An Invitation to Tango from Berta Rojas

by Blair Jackson

In a pair of recently produced videos, the great Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas gives us a glimpse of her wonderful new album Historia Del Tango (ON Music Recordings). For this project, Rojas teamed up with the world-famous Argentinian chamber orchestra Camerata Bariloche—directed by Freddy Varela Montero and conducted/produced by Popi Spatocco—and arranger Carlos Franzetti to create a beautifully lush and emotional disc of pieces by Argentine composers/songwriters, including tango legends Ástor Piazzolla (his four-part Histoire du Tango and “Oblivion”), Carlos Gardel, Mariano Mores, and several others. Former Piazzolla associate Néstor Marconi contributes some marvelously atmospheric bandoneon work. The album is available for purchase through iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon, and other outlets.

The first video features the milonga that kicks off the Historia del Tango CD, “Taquito Militar” by Mariano Mores:

And the other “official” video released so far is a more general making-of mini-documentary about the album: