“Tango Paradiso stretches boundaries of the genre.”
Rating: 4 stars
Vancouver isn't known as a hotbed for tango, so it's remarkable that West Coast quartet Tango Paradiso has been together a decade. The members --bandoneon player Douglas Schmidt, pianist Amanda Chan, violist Henry Lee and bassist Mark Haney (who plays on just two tracks of Passion, with Leanna Wong providing bass on the other 13) -- stretch the boundaries of the genre.
This isn't your Uncle Juan's tango. For example, Astor Piazzolla's Milonga del Angel is performed as a moody and dark tone poem, and Winter, one of four songs named after seasons (composed by Doug Schmidt), features a descending string, bass and piano figure that make the number sound like something from the soundtrack of a suspense movie. Spring, another seasonal tune, has a staccato rhythm meant for fit dancers.
The musicianship here is first-rate, and the arrangements delightfully unpredictable.
~ Marke Andrews (Vancouver Sun, November 2007)
Tango Paradiso's music video "Tangere" [BRAVO] premiered to critical acclaim at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival and the group's first album "Tango Paradiso" was nominated for a West Coast Music Award. Post Nuevo, their next CD release (SRI Records) featured original music with string orchestra that Tango Paradiso describes as "post nuevo" with a nod to the late great Astor Piazzolla's Nuevo Tango. They mix influences from Tango, Jazz, contemporary serious music and hints of many other styles into a potent blend that has been described as "devastatingly emotional" ~ (Exclaim Magazine)
"Tango Paradiso…strips away the layers of time to recapture the original drama and danger of the tango…creating new steps for the dance in the post modern world…and with the addition of many fine original compositions… are changing the idiom of this music, forging new possibilities that Astor Piazzolla may never have imagined." ~ Calcopyrite World Beat News
"Captures the drama of the musical form that began in bordellos and bars
outside of Buenes Aires" ~ Vancouver Courier
"There was a charge of electricity in the air" ~ Windsor Star
"Heartfelt and dynamic take on the tango" ~ Vancouver Courier
"Fine original compositions" ~ Downbeat Magazine
"Unusual and entertaining" ~ Times Colonist
"Expect the unexpected…" ~ Vancouver Sun
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