Tango star will perform

Sun Journal, Tango star will perform >>

Sandra Luna, a 2004 Grammy nominee in the Best Traditional World Music album category, is at the forefront of the revival of tango-cancion (sung tango). She will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24, at the Center for Cultural Exchange. Her repertoire features re-energized versions of tango classics, along with new tango compositions that tell the tale- of contemporary life in Buenos Aires.

Tango, known to be provocative and flashy, was born in the early 1900s in the bars and brothels of Buenos Ai res, where men outnumbered women by 100,000. The passion of music and dance has rarely been more indicative of a social climate than that of Argentina's tango. In recent years, a few women have flipped the traditional gender roles of tango, putting a strong female voice at the fore of the style. "With her strong personably modern voice, she (Luna) redefines the genre and makes a marked gender shift," wrote Jan Fairly in a recent issue of the United Kingdom's Songlines magazine. 02/19/05

Reader, Review

The world recognizes a lineage of tango instrumentalists, from Juan D'Arienzo through Astor Piazzolia, to Juan-Jose Mosalini, but the best-known tango singer outside Argentina remains Carlos Garde, who died in 1935. Sandra Luna is poised to change that: her album Tango varon (Times Square) earned a Grammy nomination last year, and its title alone ("male tango") indicates that she's not content to merely preserve the tradition. Her singing can be throaty and dramatic as well as diminutive and lyric, and she nails a combination of classics and new compositions both traditional and progressive a la Piazzolla - backed by bandoneon, guitar, and well-deployed orchestral swells.
This gig marks her Chicago debut. 7 PM, HotHouse, 31 E. Baiho. 312-362-9707

-Peter Margasak 02/19/05

Hot Picks

New York Post, Hot Picks >>


To the uninitiated, tango is just a passionate dance, full of dramatic dips and roses clenched between gritted teeth - but nothing could be further from the truth. The tradition of tango canción (sung tango) is the true soul of the genre, and Sandra Luna is one of its most prominent modern voices.

While the world of tango has always been a distinctly masculine one, Luna adds a feminine mystique to a sound that was conceived in the bars and brothels of Argentina at the beginning of the twentieth century.

As an ironic nod to the genre's machismo, she named her debut album "Tango Var¢n" ("Male Tango"). It was nominated for a 2004 "Best Traditional World Music Album" Grammy, but was edged out Sunday night by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

02/16/05

Lahontan Valley News, CD Review >>

Sandra Luna is a young Argentinean vocalist whose album Tango Varon (World Connection/Times Square) has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional World Music Album. Luna's music is rooted in the tango, not the increasingly well-known dance music, but rather tango cancion the vocal love songs (analogous to fado or mornas in other cultures) that are the heart and soul of the tango tradition. Her songs offer portraits-grandparents, dogs, children, life in the streets-of the stuff that bring the senses to life. The CD both invokes the past and looks to the future; from traditional bandeon and string numbers to songs that are highly percussive and have a variety of textures.

-Kirk Robertson 02/12/05 >> go there

Lahontan Valley News & Full on Eagle Standard, Review

Sandra Luna is a young Argentinean vocalist whose album Tango Varon (World Connection/Times Square) has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional World Music Album. Luna's music is rooted in the tango, not the increasingly well-known dance music, but rather tango cancion the vocal love songs (analogous to fado or momas in other cultures) that are the heart and soul of the tango tradition. Her songs offer portraits - grandparents, dogs, children, life in the streets - of the stuff that bring the senses to life. The CD both invokes the past and looks to the future; from traditional bandeon and string numbers to songs that are highly percussive and have a variety of textures. 02/12/05

Grammy Nominee

El Mexicalo, Grammy Nominee >>

In describing the music that she passionately loves and performs daily, Argentinian singer Sandra Luna quotes the famous lyrics of tango composer Horacio Ferrer; "Cinders that burn again and again ... tango is like life, and has to evolve."

As you read this, Luna has been nominated for a Grammy for the Best Traditional World Music Album and is launching a tour that will bridge her visit to the Grammy ceremony and her show-case at the Folk Alliance/Strictly Mundial conference in Montreal.

On her first international release, "Tango Varon" Times Square Records, Luna turns her ear to the future while keeping one foot firmly in the tango's colorful past. On her Grammy-nominated album she expands tango music, with "Me Llaman Luna," normally associated with dancing, to a broader more expansive song form. Tango Varon features reenergized versions of tango classics from legends like Homero Manzi and Astor Piazzolla, to newly created tango compositions that tell the tale of contemporary life in Buenos Aires.

Bom in the Buenos Aires slaughterhouse district of Mataderos, a neighborhood that first nurtured the rise of tango in the early 1900s, Luna was raised in the new era of modern tango, performing at the tender age of seven in local tango bars like the Boliche de Rotundo and local television and radio shows by age eight. Before her 12th birthday, Luna was already rising tango star in her native Buenos Aires.

"Most people think of tango as a very nostalgic form of music, which in many cases is true, but like life itself, tango is also joy and happiness, a little of everything one encounters in life regard less of a time or era. Tango can be sad, happy, social, or political - simply everything that is happening around you. In the 1970s, the Argentinian government banned many Tango Var6n tangos from the airwaves for their political content, which was feared for its ruthfulness. As a child I remember being told that I couldn't sing certain tangos due to this ban."

When asked why she was inclined to sing tangos as a child over other popular genres of music, she responded: 'Tango chose me as its interpreter in this revitalized era of tango in Argentina. I'm grateful and honored to be a modern spokes woman of this musical movement."

Promoting her first international release Tango Var6n, which debuted on May 25 on Tunes Square Records, Luna visited the North American continent in July, performing on the U.S. east coast, and came out for one night in Los Angeles at the Echo Club, where she delivered a triumphant performance with her trio of musicians. The modest yet enthusiastic audience witnessed a balanced, strong repertoire of traditional tango standards and newly written compositions from L'ana's new CD, including her dieme song "Me Llaman Luna" to the more traditional tango forms of the selections "Que Nadie Sepa Mi Sufrir" and "Carritos Cartoneros." Her accompanying trio is directed by Luna's husband, cellist Daniel Pucci, with Ezequiel Mantega on piano and Daniel Ruggiero on the bandoneon.

Sandra Luna is not afraid to challenge the proud machismo image of traditional tango. Her title track Tango Varon (Male Tango) recalls the origin of "male tango" in Buenos Aires, but her insistent performance injects the track with the unique passion of a confident woman.
02/10/05

Sandra Luna and the Fiery Tango

Latin Beat, Sandra Luna and the Fiery Tango >>


In describing the music that she passionately loves and performs daily, Argentinean singer Sandra Luna quotes the famous lyrics of tango composer Horacio Ferrer: “Cinders that burn again and again…tango is like life, and has to evolve.” Born in Buenos Aires’ slaughterhouse district of Mataderos, a neighborhood that first nurtured the rise of tango in the early 1900s, Luna was raised in the new era of modern tango, performing at the tender age of seven in local tango bars like the Boliche de Rotundo and local television and radio shows by age eight. Before her twelfth birthday, Luna was already a rising tango star in her native Buenos Aires.

“Most people think of tango as a very nostalgic form of music, which in many cases is true, but like life itself, tango is also joy and happiness, a little of everything one encounters in life regardless of a time or era. Tango can be sad, happy, social or political, simply everything that is happening around you. In the 1970s, the Argentinean government banned many tangos from the airwaves for their political content, which was feared for its truthfulness. As a child I remember being told that I couldn’t sing certain tangos due to this ban.”

When asked why she was inclined to sing tangos as a child over other popular genres of music, she responded: “Tango chose me as its interpreter in this revitalized era of tango in Argentina. I’m grateful and honored to be a modern spokeswoman of this musical movement.” Promoting her first international release Tango Varón, which debuted on May 25 on Times Square Records, Luna visited the North American continent in July, performing on the U.S. east coast and came out for one night in Los Angeles at the Echo Club, where she delivered a triumphant performance with her trio of musicians. The modest yet enthusiastic audience witnessed a balanced, strong repertoire of traditional tango standards and newly written compositions from Luna’s new CD, including her theme song Me Llaman Luna to the more traditional tango forms of the selections Que Nadie Sepa Mi Sufrir and Carritos Cartoneros. Her accompanying trio is directed by Luna’s husband, cellist Daniel Pucci, with Exequiel Mantega on piano and Daniel Ruggiero on the bandoneón. Sandra Luna is not afraid to challenge the proud machismo image of traditional tango. Her title track Tango Varón (Male Tango) recalls the origin of the male dominant tango in Buenos Aires but in her hands the track delivers the passion and exuberance of a confident woman.

-Rudy Mangual 09/01/04

Time Out New York

Concert Preview

The Argentine tango-canción sensation makes her U.S. debut in the powerful, passionate songs on her new CD, Tango Varón, (Times Square). Luna has performed in Buenos Aires clubs since she was six years old and clearly has this music in her blood; we wonder if Joe’s Pub will even be able to contain the immensity of her rich, throaty voice.

Joe’s Pub, July 15, 7:30pm, 07/15/04

Concert Preview

Broadway New York, Concert Preview >>

Making her US debut, Sandra Luna updates tango-cancion "spectaculary...with all the strutting no-holds barred emotionalism you'd expect of an old-fashioned Latin Diva." On her international debut - Tango Varon - Luna turns her ear to the future while keeping one foot firmly in the tango's colorful past as she expands the music, normally associated with dancing, to a broader more expansive song form with reworked and reenergized versions of classics from legends like Astor Piazzolla, to newly created compositions that tell the tale of modern life in Buenos Aires. Unafraid to challenge head on the proud, machismo assumption often at the core of tango's image, Luna's insistent performance injects her music with the unique passion of a confident woman.

Thursday, July 15, 2004
Public Theatre/Joe's Pub
425 Lafayette Street

Miami New Times, Concert Pick

Say adiós to any kitsch or retro notions you may have about tango. Sandra Luna, a 38-year-old chanteuse and mother from Buenos Aires, will make sure you never think of this most beloved Argentine art form the same way again. As part of a brief U.S. tour, Luna, accompanied by husband and cellist Daniel Pucci, pianist Exequiel Mantega, and Daniel Ruggiero on the bandoneón (the accordionlike instrument that forever holds the soul of tango), will hit Miami to perform songs from her international debut, Tango Varón (Male Tango).
"To sing tango one must have strength. The strength associated with being a male," says Luna at home in Buenos Aires. "In women, it's the ovaries. In men, the balls. Well, I guess I have both." -- Juan Carlos Pérez-Duthie

07/15/04 >> go there

Plain Dealer, CD Review

On the dance floor, tango is dominated by the macho male who manipulates his partner through steamy moves. Tango songs, like the dance, frequently express male supremacy. But there is a place for women in the passionate music that was born more than 100 years ago in the bars and brothels of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Luna, who grew up performing in tango bars, defies tradition in the title song, which speaks of the birth of male tango. Other lyrics tell violent stories, paint portraits of male characters and mourn for a lost female love. Luna's earthy voice throbs with raw emotion. Her interpretations, like those of a Portuguese fado singer, smolder with intensity. Her accompanying musicians provide a variety of tone colors on bandoneon, piano, guitar, violin, cello and double bass, and they effectively mix tango rhythms with jazz licks. The singer, though named for the moon, is the star of the album. A. 07/04/04

Amazon.com, CD Review

Argentinean diva Sandra Luna breathes life into contemporary tango on her debut international release, Tango Varon, weaving her brand of "Tango Cancion"---"sung" tango as opposed to tango for dancers--- around a mix of classic and contemporary tangos that will delight lovers of the genre. Luna's enormously expressive voice sounds equally at home on classics like "Che Bandoneon" as it does on "Carritos Cartoneros," a new and heartbreaking song about the impoverished cardboard gatherers of Buenos Aires, and the intriguing orchestrations by Daniel Pucci keep the disc varied from beginning to end, as Luna sings with ever-changing accompaniment that ranges from the lush to the starkly beautiful. Astor Piazzolla's "El Gordo Triste" receives an appropriately dramatic soundtrack while others are more spare: "Lejana" features Luna's voice accompanied only by Pucci's cello, while "Duelo Criollo" places her with only guitar. While the traditional touches here are enough to reassure tango purists, it's the moments that veer from the expected that really paint Luna as unique, like the jazz-inflected duet with the piano on "Viejo Gringo" and the delightful Cuban-meets-flamenco flavor of "Me Llaman Luna." That "Tango Luna" bears a visual and sonic resemblance to another Times Square artist, Mariza, is no accident. It has often been said that what fado is to Portugal tango is to Argentina, so it seems only fitting that since lovers of fado have a rising new star to watch in Mariza, so should those enamored of tango have someone in Sandra Luna. --Ezra Gale 07/01/04

All Music.com, CD Review

Far from the cheesy sound of much tango, Sandra Luna introduces real passion and heartbreak into the music, revitalizing a genre that — apart from Astor Piazzolla's new tango — has seemed moribund for too long. It's a bravura vocal display, to be sure, but the support, especially from the string section, with excellent arrangements, frames her perfectly, giving a brave dignity to the music. She's at her best on the slower material such as "Lejana Tierra Mía" or "Duella Criollo" (with its superb guitar accompaniment), where the tango takes on the emotional depth of Portuguese fado and Luna truly shines. She transmits sadness perfectly, in small vocal gestures that go directly to the soul. For the most part she steers clear of the traditional bandoneon (except for the lovely "Ché Bandoneón," where instrument and voice play off each other to wonderful effect) for a fuller sound that suits her well. Luna might just prove to be the figure to propel tango into the new century, and to bring it, reenergized and soulful, into the mainstream of world music. That she's a star is beyond doubt, and in her hands the music sparkles.

07/01/04 >> go there

A Lifetime of Tango: Sandra Luna

Global Rhythm, A Lifetime of Tango: Sandra Luna

“Music and Words, like two fallen in love, flow from the lips of the singer."

"Tango is a feeling that is so clear and pure," said Argentina's Sandra Luna. "If you haven't met it, it will wait for you. But, after you meet it, you'll need it."

Singing with some of the best contemporary artists in the genre, including Edmundo Rivero and Hector Varela, the 38 year-old Buenos Aires-born songstress has been breathing new life into the music of her homeland ever since she began performing at the age of 11.

Luna's recently released solo debut, Tango Varon (World Connection), which translates roughly to "powerful tango" or "male tango," is a pas­sionate amalgam of French chanson, American jazz vocalizing and Argentinean tango influences. Her vocals are crisp and bracing here, but she can also summon up a rough, raspy edge when the material requires it. Luna's versions of such classic tangos as "Ché Bandoneón" and "Canción Desesperada" reveal her as an artist that takes the tango canción artform seriously-and one capable of taking it back to its roots. Other, original material, such as the title track, demonstrates her skill at blending other influences with tradition-rooted tango.


The album's distinct flavor was the product of the dedicated produc­tion team that Luna assembled. Driven by the talents of producer Serge Glanzberg-the son of Norbert Glanzberg, pianist for Edith Piaf, Yves Montand and Charles Trent-Tango Varon echoes with the experience he brought to working with the likes of Manu Dibango, the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, and Mick Jones of the Clash. Working on this project with executive producers Gustavo Pazos and Eric van Santen and sound technician Jorge Da Silva, however, Glanzberg revealed a mas­tery of the tango, inspiring Luna to reach for new heights. "We formed a great team," she said. "We worked very seriously and hard. I think that with the cooperation and professionalism of everybody we made it a success."



It's a success that took a lifetime to shape. Raised in the Buenos Aires stockyard and slaughterhouse district of Mataderos, one of tango's traditional strongholds, Luna remembers being drawn to music early. "My first memory is when I was two," she said, "and I heard the voice of a woman who was playing the piano. She became my first music teacher later on."



Throughout her childhood, Luna sang nearly nonstop. "I sang in church, school and at home," she recalled, "also for those who'd ask me to sing at a certain place or simply on the street, for the people who lived in my neighborhood. Sometimes I would sing in my grandfather's grocery store. There was always a customer asking me to sing."



By the age of seven, Luna yearned to be a professional singer. With her parents' encouragement, she began to haunt the tango clubs of the Argentinean capital. "I asked my parents if I could go to the place where people sang tangos," she remembered. "Of course I didn't go to listen only. I asked the one in charge if I could sing as well. He gave me a serious and surprised look and asked me, 'Tango?"'



As it turned out, Luna chose a good night to make her stage debut. "Members of the Radio Argentina Council were present," she said, "and they booked me to sing on the radio and in all the shows they organized throughout the country. Since that day I haven't stopped working."



Luna's rise to stardom came swiftly. She became a regular weekend performer at Buenos Aires' premier tango club, Boliche de Rotundo, before her twelfth birthday. "It was an important place," she said. "It was some­thing to be proud of if you were booked there, because one of the owners was a well-known tango conductor at the time. It was a wonderful experi­ence. I remember that I sang the tango `Nostalgias' with bandoneonist Pocho Corsaro, who accompanied me."



Around the same time, Luna began performing at La Casa de Carlos Gardel, owned by tango superstar Carlos "El Zoral" Gardel. "I met Sexteto Mayor there," she said. "We worked together Thursdays to Saturdays." Luna continued to attract attention. Among the many that were awed by her singing was Hector Varela, bandoneonist of Juan D'Arienzo's influ­ential 1940s orchestra. When Varela heard her at Boliche de Rotundo, he was so impressed that he quickly invited her to join his group. "It was fan­tastic!" Luna said. "People said that it was the orchestra of the young because it attracted a young audience. Varela was one of the tangueros who sold the most records."



Luna's musical growth was further expanded after meeting tango master Robert Grela, one of the major instrumentalists on Argentinean tel­evision. "He was a great and wise person," she recalled. "He taught me to sing, to say what I felt and that each word has enormous meaning. I learned from him that music and words, like two fallen in love, flow from the lips of the singer. I feel privileged to have known him and to have been accompanied by his guitar. I can only thank him and those many other musical fathers who brought me up and formed me."



With the international release of Tango Varon, Luna is already envi­sioning her next recording. "The next album is slowly being drawn or sketched," she said. "We've been performing some of the new repertoire since the beginning of the year. "But I want to make one thing clear," she makes sure to point out. "Everything you hear from me when I sing is done with real feeling. That is what I gave in Tango Varon and that's what I will give in future albums and all other future work."



Craig Harris, GLOBAL RHYTHM.JULY 2004

Tucson Citizen, CD Pick

The musical history of tango almost exactly parallels that of the blues. There is even the part where back in the 1960s European musicians gave the tango vitality again, just like the Brits did for American blues. Now the tango is in that little lag space just before it becomes even more popular. Helping lead this new wave of dance and sound is Sandra Luna of Buenos Aires.

Luna, born in the city’s “slaughterhouse district” in 1966, has sung her way out of poverty. Now she sings with memories that contain true sadness, but also a belief that tango is capable of expressing so much more. Unlike some CD mixmaster revivals that begin by dubbing traditional songs onto modern beats, Luna depends on her own heart alone. Singing in Spanish, using simple arrangements full of guitar and bandoneon, she stretches tenderness into pain, hope in victory.

There may be regret in her voice from time to time, but there is never any apology. Her strength is her pride. She is the one determined to mold her own life.

While in blues the traditional figure of a saucy, hot mama who don’t take no guff from nobody is a standard, in the world of tango these women also command a higher kind of sensuality. Standing tall, Luna demands satisfaction and insists on results.

Find her CD online at www.fourquartersent.com


-Chuck Graham
06/24/04

BBC, CD Review

Gradually, tango is being revamped from just about every angle. There's no artist with quite the iconoclastic verve of Astor Piazzolla around, but from electronica experiments through to modern ballet, Argentina's urban folk music is strong and strident again.

The best contemporary female vox title has been held for some time by Adriana Varela, a gutsy, tobacco-voiced singer from Palermo in central Buenos Aires. She sprang to fame in the early 90s after learning her trade fast-track with composer and lyricist Enrique Cadícamo and singer Roberto Goyeneche. Now, entering as challenger, comes Sandra Luna, from the same city, but with her roots on the city's margins and with a background of many years performing live - often with giants of the genre such as Edmundo Rivero and Héctor Varela - before making Tango Varon, her international debut.

Luna's got a voice that recalls the classic female singers of the 40s - a crisp, nearly flute-like timbre at times, rather like Nelly Omar (who Luna admires) - though with occasionally raunchier, rougher edges and the range to push the songs into darker corners. Perhaps her liking for French chanson - and especially Edith Piaf - figures here, but whatever the source, Luna's versions of famous tango songs like "Ché Bandoneón", "Lejana Tierra Mía" and "Canción Desesperada", feel modern, felt rather than studied, and very much her own. Her goal is clearly to use tangos as they were born to be used - to tell stories, with a melancholy lilt and bags of passion.

As well as classics that reappear on compilations by scores of famous, dead artists, there are lesser-known and totally new songs here. The title track, by Edgardo Acuna, tells in mythic fashion the story of tango's birth as a 'tango varón' or proud, strutting 'male tango' - though given a strong injection of female passion by Luna. At the other end of the emotional spectrum is "Carritos Cartoneros", a song about the cardboard-gatherers of modern-day, crisis-struck Buenos Aires, who come out at dusk to gather up recyclable rubbish for a few pesos.

Playing live in London as part of the annual jazz festival, Sandra Luna is one of a small number of Argentine artists eager, and evidently able, to lift tango canción (tango song) out of the show-and-spectacle context and show its force as a poetry of longing and lamentation. With its varied moods and Luna's consistently powerful voice, Tango Varón takes its inspiration from the intimate world of cabaret and cafe concert culture and brings another formidable talent onto the global tango stage.

Reviewer: Chris Moss

06/16/04 >> go there

CD review by Ernesto Lechner (New York Post)

New York Post, CD review by Ernesto Lechner >>

TANGO
Aregentine genre based on the sound of the bandoneon--a box-shaped button accordian

Sandra Luna
Tango Varon
(Times Square Records)

The latest by one of the strongest female voices in contemporary tango begins, ironically enough, with an original composition exalting the manly nature of Argentina's quintessential song format. Luna, who has been singing tangos since the age of six, understands the genre's macho idiosyncrasies and makes them her own with a natural brashness that is disarming and invigorating.
06/09/04

Orlando Weekly, CD Review

Since Astor Piazzolla revolutionized tango in the '60s with his "tango nuevo," it's been a challenge to find artists willing to help the music continue to move forward, rather than simply continue paying homage to its past. With the exception of the electronicists in the Gotan Project, most contemporary tango musicians seem content to hew closely to long-obeyed rules. Sandra Luna, thankfully, is not an archivist. On Tango Varòn, she gleefully upends long-held traditions of masculinity and percussive aggression to emerge with an album that's both self-assured and strong while being subtle and evocative. Luna's voice is resonant to the point of being threatening, but the husky romance of her delivery and the sparse instrumental approach of the album makes for an unlikely and wonderful combination of past and future. 05/27/04

Philadelphia Weekly, CD Review

The Spanish phrase tango varón literally means "male tango," so it's somewhat jarring to see it printed on a CD cover next to a photo of the very feminine Sandra Luna. But there's something about the sound of the 38-year-old's tango--stubborn, muscular, deep-voiced--that feels classically masculine. She's a musical tomboy--no ornamental flourishes for this gal. And she's all determination: You can picture her atop a huge horse, galloping across the Pampas. Her passion for the classic tango--which many of her musical countrymen have abandoned as hopelessly retro--invests this collection with conviction. (Think Edith Piaf, but down a few octaves.) Luna's understanding of Argentina's most famous music isn't surprising: Like the tango itself, Luna was born in a poor neighborhood--a slaughterhouse district, in fact--and grew up with the gritty reality of poverty that's always been the tango's greatest inspiration. The collection includes many tango standards, and also introduces new songwriters, whose songs Luna graces with traditional gestures and a contemporary heart. (L.S.) 05/26/04 >> go there

Tango Varon

Albuquerque Journal, Tango Varon >>

The brief bio in the cd booklet says Sandra Luna performed in a tango bar at the ripe age of 11. But the now-mature Buenos Aires singer possesses the kind of clear, full-bodied voice you would prefer to hear in a concert hall.
Luna's tone on this CD (Times Square) is similar to Vikki Carr's. But Luna's hard-driving presentation is focused on tango's deeply nostalgic and romantic qualities.
A wondrous element is the mix of instruments, including the familiar bandoeneon, behind Luna. For example, Daniel Pucci's cello makes her voice radiate on the cut "Lejana Tierra Mia." The next cut, "Me Llaman Luna," departs from the tango, with its jazzy take on an Andrean rhythm with the singer backed by piano, bass and percussion.
A more gritty departure from the tango is the waltz "Que Nadie Sepa Mi Sufrir."
05/14/04