Hannes Enzelberg Tango 1-8 - Btl63831 - Jazz - by Between The Lines

Carla Bley’s legendary album Social Studies (1981) seems to be the main source of inspiration for the Viennese bassist/composer Hannes Enzlberger. Enzlberger’s Songs to Anything that Moves (btl 022) also reveal this apparent affinity which Enzlberger explained with a reference to Carla Bley’s eclecticism and her disrespect of traditional forms. Social Studies features Carla Bley’s Reactionary Tango, which Enzlberger long considered a prototype of the tango before he explored the works of Astor Piazzola. For a series of private living-room concerts, Enzlberger composed eight delightfully atmospheric ‘tangos’ for flugelhorn, accordion and double bass, based on an experiment with tango clichés and with Bley’s Reactionary Tango always at the back of his mind. The tangos are performed by the regretfully little-known flugelhorn player Thomas Berghammer, the jack-of-all-trades accordionist of the Vienna scene, Otto Lechner, and the composer himself on the double bass. Hannes Enzlberger’s tangos are a sheer delight. They sound relaxed and non-intentional with their well-balanced combination of pain, comedy, sentimentality and grace. With this production, the prodigy of the Austrian scene has presented his masterpiece.