Pablo Aslan is pushing tango to unimagined extremes. He artfully integrates tango with jazz into a new genre where it’s impossible to hear where one ends and the other begins. Here is the characteristic elegance and melancholy of classic tango blended with a contemporary jazz idiom, full of improvisatory virtuosism, dished out by musicians at home in both genres. For over a decade Pablo has been a leading figure in the tango revival, with work that is both inovative and solidly rooted in the tradition.

Biography

Argentine born bassist and producer Pablo Aslan directs Avantango, a tango-jazz ensemble featuring New York based Argentine musicians and dancers that performs throughout the United States. His CD "Avantango" (Zoho Music) was selected as one of the Best Albums of the Year, Critics Choice 2004 by JAZZIZ magazine. He recently spent several months performing and recording in Buenos Aires. His 2007 CD "Buenos Aires Tango Standards" (Zoho Music) is a unique blend of tango and jazz in performances of tango standards recorded with Argentine musicians well versed in both genres.

In April 2007 Pablo was a special guest with Lincoln Center's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, led by Arturo O'Farrill. Aslan has performed and recorded with Yo Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, Shakira, Lalo Schifrin, Joe Lovano, Paquito D'Rivera, Denyce Graves, Osvaldo Golijov, Pablo Ziegler, the New World Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and David Krakauer among many others. He was guest artist in the 2005/06 season of Chamber Music at Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, performing Lalo Schiffrin's "Letters from Argentina". In 2005, Aslan colaborated with the French choral ensemble Ecume as musical director of their new tango-operita, "Tango du Couteau" in Montpellier, France and directed The Tango Group, with the composer and pianist Roger Davidson, releasing "Amor por el Tango" (Soundbrush Records). In the 1990's he was the founder and co-director of New York Buenos Aires Connection and New York Tango Trio with bandoneonist Raul Jaurena, with whom he produced several CDs and toured throughout the world. Pablo has been a featured artist of the Lincoln Center Institute since 1998 bringing tango performances to hundreds of children and educators in the New York area. He has also lectured on tango music history throughout the country.
 

Recent Reviews 

Buenos Aires Tango Standards is a leap forward from his well-received Avantango and a work, unlike many “fusion” projects, that so completely and artfully integrates two musical worlds, here tango and jazz, that it is impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. (…) a string of delicate numbers with all the characteristic elegance and melancholy of classic tango. From the level of play to the artistic conception, there is nothing “standard” about this work and that is both its strength and beauty.
JAZZTIMES

Aslan works toward a new genre that is neither tango nor jazz. The bassist instead presents an amalgamation of Argentinean feel and bebop sensibility: the art tango. Aslan has succeed in bringing a tango idea to jazz and, in the process, bridging the gap between two cultures.
POPMATTERS

You may read about merging jazz with tango, or jazzing up tango, but the real
goal here is to push tango to unimagined extremes.
TOM HULL (Village Voice)

Pablo Aslan, on his second release, proves he's the absolute master of the New Tango. What we've got here is a very compelling blend of Tango and jazz, certainly never before so forcefully and beguiling presented. The results are nothing less that spectacular.
(…) this is a very special recording, capturing the inherent longing of Tango and contextualizing it in a completely up-to-date jazz idiom. Quite an accomplishment
AMAZON.COM

There's been a raft of tango albums from classical performers trying to give a
different spin on Argentina's musical gift to the world. But no really successful jazz spin on the tango until now. Aslan, a native of Buenos Aires, (…) has created a thoroughly-realized amalgam of both musical forms
A fascinating project and totally successful musically!
AUDIOPHILE AUDITION

Led by double bassist Pablo Aslan, the ensemble brings us the best of both worlds as they rely on beautiful melodies to create a mood before launching into powerful improvisation.
The themes are clearly defined, while each improvised adventure comes complete with thrills and beauty. Recommended, Aslan’s Jazz/Tango project works wonders on the soul.
CADENCE

Aslan creates improvisatory alchemy with artists at home in both genres. A subtle convergence results as the milonga and guajira roots of these familiar classics sound through in a brilliant jazz quintet setting. Tango as Miles, Coltrane, Evans and Chambers might have conceived it.
GLOBAL RHYTHM

Pablo will continue to define the tango idiom in his musically inimitable way...Pablo Aslan..The right man....In the right way...At the right time for tango jazz.
EJAZZNEWS

Aslan integrates the tango element – complete with multi-directional flows -- into a modern jazz framework that affords the soloists’ abundant opportunities to expand and refresh.
EJAZZNEWS