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DOCUMENTARY

grand orchestra by peri azar in wikipedia

GRAND ORCHESTRA

SCRIPT AND DIRECTION: Peri Azar/ PRODUCTION: Peri Azar/ COMPANY: 8A-110/ EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION: Peri Azar & Edwin Arévalo/ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Josefina Semilla, Laura Bierbrauer & Julieta Sepich/ CAMERAMS: Peri Azar, Josefina Semilla, Laura Bierbrauer, Lluis Mirás, Andrés Aguiló, Juan Renau, Pablo Retamar & Hernán Bento/ DIRECT SOUND: Alejandra Casals, Andrés Polonsky & Juan Moseico/ EDITING: Peri Azar & Emilia Castañeda/ASSISTANT EDITING: Victoria Lastiri

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Héctor Sánchez de la Serna & Josefina Semilla/ MUSIC COORDINATION: Valentín Reiners, Sergio Pángaro & Peri Azar/ ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR: Valentín Reiners/ PERFORMERS: Sergio Pángaro, Cocó Muro & Abel Corriale/ MUSIC ON STAGE: Federico Álvarez, Fernanda Lagger, Mauro Ostinelli, Ariel Dominguez, Valentino Salami, Rodrigo Vazquez, Facundo Madio, Ivan Buraschi Bernasconi, Gonzo Pérez, Esteban Saccone, Lautaro Schachmann, Moises Quiroz, Julian Mekler, Gonzalo Beraza, Athos García, Dante Picinelli, Daniel Wörner Prádenas/ VOICE-OVER: Nacho Gagliano/ GRAPHICS: Peri Azar/ FIXED PHOTO: Grisel Sarich/ LEGAL ADVISORY: Martín Massini Ezcurra/ ACCOUNTING ADVISOR: Nora Gomez & Martín Córdoba/ SOUND DIRECTION: Renato Alvarado Plaza

POST IMAGE PRODUCTION: Zebra Post/ POST PRODUCER: Juan Martín Hsu/ TRANSLATIONS: Victoria Lucente/ SUBTITLING: Julia Soubiate

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TRAILER

SYNOPSIS

An abandoned trunk inside a dumpster, inside, the full scores of one of the most important Argentine big band in the 40s, Hector and his great jazz orchestra (1944-1962).

This finding triggered a rough search of the members of the orchestra and brings out several questions about the importance of personal files as a cultural legacy.

Grand Orchestra speaks of a mythical orchestra of Buenos Aires but also of the fable in the in evocative  fact of remembering since the meeting  with the orphaned files, as a journey to an inevitably personal and subjective story.

Archivo fílmico de orquesta de jazz argentino de los años 1930
Archivo gráfico del debut de la orquesta argentina "Hector y su jazz" junto a Juan Domingo Perón.

SOME HISTORY

A trunk with more than 2000 handwritten scores of a Big Band, Hector and his great Argentine jazz orchestra, one of the most popular formations in Buenos Aires during the decades of the ' 40 and '50, was found in the year 2000 in a rubble container.

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Directed by Héctor Lomuto (brother of the famous tango man and founder of SADAIC, Francisco Lomuto) and with magnificent arrangements by Martín Darré, Roberto Pansera and Carlos García (three of the best arrangers of the first half of the 20th Century) the orchestra reached the sonority and importance of the great American bands in the style of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodmann or Artie Shaw, with a formation of exceptional musicians such as Lois Blue, Pepe Corriale, Mario Sansone, Luis Comitini or Eddy Pequenhino to name a few (the formation came to have almost 30 musicians on stage).
 

The first public presentation of Lomuto's big band dates from 1941 at the Mar del Plata Casino and offered an eclectic repertoire that included both fox trots and some tango. Later the formation reaches its particular profile of danceable jazz or North American white jazz and is able to conquer the public who is eager for swing. But the tastes change and Hector knew how to adjust to fashions for two decades adding to his repertoire boleros, cha cha cha and other Latin rhythms as well as some double step without ever leaving the elegance and that particular style that made it the best orchestra of the time , granted without a doubt by the professionalism and talent of Matin Darré. Later this type of musical bets would become in what was known as Characteristic  Orchestras, formations intended only to make people dance and to listen to popular songs)
 

From 1944 until the end of the 50s, Hector and his jazz record around 500 titles for RCA Victor and broadcast every afternoon from Radio El Mundo, which gives them popularity and a chance to reach a huge audience in all over the country, in the words of the historian Sergio Pujol.
 

The discovery of these unique, invaluable historical documents only fills us with questions: what happened to this formation? What was its destiny? When and why did it disappear? Where are its musicians? Why were these scores thrown away ?Who treasures and protects today the memory of Argentine jazz ?.

CURIOSITIES

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SHOOTING/ Final scene

The final scene of the film was shot in the main auditorium of Radio El Mundo, the mythical space where the orchestra played for many years. The original Osvaldo Pugliese piano in the auditorium was used during the filming.

LISTEN NOW

Playlist created with some of the hundreds of rescued and digitised recordings of the orchestra "Hector and his big Argentine jazz orchestra".

SOUND TRACK

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