Fri Sep 26
Tango Jazz master bassist Pablo Aslan with his new Argentine quartet play standard tango and original compositions.
Argentine-born musician and producer Pablo Aslan (@avantango) is recognized internationally as one of the leading figures in contemporary tango. He performs as leader of his own ensembles and with a variety of artists and groups based in the US and Argentina. His most recent recording is Divina on his own Avantango Records label, released in May 2023 and recorded in Buenos Aires. Recent performances include guest artist with the Texas Tech Tango Orchestra, "Piazzollazo" at the Ori-Gen Festival in NYC, and performances in Buenos Aires with his trio, and with local artists such as Tanghetto, Analia Goldberg, Tangology, and Señor Tango.
His discography includes Piazzolla in Brooklyn (2011), and Tango Grill (2009). The latter earned him nominations for a Latin Grammy and a Grammy awards. The album Contrabajo (2018) features him as a bass soloist accompanied by a string quartet in an eclectic and personal mix of Latin American music.
Jazziz magazine proclaimed “We’re in a golden age of jazz-tango fusion, and bassist Pablo Aslan is one of the main reasons. His pulsing lines are the heartbeat of a new music.”
"With Mr. Aslan's Tango Afuera, modern tango showed life after Astor Piazzolla" Jon Pareles, NY Times
Aslan has worked with many world-class artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Shakira, Lalo Schifrin, Arturo O’Farrill, Paquito D’Rivera, Osvaldo Golijov, Pablo Ziegler, David Krakauer, the New World Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was Music Director of Paquito D’Rivera’s Tango Jazz Ensemble, recording a CD "Live at Jazz @ Lincoln Cener" and performing in the US and Europe. He performs regularly in the International Tango and Jazz Festivals in his native Buenos Aires. He headlined at Jazz@Lincoln Center and Town Hall in NYC, and toured the world with his own ensembles, and as guest artist and sideman.
In the 1990s Aslan and Uruguayan bandoneonist Raul Jaurena forged a musical partnership that performed and recorded on many recordings and stages around the world including the Tango Summits in Granada (Spain) and Montevideo (Uruguay), and Lincoln Center. Aslan received the 2007 Latin Grammy for Jaurena's album Te Amo Tango for his work as producer and mixing engineer.
He has also produced over two dozen albums, and recorded as a sideman and guest artist on several more. In the last few years, Aslan worked on albums by Frank London’s Glass House Orchestra, pianist Brian Marsella, and composer Emilio Solla’s Tango Jazz Orchestra, among others.In 2016, he founded Avantango Records, a label dedicated to tango music that received its first Latin Grammy award for Emilio Solla and The Tango Jazz Orchestra’s “Puertos” in 2019. In 2021 the label received a Latin Grammy for Best Tango Album for “Tinto Tango Plays Piazzolla” by the Los Angeles based quintet Tinto Tango, and in 2022 a nomination for Best Tango Album for "Alma Vieja" by the San Francisco based Tangueros del Oeste.
He is an active researcher and educator, and has produced programs for Lincoln Center Institute, Carnegie Hall, and Arts Connection. Most recently he was hired by the University of California, Santa Barbara for work at the Edouard Pecourt Tango Collection, under a grant from the Latin Grammy Foundation Preservation award. He has spoken at several universities throughout the United States, including Harvard, Yale, and UCLA and was Artist-in-Residence at Emory University. He served as Artistic Director of the Reed Tango Music Institute and was Featured Artist at the Indiana University Tangueros Conference.
Co-Presented with the Embassy of Argentina