It is extremely rare for this writer to head for the merchandise stand after a concert and buy a CD, but rules were made to be broken and Nexas Quartet’s Tango de Saxos has been playing on a loop all day.

The reason? Saturday night’s reunion of the Sydney-based saxophone quartet with bandoneon player Stephen Cuttriss and pianist Daniel Rojas, both of whom featured on the 2021 release.

In his four-star review of the recording for Limelight, Brett Allen-Bayes noted that Nexas Quartet’s ability to rival the electric guitar, violin and double-bass of Piazzolla’s original orchestrations was “remarkable stuff.” One can see why.

Nexas Quartet. Photo © Jansson J. Antmann

Saxophonists Michael Duke (soprano), Andrew Smith (alto), Nathan Henshaw (tenor) and Jay Byrnes (baritone) are so possessed of the tango spirit, it is hard to imagine it played any other way, especially with Rojas’s driving tempi and Cuttriss’s rapid-fire finger work helping raise the temperature in Blackheath’s Phillips Hall.

A studio recording cannot really do justice to the magic and transformative power of a live performance like this.

The faded Art-Deco features of the Blue Mountains venue transport us to the Centro Region...