CD Report / Boston Globe

Sandra Luna
TANGO VARON
Times Square

Enough recent tango albums have become so digitized and remixed that it's easy to forget what the real deal sounds like. One could easily argue that Astor Piazzolla's classics shouldn't twitch and bleep like a robot gone haywire. On "Tango Varon'' singer Sandra Luna revives the traditional strain of the Argentine art form, more specifically the subgenre called "tango-cancion'' (literally "sung tango''). In Luna's able hands, tango isn't just for dancing; it's for beholding. The title track, which means "Male Tango,'' opens the album on a bold note, though it's a curious choice for the album's name. Granted, tango singers have long been associated with macho males cast from the Carlos Gardel mold, but one of the genre's greatest interpreters, the late Libertad Lamarque, was a female. That said, there's no confusing Lamarque's chirp with Luna's bellow. Her voice is a marvel of Broadway-bound bravado and just enough force to compete with the dramatic orchestrations. Luna's definition of a tango is contemporary enough to envelop the percussion-driven ``Me Llaman Luna,'' and we're all the luckier for it. "Que Nadie Sepa Mi Sufrir'' is an infectious jaunt through bandoneon solos, strumming guitars, and, best of all, Luna's vocals, which tiptoe around the notes as though she were dancing a complex tango.


JAMES REED, Boston Globe, July 16 2004 - USA