AVANTANGO

Pablo Aslan is pushing tango to unimagined extremes. He artfully integrates tango with jazz into a new genre where it’s impossible to hear where one ends and the other begins. Here is the characteristic elegance and melancholy of classic tango blended with a contemporary jazz idiom, full of improvisatory virtuosism, dished out by a musician at home in both genres. For almost two decades Pablo Aslan  has been a leading figure in the tango revival, with work that is both innovative and solidly rooted in the tradition.

Argentine born bassist and producer Pablo Aslan directs Avantango, a tango-jazz ensemble featuring New York based Argentine musicians and dancers that performs throughout the United States. His CD “Avantango” (Zoho Music) was selected as one of the Best Albums of the Year, Critics Choice 2004 by JAZZIZ magazine. (“A collective of musicians who are not afraid to bend the rules of both jazz and tango. While some may want to call it tango-jazz, the music is much more than that.” Jazz Times)

He has spent a lot of time recently performing and recording in Buenos Aires. His 2007 on Zoho Music “Buenos Aires Tango Standards“ is a result of this experience, and features a unique blend of tango and jazz in performances of tango standards. “…a stunningly inventive record that merges the dynamic relationship and improvisational skills of a virtuosic group with the lush compositions of influential tango composers.” All About Jazz. “(it) so completely and artfully integrates two musical worlds, here tango and jazz, that it is impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.” Jazz Times

Recent sideman work includes performances with Nonesuch recording artist Fernando Otero’s X-Tango, Argentine jazzman Adrian Iaies, and a collaboration with Paquito D’Rivera and Venezuelan flute virtuoso Marco Granados in a program of contemporary tango at the Caramoor Festival. In April 2007 Pablo performed as a special guest with Lincoln Center’s Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, led by Arturo O’Farrill, and toured throughout the US with his tango-jazz show “Avantango”.

Aslan has performed and recorded with Yo Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, Shakira, Lalo Schifrin, Joe Lovano, Gary Burton, Paquito D’Rivera, Denyce Graves, Osvaldo Golijov, Pablo Ziegler, the New World Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and David Krakauer’s Klezmer Madness among many others, and on recordings for Sony, RCA, BMG, Chesky, Naxos, Tzadik, and others. He was guest artist in the 2005/06 season of Chamber Music at Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, alongside pianist/composer Lalo Schiffrin and bandoneonist Nestor Marconi in Schiffrin’s “Letters from Argentina”, the Aleph Records CD of which was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award in 2006.

In 2005, Aslan colaborated with the French choral ensemble Ecume as musical director of their new tango-operita, “Tango du Couteau” in Montpellier, France and directed The Tango Group, with the composer and pianist Roger Davidson, producing “Amor por el Tango” for the Soundbrush Records label. In the 1990’s he was the founder and co-director of New York Buenos Aires Connection and New York Tango Trio with bandoneonist Raul Jaurena, with whom he produced several CDs and toured throughout the world. (Jon Pareles wrote in the NY Times, April 1993: “With Aslan… the modern tango showed life after Astor Piazzolla”)

An active educator and lecturer, Pablo has been a featured artist of the Lincoln Center Institute since 1998 bringing tango performances to hundreds of children and educators in the New York area. He has conducted music workshops at several universities throughout the US, and was Coca Cola Artist in Residence at Emory University in 2008.