Juan Carlos Cáceres
Encyclopedia
Juan Carlos Cáceres is an Argentinian musician.
Born in the '40s in Buenos Aires, Juan Carlos Cáceres became intimately involved with the existentialist movement that thrived in the city during the years of his youth. Cáceres was an accomplished jazz trombonist by his mid-twenties, and though he studied fine arts at the university rather than music, he quickly became a fixture in the Buenos Aires jazz community. He became a mainstay at the Cueva de Passarato jazz club, which was not only an important musical venue, but a gathering place for revolutionary and existential thinkers. In the late '60s Caceres relocated to Paris, where he engaged in a wide variety of artistic pursuits, including painting, producing, teaching, and above all, playing.
During this period, he became an expert on the music surrounding the Río de la Plata
- styles such as tango
, milonga
, murga
, and candombe
. His musicianship flourished as he earned a reputation not only as a proficient trombonist, but as a pianist, vocalist, and songwriter as well. His debut record, entitled Sudacas, was released on the French/American label Celluloid Records. His second release, Tocá Tangó, was deeply influenced by his studies on the African origins of tango and its relationship with murga and candombe. It featured a non-traditional, fusion-oriented ensemble and the stunning candombe compositions "Tango Negro" and "Tocá Tangó." His fourth original release, Murga Argentina, found a home on the Manana Music label. Caceres' 2007 release Utopia was the first to earn him the moniker The Lion, heralded as a triumph of both performance and musicology.
His interest in the various styles of tango has led him to start other projects in widely different formats than his more percussion-guided solo records. He has also founded the more traditional "golden age" tango group París Gotán Trío, along with Sedef Ercetin on cello
and Sasha Rozhdestvensky on violin
. He has also started a project in the increasingly popular electronic tango genre, Maquinal Tango.
Born in the '40s in Buenos Aires, Juan Carlos Cáceres became intimately involved with the existentialist movement that thrived in the city during the years of his youth. Cáceres was an accomplished jazz trombonist by his mid-twenties, and though he studied fine arts at the university rather than music, he quickly became a fixture in the Buenos Aires jazz community. He became a mainstay at the Cueva de Passarato jazz club, which was not only an important musical venue, but a gathering place for revolutionary and existential thinkers. In the late '60s Caceres relocated to Paris, where he engaged in a wide variety of artistic pursuits, including painting, producing, teaching, and above all, playing.
During this period, he became an expert on the music surrounding the Río de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
- styles such as tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
, milonga
Milonga
Milonga can refer to an Argentine, Uruguayan, and Southern Brazilian form of music which preceded the tango and the dance form which accompanies it, or to the term for places or events where the tango or Milonga are danced...
, murga
Murga
Murga is a form of popular musical theatre performed in Uruguay and in Argentina during the Carnival season. Murga groups operate in Montevideo and at the Buenos Aires Carnival, though to a lesser extent than in Montevideo; the Argentine murga is more centred on dancing and less on vocals than the...
, and candombe
Candombe
Candombe is a musical genre that has its roots in the African Bantu, and is proper of Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil .Uruguayan Candombe is the most practiced and spread internationally and has been recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity...
. His musicianship flourished as he earned a reputation not only as a proficient trombonist, but as a pianist, vocalist, and songwriter as well. His debut record, entitled Sudacas, was released on the French/American label Celluloid Records. His second release, Tocá Tangó, was deeply influenced by his studies on the African origins of tango and its relationship with murga and candombe. It featured a non-traditional, fusion-oriented ensemble and the stunning candombe compositions "Tango Negro" and "Tocá Tangó." His fourth original release, Murga Argentina, found a home on the Manana Music label. Caceres' 2007 release Utopia was the first to earn him the moniker The Lion, heralded as a triumph of both performance and musicology.
His interest in the various styles of tango has led him to start other projects in widely different formats than his more percussion-guided solo records. He has also founded the more traditional "golden age" tango group París Gotán Trío, along with Sedef Ercetin on cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
and Sasha Rozhdestvensky on violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
. He has also started a project in the increasingly popular electronic tango genre, Maquinal Tango.
Solo
- Solo (1993)
- Sudacas (1994)
- Intimo (1996)
- Live à la Chapelle (1997)
- Tango Negro Trio (1998)
- Tocá Tangó (2001)
- Murga Argentina (2005)
- Utopía (2007)