Albert Combrink

Table Bay Hotel Jazz Brunch Presents: Louise Howlett and Albert Combrink

Sunday 1 May 2011

12:30 PM

Where: The Conservatory at the Table Bay

Breakwater Boulevard
Quay 6
V & A Waterfront

Cost: Full Buffet – R225 per person

Bookings Essential: Tel: (+27+21) 406 5988

The programme presented by the Vocal & Piano Duo will include a generous selection of Jazz Standards as well as tracks taken from their CD Night Sessions.

Enjoy a great meal and some great jazz in a spectacular venue.

Kaapse Tango

CT Tango Ensemble presents their New Show at the Klein Karoo Nationale Kunstefees.

Dates & Times:

04/04/2011 20h30
05/04/2011 10h00
06/04/2011 09h30
07/04/2011 12h30

Duration of Show : 90 Mins

Tickets: R85 (On sale through Computicket or the Festival Booking Tent)

Do not miss this concert performance during the well-established festival in Oudtshoorn. CT Tango Ensemble is not a new-comer at KKNK. After successful appearances at the festival in 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006 great appearances, it was time to return. Almost half of the program will be of original compositions by Charles Lazar & Stanislav Angelov. The Ensemble will appear in a slightly different format to suit the theme and title of this show.

Stanislav Angelov – Bandoneon & Accordion
Willie van Zyl - Saxophones, Clarinet & more
Albert Combrink – Piano
Charles Lazar – Double Bass

VENUE:
Oudtshoorn Courant Noordsaal
Crn. of Hoop & 2nd Street
Oudtshoorn, South Africa

CT Tango Ensemble & Guests at Oude Libertas Amphitheater (Feb 2011)

To read more, go to the show’s page on the KKNK Website.

To book, go to Computicket:

CDs for sale after the show. “Tango Club” 2010 “El Tango en Africa” 2003

THE CT TANGO ENSEMBLE IN CONCERT

When: 6 March

Time: 18:30 - 20:00

Where: Oude Libertas Amphitheater

Photo: Jenny Altschuler

Come and join us under the stars in the Stellenbosch jewel, the wonderful open-air OUde Libertas Amphitheater.

After the tremendous success of our sold-out “Tango Club: MILONGA on Stage” at the Baxter Concert Hall and the V&A Waterfront Amphitheater, we bring you:

MILONGA on Stage @ Oude Libertas

We will present a range of music: Traditional Tangos to Tango Nuevo of Astor Piazzolla as well as some of our Original Compositions.

MILONGA on Stage is for people who love to dance the Tango and for people who love Music. Come and listen to the music and watch some of Cape Town’s best Tangueros and Tangueras strut their steps.

Come and have a glass of delicious wine and immerse yourself in the wonderful sounds of The Cape Town Tango Ensemble.

The line up is as follows:

Stanislav Angelov – Bandoneon & Accordion
Albert Combrink – Piano
Elina Koytcheva – Violin
Charles Lazar – Double Bass

Guest Artists:

Willie van Zyl – Saxophone & Clarinet
Michael Hoole – Guitar
Frank Paco – Drums

Book your ticket at the theater (021 809 7380/ 021 809 7473) or go directly to Computicket:

Also visit the event page on the Oude Libertas Home Page

For further information please call:

Stanislav 083 6015751

CDs “Tango Club” & “El Tango en Africa” on sale after the show.

Love is in the air or, in our case, in the water! On Monday 14 February, we’re opening our doors to the romantics, the in-loves, the love-you-forevers and the where-have-you-been-all-my-life to celebrate Valentine’s Day under the watchful eye of ragged-tooth sharks, a turtle called Yoshi and shoals of shimmering fish. Book your romantic aquatic celebration and enjoy dinner either in front of the magnificent I&J Predator Exhibit or the mesmerising Kelp Forest Exhibit.

Photo: Dagney Warmerdam

You are invited to relax, take in the scenery and the esteemed company while enjoying a delectable three-course meal and great live music. There are six areas in the Aquarium to choose from. Each area has a varying number of two-seater tables offering different views into the spectacular exhibits. Pricing for tables in the I&J Predator Exhibit and the Kelp Forest Exhibit range from R300 per person to R350 per person. All prices include a three-course dinner, live music by Vocalist Louise Howlett and Pianist Albert Combrink, and welcome drinks.

I&J Predator Exhibit pit: R350 per person

I&J Predator Exhibit tunnel: R350 per person

Kelp Forest pit: R350 per person

Lower I&J Predator Exhibit: R325 per person

Upper Kelp Forest Exhibit: R325 per peper person

Upper I&J Predator Exhibit: R300 per person

Make it a group outing! We are also offering a group of friends the opportunity to celebrate their friendship on Valentine’s Day. The captivating Tranquility, with its view into the Kelp Forest Exhibit, is available as an exclusive venue for between six and 12 people. If a one-on-one Valentine’s is just not your thing, bring your friends or family and make a party of it. The exclusive use of Tranquility is priced at R400 per person.

To book and/or enquire about Tranquility for Valentine’s Day, please call our Members’ Centre on 021 418 3823. This option can’t be booked online.

Read more HERE.

V & A Waterfront - Intimate Indoor Entertainment: Albert Combrink and Louise Howlett: Night Sessions

Albert Combrink has had a long and fruitful musical career – he was répétiteur for The Magic Flute on London’s West End and is a member of the Cape Town Tango Ensemble. Louise Howlett – known simply as “the singing lady” –  performs all sorts of styles, from classical to broadway from opera to jazz. Join us at the V&A Waterfront two see these two musicians at work.

Location: Victoria Wharf Shopping Centre
Cost: None

Contact details

• Contact Name:V&A Waterfront Information Centre
• Email: info@waterfront.co.za
• Telephone: +27 (0)21 408 7600

Dates/times

• Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 7:00pm – 8:30pm
• Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 7:00pm – 8:30pm
• Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 7:00pm – 8:30pm
• Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 7:00pm – 8:30pm

Visit the Waterfront Website HERE

Los Mareados (Music: Juan Carlos Cobian /Enrique Cadicamo (1900-1999)

Performed live by the CT Tango Ensemble:

Juan Simon – Voice
Stanislav Angelov – Accordion
Jacek Domagala – Violin
Albert Combrink – Piano

Filmed during the run of Tango Show El Beso – December 2004 at The Little Theatre – Cape Town, produced by El Cacha Tango Company, directed by Heinrich Reisenhofer (www.elcacha.com)

Juan Carlos Cobian

A deceptively simple little Tango, Los Mareados starts with a quasi-recitative, building to a very dramatic climax. It’s composer, pianist and tango-innovator Juan Carlos Cobian (1896-1953), was born in Pigüé, Buenos Aires. His fame rests on both his playing as a pianist, and his compositions. He was perhaps the first to fill in the bass line with embellishments when the melody rests. This practise was later taken up by other masters such as Francisco de Caro. Alongside the composer Enrique Delfino, Cobian was the main creator of the so-called “Tango-Romanza”. Born of Spanish father and Argentine mother, he showed early pianistic promise imitating the lessons of his sister Delores, who encouraged her parents to let her younger brother take lessons as well. After graduating from the “Conservatorio Williams” at the age of 17, he did the rounds in Buenos Aires playing for silent movies and beer houses until landing a job with the best paid bandoneonist of the time, Genaro Esposito. He was arrested for evading military service, but the time to good use, writing a number of tangos.

“Tango-poet” Enrique Cadicamo

Novelist and “Tango-poet” Enrique Cadicamo (1900-1999), born  Luján, Buenos Aires, was an early prize-winner of the Max Glücksmann competition for new tangos. His lyrics are rich in the Lunfardo style. Lunfardo is not so much a Latin dialect of Spanish, as it is a specific use of a “sub-set” of that language, rich in imagery that might be lost on the audience – or not, depending on how one is using it. Lunfardo is frequently found in the lyrics of Tangos, supplying nuances and double-entendres with overtones of sex, drugs and the criminal underworld. It is an integral part of the Spanish spoken in Argentina, Uruguay, even parts of Paraguay and Chile. But for all practical purposes, Lunfardo is not understood by the general Spanish speakers from other countries. In the mouths of some, Lunfardo is mere slang. In the pen of Cadicamo, it’s power even attracted the ire of censorship.

Buenos Aires 1943

From “Los dopados” to “Los Mareados” to “En mi passado” and back again.

Cobian originally composed Los Mareados as an instrumental tango. The lyrics were added by Raúl Doblas and Alberto Weisbach for use in the play “Los Dopados” (The doped) which premièred in Buenos Aires in 1922. The acidic text describes two lovers breaking up and swearing to get angrily and madly drunk together on “Champagne that kills your little soul”. The show was soon forgotten.

Two decades later, Cadicamo heard an old record of the song with Cobian himself on the piano. He wrote new words, repeating the central theme of the bitter champagne-drinking break-up. So, in 1942 Los Mareados was recorded again and was an instant hit on the local radio stations. But not for long: just three years before Juan Domingo Perón became president, the military government clamped down on Lunfardo elements in all forms of public life. Suspect literature and music were banned, and Los Mareados was no longer allowed radio play.

Eva & Juan Perón

Cadicamo, locked in an office with an intimidating armed military official, was “requested” to rewrite the lyrics. And so, the tame “En mi pasado” was born. No more drunken Champagne-tinged skirmishes: the lovers part calmly and without sex, alcohol or violence.

Los Mareados was only heard in its original form again in 1949. A delegation of poets and musicians begged for a special hearing with the president of the nation, General Juan Domingo Perón. Perón was swayed by the passion of a group that included the greats Anibal Troilo and Francisco Canaro, and lifted the ban.

Los Mareados Lyrics (Cadicamo) in the original Spanish (and Lunfardo)

Rara.. como encendida te hallé bebiendo linda y fatal…
Bebías y en el fragor del champán, loca, reías por no llorar…
Pena Me dio encontrarte pues al mirarte yo vi brillar
tus ojos con un eléctrico ardor, tus bellos ojos que tanto adoré…

Esta noche, amiga mía, el alcohol nos ha embriagado…
¡Qué importa que se rían y nos llamen los mareados!
Cada cual tiene sus penas y nosotros las tenemos…
Esta noche beberemos porque ya no volveremos a vernos más…

Hoy vas a entrar en mi pasado, en el pasado de mi vida…
Tres cosas lleva mi alma herida: amor… pesar… dolor…
Hoy vas a entrar en mi pasado y hoy nuevas sendas tomaremos…
¡Qué grande ha sido nuestro amor!…
Y, sin embargo, ¡ay!, mirá lo que quedó…

Ave. de Mayofe - Buenos Aires c.1930

Los Mareados Lyrics (Cadicamo) in a very loose English Translation by Albert Combrink

How strange! As if you were on fire, I found you drinking - contagious and fatal.
You drank, and in the noise of the Champaign, you were crazy – laughing so that you did not cry.
It pained me to see you like that, your brilliant eyes shooting an electric bolt – your beautiful eyes that I adored.

Tonight, my friend, alcohol will be our friend. What matters is that we be inebriated, and we recall how intoxicated we used to be.
Everyone has sorrows, and we have ours.
Tonight we will drink, because we can no longer see  who we used to be.
Today you enter my past – part of the history of my life.

My soul takes three things with it: Love, a Scale, and Pain.
Today you enter my past. We will take new paths.
How great was our love.
And yet, despite everything, our love looks at what is used to be.

Download Free Sheet Music of “Los Mareados” in a piano arrangement by Tango Pianist and Arranger Rogelio Marra.

Like a Half-darkened theater

Both Howlett and Combrink wear more than one hat in the music world. He is a superb and humble accompanist and does his part almost unnoticed. Then he can be very flamboyant when he performs with the CT Tango Ensemble. She drifts effortlessly from classical to musicals to jazz.

For this album they chose ballads and timeless songs. The CD conjures up a half-darkened, small theatre. The pianist is probably wearing a hat, and the singer is in a black dress. In this atmosphere the work of Sondheim, Cole Porter and Edith Piaf fit snugly.

The most beautiful song on the album is Song to the Moon – Dvorak can be sung.

This is an album for a niche market, but will reward anyone who quietly sits and listens to it.

Mariana Malan

Die Burger (Also Published concurrently in Die Beeld)

Friday 26 November 2010.

CT Tango Ensemble performing Julian Plaza’s Payadora live at the 2008 Paulaner October Music Festival Cape Town’s V & A Waterfront. The CD was also recorded on their second Album, Tango Club (launched March 2010)

CT Tango Ensemble
Stanislav Angelov – Accordion,
Albert Combrink – Keyboard
Jacek Domagala – Violin
Dave Ridgway – Double Bass

Read more about Julian Plaza’s delightful milonga, Payadora HERE

Recorded live & produced by Marek Pinski from CDXpress (pinski@iafrica.com)

To buy their CDs or book the Ensemble go to: www.goodmusic.co.za

Photo: J. Altschuler

GRAND TANGO SALON at 6 SPIN STREET RESTAURANT
SATURDAY20th NOVEMBER 2010

8.00 pm till late

A Grand Tango Salon, presented by Mark Hoeben and featuring the glorious live music of the Cape Town Tango Ensemble, takes place at the well-established venue 6 Spin Street Restaurant on Saturday 20th November.

Cover charge R100

This elegant, beautiful setting with its evocation of grand style is the perfect backdrop to Mark’s selection of fine tango dancing music, setting the tone for two sets by the renowned Cape Town Tango Ensemble.

●Restaurant and fully licensed cash bar open from 7pm
●Dancing from 8pm
●Live music by the CT Tango Ensemble from 9pm

6 Spin Street Restaurant offers a special set menu with advance reservation discount 2 course menu: R125.00 offered at R110.00 (starter & main, or main & dessert) 3 course menu R160.00 offered at R140.00 if you phone or email with your reservation in advance.

Enquiries, bookings and dinner reservations: reservations@6spinstreet.co.za – 021 461 0666

Mark Hoeben & Zdenka Buriankova

Saturday 20th November Dinner Set Menu:

Gazpacho or Salmon trout fish cake on a creamy dill mustard sauce or Thai beef salad ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊
Chicken with roast lemon sauce and baby potatoes or Fresh linefish on a bed of rocket with olive, fennel and orange dressing or Mushroom and cashew nut curry with basmati rice
◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊
Summer pudding with lemon verbena cream or Brandied panna cotta with orange caramel or Chocolate nougat terrine with hazelnut crème anglaise Menu available from 7pm to late.

Two courses: R125.00 (starter & main, or main & dessert)
Three courses: R160.00 Advance dinner bookings pay R110/R140 respectively
Fully licensed bar throughout evening with small snack menu (chilli nuts, olives), coffees, chocolate truffles

6 SPIN STREET RESTAURANT
6 Spin Street, ground floor facing Church Square central Cape Town GPS co-ordinates -33.925437, 18.421170

Enquiries, bookings and dinner reservations: reservations@6spinstreet.co.za 021 461 0666

The following information is by Bill Brent and was published originally in the Weekly Bugle.

Thought you’d be interested in the story of Blue Moon.

Bill Brent

Blue Moon was the only Rodgers and Hart song to become a hit, that was not written for a  show or movie; but Blue Moon has a remarkable history.  The lyric that we are familiar  with was the fourth… here’s the story:

Rodgers and Hart were under contract to MGM for about a month when they were given the  task of writing songs for the “Hollywood Party”.  They were told every MGM star would  be in it, Disney was making a technicolor cartoon to stick in the middle of it, and it  was to be the big screwball comedy “to end all screwball comedies”  to quote Richard Rodgers…   “One of our ideas was to include a scene in which Jean Harlow is shown as an innocent  young girl saying – or rather singing- her prayers.  How the sequence fitted into the movie  I haven’t the foggiest notion, but the purpose was to express Jean’s overwhelming ambition  to become a movie star (‘Oh Lord, if you’re not busy up there,/I ask for help with a prayer/  So please don’t give me the air…’).”     The scene was never shot, no sound checks were ever made, and in fact, only three  of the dozen or so Rodgers and Hart songs written for the film made it to the screen.  So MGM Song #225 is dated June 14, 1933, and was registered for copy-right as an  unpublished work by MGM, JULY 10, 1933.  The remarkable saga of “Prayer” epitomizes  what Rodgers and Hart went througn when they were under contract to Metro.

"Blue Moon" - Melissa Sadie Wright (permission to use requested)

In its second life the “Prayer”/”Blue Moon” tune was given a new lyric and  became the title song of the 1934 MGM film Manhatian Melodrama, which starred Clark  Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Leo Carillo, and was the movie that John Dillinger  had been watching when he was gunned down outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.  It was registered for copyright as an unpublished work by Metro-Goidwyn Mayer, March 30,  1934. So Hart wrote a lyric for the song to be used as the title song (played either before  or during the opening credits of the Movie)… But before “High Noon”, you just didn’t have  too many title songs, so “Its Just That Kind of a Play” AKA The Manhattan Melodrama was cut.

Rodgers liked the melody and when MGM asked for a nightclub number for “Manhattan Melodrama”,  he had Hart write new lyrics and “Prayer (Oh Lord, make me a movie star)” became “The bad  in every man” sung by Shirley Ross.  The song made it into the film but did not become a hit.   The press kit shows sheet music on the song, but I’ve never run across any.

It was Rodgers & Hart’s publisher, Jack Robbins who told them he thought the song would be a  hit, if Hart could make it more commercial.  Hart was reluctant to write a fourth lyric, but  Robbins swore he’d plug the song from California to Maine.  Hart caved in and wrote “Blue Moon”.  Robbins “gave” it to the “Hollywood Hotel”, a radio program that used it as their theme, and  on January 15, 1934 He had Connie Boswell record it for Columbia.     Blue Moon turned up in at least seven other MGM motion pictures including “Marx Brothers  At The Circus” and “Viva Las Vegas”.

PRAYER

Oh, Lord, If you ain’t busy up there,
I ask for help with a prayer,
So please don’t give me the air.
Oh, hear me, Lord. I must see Garbo in person
With Gable when they’re rehearsin’
While some director is cursin’.
Please let me open up my, eyes at seven
And find I’m looking through the Golden Gate

Download a Free Copy of the Sheet music of Blue Moon by Rodgers & Hart, courtesy of Wikifonia.org.
Blue Moon – Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart

Louise Howlett & Albert Combrink