Camarada’s ‘Tango Society’ a tribute to a friend

By Beth Wood, San Diego Union-Tribune

Given the difficult circumstances, Camarada’s upcoming “Tango Society” concert can already be considered a triumph. The coronavirus pandemic not only forced several postponements of the concert, but it also caused the cancellation of Camarada’s 2020 South American tour and took the life of the Uruguayan musician, Raul Jaurena, who helped conceive both. “Tango Society” will be performed Friday at La Jolla Music Society’s Baker-Baum Concert Hall, where Jaurena played with Camarada in February 2020. A virtuoso of the accordion-like bandoneon, he died last January at 79.

“Losing Raul was a shock,” said Beth Ross Buckley, Camarada’s artistic director . “He was older but so energetic and agile. We talked on the phone while he was sick, until he was unable to talk. Then we texted. It was hard to let it go.” Bassist/composer Andrés Martín, a native of Buenos Aires and longtime Tijuana resident, performed in Camarada’s pre-pandemic tango series and will play at the upcoming “Tango Society” concert. “It was the greatest honor to work with Raul last year,” Martín, 40, said. “He was a master. When I saw him, he was so full of energy that I thought: `I want to be like him.’ He was fearless, full of passion and determination. I was very worried when he got sick and couldn’t believe he was gone.”

Among Martín’s many musical endeavors in Tijuana was leading a tango group for 15 years, which was a bit unusual since tango ensembles are more commonly led by a bandoneon player. The bassist was able to help revamp Jaurena’s original program for “Tango Society.”

Friday’s concert will cover a variety of tango favorites, including Jaurena’s “A Miguel Angel,” as well as newly arranged selections and original compositions by Martín. It will also feature dancers Juan Alessandrini and Carolina Jaurena. Carolina, who is Raul’s daughter, and her partner performed at the 2020 concert.

Martín was recruited by Orquesta de Baja California 19 years ago. He has juggled his bass playing there with touring the world as a soloist, chamber musician, conductor and professor. He helped establish Contrabajos de Baja California, a nonprofit that encourages bass-playing among children, youth and adults in the region. A sought-after composer, Martín lost many concerts and commissions because of the pandemic. By the end of 2020, work began to return; he now has a one-year waiting list for commissions. He credits the return of work partly to a piece Camarada commissioned shortly after things shut down. He composed it for Camarada co-founder Buckley, a flutist, and her husband David, a violinist, who could practice together during the pandemic. At her request, the composer added a bass part so it could be played later as a trio.

“At the worst possible moment, people still wanted to invest in art,” Martín said. “This was medicine. I felt I was on fire for this. I felt like I was unstoppable. If we are working together, we are unstoppable. That became a kind of a mantra for us.”

The Buckleys performed “Unstoppable” online for various audiences. Last March, they played the piece here with Martín for a socially distanced audience at Bread & Salt. That concert is now available on YouTube. Beth Ross Buckley agreed the title is inspirational. “Through those months,” she said, “I would say ‘unstoppable’ to myself — that I have to live up to that. It helped me keep going. Andrés and I were on the same page. This pandemic wasn’t going to stop us from making music.”

Buckley is delighted Camarada will perform “Tango Society” for a live audience Friday. She, her husband, and Martín will be joined by pianist Dana Burnett and the two dancers. Her affection for tango goes back more than 20 years. Buckley fell in love with it when she first played a piece by Argentinian nuevo-tango innovator Astor Piazzolla. She’s now taking an online course, “So You Think You Know Tango.”

Has Buckley learned anything new?

“So many things — even in the first two weeks!” she replied. “For example, I wasn’t aware of the fusion the tango genre represents,” she said. “It began with immigrants in the Rio de la Plata (at the border of Uruguay and Argentina). It came from Italian bel canto, African rhythms and European instruments fusing in with milonga, the local music. It all came from playing in the street.”

Buckley chuckled when recalling Jaurena’s constant reminders that tango originated in both Uruguay and Argentina. Camarada created a tribute video to him shortly after his passing.

The concert will feature at least five Piazzolla pieces, including two Martín has arranged for “Tango Society.” Martín likens tango to jazz because both have many sub-genres. “We wanted to remember Raul,” Buckley said. “And Andrés’ ‘Tristeza’ is so great, I might even call it the new ‘Oblivion,’ a Piazzolla classic. It’s peeking into the future of tango.”

Wood is a freelance writer.