Rubén Blades records new album that includes music by Elvis

[sweetest punch]

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Interview: Rubén Blades Takes Time To ‘Tango’

When Rubén Blades was growing up in Panama, tango was all around him, but he confesses that he never paid attention to it. His parents were fans of the music that originated more than a century ago in the dockside clubs of Argentina’s seaport capital of Buenos Aires.

“Like every other teenager in the 1960s who was listening to the radio, I was into rock ‘n’ roll. I didn’t have time for tango, which seemed too dramatic, even operatic,” he recalls.

Today, the poet, vocalist, composer, actor (Safe House, Mo’ Better Blues) and sometimes Panamanian politico has made time for tango, devoting his latest album to the music. Titled simply Tangos (Sunnyside Records) the just-released album rearranges eleven popular compositions from Blades’ extensive songbook into the classical, rhapsodic structure of tango.

Best known for his salsa music – Siembra (1978) is considered one of the most popular salsa albums of all time – and then later merengue, Blades has won five Grammys over his 50+ year career, the latest I 2004 for Across 100th Street (best salsa/merengue album).

Blades’ growing interest in tango music led him to reach out to his long-time friend and collaborator Carlos Franzetti. Both were intimately involved in the New York Latin jazz and salsa scenes of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and they befriended each other while working on a number of recordings, including the massive releases of Siembra (1978) and Maestra Vida (1980) and the music for the films Beat Street (1984) and Q&A (1990).

The initial idea for a collaboration using tango material was proposed nearly a decade ago but plans were delayed while Blades served as the Minister of Tourism for his native Panama from 2004 to 2009. An invitation for Blades and Franzetti to close the World Tango Festival in Buenos Aires during the summer of 2010 was the spark that was pushed the project forward.

Franzetti began by arranging five of Blades’ compositions for their performance: “Pablo Pueblo,” “Ligia Elena,” “Ella,” “Paula C” and “Pedro Navaja.” At the festival, Blades and Franzetti were accompanied by the legendary Leopoldo Federico Orchestra, which also recorded the pieces shortly thereafter. Once they returned to New York, Blades and Franzetti worked on arranging another six compositions, which were recorded with a tango quintet, with the strings and woodwinds recorded later in Prague.

I caught up with Blades for a brief chat about tango, and Tango, before his live concert at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl last night, accompanied no less by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under the director of maestro Gustavo Dudamel.

Monsters and Critics: For an artist celebrated for his spicy salsa and merengue music, tango is quite a departure. So, why tango?

Rubén Blades: The music resonates in a very special way on an emotional level. It has to do with the music’s extensive use of the minor keys. It’s at once nostalgic and timeless, evocative of personal hardships, heartbreak, emotional longing, love lost. It really took Carlos [Franzetti] to point out to me that I’ve always been interested in these themes – lyrically. And that completely surprised me. In that sense, I’ve always been a fan of tango, or at least since I began my professional musical career. I just didn’t realize it.

M&C: What was the biggest challenge in envisioning your songs through the filter of tango?

Rubén Blades: Like salsa and merengue, and unlike, say, fado, tango is dancing music. That was its purpose, “contact” music. But like fado, it’s incredibly powerful. So I had to be careful not to exaggerate the emotional aspect of the arrangement. With tango you want to capture the longing inherent in the music, and lyrics, but rise above the darkness so that you’re not sent to a bathtub with a razor.

M&C: There’s this popular notion of tango being very urbane, with men dancing in tuxes and women in gowns, to an orchestral music in a posh nightclub. Myth or reality?

Rubén Blades: Tango probably originating with Afro-Cuban street music. It was reimagined through the European and particularly Italian roots of Argentines. The Cuban rhythms were gentrified and new instruments were added to the mix, like strings, woodwinds and especially the accordion, a particular favorite of Italians. That’s when it went from being urban to urbane.

M&C: What’s next?

Rubén Blades: In the acting department, I have a new movie, “Hands of Stone,” coming out later this year with Robert De Niro, Usher and Ellen Barkin about the life of world champion boxer Roberto Duran. In November I play a three-night gig at Lincoln Center in New York with Wynton Marsalis’ jazz orchestra. And then our world tour begins next year. And, oh, yes, I’m beginning to work on a new rock album that will include music by Lou Reed and Elvis Costello.