Living from music in New York, an artistic “jungle” full of talents, represents a real challenge for those who come from abroad. One who succeeded is the guitarist from Tucumán Dario Acosta Teich, who has been living in that city for more than a year. The artist earned the qualification of “off-road”, as defined by the double bass player Pablo Aslan, to indicate that it adapts to any type of music. In dialogue with LA GACETA, he spoke about his life in the great American city, where he carries out various projects: a quartet, a series of duets with prominent Argentines and a new album that he will publish soon. Through teaching and performances – first in pubs and now on line for events and companies-, was able to sustain itself and generate links. He also participated in the last Guitarras del Mundo Festival, which organizes Juan Falú.
A difficult decision
Until 2019, Acosta Teich lived for several years in Israel with his ex-partner, the singer Timna Comedi. Some time ago he had established contacts with people from the music scene in the United States, during a tour that he made in that country in 2018. Although he felt comfortable in Israel, he decided -after many doubts- to “jump in the pool” and give a spin to his career, he claimed.
“I came with a job proposal at the Latin American Workshop in New York, directed by the Mendoza singer-songwriter Bernardo Palombo the instrumentalist counted. The most difficult of all was the culture shock. As it is such an important city in the artistic, there are many people from all over the world with a very high level trying to make a place here. At first I felt that I was just another number. Little by little I began to connect with other musicians, especially Latin Americans ”.
Touch to live
After leaving the cultural workshop, he began to work on many small Latin music projects, sometimes traveling an hour by subway to earn very little, he says. Months later, he began with his project Darío Acosta Teich Cuarteto, with renowned Argentines such as the Tucuman Franco Pinna (drums), the two-time Grammy nominee Julio Botti (saxophone) and Aslan, one of the referents of tango in the United States and winner of the Grammy.
“When the pandemic hit I had to pause this project, as well as cancel a tour of Europe and focus on new ideas,” said Acosta Teich. Luckily we managed to record three videos (one of them can be seen at https://youtu.be/vIs47TYIphQ) ”.
During the quarantine, the guitarist began a series of collaborations on line entitled Latin American Versions, where he invited musicians to record versions of international themes in Latin American musical styles.
“It started out as something small among friends and grew rapidly,” he said. Until now they participated Franco Luciani, Ernest Snajer, Cheek Piazzolla, Cecilia Zabala, Lorena Astudillo, Quique Sinesi, Lilian Saba, Mica Farías Gómez, Marcelo Moguilevsky, Julio Santillán, Omar gomez and Nestor Gomez, among others thick”. Two of those sessions can be viewed at https://youtu.be/r8xdwZq60Wg and at https://youtu.be/xB6-zbvPm6Q
“On the other hand, I recorded an album that I am going to present soon,” he added. It is about improvised music and it describes my experience living in New York, which was very intense, with many changes, ups and downs and surprises ”.
Along with famous
Something that usually happens in that city is to see musicians who in their country fill theaters, playing in a small bar for little money.
“That happens a lot. As we are all in the same, it is more accessible to play with high-level artists -he acknowledged-. With the pandemic, the majority dedicated themselves to teaching. Luckily I found a way to make a lot of music on line, jingles for companies, European events, and I no longer teach ”.
Virtuality will continue
Acosta Teich believes that after the pandemic the virtual modality will be maintained as an important artistic option, for the new normal. “People realized that the presence is not so essential to give a class, for example,” he said.
Regarding his new album, he said that it is titled “Alien”, the word with which they designate in New York the foreigner who applies for some type of visa that allows him to work in the United States. “Staying to live in this country is very difficult. You have to file folders, pay a lot of money and answer a lot of questionnaires. Prove that you are a high-level artist and that your contribution to local culture is important -he affirmed-. I found the concept of ‘alien’ very funny ”.
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