Aires Tango
Aires Tango is a tango-jazz ensemble founded in 1994 in Rome by Argentine saxophonist and composer Javier Girotto. The group blends Argentine tango melody with jazz improvisation, creating a musical language that carries forward the nuevo tango revolution initiated by Astor Piazzolla while pushing it into new territory.
Javier Girotto
Javier Edgardo Girotto was born in 1965 in Córdoba, Argentina. His grandfather was a band director, and he began with percussion and clarinet before taking up the saxophone. At 19, he earned a scholarship to Berklee College of Music (Boston), where he graduated Cum Magna Laude, studying with masters such as George Garzone and Jerry Bergonzi. At 25, he moved to Rome, where he has been based ever since.
With over 500 compositions across 50+ albums as a leader, Girotto is one of the most prolific Argentine musicians working internationally.
The Ensemble
The core quartet:
- Javier Girotto — soprano and baritone saxophone, Andean flutes (quenas, sicus)
- Alessandro Gwis — piano
- Michele Rabbia — percussion
- Marco Siniscalco — bass
The group has collaborated with prominent figures of European jazz, including Enrico Rava, Paolo Fresu, Ralph Towner, Antonello Salis, and Peppe Servillo, performing hundreds of concerts across Italy and Europe.
Discography (Selection)
| Year | Album |
|---|---|
| 1996 | Malvinas |
| 1997 | Madres |
| 1999 | Poemas |
| 2000 | Cronología del ‘900 |
| 2001 | Orígenes |
| 2002 | En Vivo / Aniversario |
| 2004 | Escenas Argentinas |
| 2006 | Trentamila Cuori |
| 2016 | Duende |
The Piazzolla Connection
At age 10, Girotto discovered Piazzolla’s 1974 album “Tango Nuevo” (also known as “Summit”), recorded with American jazz baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan. This was the formative experience that united his two musical worlds: Argentine tango and American jazz — the same fusion Piazzolla had pioneered.
Lineage and Continuity
Piazzolla’s revolution consisted in taking traditional tango and infusing it with jazz harmony, classical counterpoint, improvisation, and dissonance. He was initially rejected by tango purists for this. Girotto carries this lineage forward, but with distinctive shifts:
| Piazzolla | Girotto / Aires Tango | |
|---|---|---|
| Lead instrument | Bandoneon | Soprano/baritone saxophone |
| Jazz influence | Harmony and structure | Improvisation and spontaneity |
| Composition style | Through-composed, orchestral | Open, chamber jazz |
| Tango tradition | Buenos Aires urban tango | Broader Argentine folklore (milonga, chacarera, zamba) |
| Folk elements | Minimal | Andean flutes (quenas, sicus) |
| Cultural context | Argentine exile in Paris/NY | Argentine transplant in Rome |
Tango Nuevo Revisited (2019)
Girotto made the connection explicit with “Tango Nuevo Revisited” on ACT Music — a direct reimagining of the Piazzolla/Mulligan album, 40+ years later. The producer, Siggi Loch, was the same person who had released the original in Europe in 1975. Girotto’s trio (saxophone, bandoneon, keyboard) strips the orchestral arrangements to their essence, making them “jazzier than the original” with rawer tones while preserving the lyrical core.
Beyond Piazzolla
While Piazzolla opened the door between tango and jazz, Girotto walked through it and kept going:
- Andean folk instruments alongside the saxophone expand the sonic palette beyond Buenos Aires
- Deeper jazz improvisation — more open and free than Piazzolla’s more composed approach
- Italian-Argentine cultural bridge — a dual identity that infuses the music with Mediterranean as well as South American sensibility
- “Treated tango” — faithful to tango melody but unbound by strict traditional conventions
Cultural Significance
Aires Tango represents a living example of cultural transmission across generations and geographies. The music carries the DNA of Buenos Aires tango through Piazzolla’s revolution, through Girotto’s Berklee training in American jazz, into the context of contemporary European improvised music. It demonstrates how traditions stay alive not by preservation alone, but by transformation.
In the classical Quadrivium, music is understood as “number in time” — the study of proportion and harmony unfolding temporally. Aires Tango embodies this principle: structured harmonic relationships (tango forms, jazz changes) explored through the living, improvised flow of performance.
External Links
Related
- Artists & Ensembles — Parent topic
- Nuevo Tango — The musical movement initiated by Astor Piazzolla
- Quadrivium — Music as one of the four mathematical liberal arts
- Collecti-Jam — Collective musical improvisation as peer-to-peer learning