Jeanne Golan – It Takes One to Tango (2021)

On January 1st, 2021, STEINWAY & SONS releases Jeanne Golan’s newest album, It Takes One to Tango (STNS 30164). Golan describes the album as “a collection featuring tango-inspired gems that are largely unknown. The works are by recovered voices and living composers, two arenas that have long captured my fancy, centered on a dance I’ve come to embrace. The album itself mixes these composers and their time periods, whose music speaks to one another in unexpected ways.

Recovered voices refers to composers who were persecuted and often murdered as a consequence of the Nazi Regime. This association can box them into being considered writers of ‘serious’ music. But they just as seriously absorbed the newly popular jazz and cabaret scenes popping up in Paris and Berlin. Wilhelm Grosz and Erwin Schulhoff each wrote stylish, innovative and appealing suites based on dances that were all the rage in the 1920’s. Born a generation earlier, Wanda Landowska also turned to a current dance for her inspiration.

The first ‘one to tango’ is actually the composer writing in the studio. When the written page is passed on to the performer, a partnership forms whereby the music is then brought to life through the player’s choreography at the keyboard, much like the dance itself.

For the contemporary tangos, I’ve had the luxury of corresponding with each of their composers, working alongside them to record many of these works for the first time.”
Tracklist:
01. 3 Pieces for Piano: No. 1, Bianco
02. 3 Pieces for Piano: No. 2, Piglia
03. 3 Pieces for Piano: No. 3, The Shady Side
04. Reverie d’automne, Op. 6
05. Laminar Flow in Upsidedown Creek (Arr. for Piano)
06. Tanzsuite No. 2, Op. 20: I. Foxtrot
07. Tanzsuite No. 2, Op. 20: II. Boston
08. Tanzsuite No. 2, Op. 20: III. Tango
09. Tanzsuite No. 2, Op. 20: IV. Shimmy
10. Tanzsuite No. 2, Op. 20: V. Quasie Fivestep
11. Incitation to Desire (Version for Piano)
12. Pacita’s Lunch
13. 5 Études de Jazz: No. 1, Charleston
14. 5 Études de Jazz: No. 2, Blues
15. 5 Études de Jazz: No. 3, Chanson
16. 5 Études de Jazz: No. 4, Tango
17. 5 Études de Jazz: No. 5, Toccata sur le shimmy “Kitten on the Keys” de Zez Confrey
18. An American in Buenos Aires (Arr. J. Golan for Toy Piano & Piano)