Those of you who follow this blog know almost everything about Sebastián Tozzola: he is an Argentinian musician, who serves as bass clarinet soloist for the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, as well as a composer and an astonishing bass player. I came across Sebastián in 2019 through his Instagram, and I’ve started following him since then, keeping in touch as much as I can: I consider Sebastián a great inspiration to me as a bass player, and over the years I had the pleasure to discover a beautiful person behind the astonishing musician and virtuoso. Sebastián is now also an Ernie Ball Music Man artist, strenghtening his partnership with the American company by playing on some beautiful 5-strings Music Man basses. He has a collaboration with 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, and he’s contributing to a number of projects with different musicians and ensambles in Argentina (for example, a duo featuring singer/guitarist/songwriter Manu Estrach: their first album will be released during this December).
On December 9, two years after Paseo del Bajo Vol. 1 (I wrote about this album in 2020 and, in an english translation, a couple of weeks ago), Sebastián Tozzola released a follow up, Paseo del Bajo Vol. 2, containing eighteen tracks and a total of 40 minutes of new music (as the first one, published via Club del Disco editions). I had the pleasure and the opportunity to listen to Paseo del Bajo Vol. 2 a few days before its official release date, and I think it’s a work well above the average of the music released in this 2022, full of rhythms and colours to which, as Europeans, we are not so accustomed, and beautiful, melancholic melodies bringing to mind the South American landscapes depicted in the verses and pages of many great writers such as Roberto Bolaño or Jorge Luis Borges (to name a few). It’s not a case that I titled my review of Paseo del Bajo Vol. 1 after a few verses by Borges himself, in an attempt to express in words the sense of magic surrounding our own idea (a romantic idea, and probably heavily idealized, but yet no less fascinating) of South America and its moods and colours; and it should not be surprising that I choose to do the same with this short text, related to the second volume of Paseo del Bajo. As you may expect, Sebastián’s music actually features those typical South American sounds and feelings, also heard on the previous album: an intriguing mezcla of jazz, tango and typical Argentinian forms (bolero, milonga) and grooves (mainly the candombe), played with a thunderous yet delicate phrasing and an exquisite taste for classical-like counterpoint and vibes (probably derived from his experience as a bass clarinet player).
Paseo del Bajo Vol. 2 alternates fast, inspired sketches, a series of short beautiful musical glimpses, to more conventional tracks, both sung and instrumental, which directly refer to the tradition of South American music. Along the tracklist there is a large number of reinterpretations of songs from the classical Argentinian repertoire, often sung by Sebastián himself and freshly rearranged for his virtuoso bass playing.
The short opening track, Miniatura al Sol Nro 1, is a smooth and groovy instrumental piece, with a melodic line largely played on bass harmonics. The following El tiempo Lo Dirà is instead a classic tune, realized in a more conventional song form: it is entirely built on the melody played by Sebastián on his fretless, which outlines sinuous curves reminiscent of the Rio de la Plata, the famous river from which this song draws its inspiration. On El Tiempo Lo Dirà, Sebastián plays bass and sings with the support of a full band featuring Julián Marcos on drums, Hernan Barone on keyboards and Yoni Campos on guitar: bass phrasing here astonishes for its powerful expressiveness, wonderful touch and precious sense of musicality. Miniatura al Rio Nro 1 and Nro 2, despite being evidently connected by the same title and inspiration, manifest two quite different moods: the first one pensive and soulful, dominated by an emotional fretless bassline over a piano arpeggio, while the second one joyful and groovy, featuring an emotional crescendo. Chayita del Vidalero is the first of a series of beautiful reinterpretation of classic pieces from the Argentinian folklore. The original song, written by Ramón Navarro, is here rearranged for bass and piano (played by Leandro Marquesano, also on guitar), featuring a vocal duet by Tozzola and Manu Estrach. Bach invención a 2 voces Nro 3 is a mesmerizing study on contrapunctual forms, with two intersecting bass voices chasing each other over the short composition. Eiti Leda comes from the self-titled debut album of the Argentinian progressive-rock supergroup Serú Girán: this reinterpretation consists of a short reprise of the main theme, featuring Emiliano Gimenéz on drums. The great tradition of boleros also finds its spot on Paseo del Bajo Vol. 2, starting with Grillo De Campo, a romantic ballad feauturing the voice of Sebastián and a beautiful bass solo during the instrumental break. Grillo De Campo gracefully introduces to the fast arpeggios of El Mercedino, another bass and percussion reinterpretation of a classic song, in this case a piece by the guitar duo Alfonso y Zabala. Alfredo Alfonso and José Adimanto Inocencio Zabala were two of the most important artists of the guitarras cuyana Argentinian folklore, that takes its name from the Cuyo mountainous region in central-west Argentina. Huaynero features suggestive and mystical vibes, and it’s a ballad centred on a delicate dialogue between the bass and the charango (a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family) played by Nicolás Segovia, with the contribution of Alejandro Salamanca on percussions: the song is the perfect example of an intriguing mix between traditional music and contemporary moods, a perfect picture of the vibes that irradiates from the whole abum. Microcandombe Nro 1 and Nro 2 are again two short sketches, intimately related yet manifesting an opposite mood, as for the previous couple of identically titled songs: the first one is a minute-long wild percussive candombe, with a few, sparse piano notes providing an ideal layer to the beautifully expressive bass of Sebastián; the second one features a brilliant cascade of bass note and harmonics. Silencio, a reinterpretation of a song by the Puertorican composer Rafael Hernández Marín, is an amazing bolero sung by Sebastián together with Ángeles Braceras: four minutes that have all the simplicity and effectiveness of the best pop music, filled with nostalgic romance and grace and further embellished by Sebastián‘s sweet bass clarinet solo. Al pié is another short piece of joyful and groovy music, a merengue-impromptu dominated by the warm touch of Sebastián on bass, while La Pomeña re-proposes another classic piece of Argentinian folklore, originally composed by Gustavo “Cuchi” Leguizamón. Musically speaking, La Pomeña features a beautiful melody, and Sebastián’s version is enriched by his dreamy sounding Music Man fretless bass. The fretless bass is the main act also on Reflexoleando, an instrumental track in which Sebastián plays all the parts (drums apart, played by Julián Marcos) and, above all, lets his magnificent fretless bass sing. Reflexoleando has a dreamy sound, and Sebastián‘s fretless gets real close to a lyricism that reminds us of the greatest of all time, Jaco Pastorius: an idyll that is also a perfect balm for the soul. The last short episode in the tracklist is 33 Vueltas, where Sebastián finally slaps the bass (and, as you may easily imagine, he is incredibly great at slapping too), an ideal introduction to the last song, Vaivén, another original composition by the Argentinian musician. Vaivén is built around a beautiful melodic theme exposed by the fretless bass, and has a peculiar mood that melds together the Argentinian folklore and the modes and shapes of pop music: the song ends in a conclusive, beautifully played bass clarinet solo.
Paseo del Bajo Vol. 2 has to be considered as a journey inside the folklore of traditional Argentinian music, read and interpreted by a sublime musician through his electric bass: a work on harmonies and melodies that brings South American folklore into contemporary music, melding the sounds of tradition with inspirations ranging from classical music to jazz, from fusion to pop. Sebastián Tozzola is an artist of profound sensitivity, endowed with a truly extraordinary touch and expressiveness, and I have no hesitation in considering him as one of the great contemporary interpreters of the electric bass. His musical culture and artistic vision are practically boundless, and allow him to keep together within his music the will and desire for experimentation and the love for the musical idiom of his home tradition: the capability to meld together these driving forces is what empower his musical wisdom, decisively contributing to make of Paseo del Bajo Vol. 2 an album that is both welcoming and surprising, warm and courageous. Following the steps of other great musicians such as Daniel Maza (to name but one), Sebastián digs down into tradition to its heart, bringing to light its strength and modernity and illuminating new paths to be crossed. Music as a place of ideas: delving into the album’s tracks is both a comfortable and inspiring experience, and I’ve lost count of how many things I’ve encountered in these songs that before I didn’t know at all. I believe that, besides the exquisite bass playing and the beautiful songs, this is the very important aspect of Sebastián’s work, its being a precious opportunity to discover something completely new. At the end of the game, this is what great music (such as every great art) is intended to be.