Opa - Goldenwings / Magic Time (1976-77)

«Hugo Fattoruso, born in Montevideo, Uruguay, began his musical career as a prodigious and somewhat reluctant piano student at the age of four. By the time he was nine his father Antonio formed El Trio Fattoruso by drafting Hugo’s younger brother Jorge on drums, with Hugo on accordion and Antonio on "inverted bucket bass" (using a broom as the neck, and a cord as the instrument’s single string). This trio performed in street festivals, covering the variety of styles used in Uruguay’s carnivals (boleros, murgas, tangos, etc.), giving Hugo an education in the rich harmonic stuff of disparate musical styles.
At the age of 16 Hugo moved to the upright bass and began his tenure as the under-aged member of The Hot Blowers, a swing band that toured throughout Latin America in the late 1950s. This period could be seen as a second important milestone in Hugo’s harmonic education, hammering home the concepts of improvisation and musical interplay.
By the early 1960s, rock’n’roll began to shake the world’s foundation, and Hugo set out to express himself in that medium by forming Los Shakers, where he and his brother shared song writing, singing and guitar responsibilities. Los Shakers were a huge success throughout Latin America, as they were able to mold the complexities of bossa’s harmonies, Uruguay’s urban song style, candombe rhythms and the backbeat of rock into a new and contagious form.
By the late 1960s the influence of jazz, and of the Afro-Uruguayan rhythm of candombe, took Hugo to New York City, where he formed the group Opa. In Opa Hugo played keyboards and sang, while his brother played drums, and childhood friend Ringo Thielmann played bass. Opa’s mixture of jazz, rock, Brazilian harmonies and rhythms, and Uruguay’s African-flavored music (candombe) gave this band a distinctive voice, and garnered them recognition among musicians in the then growing "Latin jazz" scene. Opa released two albums on their own, Goldenwings and Magic Time. Opa’s music served to influence the next generation of Uruguayan musicians, continuing the Fattoruso’s impact on Uruguayan musical culture. From that point on Hugo travelled the U.S. and worked with a variety of artists.» (bigworldmusic)

Osvaldo Fattoruso and Blbs drinking mate.

«In 1997, it came as a quite a surprise when Fantasy reissued Opa’s albums Goldenwings (1976) and Magic Time (1977) on a single 74-minute CD – surprising because this fusion trio had only a very small following; its albums were far from big sellers, and the original LP versions were in print for only a few years. If one notices some similarity between the melodic blend of jazz, rock, funk, pop and Brazilian music heard on this disc and Airto Moreira’s CTI dates of the 1970s, it’s no coincidence – Moreira produced and played percussion on both albums. Opa members Hugh Fattoruso (keyboards, vocals), George Fattoruso (drums, vocals, percussion) and Ringo Thielmann (bass, vocals) often worked with the percussionist and his wife Flora Purim in the 1970s, and his influence clearly rubbed off. It’s regrettable that Opa was never as commercially successful as either Moreira or Purim, although this CD points to the fact that it wasn’t due to a lack of rewarding material». (AMG)

Many thanx to Blbs (see pic) for this post.

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La Tabaré - Chapa, Pintura, Lifting (2006)

«Chapa, pintura y lifting: eso hizo Rivero y compañía a sus creaciones desde 1987 a 2002. Como toda cirugía, algunas parecen necesarias, otras ayudan un poco y hay las que pasan inadvertidas. Además de estas 10 intervenciones “mecanicoquirúrgicas”, La Tabaré, creó dos temas nuevos y versionó un tema de Sumo y otro de Viglietti.

El disco arranca con “Kafkarudo”, un éxito a primera vista – evítese la palabra hit para no ofender al autor –, acompañado de pinceladas ricoteras y percutido con los redoblantes por segundo necesarios para advertirle el error a todos los que pensamos que el milongón era el ocaso rockanrolero de Rivero. Después llega una versión extraordinaria de “El Tacho”, del primer disco de la banda, que deja de sonar a café concert para sumarse a un sonido pop que acompaña a casi todas las canciones del disco. Arreglos melódicos de viola, golpes de batería más cercanos y toque de energía rítmica aparecen recurrentemente en temas como “Zona de combate”, o “El Romancero” que pierden su tristeza original pero que la recuerdan perfectamente.

A medida que pasan los años, los cambios son menores y los temas más recientes como “Flan del rock”, “Ojalá” o “Enemistad” no parecen tener demasiadas diferencias con los originales, excepto por algunas variaciones en la melodía de la voz.
La quinta pista la ocupa la versión del tema de Sumo “Crua Chan”, ideal para programarla a las seis am y salir a la calle a destruir objetos y sujetos que defiendan intereses incompatibles con los propios. El otro cover del disco es “Gurisito” de Daniel Viglietti, que parece haber sido hecho con la misma máquina que la versión de “El Chueco Maciel”, incluida en Placeres del Sadomusiquismo. Otro tema nuevo es “BSDM”, una caricatura musical que habla de las propiedades destructivas del amor, que bien podría estar en un disco de Leo Masliah. Rivero se despide con “Epitafio”, versión que corre a velocidad de doblebombo y termina con frases fúnebres que siembran a cuatro vientos la mejor forma de morir.

Más allá de gustos y disgustos, estamos ante la reinterpretación de una obra larga, sufrida y celebrada. Algo brutalmente lejos de una mera recopilación porque goza de reivindicación, porque importa el cómo pero también el qué. Rivero vuelve a cantar “Las raíces desteñidas”, “Contracrisis”, “Excepto a veces” y salvo por pequeñas actualizaciones semánticas, cualquiera que lo escuche verá que el cantautor, en su flanofobia, sigue siendo rock and roll.» (Montevideo.com)

Many thanx/muchas gracias a Jimena desde Uruguay (y también a La Tabaré) por ese “post”.

Official site: http://www.latabare.com.uy/. Click here for La Tabaré’s MySpace site.

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