Orquesta Tipica

The Story

In 2001, a group of students at the School of Popular Music of Avellaneda, a working-class suburb of Buenos Aires, set out to create the first new Tango Orchestra in decades: the Orquesta Tipica Fernandez Fierro.The orchestra soon went from 4 to 12 members. Together, they explored and studied the genre as they improved their skills with their instruments. The next step was to reclaim the streets. Forced by the lack of venues to play and inspired by the unstoppable will to make the genre popular again, the orchestra pioneered playing in the streets of San Telmo -Buenos Aires more distinctive neighborhood.- Never before had this been attempted: thousands of porteños and tourists in Buenos Aires where surprised with an avalanche of music and the unique magnectity of the first and greatest orchestra of the new millenium.Fernandez Fierro quickly became the most popular Tango assemble of its generation, and its most militant as well. Despite their original success, the orchestra fiercely preserved its independence. They turned down a record deal with a multinational record label. They refused to become cozy with the city's government even if it costed their access to most of the officially sanctioned Tango festivals and venues. Instead, they self produced and released their albums -all of which sold enough units to, by industry standards, become a golden record.Not only has the orchestra encouraged and promoted the creation of more than a dozen other orchestras, but they have also found new venues for their music. In 2003, the orchestra was invited to play in their first European tour. Upon return, they opened the Club Atletico Fernandez Fierro. This quickly became the most important venue in town for young people to enjoy Tango.

Meeting them

"Orquesta Típica" started by accident when director/producer Nicolas Entel was walking through the streets of San Telmo one of Buenos Aires oldest neighborhoods. "Just as many other Argentineans my age, I didnt care much for tango until, by chance, I came across the Orquesta Típica Fernández Fierro playing on the street. First I saw twelve guys looking like wannabe rock-stars pushing a piano down the street. Then I heard them play. Their sound was as elaborate as it was raw and powerful filled with beauty and passion. It was love at first site. After that, I was also impressed by their political commitment and their understanding of music as a way of practicing cultural resistance.

Counterculture

I also discovered elements which have been historically linked to counterculture, from Dadá and cubism to jazz and punk-rock music: all these components were present in their re-interpretation of a Typical Orchestra and Tango, a genre more than a hundred years old. Finally, it was very important for me as a citizen of Buenos Aires to discover how deeply tango was rooted in my unconscious."