Otra Biaba, the tango duo from Bariloche formed by Roberto Menant on vocals and Juan Cruz López Valiente on guitar, is ready for another biaba, a very special one indeed: this Friday, at 8pm, they will perform at the Teatro de la Usina del Sarmiento Civic Center-Library.
Tickets, $5000 for general admission and $4500 for members of the Sarmiento Library, can be purchased at the box office and online at eventbrite.com.ar.
It will be a very special night to celebrate an intense journey of almost two years that will close with an album. In turn, that album will be the key that opens the doors of what is to come.
“It will be a tango show, but with the characteristic that Otra Biaba has,” says Juan Cruz, in an interview with RÍO NEGRO Diary. “We are going to make a guitar and voice duo, we will go through traditional tangos until we reach Piazzolla and we are going to make our adaptations of rock and cumbia to tango.”
“It’s going to be an incredible date for us,” the guitarist enthuses and it’s no wonder: “We’re going to play with all our friends, with whom we’ve been sharing all this time and for everything we’re doing, it’s going to be “More like a celebration than anything else.”
Among the guests will be Sergio González, who is a well-known tango singer in the city, who is also an announcer; Matías Herrero, the mutual friend they both had and who, without knowing it at the time, made Otra Biaba possible to exist. With him they will sing some national rock songs. The murga Clu Social Murga Canción will also be part of the group, with whom they will share candombes in a tango key; Juan Cisterna, a popular local guitarist with whom they will do some milongas, and the dancers Sebas Paredes and Abril to unleash those milongas on the dance floor. In short, Juan Cruz summarizes: “The same thing that happens in Otra Biaba’s shows is going to happen, but in a theatrical stage posture.”
Another Biaba, from Saturday to Tuesday
The origin of Otra Biaba has a name: Matías Herrero, a common friend of Juan Cruz, who, both from Bariloche, had each other, but did not know each other. That would happen on a Saturday night about a year and a half ago. Juan Cruz went to see a Clu Social Murga Canción show, of which Matías and Roberto were part. Juan Cruz shared a rock band with Matías.
At the end of the show, Matías introduced them: “My friend is a guitarist,” he told Roberto. “What do you play?” Roberto asked him. “I’m playing with Matías, but I like tango, I’m a tango player,” Juan Cruz responded. It turned out that Roberto was a tango singer, although at that time he gave his voice to a murga. “We have to get together.”
They immediately knew that they both liked tango, that they wanted to have a tango project and that neither of them had one. They agreed to meet the following Tuesday. And although everything arose between beers, Roberto and Juan Cruz met that Tuesday, exchanged tangos, hit it off and moved forward.
“We both already had a lot of experience in tango, I knew many tangos from having accompanied many singers. So, it was simply telling each other what type of tangos each of us liked and what we wanted to play. One of the first was Orange Tree in Bloom, and he came out. He came out like that. I don’t like very old, Gardelian tango. And I’m much more of a fan of Troilo. We agreed on the Polaco Goyeneche and that’s how we moved forward. Then we did Balada para un loco, which is very difficult and also came out. That day there were five tangos and we got along really well. Since then we have been meeting twice a week for a year and a half. We became friends, that’s how Otra Biaba came about. It started as a talk in a bar and now it has transformed into a super serious tango project… appropriately (laughs),” Juan Cruz recalls.
“Once we found Otra Biaba’s own style, we began to make everything from tangos by Gardel to Piazzolla and even adaptations of national rock such as Tumbas de la Gloria, by Fito Páez, or No soy bien strange, by Charly García, which we do in tango version,” explains the guitarist. “We changed the key and started playing with it and ended up making a monster called Otra Biaba.”
Another Biaba, reasons to celebrate
Although it is not finished yet, Friday night will also be a celebration of the album, which will be presented later, but which will have its preview at La Biblio. “We haven’t finished it yet, but we are going to play all the songs we are recording. The idea is to have a formal presentation of the album towards the end of the year.”
So far, the album consists of ten tangos arranged by the duo, they are classic tangos, but also the national rock adaptations to the tango that characterizes them, such as “Tumbas de la Gloria” and “Giros”, by Fito Páez; or “I am not a stranger”, by Charly García.
“We are still in the recording period and we are seeing if we change any or incorporate another. For now there are ten songs, but there could be eleven or maybe we’ll release one and there will be nine left, we’ll see. We did it the old-fashioned way, we went to a studio and recorded live, we listened to it, we improved the arrangements, we are in the process of inviting people,” reveals Juan Cruz.
The musician returns to what will happen at La Biblio: “This weekend’s date is a celebratory date, but it is also a new beginning for the future.” The duo visited all the possible places, they were even part of the National Snow Festival, but, as Juan Cruz says, “what we were missing was this, to make the library.”
“We are from here. Although we went to study, we both came back. We are from Bariloche and for us the date of the library is not just another date,” she remarks. “It is an emblematic place in Bariloche, for us it is our little Luna Park. It is not the largest stage, but it is the most emblematic because of what the space in general means, beyond the number of people. And for us it is a milestone in the life of Otra Biaba. “It’s going to be a before and after.”
Having said all this, why Otra Biaba? This is how Juan Cruz explains such a particular name: “When we started playing we didn’t have a name, we had about 25 tangos arranged, we had dates scheduled but we didn’t have a name. And we didn’t want to call the duo by our names as is usually the case with duos. So, we started thinking about a name and what characterizes us. And what characterizes us is that we have a style that is very strong. We started playing with lunfardo words and thinking that we are a small group that does a lot of things, because of the way I arrange the songs and the way Roberto sings them. We are like a tango power trio (laughs) And a biaba is a beating in lunfardo tango. It’s a very tango term to have fun. Since our proposal is not simply to go, sit and listen, but it is more corporal, it makes you want to stand up and dance, you feel it: it is a biaba.
