World Music Album Reviews

Zigatango : Zigatango

As someone who was introduced to the music of Astor Piazzolla and Tango 10 years ago when I was told in no uncertain terms "from now on you'll be playing Accordion in the Tango band I'm putting together", it was great to hear the Western Australian group Zigatango doing justice to several of his pieces.

They comprise of Geoffry Pearce - Violin, Siobhan Finn - Viola, Richard Watson - Accordion and Justin Story - Guitar.

Their album opens with the iconic Vuelvo al Sur (Return to the South) by Piazolla and is followed by Gardel's famous Por una Cabeza which was made famous in the movie Scent of a Woman (amongst others).

Not content with playing fiery and passionate Tangos, Zigatango venture in Gypsy territory with The Lark and Two Guitars as well as folk music with the beautiful Ashokan Farewell which was the theme music for The American Civil War documentary series.

The CD finishes with the famous La Cumparsita by Rodriguez - a fitting, fiery piece with which to complete an excellent album.

For young Australians who are a long way from South America and Eastern Europe, they have a passion and energy which is great to see and capture the emotion of the pieces they've chosen to record.

I enjoyed this album and it took me back to the days when I played some of these pieces myself in Tango Duende.

Those of you who live in Western Australia can catch them live, but for those of you who live overseas, you can catch them on Youtube by watching the clip below which is from their CD launch (and includes a guest Double Bass player).

> Find out more about Zigatango and listen to some sample tracks on their website