Tango in Paris

I’ve known bandoneonist Mosalini since 1992, when I started studying bandoneon. Because I went every month to Gennevilliers, a suburb of Paris, to take bandoneon lessons with him. In 1998, Mosalini hired me for his Grand orchestre de tango, and I played there until 2001.

So we had many opportunities to talk about his love of the bandoneon and his musical career. Juan José Mosalini was born on November 29, 1943 in José Paz, province of Buenos Aires. His parents loved music, so Juan José began to learn the bandoneon as a child.

At the age of 17, Mosalini wins first prize in a television contest and starts working professionally. During the following years he played in the most famous orchestras of those years, with Osvaldo Pugliese, José Basso, Horacio Salgan and Leopoldo Federico, among others. With Daniel Binelli he founded the Quinteto Guardia Nueva, an important impulse for the renewal of tango.

In 1977 Mosalini emigrated to Paris, where he founded the group Tiempo Argentino with other exiled Argentine musicians such as Gustavo Beytelmann, Enzo Gieco and Tomas Gubitsch. Since then, he has not only founded and played in various ensembles in Europe, but has recorded numerous albums and composed music for films. He has also promoted the bandoneon in France and created a collection of scores for the bandoneon.

Mosalini told me in 1999 so many details of his musical career, when we were returning from Limoges, where we had performed with his typical orchestra the night before. In another conversation, he told me about the importance of the bandoneon and his efforts to establish it in France.

So I would like to introduce you to all these interesting conversations with Juan José Mosalini in the next episodes of our podcast series. Listen to for yourselves everything that this great bandoneonist told me, so important for the development of bandoneon and tango in Europe.

Part of the interview with Mosalini

“The reason for coming to Paris is the reflection of a… of a current of musicians, intellectuals, writers, painters, humorists, theater people who in Argentina were already spoken of as a pole of attraction. That is, it was spoken of as a pole of attraction: Paris, which meant Paris to people who wanted to do things in the European world. Of the European cities was always seen, historically, Paris as a bit the navel of the European world.

In the same way that the American world looked at the United States and New York, particularly. That was up in the air. It was like an almost natural thing.

If a musician had to do an experience outside the country there were not 30 places. And if Europe was chosen, it seems natural to go to a Spanish-speaking country… where Spanish will be spoken. And, suddenly there are not thousands, Spain only, but the cultural conditions did not exist, because Spain, in those years, was still living the Franco dictatorship. So it was a closed world.

And Paris had that, of the city of opening, of the city that gave you the possibility to try experiences that… it was a suitable terrain for “new” things.

All of that was turned around in the heads of people in the musical world or the theater world or so on.

I came to Paris with Susana Rinaldi in ’76 wanting to see Paris as a city and, at the same time, wanting to set foot in that city to see a little bit of that whole world, I would say, almost mythological with respect to Paris.

I say, “Let’s see if it’s that way.” Naturally, Paris has… it is a city that catches immediately, without knowing it catches you. And when you meet her, she also catches you, in one way or another. I came to Paris in ’76 with Susana Rinaldi and the enormous pleasure was to make contact with the city”

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Wikipedia

Juan José Mosalini was born into a family of artisans passionate about music. His father and grandfather played the bandoneon, an instrument he began to learn at the age of eight, starting to play in salons at age 13, integrating a tango orchestra.

In 1961 he won first prize in a contest organized by Argentine television. At the age of 17 he became a professional musician. He lived in Argentina until 1976, playing with José Basso, Leopoldo Federico, Astor Piazzolla, Osvaldo Pugliese, Susana Rinaldi, Edmundo Rivero and Horacio Salgán. He also formed his first group, Quinteto Guardia Nueva, with the bandoneonist Daniel Binelli, of great impact in the avant-garde tango of that time.

In 1977 he went into exile in France due to the civic-military dictatorship established in Argentina, settling there since then. It brought me music and the political situation. We were in the middle of the military dictatorship and our generation she was savagely beaten. Nobody stopped suffering, especially the people who militated, which was my case.

With other Argentine musicians he formed Tiempo Argentino and recorded the album Tango rojo, with pianist Gustavo Beytelmann, flutist Enzo Gieco and guitarist Thomas Gubitsch. He then formed the quartet Canyengues (with Gustavo Beytelmann and Patrice Caratini) and recorded several albums, including a solo album.

Mosalini worked to spread the bandoneon in France and in 1999 founded the first bandoneon academy in Europe, in Gennevilliers.

As a composer he has also written music for films such as Vengeance à double face and Le pouvoir Quatrieme .

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