She’s forging ties with some of region’s top Latin musicians

By Andrew Gilbert
for the Mercury News

Tango is inextricably linked to Buenos Aires. So what happens when you take one of tango’s most acclaimed vocalists and plop her down in Oakland?

For María Volonté, the result is a burst of inspiration, as she forges ties with some of the region’s finest jazz and Latin-American musicians.

While she still makes regular trips to Argentina, since late last year Volonté has been using the Bay Area as a base from which to build her reputation in North America.
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By Diego Graglia - NY Daily News
Tuesday, July 1st 2008, 4:00 AM

It was late one 1985 night at a cabaret in her hometown of Buenos Aires that María Volonté discovered she wanted to sing tangos.

Looking at the women who worked there, she says, she felt overcome with tenderness and the need to connect with them. She mounted a chair, alone in the middle of the floor, and started to sing an a cappella rendition of “La última curda” (The last bout of drunkenness).

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La argentina María Volonté debuta en Nueva York con sus tangos íntimos
(por Diego Graglia)

María Volonté descubrió que lo suyo era el tango una noche de 1985 en un cabaret de Buenos Aires.

Cuenta que, al ver a las mujeres que trabajaban en el lugar, sintió ganas de darles un regalo. Caminó hasta el medio de la pista, se sentó a horcajadas en una silla y comenzó a cantar a capella el tango “La última curda”. [Read more]

By Ed Goodstein, www.cdbaby.com

Volonté has become one of my favorite recent singers. She comes from the Argentinian tango tradition, & has albums in that traditional vein. However, this album continues the interesting explorations she has made in concert involving some jazz and a certain amount of pop folk (more in instrumentation than singing).

She has a very expressive voice that has touches of Piaf, Brazilian bossa trad., a swing element and rich pop mezzo huskiness that can be very sexy as well as pretty. There’re traditional tangos from Astor Piazolla here, but also more cabaret/jazz songs too– most notably perhaps the reflective “El Ultimo Café,” the sort of French ‘chanson’ (somewhat), marvelous “Nostalgias,” and some richer near-pop on “Chiquilin de Bachin” that recalls Michel Legrand almost. Her voice has wonderful variety moving around & coasting on the various aspects. The last couple are a bit more pop.

I don’t understand Spanish very much– but I don’t need to. She has one of the most assured, warmest, beautiful voices I’ve heard recently– & just enough dissonance and drama to keep things rooted in reality. Also excellent playing from her versatile band who can move from traditional tango sounds to near-Joni Mitchell pop folk. If interested in her more ‘tradional’ side, I also highly recommend her duo album “Fuimos” w. famous Latin jazz pianist Horacio Larumbe, & “Tangos.” Really a fantastic singer.

Claudio Angelotti, Terra. com, 29 December 2007 — La mejor manera de conocer a María Volonté es verla sobre un escenario. Esta morocha, prototípicamente argentina, de esbelta figura y magnética presencia, ejerce desde ahí una fuerte seducción a través de un dominio absoluto de su voz, de su cuerpo y de la escena. Todo lo necesario para solventar con creces sus espectáculos con estética de cabaret “bien íntimo, que no es exactamente el cabaret a la europea”, según ella misma lo describe.
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