By José Gandue @Gandour
We've all imagined that cinematic moment in one of those jazz bars shown in some movies about New York, Chicago or Paris, These types of establishments, with their perpetually dim lighting and the irregular sounds of glasses and cups echoing throughout the room, where a long grand piano resides and the one who plays it has the eternal face of nocturnal resignation for always breathing the air of nostalgia, a nostalgia that breaks when the female voice prevails and makes everyone present (This is always the case in the films I'm talking about) Take your eyes out of her liquid poison and alight upon her, Wishing that their lives regain the will to continue walking on the face of the earth. It's possible that few in real life have experienced such scenes, but I'm sure more than one will feel something similar as soon as they hear the Argentinians. Cande and Paulo and the twelve songs from his new album.
They come from the quiet, border city of San Juan, a city surrounded by desert landscapes and wine aromas. Cande Buasso, vocals and double bass, and Paulo Carrizo, keyboards, They have been enjoying their growing fame for three years now, ever since they released the video of their interpretation of the original song by Luis Alberto Spinetta, Mud perhaps, filmed in the beautiful Bicentennial Theater of his city, a clip that, so far, It has twelve million views. I have no proof of it, but I'm sure that more than one music executive, upon seeing them in that simple audiovisual piece, understood that the world was also looking for this type of emotion., that happy recovery of jazz as a possible mass phenomenon, that genre which in recent times has been presented as an exclusive manifestation for an intellectual and boring population that no longer counts in the commercial charts.
Cande and Paulo (yes, that's the name of the album, no further explanation) It is a compilation of simple songs recorded without the need for exaggerated production, Because they possess, from their very essence, the essential elements to hold the audience's attention; it's all there: a sensual voice that envelops any unsuspecting listener, the long strings of their instrument splendidly controlling the rhythm, and a piano that precisely encapsulates the essence that pervades the entire ensemble. Of course, there are obligatory references from the past, but what this pair of artists proposes and achieves is to successfully represent the present., to mark in their own way the times we live in, this 21st century that we have always associated with electronic sounds, but still has the opportunity to feel that natural and fresh without his expression sounding stiff or gripped by old melancholy.
This is a bilingual album, where, for example, we can hear a curious and very active version of Summertime (the memorable composition by George Gershwin), perhaps one of the most experimental moments of the production, since we can observe variations in speed and vocal mixing. In contrast, below is its soothing theme Limit your love, where we return, if you will, to that cinematic scene I quoted at the beginning of the note, That dimly lit room, smelling of whiskey, where the audience sighs for the singer and enjoys her presence for three minutes. Another magical moment is the cover they perform of I fall in love too easily, Chet Baker's song, accompanied by precise acoustic guitar, allows Cande to achieve a more playful, mischievous moment—an excellent version. Her tribute to Neil Young and his song are also unforgettable. Sugar Mountain, A slightly faster interpretation than the original, but respecting the initial folk texture. Anyway, to avoid going into too much detail about each track, We can say that this is a brilliant set of recordings that, from the moment they were conceived as a project, were destined to thrill and shake the planet in their own way.
Cande and Paulo are already preparing for their performance at the renowned Montreux Jazz Festival on July 14th and 15th, where they will surely receive all the applause they deserve and more. It must be said clearly: We invite you to listen to this magnificent album, which arrives just in time to cleanse the spirit of more than one unfortunate soul of the era.