Guitar Tango: Más Allá

Mentored by the late bandoneón player and songwriter Rubén Juárez, Argentinian singer Martín Alvarado has been plying his plaintive, precisely delivered tango canción trade for some years now. Busy performing live, having notched up 25 tours in the last decade, he recorded this album, his fourth, in 2010, which Riverboat Records have now released with four extra tracks. Alvarado’s accompanist, Horacio Avilano, is a dextrous and discreet tango guitarist, supporting rather than sparring with Alvarado’s vocals. Two further guitars and a guitarrón help out on assorted tracks. Three songs were written by the poet laureate of tango’s guardia nueva (new wave), Homero Manzi, proof that Alvarado chooses his songs for their content as much as their suitability to his tremulous tenor. There’s a stirring version of Violeta Parra’s ‘Gracias a la Vida’ and ‘Petit Barr’ by Roberto Grela and Homero Expósito – which is, so the album claims, the piece’s first ever recording. For those who like their tango gritty and dark, Alvarado will seem polite. But he is a genuine tanguero and well worth a listen.