Los Tangueros del Oeste presented
Virtual concert season finale set for Sunday
The Ukiah Community Concert Association will be presenting Los Tangueros del Oeste quartet joined by world class Argentine tango dancers in its virtual concert season finale on Sunday, April 18 at 2 p.m.
Tangueros del Oeste is the latest project of bassist/ composer Sascha Jacobsen and he will be performing with violinist Michele Walther from Switzerland, guitarist Carlos Caminos from Venezuela and bandoneon player Alexander Zeyliger from Russia with tango dancers Maxi Copello and Raquel Makow from Argentina.
Jacobsen was born to a musical family—going back many generations— in a cabin on Salmon Creek in Southern Humboldt and grew up in the Bay Area where he fell in love with music.
“I’ve always been into Latin music yet there were so many other types of music to hear in the Bay area— jazz, funk, rock, salsa, Afro Cuban, Brazilian and Argentine tango—i fell in love with all of them,” he says.
He has performed with such greats as Patti Lupone, Rita Moreno, Hugh Jackman, Mandy Patinkin, Bonnie Raitt and Randy Newman and has performed for UCCA audiences with his other groups—trio Garufa in 2013 and the Musical Art Quintet in 2019.
Musical Art Quintet, the first group he founded, a string quintet with two violins, a viola, a cello and a bass, was a vehicle to perform his own arrangements, personal to him— George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Tito Puente.
With his next group, Trio Garufa, he played traditional Argentine tango; wanting yet another vehicle, this time for his own compositions, he formed Tangueros del Oeste and recorded an album this year of original compositions due out in July.
During the pandemic he wrote the bass tracks for each piece and sent them to the instrumentalists to add their own tracks, all recording from their own homes.
“Many of us were not even in the same country at the same time. We put it together like that, just stacked it up. It’s actually how most recordings are made now; it’s not that unusual; musicians might be in the same studio but not on the same day.”
Since then, the original violinist and bandoneon player left the group and the virtual performance for Ukiah will be with new members Michele Walther on violin and Alexander Zeyliger on bandoneon and guitarist Carlos Caminos remaining constant.
“It’s not that easy to find a bandoneon player,” he says.
The 35-minute video concert was pre-recorded, in one take, in an Oakland warehouse, and includes six pieces, two composed by Jacobsen and four classic Argentine tangos arranged by him.
Three pieces present the three rhythms of the Tango—tango, waltz and milonga —with dancers Maxi Copello and Raquel Makow, who came in second place in the Tango World Cup this year, and three pieces are played instrumentally.
“We do a lot of trading back and forth with the melody, very playful and rhythmic, even though there’re no drums.”
The year of the pandemic has brought some challenges and some gifts for Jacobsen. After rehearsing with The Musical Art Quintet for months in preparation for SF Music Day 2020 at Herbst Theatre, a virtual concert put on by Intermusic SF, his cellist called him the morning of and told him he had COVID. They canceled their performance.
In addition to his album, he just finished a string arrangement for Congregation Emanu-el in San Francisco for a song in Hebrew called Prayer for the State of Israel. His string quartet, Musical Art Quintet, recorded his arrangement and it will be performed with piano and choir.
He also writes and records music for Dance Vision, an online dance company.
One of the gifts for him during the lockdown was being home every night instead of at a gig, providing him the opportunity to play music with his two children, every night.
“It never would have happened except for the pandemic; previously, I would have given them a lesson maybe once a month and now they’re both becoming great musicians.”
Although he wishes he could be there in person for the performance, Jacobsen will be available virtually afterward for a Q & A. Next year he hopes to be performing here with his group when the Ukiah Community Concert Association once again opens its doors to music lovers of the community.
Tickets for non-season subscribers are $15 and available online at www. ukiahconcerts.org. For information about free access for Mendocino College students, call 707-463-2738 or send an email through the website. The program will be loaded onto UCCA’S
Youtube channel and available to subscribers and single-event ticket buyers for 30 days.