven up milongas with joy and simplicity, with its frenzied "loca" or its romantic "Bahia Blanca".
Fabián Cortez
Fabián Cortez, guitarist, was born in Buenos Aires. He began playing guitar at the age of 8, and at a very young age became a guitar teacher at the Academia Rizzutti. He obtained a diploma in tango history from the Instituto Nacional de Tango, and at the same time trained in digital sound creation and sampling at El Laboratorio by Diego Merlo. He plays regularly on the bar and milonga circuit in Port-au-Prince with various musical projects, currently El 24, Dúo Milonguero, El rejunte. He was invited by the Buenos Aires Ministry of Culture to pay tribute to the city's icons: Raúl Lavié, Guillermo Fernández, Margarita Barrientos, Norberto Barlean.
Since 2016, he has been coming to Europe every year to play in major European cities, mainly Paris, but also Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
He recorded several tango albums with Canacho Tango (guitar harmonica duo) and joined Javier Diaz Gonzalez in 2021 to form the Las Guitarras de Buenos Aires project.
He has also developed theatrical and musical creation projects for children with Grupo Manoplas (5 seasons). He has also written 8 books dedicated to the guitar: Tango Y Pua(tablatures, scores, transcriptions), contributing to the dissemination of the guitar in tango.
Javier Diaz Gonzalez
Guitarist Javier Diaz Gonzalez is an authentic tanguero porteño. From the age of eighteen, he was a professional accompanist to many of the genre's great masters, from whom he learned a great deal. Mastering all the subtleties of the various rhythmic and harmonic styles not only of tango, but of many other South American musics, he is a sought-after accompanist for many musicians, singers and great figures in both classical and contemporary tango. Not the least of these are Virginia Luque, known as "the star of Buenos Aires", Nelly Vazquez, historic singer in Troilo's orchestra, Ernesto Baffa, bandoneonist in the orchestras of the legendary Troiloand Salgan, and the famous singer Cucuza Castiello. With them and others, he has performed on Argentina's greatest stages, including the San Martin and Alvear theaters, and the prestigious Buenos Aires Tango Festival on numerous occasions. He is also a regular contributor to Buenos Aires' leading tango radio station, "2x4". He has participated in some twenty albums as an accompanist, and has recorded a solo album "Tango querido", published by the Los Años Luz label.
Since 2013, at the suggestion of Argentina's Ministry of Culture, Javier has crossed the Atlantic every year on a European tour to promote his country's musical culture via various tango festivals. Curious by nature, he took great pleasure in discovering the guitar traditions of the different countries he visited. But it was for France and Paris that Javier fell in love at first sight, to the point of deciding to settle there in 2020.
In Paris, despite a complicated situation due to the pandemic, Javier Diaz Gonzalez performs in several tango formations with other Argentine musicians, notably with guitar virtuoso Rudi Flores and pianist-composer Juan Carlos Carrasco . He is also a member of the Los Escaladasquintet, with several French classical musicians.
Finally, he regularly accompanies the great singer El Chino Laborde, both in Buenos Aires and in Paris.
Inès de Montesquieu
Inès de Montesquieu plunged into tango in 2006, initially through dance, with no hope of returning. At a very young age, she began playing classical guitar. Her meeting with guitarist Diego Trosman was decisive, and led her to tango in 2010, where she learned from him and played her strings in the Marseille-based guitar quintet La Ultima Cuerda.
It wasn't until later that she turned to the low tones of the double bass. Alongside her classical training, and her participation in the OSAMU symphony orchestra at the Marseille conservatory, she joined Fernando Maguna's tango school orchestra, Tipica Lunes, in Marseille in 2020.