Jorge Retamoza
Jorge Retamoza is one of the Argentinian saxophonists who has developed the most the inclusion of his instrument in the language of tango. His personal mark can be heard in the records of the albums recorded with his group and in more than a dozen record collaborations with other artists.
For more than twenty years, Retamoza has displayed in his original compositions a musical texture based on tango, jazz gestures and academic procedures that place his way of writing and / or interpreting the music of Buenos Aires in an area of originality and meeting new ways of understanding tradition and its future. At the front of his group where the original compositions are the center of the aesthetic proposal, he has toured Argentina, South America, Europe and under the auspices of the Directorate of Cultural Affairs of the Argentine Foreign Ministry, for the USA. With this project, he regularly performs in theaters, festivals, cultural centers and universities, in addition to giving master classes in public and private educational settings in America and Europe.
He is the author of "El tango desde el Saxo" book commissioned and edited by Melos Ed. Musicales, where he brings together series of practical works, studies, examples, transcriptions to develop a sound and a way of practicing to interpret the music of Buenos Aires from the sax. During 2020 a second book has been published, “Más Tango desde el Saxo” where the work started in the first volume is deepened by adding variations, orchestral studies and improvisation exercises with tango vocabulary.
In permanent activity, he also acts as a guest soloist for some of the main Argentine symphonic organizations. In this academic field he has also premiered different works: “Concert for Tenor Saxophone Bandoneón and Symphonic Band”, “Tres Escenas Porteñas” (for two Bass Clarinets and Symphonic Band), “En Blanco y Negro Buenos Aires” (for Soloist Bandoneón and Six Percussionists) “Concertango for Baritone Saxophone and Orchestra” (Scholarship Award from the National Fund for the Arts of Argentina 2016). He is the first Argentine saxophonist to record the Six Tanguistic Studies in a comprehensive manner, which is also the first worldwide recording of the work in a version for solo sax and string orchestra.
Composer of music for TV and radio programs, for exhibitions and installations in galleries and museums, as well as music for animated films, which in collaboration with the artist Pablo Delfini, obtained various national and international awards (National Fund for the Arts Award de Argentina XNUMX, Best Music Award at the XNUMX New York Poetic Film Festival) and participation in the main world festivals of this genre. He is the founder of the saxophone quartet Undersax, a quartet sponsored by the firm RICO INTERNATIONAL with which he recorded a single CD, Paroxismo ( Bacsound Arg XNUMX Sold Out Edition), which includes several tango arrangements for saxophone quartet. In XNUMX he obtained by competition the position of Baritone Saxophone for the Symphonic Band of the City of Buenos Aires. He is professor of sax at the Argentine Music Chair at the Manuel de Falla Superior Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires. He was part of different jazz groups playing with the most prominent musicians of the country's genre: Diego Urcola, Juan Cruz de Urquiza, Jorge Navarro, Hugo Pierre, Guillermo Romero, Daniel Piazzolla, etc. Professionally he has participated in film music recordings and for advertising films, also in musical comedy orchestras and in different groups, sharing the stage with artists such as Raúl Lavié, Walter Ríos, Guillermo Fernández, Víctor Pellegrini, César Pueyrredón, Los Tarantos, etc. the recordings and international tours made for Isabel Pantoja, Sandro and Celia Cruz as a member of their respective groups or orchestras.
He has received different awards and distinctions among them:
METROPOLITAN CULTURE FUND Buenos Aires 2006
BEST LATIN AMERICAN SHORTS FESTIVAL MUSIC New York, USA
2007 TRIBUNA DE LA MUSICA ARGENTINA- UNESCO, 2008.
INAMU (National Institute of Music of Argentina) 2015 - 2018
ARGENTNA NATIONAL ARTS FUND 2010 - 2016
