Argentina

“Gonzalez Reeds allows you to develop a full sound and harmonics in all the registers of the instrument. The versatility of these reeds adapts to the different music styles, because the saxophonist that uses them can play with more or less brightness, more or less darkness according to the personal search of the sound and the musical environment he’s/she’s in”.

Jorge Retamoza is an undeniable reference regarding sax and tango. He is a musician from Argentina that has develop the most the inclusion of his instrument, the sax, on the tango’s language. His personal stamp can be heard in recordings he has made as both leader and sideman musician. In his compositions he uses music based on tango, jazz and academic procedures, which places him in an originality zone. He tours in Latin America, United States and Europe, performing in theaters, festivals, cultural centers and universities, besides teaching master classes in America and Europe.

He is the author of “El tango desde el saxo”, a book requested by Melos Musical Edition and dedicated to the sax music interpretation in Buenos Aires. During 2020 a second book was edit, “Más Tango para el Saxo”, where the work started in the first volume is deepen adding variations, orchestral studies and improvisation exercises with vocabulary from tango.

He has performed as a guest soloist in Argentinian and foreign orchestras. In the academic field he premiered his plays: “Concierto”, for tenor sax, bandoneon and orchestra; “Tres Escenas Porteñas”, for two bass clarinets and a symphonic band; “En Blanco y Negro Buenos Aires”, for bandoneon and six percussionists; “Concertango”, for baritone sax and orchestra, awarded by the Fondo Nacional de las Artes de Argentina in 2016. He is the first Argentinian saxophonist to record, in a comprehensive way, the “Seis Estudios Tanguísticos” this being, also, the first worldwide recording of the play for a solo sax and a string orchestra. It was made in Germany, in a co-production with the prestigious SR (Public Radio and TV) from that country.

Music composer for television and radio, for galleries and museums set-ups, as well as for animated movies for which, in collaboration with the artist Pablo Delfini, he obtained several national and international awards, such as the Fondo Nacional de las Artes de Argentina 2009 Award and the Mejor Música en el Festival de Filmes Poéticos New York 2008 Award; as well many attendances at the main festivals, from this genre, around the world.

In 1998 he obtained, by an external tender, the position in Baritone Sax of the Symphonic Band from the City of Buenos Aires. He is a Sax Professor at the Chair of Argentine Music from the “Manuel de Falla” Music Conservatory, in Buenos Aires.

He has shared the stage with popular musicians and academics from Argentina and South America, performing at the main Argentinian venues. Also, he has toured with international artists like Isabel Pantoja, Sandro and Celia Cruz, as a member of their groups or orchestras.

He has received awards and scholarships from the Metropolitan Culture Fund (2005), from the Latin America Short Film Festival in New York (2008), UNESCO’S Argentinian Music Forum (2008), Argentinian National Music Institute (2015 and 2018), National Arts Fund (2016). Additionally, he was the Representative of the Argentinian Music Delegation, at the “Mercado de la Música Viva de Vic”, in Barcelona, Spain (2020).