Ries
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Daniel Melingo is one of the most unusual of the Rock Icons of Argentina.
There are a lot of pretty mainstream rock bands that are still playing here, 40 years down the road but nobody is like Melingo.
Melingo was there at the beginning, in the 80s, and has played with a lot of the biggest stars-
He played sax in Brazil with Milton Nascimento,
He was the sax player in what, to me, was Charly Garcia's best band, Las Ligas, which included Melingo, Andres Calamaro, Fernando Samelea, Richard Coleman, and Christian Basso, in 1986.
They played a bunch of famous live shows, but aside from some live footage on Youtube, no music was ever released from this band.
Melingo was also a member of Abuelos de la Nada, in its early 80s rebirth.
Melingo, with Pipo Cipolatti, founded Los Twist, a seminal post punk argentine band in the spirit of the B52s, cartoonish and mock retro, which was different from anything else going on at the time, and had some hits from left field.
In 1986, he moved to Spain, and founded a band called Lions in Love, with Dutch singer Stephanie Ringes.
I LoveLions in Love, myself, its an indescribable mix of genres. It kinda got pigeonholed as trip-hop, even though its nothing like any other real trip-hop band.
By the mid 90s, he was back in Argentina, and decided Tango is Punk, and with a band called Los Ramones de Tango,has been doing his own personal reappraisal of Tango ever since.
The show I saw in early December, at Niceto, is a thing he calls his Encuentro Maximalista- a variety show of sorts, this one featuring a rare South American appearance of Stephanie Ringes. So there was a fair amount of Lions in Love songs.
The show started with queer legend Fernando Noy as Master of Ceremonies. Noy deserves much more than I can put down here, but right now at MAMBA in San Telmo, there is an interesting art show of queer art in Argentina since the 80s, dedicated to and inspired by Noy, with more about him.
The core band, Los Ramones de Tango, is formidable. Anchored by guitarist Mohammed Habibi, and bass player Juan Ravioli, and that night featuring Samalea on drums, they are a power trio without compare, able to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
All of them have played on dozens of albums, backing all kinds of musicians, and can do anything, from a whisper to a scream.
They were assisted by the trumpet player Hugo Lobo. He is REALLY good, and could adapt his playing to anything the band threw at him.
Over the course of the evening there were at least 15 different guests sitting in at various times, including Los Twist keyboard player Cipolatti ,
5 or 6 different vocalists, and guest guitar appearances by Willi Crook and Richard Coleman.
Melingo himself is showing his miles (he is not actually that old, but he has lived all his 62 years to the utmost) and scheduled the show so about every half hour, there was a song without him, featuring a couple of young buck trap singers, and the Crook and Coleman songs.
Crook and Coleman, each in their own way, showed us what rock and roll guitar really means.
Melingo himself sang on almost everything else, andplayed a fair amount of lead guitar. He is a pretty killer guitarist,in sort of reggae/Funkadelic/Mississippi Blues style.
There was a huge range of styles- a fair amount of Dub and Caribbean stylings,funk, rock, some Lions in Love songs, and a large helping of Tango.
Melingo has an alter persona as a Tango Linyera, a Chaplin meets Tom Waits hobo from Parque Patricio who is straight from a cartoon from the 30s, with a sprinkling of Pere Ubu.
He did a killer version of his trademark Tango song Narigon, which really should have been the show closer, except there was another hour of show after that. He did as close as he gets to traditional Tango, with Juli Laso. That woman can Sing!
The show carreened all over the place,musical genre-wise, but Melingo tied it all together with pure force of personality. It was essentially an autobiography in song.
And it rocked, on every level.
I wish I had seen every stage of his musical career live at the time(s) but this was the closest you can get now.
This is at least the second version of Maximalista, and my guess is there will be more, with different guests, in the future.
As Ed Sullivan would say, it was a "REALLY REALLY BIIIG SHOW".
here is a song featuring Coleman from the April version.
There are a lot of pretty mainstream rock bands that are still playing here, 40 years down the road but nobody is like Melingo.
Melingo was there at the beginning, in the 80s, and has played with a lot of the biggest stars-
He played sax in Brazil with Milton Nascimento,
He was the sax player in what, to me, was Charly Garcia's best band, Las Ligas, which included Melingo, Andres Calamaro, Fernando Samelea, Richard Coleman, and Christian Basso, in 1986.
They played a bunch of famous live shows, but aside from some live footage on Youtube, no music was ever released from this band.
Melingo was also a member of Abuelos de la Nada, in its early 80s rebirth.
Melingo, with Pipo Cipolatti, founded Los Twist, a seminal post punk argentine band in the spirit of the B52s, cartoonish and mock retro, which was different from anything else going on at the time, and had some hits from left field.
In 1986, he moved to Spain, and founded a band called Lions in Love, with Dutch singer Stephanie Ringes.
I LoveLions in Love, myself, its an indescribable mix of genres. It kinda got pigeonholed as trip-hop, even though its nothing like any other real trip-hop band.
By the mid 90s, he was back in Argentina, and decided Tango is Punk, and with a band called Los Ramones de Tango,has been doing his own personal reappraisal of Tango ever since.
The show I saw in early December, at Niceto, is a thing he calls his Encuentro Maximalista- a variety show of sorts, this one featuring a rare South American appearance of Stephanie Ringes. So there was a fair amount of Lions in Love songs.
The show started with queer legend Fernando Noy as Master of Ceremonies. Noy deserves much more than I can put down here, but right now at MAMBA in San Telmo, there is an interesting art show of queer art in Argentina since the 80s, dedicated to and inspired by Noy, with more about him.
The core band, Los Ramones de Tango, is formidable. Anchored by guitarist Mohammed Habibi, and bass player Juan Ravioli, and that night featuring Samalea on drums, they are a power trio without compare, able to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
All of them have played on dozens of albums, backing all kinds of musicians, and can do anything, from a whisper to a scream.
They were assisted by the trumpet player Hugo Lobo. He is REALLY good, and could adapt his playing to anything the band threw at him.
Over the course of the evening there were at least 15 different guests sitting in at various times, including Los Twist keyboard player Cipolatti ,
5 or 6 different vocalists, and guest guitar appearances by Willi Crook and Richard Coleman.
Melingo himself is showing his miles (he is not actually that old, but he has lived all his 62 years to the utmost) and scheduled the show so about every half hour, there was a song without him, featuring a couple of young buck trap singers, and the Crook and Coleman songs.
Crook and Coleman, each in their own way, showed us what rock and roll guitar really means.
Melingo himself sang on almost everything else, andplayed a fair amount of lead guitar. He is a pretty killer guitarist,in sort of reggae/Funkadelic/Mississippi Blues style.
There was a huge range of styles- a fair amount of Dub and Caribbean stylings,funk, rock, some Lions in Love songs, and a large helping of Tango.
Melingo has an alter persona as a Tango Linyera, a Chaplin meets Tom Waits hobo from Parque Patricio who is straight from a cartoon from the 30s, with a sprinkling of Pere Ubu.
He did a killer version of his trademark Tango song Narigon, which really should have been the show closer, except there was another hour of show after that. He did as close as he gets to traditional Tango, with Juli Laso. That woman can Sing!
The show carreened all over the place,musical genre-wise, but Melingo tied it all together with pure force of personality. It was essentially an autobiography in song.
And it rocked, on every level.
I wish I had seen every stage of his musical career live at the time(s) but this was the closest you can get now.
This is at least the second version of Maximalista, and my guess is there will be more, with different guests, in the future.
As Ed Sullivan would say, it was a "REALLY REALLY BIIIG SHOW".
here is a song featuring Coleman from the April version.
