2024-08-01 03:01:00
When Ligia Piro became a mother 17 years ago, she felt that there were no quiet places in Buenos Aires where she could meet up with friends to chat and share some time. “The subject of motherhood gave me more of a sense of tranquility. You would enter a place and they would turn up the volume of the music,” the singer recalls. So, she came up with the idea of making an album that would encourage meeting, listening and calm. That is how it was born. Thirteen love songs (2008), a stripped-down album permeated by the “tone and color” of jazz with the participation of guitarist Ricardo Lew. With that album, he toured different corners of the country and it brought him many satisfactions. For this reason, in 2019 Piro made the decision to tackle the second part with Lew, but the pandemic put a stop to the plans for a while. Finally, at the end of 2023 they went into Estudios ION to bring it to life. Volume 2 (2024), a beautiful work, with guitar and voice, which will be released in full on digital platforms this Friday.
So far, three singles have been released: “LOV,E.”, “Blackbird” and “It’s a lovely day today”, with a special participation from his ten-year-old daughter, Elisa. “We had some unfinished material left during the pandemic. And when we were able to go into ION to record, we started all over again. We have felt very comfortable there all our lives, because it is a studio where my whole family has recorded,” says Piro, in relation to his family lineage: it is daughter of the tango singer Susana Rinaldi and the bandoneon player, orchestra director and composer Osvaldo Piro. The repertoire of the new album It ranges from jazz standards to pop classics from the 60s and 70s.desde “What a wonderful world” hasta “Fever” y “Your song”. También hay versiones de “Tenderly”, “I got the world on a string”, “Nature boy”, “Prelude to a kiss”, “If you leave now”, “Just the way you are” y “Sunny”.
The album, in general, is built with a subtle, warm and austere sound that allows the two main instruments to stand out: Piro’s versatile voice and Lew’s virtuoso guitar. Thirteen songs flow in this way, without losing the variety of moods and intensities. “A very rustic thing, almost as if we could be there live with the person who is listening,” says the singer, who will present the album. Mondays in August (5, 12, 19 and 26) at 8pm at Bebop (Uriarte 1658), with Oscar Giunta on drums and Pablo Motta on double bass, in addition to Lew“I love bands, I’m a Prince fan. I love that huge sound and also orchestras. But here the initial concept was something smaller: to have the guitar and the voice in evidence to share all that infinite music,” she explains. “Live, we are like naked. It’s like returning to the place where we were born. We have been filled with so much technology… welcome, because we need it, but there are times when we have to stop and reset.”
-The album is permeated by jazz, both in the repertoire and in the place of interpretation. Is it a music that has accompanied you since you were a child, just like tango?
-I don’t usually sing tangos. I do it this way, as I just did with my dad at the La Falda Festival (last week), because it was an invitation he made me with his orchestra. And these are moments of crossing that nourish me a lot as an artist. But I chose jazz to perform when I started singing. Because it was a genre that caught my attention when I was very young. There was a lot of material in my house and I started listening to that music because when I was eight years old I liked the cover of a Billie Holiday album. I started listening to it and something made me think of my grandmother’s voice. I was also connecting with English, because I had changed schools and I had that language there. That also helped me get into a language that I didn’t know through the songs. When I finished high school I started studying theater and also at the national music conservatory. I went for a very short time but there I started to connect academically with music.
-So jazz is your territory of belonging as an artist?
-Yes, as a base, yes. Then I made a very big break with my disc. The good flowers (2011), in which I started working with Popi Spatocco as a music producer and opened another door to something that was fundamental for me: Argentine and Latin American music. That includes folk music, which I also spent a lot of time doing. I started to expand my repertoire without leaving jazz aside, because it’s something I like a lot. But within Argentine music, I started singing things by Spinetta and getting into Cuchi Leguizamón’s repertoire. I try to move the different albums and repertoires all the time.
-And how did you put together the repertoire for the new album? What does a song have to have for you to choose to perform it?
-Music is something that moves me a lot and there are melodies that are obviously made up of harmonies that generate physical sensations in me. From there I begin to investigate the songs. In this particular album, all of them talk about love and they are all well-known. Some, like Billy Joel’s, I had heard a long time ago and in this case they were suggested by Ricardo. I always talk about what moves me because music touches very particular fibers in people. For me as a performer, that is a trigger and an essential driving force. The choice this time came very slowly. For example, “Prelude to a Kiss” is a song I heard many years ago and when Diane Schuur came to Argentina I went to see her because I thought her voice was wonderful. Afterwards she sat down at the piano and sang a whole repertoire alone and then in a trio format. It was something beautiful, like a gift that I felt she was giving to the public. And then that song appeared, which I had heard a long time ago by Ella Fitzgerald but when I heard it live by Diane I knew that one day I was going to sing it.
-The Beatles appear often in your repertoire too.
-This time, the Beatles’ “Blackbird” was chosen, because it’s a song I love. I did a cover of “Get Back” in the past and I sing “Yesterday” from time to time. These are songs that are already part of the world and when you sing them, people recognize them. “If You Leave Me Now”, for example, wouldn’t have occurred to me, Ricardo suggested it. On the other hand, I was looking for a song to sing with my daughter Elisa and “It’s a Lovely Day Today” came up, which is cheerful. She wanted to sing with me. So, we looked for one that we both liked and that was easy for us.
-Did Elisa and I plan to do a song together?
-She wanted to sing with me live. So, I suggested that we do a recording. I didn’t know if the song would be included. I chose a jazz song because I thought the melody was easier for a girl. She sings it with a lot of swing, the truth is that my daughter surprised me. She wants to appear on stage. She already did it twice with me in Mar del Plata and now she will surely be at one of Bebop’s shows.
-How important is it for you to bring something different to the song you cover? Is it necessary to find your voice there?
-Of course. It’s your version, it’s not like any other. It’s your vision on the subject. The song is a story to tell and I believe that as a performer I tell a story.And the melody takes you by itself. Spinetta often said that he wrote the melodies and then found the lyrics that would go into that melody, as if it were something destined. I don’t compose much, I do it very much behind closed doors. But I got into that world during the pandemic. When it comes to telling that story and singing that song, the melody is a starting point to start talking about a situation that happened to someone else or to yourself. And that version, that interpretation, is yours forever, it is the legacy that you leave behind. Composers, when they deliver a song and create a work, already know that this is going to happen. It is a way of giving your life to share these types of experiences. Then, in the live performance, you balance the tempos and rhythms. You have to make it pleasing to the ear and try not to make it tedious. Always try to make everything bearable for the person who listens. That is the absolute responsibility of the artist.
-How do you see the general state of culture in the country at this moment?
-The artist always has something to say. And he has to keep up with the times. It is not an obligation, but in general he keeps up with the times and the ups and downs of the context. The artist has a drive that does not let him stop and he needs to express himself. My view is collective, I do not conceive life in any other way. I have work and I generate work, I produce everything I do. It is a chain that does not stop. From the moment the owner of the theater or the club opens there is a ticket seller who is collecting a salary, there are ushers, waiters, cooks. Right now there are colleagues of mine who are having a hard time and many do not make ends meet. And that is very hard for culture. The State could provide a little more support, but this requires a more sensitive look at the cultural situation in the country. It’s hard for us, but we have to keep rowing. It’s what we have to do. There is always a crisis, the purse strings are tight and artists are the first to start to suffer from this situation in terms of work. Sometimes we row in dulce de leche but in my case I could never stay still. And if the situation were so pressing I think I would end up standing singing in a square with a bass drum and a cap.