One year after Paseo del Bajo Vol. 2, published by Club del Disco on 9 December 2022, my friend and great source of musical inspiration Sebastián Tozzola has published the third volume of the series, Paseo del Bajo Vol. 3. Sebastián is an artist that the readers of this blog know very well: he is the bass clarinet soloist for the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, as well as a composer and, of course, an astonishing bass player. Along the years, Sebastián has gained a huge attention and has become endorser for important musical companies such as Ernie Ball Music Man (he plays several beautiful Music Man 5 string Stingray basses) and, more recently, Argentinian luthier company Ovcak Guitar based in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, which produces a couple of different signature 6-strings bass models for him. On the pages of this blog we covered both the first two episodes of Paseo del Bajo (here and here you can find our reviews, and here also the italian version of the Paseo del Bajo Vol. 1 review) and, at the beginning of this year, we also reviewed Mundo Trampa, his first, beautiful collaborative album with Argentinian guitarist and singer Manu Estrach. Among the albums from the Paseo del Bajo series, this third volume is the shortest (12 tracks for a total of about 22 minutes of music), most concise and tense: Paseo del Bajo Vol. 3 features all the elements that gave this series of albums its shape (south-American popular rhythms, massive doses of funk, an improvisational flow as impetuous as it is refined, flashes of jazz-fusion and elements coming from the great tradition of classical music), dispensed with measure in both instrumental and sung episodes, with particular attention to a taste that we could define as “pop”, in the noblest sense of the term.
The opening of the album is entrusted to the first single, Sambdombe Lup. In it, Sebastián magically blends the traditional candombe rhythms with the contagious joy released by samba: the song is a short and bright episode suspended between a highly crafted instrumental bass solo showcase and an hummed popular song. Besides having composed and singing the piece, Sebastián plays electric bass, keyboards and percussion, while the other Brazilian percussions (pandeiros and cuicas) are played by Santiago Benitez. In the bucolic episode of Miniatura al Rio N°3, Fabian “Sapo” Miodownik duets on drums with the fretless bass played by Sebastián over a cascade of keyboards chords: the bass has accents reminding the best lines by masters such as Jaco, and the song is an irresistible rush that seems to mimic that of the waters along the river, which I suppose is the Rio de la Plata. Vengo llevando (also featuring Miodownik on drums) is an open-hearted ballad tinged with pleasant sounds from the great tradition of Argentine popular music: here Sebastián sings, plays his wonderful electric bass tricks, and most of all delights with an astonishing piano solo, filled with melancholic jazz overtones. Afrombé del Plata is a short and deeply percussive episode (one of many that come across the tracklist), featuring a rhythmic bass near to afro-funk superimposed to some harmonics groove and another, precious solo phrasing. In Chacarera del Descarriao’, also Manu Estrach makes an appearance, duetting with Sebastián: this haunting ballad presents a series of elements that make it similar to many of the songs heard in Mundo Trampa, and it seems to hear also a tender, mellow bass clarinet line underlying the lyrics, written by Tozzola himself. Chacarera del Descarriao’ is in fact an episode of popular south-American songwriting, that enters a long and rich tradition of such folk-ballad, already widely honored in the previous albums of the Paseo del Bajo series and, obviously, in Mundo Trampa. The odd time signature of Viaje a California (powered again by Miodownik on drums) represents the perfect opportunity for Sebastián to make his magical fretless sing, with a sound as broad and warm as it is perfectly defined, rhythmic and melodic at the same time: Viaje a California is an episode with almost cinematic tones, and the bass tone on several moments seems to return to the glorious sound heard on Jaco albums. The short piece Miniatura al Sol N°2 is another perfect showcase for Sebastián astonishing expressivity on his instrument, and introduces to the asymmetric milonga titled Pa’ llegá’ tu alma, built on drums played by Fabian “Sapo” Miodownik, Victor Aguirre and Tozzola himself. Pa’ llegá’ tu alma features one of the most beautiful bass solos of the album, a jewel of both rhythmic scansion and melodic phrasing, split in half by one of the verses. The album closes on four short, beautiful glimpses, four brilliant instrumental movements: first, the jazzy flavour of the beautiful Microcandombe Nro 3, which blends candombe rhythm and jazz piano notes clusters; second, the fiery funk of Microcandome Nro 4, vibrant with fusion accents; then, Fantasía candombe pa’l Maza pays a due tribute to the tutelary deity of the Uruguayan bassist Daniel Maza, one of Sebastián‘s major musical references; and, finally, Paseo del Bajo Vol. 3 closes on the deep funk accents of the short and explosive 34 vueltas.
The journey of Paseo del Bajo Vol. 3 into the canon of traditional South American rhythms and melodies is declined, slight differently than along the previous episodes, with particular attention to synthesis and the search for handles that, previously, I defined as “pop in the sense more noble than the term”. Don’t misunderstand me: Paseo del Bajo Vol. 3 is not a pop record in the mainstream sense of the term, but it is a work in which, alongside sound research, homage to rhythmic tradition (the usual, delicious abundance of rhythms from Argentina and, more generally, South America) and the passionate phrasing that distinguishes Sebastián Tozzola‘s style, we find episodes of luminous melody, similar to that sort of cultured pop that could already be heard in an album like the recent Mundo Trampa. Sebastián is a musician from another planet in terms of awareness, smoothness of sound, and obviously expressiveness (as I have said several times): here, much more than in previous works, his skills as a pianist can also be fully appreciated, contributing to the image of a total musician, as much a composer and lyricist as an interpreter and performer. I cannot be more curious to see what will follow this Paseo del Bajo series (which, if I understood correctly, was initially thought to be composed of a total of three volumes): the continues evolution of Sebastián’s sound, which can be heard across the three albums, leads towards unknown territories, in which Sebastián gives the impression of being able to take any direction, covering them all with equal enthusiasm and expertise. Can’t wait to hear more music and, why not?, maybe to have the occasion to see Sebastián play live in Italy also: if there is a musician who deserves to see his own stage grow, it undoubtedly is this young artist who, in a period in which I was not at peace with my sound (and with my fretless), reminded me what the sound that made me fall in love with my instrument was, pushing me to go back to studying, to improve myself, to grow.
If, despite my numerous suggestions, you have never listened to Sebastián Tozzola‘s music, Paseo del Bajo Vol. 3 is perhaps the best album to start with: let yourself be led by the hand through rhythms that (unfortunately) we Europeans know little about, until you fall in love with a piece of the world filled with splendid music and extraordinary musicians. Paseo del Bajo Vol. 3 is in fact a wonderful manifesto for what we sometimes call “world music”, an exciting and rich mix of popular traditions and modernity wrapped in a sound as thunderous as nostalgic, graceful as a verse by Borges (and, as a tradition, it is one of his poems that gives the title to this review) or a dance step, impetuous like the currents of Rio de la Plata but, most of all, as inspiring as only the great music can be.