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Last Show: Tuesday 5 ^th September 2023

PizzaExpress Jazz Club (Soho)

PizzaExpress Live in partnership with the Hampstead Jazz Club proudly present Tango Jazz Quartet a wonderful and creative collision of Argentinian Tango and Jazz roots. With 10 albums released 26 international tours made, including 6 consecutive years in UK, the band performed in the most prestigious jazz clubs and festivals in Europe, USA, China, Russia, South America and Africa. “Synphonic Piazzolla” was a project, premiered in 2021 together with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Nis Serbia and a version for chamber orchestra was presented on its 2022 tour together with the Belgrade Chamber Youth Orchestra at the Guarnerius Institut in Belgrade, Serbia. This year the group returns to PizzaExpress with a new repertoire that explores a good part of traditional tango, especially the work of the great legend of Tango, the great singer and composer Carlos Gardel.

“Tango Jazz Quartet, from Argentina. A foursome that demonstrates how tango and its variants support a music culture more than they offer just an excuse to take the floor with risqué intent, the TJQ tour the world like missionaries”.

By Nigel Jarret. Wales Arts, Review

This showcase is a unique musical fusion of Tango and Jazz, a fascinating journey from the origins of traditional Tango to the innovative proposals of Astor Piazzolla's music.

Tango Jazz Quartet magically captures the harmonies and the improvisation of jazz to blend them with the melodies and rhythms of tango. The striking contrast between the vibrant and playful "milongas", the romantic "tango-waltzes" and the electrifying music of Piazzzola will not leave anyone in the audience indifferent.

The band has also worked in the production of musical films: it has produced the documentary "Tango Meets Jazz" premiered at the 2020 Black Mountin Jazz Festival in Wales and the film "Centenary of Music & composer Astor Piazzola" together to Welsh violinist Xenia Porteus premiered at the 2021 Brecon Jazz Festival in Wales.

Saxophonist and clarinetist Gustavo Firmenich, leader of TJQ recreated with this band the dancing evenings that were common in the golden era of the tango in Buenos Aires, where Tango and Jazz lived together although playing separately.

Founded in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2009 and after more than 13 years of uninterrupted tours, Tango Jazz Quartet has consolidated its presence in the music scene of most places in the world.

Declared since 2012 "Musical Group of Cultural Interest" by the Argentine Foreign Ministry last year Tango Jazz Quartet was awarded the "Ambassadors of Tango" diploma by the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires.

Band Line Up

Martín Rao de Vita (bass)

Santiago Villalba (piano)

Ezquiel Vargas (drums)

Gustavo Firmenich (tenor sax & clarinet)