2024-04-05 03:15:14
Almost no one is left from that group that wrote wonderful pages of Argentine rock during the first five years of the ’70s. Dana Winnycka, spiritual guide, because he died in September 2003. Gustavo Santaolalla and Horacio Gianello, because they left the group together during that great diaspora of 1975; the drummer passed away in June 2021. And the bassist Guillermo Bordarampé, because his departure occurred in 1982. Almost no one remains, then, but there is one who does. One of those who founded Arco Iris back in 1968: Ara Tokatlian.
The wind player, singer and composer born in Cairo Not only did he overcome the bad trip that the resignations of Santaolalla and Gianello meant on not very good terms, but he also supported the stoppage and sustained the group until today. “I am introducing myself as ‘Ara Toklatian-Rainbow’, because I want to make it clear that This is the Rainbow that I direct, because I lead the musical climates, the harmonies, and the choice of themes,” says the musician from 72 years old, who will visit Argentina again to present himself Saturday, April 6 at 9 p.m. at Rondeman Abasto (Lavalle 3177), accompanied by those who guard the spirit of the group, today: Juan Pedro Estanga, on drums; Roberto Amerise on bass; the guitarist Carlos Campos, and his son with an eponymous first and last name on keyboards, piano, alto sax and voice.
Together with them, Toklatian plans to once again show the inevitable “Dana Blues”, piece dedicated to the former Ukrainian model, who strongly marked the popular origins of the group. “Me and the band like to play this song a lot, firstly because being a blues it is better related to the style jazz-rock that we imprint on some songs,” Ara assures before Page 12. “We always play it, because Gustavo’s lyrics are in tribute and gratitude to Dana. It is a theme of teacher-disciple love, whose purpose has a lot to do with reaffirming what Dana meant when we met her, at 19, 20 years old.”
-There must also be a strong musical aspect that keeps it alive for you, one senses.
-Yeah. Let’s say that musically it is a blues universal, and in that aspect it does not offer anything different. But what is unique about the original version is the fact that two winds are played at the same time in the introduction – recorder and pinkullo – something that enabled us to repeat the sequence in later versions, but through playing sax. tenor and soprano sax at the same time. And this is indeed unusual and different for a blues.
Much of the repertoire chosen by the Egyptian-Argento to offer in his new presentation in Buenos Aires also lies in pieces from the triad of albums that became after the traumatic split of the group in 1975: The Elementals (Magical forces of nature, published in 1977, shortly before the surviving part of Arco Iris settled in Los Angeles; Blue Pheasantpublished in 1983, and peace pipeswhich was released in 1987. “We especially like to play ‘Pipas de la paz’ - the song – because for me it brings together a perfect balance between jazz, rock, progressive music and folklore”, assures the aerophonist. “The balance he has in this sense is perfect, I mean, because I can take it to a reggae rhythm, add pinkullo and sikus, without stopping playing the sax. In short, this song enables different styles and instruments within itself, something that of course allows me to show various aspects of creativity.”
-In the key of “jazzambachacapoprock”, as you defined the group’s musical genre years ago…?
-(laughs) Yes of course. That is a name that I invented a couple of decades ago precisely to define what Arco Iris always did, right? Fusion jazz, zamba, chacarera, rock and pop, and in fact it continues to do so. At that moment, a huge word occurred to me that could identify the styles of music that the band cultivates, and today more than ever we continue with that same style, in which those musical influences intervene as varied ingredients in the musical cuisine of Arco Iris… in this, precisely, it is a kind of rainbow of sounds.
Another of the songs that Ara plans to play in Buenos Aires is “Gob”, a piece by The Elementalsbased on a candombe, which allows the brilliance of his son. “We play this one because my son can show and develop his harmonic, rhythmic and expressive world in it, with an instrument that many people believe is easy to play, but it is not. What is easy is to start it, because anyone can blow into the mouthpiece of a sax, and something will sound; It is not like the transverse flute that is difficult to even make a sound. But then, the fingering part and the number of keys that the sax has make it a complex instrument,” says Ara.
Aritajust as Ara calls her son born 19 years ago in Blue Jay – an American town located between the San Bernardino mountains, where the family lives – is the one who accompanies him at night to compose, play and think about music. “At home we go to bed late, because composing at night is more energetic. Although there is the same energy that floods the planet during the day, it happens to be distributed among fewer people, right?… In short, it is something magical to compose at night, and it is a fundamental aspect in my life.”
-You wake up late, so…
-No, no, between 5 and 6 in the morning I’m already upstairs. In addition to taking care of my family, I develop several activities that do me good. I fix my own instruments, do carpentry work, and spend time on my vehicles. I have a ’79 Land Cruiser Fj 40 and I spend a lot of time in it adding things to it, pichicatear here and there, in the engine and the body… I never counted these things! “, he laughs.
The wind player’s new foray into Argentina coincides with a no less minor ingredient: the premiere of the documentary directed by the filmmaker, music lover and writer Fabio Scaturchio called Rainbow, music and philosophy, whose synopsis gives a “capture” of the essence and future of the group in both dimensions. “It is the culmination of seven, eight years of work by my great friend Fabio, who during all this time collected direct conversations with the members of Arco Iris, and with people who had to do with the initial history of the group. It all started with the book that was published a year ago, and the documentary that is going to be released consists of showing what the book contains, which expresses the life of the band, its feelings expressed in anecdotes, stories that we have not told before, sincere by the members themselves. A very nice, positive story, in which everyone “We come together to bear witness,” Ara is dispatched.
The film also has the special participation of the choreographer Oscar Araiz director of the ballet that accompanied the live presentation of Agitator Lucens V, album published in 1974; of Alberto Cascino, original drummer of the group; and of Leon Gieco, for whom Santaolalla produced his eponymous debut album in 1972. Rainbow, music and philosophywhat It can be seen on Tuesday, April 23 at 6 p.m. in the Borges room of the National Library, It also contains unreleased material, and shots from the group’s last meeting, which recreated “Mañana campestre” live, five decades after its premiere.
-What other type of contact did you have with Santaolalla, after the traumatic separation?
-He left in August 1975, and that moment was very difficult, because the truth is that we were not prepared for that… it was chaotic and distressing, until, well, time passed and we were able to calm the emotions. The same thing will have happened with Gustavo, from now on. After being friends and bandmates for so long, both his separation and that of Horacio were not easy to live with. Then, over the years, we have seen each other, yes: I played a couple of times in his band, we have also met in Argentina, although it was not the most frequent of meetings, because I see Guillermo a lot more, to the point that we have recorded two albums together (Spaces, in 2013, and Imagining, in 2016) and we play a lot, both in Argentina and in the United States. With Gustavo, on the other hand, the frequency of meetings is much more sporadic, but We are in an excellent relationship.
-Better than in other times, by the way. What happened to make them lower a change?
-When we met the first times, we talked a lot, because it was something we both needed. I mean clarify, share, acknowledge and apologize for what had happened. As I said before, the separation was not easy because, as in any separation, emotions weighed heavily, given that Before being musicians we are human beings. In fact, when I met Gustavo, he immediately became my best friend… we were brothers, along with Guillermo. And we were in everything, in musical tastes, in playing soccer, in helping each other, in drinking mate… That’s why I say it wasn’t easy, because It was not a musical member who left the group but a friend. Over time, it was necessary to calm and cool down the emotions… it was necessary to reorganize not only musically but also humanly. Dana, Guillermo and I’s idea from that moment on was to continue with the lifestyle we had, and that is why we decided to continue with Arco Iris. Then, well, with Guillermo’s departure and Dana’s departure, I was left alone at the front of the group.
-What is the difference between the original Arco Iris, and “yours”, in addition to those generated by the games of its members?
-Let’s see, ours was always a union between a style and a philosophy of life, the result of a conviction regarding what we are as human beings, with similar music, and I maintain that philosophy, I still practice it in my life, and it always seemed to me that it was right to maintain that essence. That’s why I introduce myself as Ara Toklatian-Rainbow.
-And what happened musically, specifically?
-What in The Elementals, the album we recorded after Gustavo and Horacio left, there was a noticeable change, because we moved more towards the fusion between jazz and rock. But, although that album marked a temporary departure in the group’s original type of music, later we returned to incorporating rhythms from our folklore as it had been during the first part of the seventies. Given the use of sikus, pinkullos, quenas and moceños, We were returning to the primordial sound of Arco Iris… Somehow, those colors that characterized the band in the beginning, became present again in our daily sound.
Another vein of the post-1975 Rainbow was the sustained bond that, as stated, Ara maintained with Bordarampé and especially with Dana, with whom she lived until the day she left, and in whom she was inspired to conceive in 2012 from the garden, the band’s last album to date. “The album is called that because it is precisely about the garden that Dana created, seven, eight months before her death,” Ara narrates. “It is a kind of beautiful feng shui garden, which she made in the middle of the forest that surrounds the San Bernardino cabin, at the foot of a century-old cedar, with rocks, stones and pots containing very typical plants of the area. It is a small garden, no more than three by three, where she sometimes retired, until in her last hours, she began to observe from the window of her room, I imagine to meditate and leave her body to other places. under one goal: to feel free again.”