A painter adds his own hues to tango’s palette
Juan Carlos Caceres, a tango legend who began his career in Paris in the late 1960s, is at the Greek capital’s Half Note Jazz Club (tel 210.921.3310) this week for a run of shows through Thursday. Singing, and playing piano and trombone, Caceres is joined on stage by Sedef Ercetin (cello), Frederic Truet (saxophone, flute, clarinet), Javier Estrella (cajon, bombo, vocals) and Marcelo Russillo (drums, cajo). The performances combine traditional tango forms, such as the milonga, candombe and habanera, with the sensuous French new wave. The charismatic Caceres was born in Buenos Aires in 1936 and moved to Paris in order to pursue a career as a painter. Although he is well established as a visual artist, it was his music that really launched him on the international scene. Even though his recording output is limited, Caceres is easily ranked among the most influential propagators of tango music. Based on the classic tango idiom and inflected with jazz and chanson brushstrokes, Caceres’s music also brings together African rhythms and the Argentinean tradition to create a new sound that stands somewhere between the classicism of Carlos Gardel and modernity of Astor Piazzolla. For the past 10 years, Caceres has turned all of his attention to his music, enriching it with a more cosmopolitan air and highlighting the narrative and emotional aspects of tango music.
