zaterdag 2 april 2011

Luis Stazo : Una Vida Feliz

We meet in '9 De Julio', according to owner Vittoria the only real Argentinean restaurant in Berlin. When I arrive Luis and Manuela Stazo are sitting at a small table in the bar section of this thoughtfully decorated restaurant, full of blue and white, and paintings created by Vittoria herself. It is a big contrast to its neighbourhood of grey buildings, gas stations, bed shops and other businesses plastered with sale-signs in NeuKöln, one of the poorer parts of Berlin.

I shake the old hand of the maestro, and notice that his fingers are bent, as if he were continuously holding a bandoneón. After a lifetime of playing this instrument this is a symbolic characteristic of Luis Stazo, one of the old masters of the Guardia Vieja, founder of the world-famous Sexteto Mayor, and still playing with his own Stazo Mayor, albeit only for performances in Europe.

Luis has found a place to rest in Berlin where he shares domestic bliss with his wife Manuela – after a lifetime of constant traveling, hotel rooms, playing and more playing. In response to a question about the differences between his life in Berlin and his life in Buenos Aires, Manuela answers that he actually never saw Buenos Aires very much during the time that he was (in theory) based there, being away on tour almost 11 months of the year.

His musical story starts at the amazingly young age of 9 years old when he already listens to the music of Troilo on the radio. He asks his father whether he can start to learn to play the bandoneón, and his old man decided to send him to a friend, a teacher at the Chopin conservatory just 50 meters away from his home. There he starts to learn piano and music theory, but not the bandoneón. But he soon finds the teacher he needs: José Liberteda. Here his successful life as tango bandoneón player starts, forming Sexteto Mayor in 1955 after working as an arranger for stars like Angel Vargas. Sexteto Mayor conquers the world, and Luis performs in front of stars like Pablo Picasso, Princess Diana, Shirley McClain, Prince Rainier of Monaco and also wins a Grammy award for Latin American Music. A quarrel with the second bandoneón player in the group led to him breaking with the Sexteto and after meeting Manuela in 2001, he got married in 2006, having already been living in Berlin since 2005. Tired of traveling, Luis took a break of 5-6 years from 2001 then formed his trio and later his sexteto Stazo Mayor, exclusively for concerts in Europe.

In my conversation with Luis, he offers the moment that he stopped smoking as being a key point in his life. He describes the life as a musician where friends would always ask him for a cigarette, or he gets a smoke from them. But when in 1986 a doctor discovered some heart problems, he was forced to stop. He then shows me a small sudoko book in his left pocket which is now, as he puts it, his ‘little smoke’


During the Berlin International Tango Festival 2009 I coincidentally booked into the same hotel as Luis Stazo and Alberto Podesta. In the morning, I hear the old gentlemen talk at a table right under my room in the garden of the hotel. Later that afternoon I am witness to the reunion of the two old maestros and Alfredo Marcucci. When Luis sees Alfredo coming out of the taxi, he shouts: ‘My Alfredissimo’ and the old men kiss each other on the cheeks (see video).
For Marcucci, Luis is young Luisissimo, and even now Luis speaks of Alfredissimo with a big smile on his face. Manuela tells me that they were already playing together at the age of eight! Their lives as active musicians divided them, but they kept in touch with regular phone calls. Also, Alfredo Podesta hadn’t seen Luis for more than 10 years when he sees him again in front of Hotel Beethoven in Berlin. That night, they played together on the Berlin Tango Festival, for what turned out to be the last time before the passing away of Marcucci in 2010.
© 2011 Lucien Lecarme



video of Luis Stazo meeting Podesta and Marcucci in Berlin , 2009 during the Int tangofestival Berlin.

to read the complete article, get the latest 2011 Doble Ocho newspaper or download it here

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