This project was one of the surprises in the Teatro Colón’s 2023 programand the idea board couldn’t be more fitting: celebrate 50 years of the album Artaud by Luis Alberto Spinetta in the most prestigious hall in the country.
The surprise of the announcement was not that it was simply a new chapter in the approach of popular music to Colón, sometimes as forced as it was dissonant. But they bring the songs of Artaud to that scenario was to confirm that it is a classicin the broadest sense of the term, and which goes far beyond the world of rock.
Another success was the choice of Adrian Iaies as an arranger, not only for an innate generational issue (he grew up with rock and stood out for decades in jazz) but also for his fascination for challenge, and for an attitude that led him to play in own. an unusual format: string quartet, wind quartet and rock trio (guitar, bass, drums), plus four singers.
The result was an extremely respectful but also daring and original reinterpretation, who managed to avoid the thankless zone of defeat “I know I know” of this kind of tributes, which bring nothing when they are too faithful and do not charm when they stray too far.
The concert Tomorrow is betterthen, before the first note, he had already managed to escape from clichés and presented himself as something truly new and an exciting challenge.
The concert
There was an introduction by Bobby Flores, who called the work seminal and a record “that doesn’t fit into any disco.”
“Tonight,” he said, “a fundamental work for Argentine culture will be honored. There will not be a parade of guests, there will be no room for nostalgia, nor will anecdotes be told. Tonight they are going to resort to a leg fundamental part of the tradition which is the interpretation of a work. Artaud It’s not like 50 years ago. This is an interpretation made by Adrián Iaies from that original work”.
Then came the musicians, the director Ezekiel Faustario (currently director of the Tres de Febrero Municipal Symphony Orchestra) and Iaies.
First they played a short original piece by Iaies inspired by Artaudthe instruments all windsand immediately came the first song, no less than All the leaves are from the windvery well sung by the sweet voice of the jazz girl Sol Liebeskindwho mostly traveled to participate, as he has been living in the United States for several years.
There were some words from Iaies about the project: “We are celebrating 50 years of a unique work in the most literal sense of the word. It is an album in which it is not acknowledged that there is any influence from previous albums or from other artists It does not give the impression of a record made by an artist who has listened to other things, but it seems that everything was born there, it’s like a big bang, an explosion from Spinetta’s universe and all the elements that we find in his work are already there” .
Then came the second track of the album: club cemeterywith bluesy vocals by Deborah Dixon, in a great version.
The first surprise in terms of the order of topics was that it didn’t follow through From But Deceitwhich presented a valuable intro with clarinet and flutes, plus Liebeskind’s angelic voice, which the sound engineer was unable to amplify at an adequate volume, a problem that was accentuated in real thirstwhere the lyrics have been buried by the music.
intermission and after
The proposal conceived by Iaies was even more disruptive with the insertion of an interlude: an instrumental version of every day of life, where he joined on the piano. However, the B Artaud a job of just over half an hour, adding more of Spinetta’s creations was logical and welcome.
Then came one of the highlights of the night: a version of From played and sung by the bandoneon player only airs of Santiago, an unimaginable genius who would surely have delighted Spinetta himself, for his love of the “damp tanguinolence of the old Buenos Aires river,” as he once wrote. He was applauded.
the epic Cantata of the yellow bridgespiece of resistance of Artaud, allowed Sol Liebeskind to finally show all his talent and in perfect volume. The arrangement included a verse with only voice and double bass, and at the end came the second ovation of the evening.
Source: Clarin
