Why the tango guitar duo ‘Villareal Crom’ is so popular with dancers
When I rang the doorbell on that sunny spring afternoon in North Oakland, the neighborhood that is known as the birthplace of the Black Panther Party, Juan peeked through the opening of the heavy door where the names ‘Juan’ and ‘Patricio’ were painted in large letters, and let me in. But before I got a word in, he started excitedly showing me around. “You’ve never been here? Come and see!”
With this he was me through the vast space that was once a food-processing factory and that is now filled with artwork, amongst which are the oversized signature ceramic pieces by the late artist, Peter Voulkos. Juan, the tango musician from Buenos Aires whom I had actually come to interview, was bubbling with his knowledge, but I was kept in the dark for a while about why he and Patricio were actually staying here.
Voulkos, he told me, purchased the building in the 1970’s and turned it over time into a multiplex art studio and living space. The place has astonishingly survived amidst the significant changes in Oakland which were triggered mainly by a growing population and ensuing gentrification. By now it is called ‘The Dome Center for Arts, Music and Dance’ and encompasses sixteen artists’ studios and an historic art collection. It is managed by Voulkos’ daughter Pier and her husband Daniel Peters as well as one of Voulko’s long-time partners, the artist Clay Nelson. But it is thanks to Pier and Daniel, who are both long-time and well-respected tango professionals, that ‘The Dome’ has become well known in the local Bay Area tango community as a space for musical and dance performances.
This was why Juan Villareal and Patricio Crom, better known as the Argentine tango duo ‘Villareal Crom’, were for a while the artists in residence. During their time in the Bay Area where they were performing at different venues, they called ‘The Dome’ home. They repeatedly emphasized how much they loved being here, and they couldn’t hide their enthusiasm. The building, which despite its huge size and public spaces provides a homey atmosphere with a collection of lovingly assembled items for every day life, is a place where they could relax and be creative at the same time.
They jokingly remarked that they owed their good fortune here in the Bay Area to Peter Voulkos’ spirit which, as they assured me, they could sense at night. “Here in San Francisco something happens that doesn’t happen anywhere around the world,” said Patricio. “All the tango organizers get together to organize different things for us and they all go to each other’s events and they all share and one person gives us this house.”
Usually the duo, as is usual for most artists, signs contracts with different organizers, even within one and the same tango community. But when organizers compete with each other, which is often the case, it adds an extra layer of complications for a touring artist. Not so in the Bay Area, as both told me. Here they benefitted from the mutual support among the many different teachers and hosts: “This here is unique. It is the only place where we can stay one week [at the same place] and during that time work for five different organizers. It’s great. And there are people who come to all five shows. That’s insane.”
The Bay Area was the first stop of ‘Villareal Crom’ on a three-month long tour through the United States and Europe. It is also their fifteenth anniversary tour. Did they think they were going to last that long, I wanted to know. They seemed caught off-guard and chuckled. “I think we didn’t think anything,” said Patricio, “we just wanted to play and have fun.”
The two of them met for the first time while performing at a tango show in Buenos Aires; Patricio as the guitarist of a group and Juan as the guest singer. When a few days later they agreed to get together to play, they hit it off – and ‘Villareal Crom’ was born.
As easy-going as their relationship began, it seems to have continued the same way throughout their decade-and-a-half together. They seem to complement each other on a personal level as much as on-stage. “We make fun of each other a lot.” Patricio said with a twinkle. “Something Argentines do a lot, you know?” As if to prove it, Juan threw in something in Spanish and they both laughed.
The easiness of their friendship carries over to their music. Whether it is their effortless-sounding guitar duos or Patricio accompanying Juan’s vocals on guitar, the result always resembles a tango dance; an acoustic give and take of two highly skilled performers. I was in the audience a few nights before our interview when they performed at the legendary ‘Ashkenaz’ in Berkeley, famous for its international stage, but not as a regular tango spot. Nevertheless, that night the place was packed with tango aficionados and dancers who crowded the floor, which is probably the greatest compliment for any tango musician: namely that the music is danceable. Everyone seemed to be absorbed by the naturally flowing music, and when the lights came on, it was a rude awakening.
That night they focused on Juan D’Arienzo, playing several songs from their album ‘D’Arienzo En Guitarras’, which they released in 2022. It was in the middle of the pandemic, and they said that the long lockdown in Argentina turned into a very creative and productive time for them. The album starts with their arrangement of ‘Tango Brujo’, a song that Juan said had been on his mind for a long time: “And one time at ‘El Montigo’ [a tango club in Buenos Aires] I’m dancing and there is this song. This is the song! So I finished the dance and said, ‘Hey thank you’. And I went outside alone and called Patricio and I said: ‘This is the song, this is the album that we have to do.” Patricio wasn’t convinced at first, but once he heard Juan singing ‘Tango Brujo’, he could imagine playing it on guitar: “I thought that this could work.”
They decided not only to play this usually orchestrated piece on two guitars with Juan on vocals, but Patricio furthermore chose to play his part on the seven-string guitar. While most tango pieces have become popular because of the full sound of traditional tango orchestras, it is rare to hear them played by just two guitars – particularly without the bandoneon that gives tango its quintessential sound. What is perhaps even more unusual is to hear the seven-string guitar; a non-traditional instrument in tango.
Patricio said that he started learning it about ten years ago, at a time when many guitarists were transitioning from traditional tango guitar to the seven-string. The instrument had become hugely popular thanks to the Brazilian guitarist and composer Yamandu Costa, one of the world’s best and most famous solo players. Costa spends a lot of time in neighboring Argentina and has been playing with a lot of Juan’s and Patricio’s tanguero friends, teaching them also his preferred instrument which has an extra C below the E, they told me. Many became so enthusiastic that they transitioned from six-string to the seven-string guitar, including Patricio. Even though that trend has faded out in recent years, those who did transition stuck with the instrument they had learned.
Patricio’s curiosity to learn has not stopped there. He has become a collector of antique guitars, and has even made a movie about them. He is known for his profound knowledge in Argentina’s music world and is frequently consulted as an expert. “I just received a call from the music museum in Buenos Aires,” he said, “and they asked me to analyze a guitar by Carlos Vega [the father of musicology in Argentina] that they just discovered.” And then he told me how surprised he was that he found ‘a very, very nice’ antique guitar from Peter Voulkos at the studio. He strung and tuned it and now plays it in the new recording which they were able to do at ‘The Dome’, adding yet another new touch to the duo’s tango tunes.
Unlike Patricio, who is a classically trained musician and who earned his degree at the tango conservatory in Buenos Aires, Juan found his way to tango in a roundabout way. After dropping out of university because of the need to make money, he was hired as a singer for various shows, among other jobs. But his love for tango really only began when he discovered Roberto Goyeneche, Buenos Aires’s beloved tango singer of the 1950’s. That was when he knew that he had to get better. “I had to do something with my voice,” he explains, “because it’s not a real tanguero voice, like that big voice. It is a sweet voice or something.” But even as he perfected his singing to a much more professional level, the soft and romantic sound of his voice has remained; moreover, it has actually become a recognizable part of the duo’s distinctive style.
The beginning of ‘Villareal Crom’ must have been a challenging time for Juan. Not only was he still working on his voice, but he began to study the guitar seriously. He had some catching up to do to reach Patricio’s already accomplished level. Right from the beginning they learnt all their pieces together. Listening to them now, their playing matches perfectly. Juan mostly plays the rhythm part with the ‘guitarrón’ while Patricio plays ‘la priméra guitarra’; which is the melodic first guitar that accompanies his vocals. Juan points out that his playing is still much more intuitive: “I am not an academic musician, I play what I hear.” He is searching for the right words to describe what they have flippantly called their ‘unique style’ and he finally says: “I would probably call it a mix of wild and elegant.”
But their most distinguished feature is their own beat, the ‘marcato’. As Patricio explained: “In tango, the most important thing is the ‘marcato’. That is the rhythm you play and we play it in our own particular way. Sometimes when we play with another guitarist we play, of course, our ‘marcato’ and that doesn’t match with their ‘marcato’.”
How did they develop their own beat, I wanted to know. “We play the guitar thinking of the dance,” explained Juan. They both dance tango and like getting on the dance floor even during the intermissions of their performances. However, it was initially the music that got them. “The dancing only started at around the same time that we started to play, a little later maybe.” Having the dance in mind while they play is why they are such a well-liked group for dancers, from private parties to tango festivals in the US and Europe.
Playing with the dance in mind I was wondering if they actually write their own arrangements, but Patricio clarified that: “We don’t arrange. We just play the songs and we try to play the best we can.” “We say, okay, we would play this,” adds Juan, “and we start to play like we feel.”
In tango lingo: “We are what in tango is called ‘musicos parilleros’, improvisers in tango,” explained Patricio. “So when you get a tango job, they say: ‘Hey, is it arrangements or is it ‘a la parilla’?’ If it’s ‘parilla’, you have to improvise. So sometimes people tell me: ‘No, no, I’m not a ‘parilla’. This means: ‘I can’t do the work.’”
On the other hand, he said, he and Juan can’t do the work of reading arrangements of other groups. But they still can play hundreds of tango songs. Juan added: “We have a part in the show when I just sing and we play the romantic songs. But Patricio only plays the guitar. He plays more the arrangements for the guitar soloist, and I sing with him. His part is a little bit of the accompaniment and a little bit of arrangement. So he is a soloist guitarist.”
Patricio gave me an example of why they are successful with the way they approach their work: “Something funny happened today. Today we said: ‘At tonight’s concert let’s play things we never play.’ It’s like the first time we played it, no? And it has happened that when we played a song we have never played, we played it better than the songs we usually play, because of all the new things we have learned during that time. We are free to play them out then. We have little parts that are arranged or you always do the same, you know, it’s not hundred percent improvisation.”
It was obvious that they delighted in their own unexpected improvements. But how about composing their own music? Given their different training in music I would have imagined that this creative process could be more challenging – or do they also work as a team?
Said Patricio: “We usually write separately, each one writes his own songs. We only have one song we wrote together that is in the D’Arienzo album, ‘Bordonas de Fuego’. And now we are writing another new song together. But we have very different ways of working, you know, for the personal songs. So in the ‘Moderna Trovador’ [their latest album which appeared in 2023] each of us wrote his own songs and then showed them to the other. If I don’t like something Juan composes, I question him and he has to defend his work. And it is the same when I write something that he doesn’t like.”
In the lively tango scene of Buenos Aires these days, they are friends with many of the big names. One of their role models is Alfredo Rubín, also known as ‘El Tape’. The composer, lyricist, and guitar player, who is one generation older than Juan and Patricio, is regarded as one of the most important authors of Argentine tango. Juan and Patricio spoke highly of him: “First we were fans. And now we are friends.”
They are also great admirers of Guido Iacopetti, leader and director of ‘Sexteto Fantasma’ who writes amazing songs. Juan, who also works as a DJ and organizer of shows, has made it his mission to promote contemporary composers and musicians. It is sometimes an uphill battle trying to convince hosts and many of Buenos Aires’s DJs to play modern tango music. Depending on the audience, Juan is a master at mixing and playing old and new music. “I like this music and of course I want to support my generation of musicians.”
Tango, they both say, is very much alive and thriving in Buenos Aires, continuing to develop and change: “When I think about tango,” concluded Patricio, “I always say that the nice thing about being a tango fan in Buenos Aires is that you get to know all the people in tango. I grew up studying with all my idols. It is normal to go to a lot of the most important musicians’ houses to take lessons. And then if you are lucky you can become friends with them and start spending time and doing things, doing concerts with them. And that’s the thing about the tango scene in Buenos Aires.”