Daniel Melingo

PPA production: Marta Dzwonkowska

Musicians: Daniel Melingo (leading vocal, clarinet), Mohamad Rodrigo Guerra (guitar, vocal), Facundo Torres (bandoneon, vocal), Romain Lecuyer (double bass, vocal)

Daniel Melingo’s voice, as he approaches 70 next year, does not shine like the patent-leather shoes of a dapper gentleman dancing milonga at a local cultural center. The Argentinian sings of nocturnal Buenos Aires and the lives of (un)holy pimps, drunks, thugs, and losers. His alternative tango unfolds exclusively on the dance floor of the imagination. While listening, forget Hollywood movies, and don’t try this at home.

Melingo paints the city’s shady underbelly in colors dulled by alcohol, cigarettes, and the dust of second-rate live-music bars. He sings in a half-whisper, with theatrical exaggeration. He relishes irony and humor black as Beelzebub’s heart, mixed with bottomless melancholy. Yes, things go wrong again for the heroes of his songs, but they keep their heads high. These are worn-out figures from a blues cabaret, bards of rock poetry, and connoisseurs of melodies; the bandoneonist plays them somewhere between the last drink and the first light of day, as tango is always and everywhere.

Photo. Alfredo Srur