Fernando Otero

Fernando Otaro found his voice as a writer, musician and bandleader when, at the urging of one of his music teachers, he began to incorporate the indigenous sounds of his native Buenos Aires into his work. He was just a teenager then, but an exceptionally gifted one, a serious student of classical music with an ability to master a variety of instruments from a very young age. As he recalls, a guitar and composition instructor, Marcel Braga Saral, showed me the possibility of developing something with roots and sound of tango. Not necessarily tango itself, but music I heard as a child, the sound in the streets. I started working with a bandoneon player and tried my first project, which I called X Tango. 20 years have passed since Otero opened his ears to this wealth of ideas, and ever since he has pursued his vision of X Tango. On Nonesuch debut "Pagina da Buenos Aires" he evokes a felling of Buenos Aires. But the world Otero conjures up is all his own. Tango is a jumping-off point for an instrumental sound that boasts the improvisatory thrill of jazz within a more formal classical structure. His work is often short, fast-paced and intense, full of enough dramatic stops and starts to astonish first-time listeners. Otero has composed and performed with recital symphonies and chamber groups in the US and Mexico. Actress Salam Hyek introduced Quincy Jones to Otero; subsequently Jones arrived unannounced backstage after Otero peformed a solo piano recital in Los Angeles, offering advice, encouragement and an open-ended invitation to do a project with him. Otero has collaborated with Bill Evans, sideman Eddied Gomez, flautist Dave Valentin and pianist/film composer Dave Grusin among others. He played with Chico O'Farrill's Jazz Orchestra at Linclon Center; and he's joined clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera on stage and in the studio.