Minino Garay

Le Monde, Francis Marmande : His latest opus, an ambitious and extraordinary mix of tango, jazz and poems declaimed in Castilian.

Jazz News, David Koperhant : A superb record to listen to without restriction!

Jazz Magazine : With this aptly named speaking tango Minino Garay draws up a new and successful point between traditional Argentinean jazz music and spoken poetry. Captivating and bewitching.

France Musique : https://www.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/podcasts/open-jazz/minino-garay-le-tango-tel-qu-on-le-parle-6983583

FIP : https://www.fip.fr/jazz/latin-jazz/speaking-tango-l-epopee-de-minino-garay-entre-la-france-et-l-argentine

Couleurs Jazz Radio : Speaking Tango by the Argentinean percussionist Minino Garay, truculent, poet, teller in this album is accompanied by fabulous musicians. Jazz tango and tradition go hand in hand!

Jazz Radio : https://www.jazzradio.fr/news/musique/39010/le-musicien-argentin-minino-garay-annonce-la-sortie-de-son-nouvel-album

Paris Jazz Club : https://www.parisjazzclub.net/fr/75223/concert/2022/03/26/minino-garay-et-lionel-suarez

Minino Garay is an unclassifiable and eclectic musician with an abundant and curious mind, brought up in the environment of Argentine popular music. The most vital percussionist-drummer of his generation never ceases to draw on his origins to confront them with other genres and obtain surprising results. This particular talent for mixing genres has allowed him to share the stage in various parts of the world with other great names in music such as Mercedes Sosa, Jaime Torres, Jairo, Chango Farias Gómez, Los Coplanacu, Kevin Johansen, Ibrahim Bridge Maalouf, Deeewater Johansen, DeeWaterignon, Magic Malik, Julien Lourau Groove Gang, Richard Bona, Richard Galliano, Daniel Mille, Jackie Terrason, and Baptiste Trotignon, among others.

Since his very first album – Minino Garay y los Tambores del Sur – in 1999, and his discovery of the spoken word, a poetic movement from New York at the end of the sixties at the origin of slam, Minino Garay, touched by this poetry spoken aloud, has naturally combined it with his influences impregnated by the spirit of tango. A style that has become his signature, and which he has embodied on stage and in his albums ever since. In 2022, Minino Garay will release his first album devoted entirely to this style, “Speaking Tango”, sharing the production of this project with great musicians. This spirit is like a sad thought that is danced and embodies hope. In this mixture of declamation, tango and jazz Minino Garay takes the words out of their usual context and enhances them in a new way, with a more contemporary music.

Speaking Tango
With Speaking Tango , Minino Garay satisfies a passion for the Spoken word, a form of poetry recited against a backdrop of beats and instrumental improvisations, ancestor of the slam and heir to the fulgurances of the Last Poets or Gil Scot Heron. It also brings to fruition an artistic questioning that began 20 years ago. His meeting with the poet and singer Dana Bryant, the first heroine of the genre, was decisive. The masterful Argentinean percussionist based in France, steeped in the multicoloured flavours of his country’s rhythmic traditions and jazz philosophy, combined with the enrichment of his transatlantic experience (Mercedes Sosa, Raul Barboza, Cuarteto Cedron, Jaime Torres, Ibrahim Maalouf, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Richard Galliano, Daniel Mille, Jackie Terrason…), has made the poetic convictions of the spoken world his own. After scattering it over his last few albums, he devotes himself entirely to it here. On Speaking Tango, Minino Garay makes rare words dance with a deep, tender, sensual or hallucinated voice. He poses them, projects them, declaims them or caresses them with unfiltered sincerity.

Minino Garay (drums, voice), Manu Codjia (guitar), Cédric Hanriot (piano), Christophe Wallemme (double bass).

With Patricio Tripa Bonfiglio (bandoneon), Maria Belem Giachello (dance, voice), Sebastian Jimenez (dance) for the Bal Tango version.