Happening in Buenos Aires captures Argentine-American vocalist and guitarist Tom Ricci performing live in his birthplace, joined by a remarkable South American trio featuring Argentine pianist Pablo Sanguinetti, Brazilian bassist Bruno Migotto, and Argentine drummer Oscar Giunta.
Recorded on June 20, 2023 at Borges 1975, the album documents a night where Ricci’s worlds came together: American jazz standards, Brazilian bossa nova, Argentine tango, blues, personal repertoire, and reimagined modern material, all filtered through the intimacy and risk of a live performance. With no full-band rehearsal beforehand, the four musicians shaped the music in real time, giving the album its sense of immediacy — and its title.
The program includes live versions of much of the material from Ricci’s previous album So Amor, alongside additional standards and reinterpretations. The result is a vivid recording that moves naturally between vocal jazz, bossa nova, Latin American song, blues, and contemporary expression.
The album opens with Duke Ellington’s “Mood Indigo” and moves through classics such as “Night & Day,” “Just Friends,” “Quiet Nights (Corcovado),” “Besame Mucho,” “My One & Only Love,” and “There Will Never Be Another You.” Ricci also revisits his original “Simply Love” and the blues-inflected “Old Old Blues,” while Argentine identity comes to the foreground on “Naranjo en Flor,” Pablo Sanguinetti’s jazz-waltz arrangement of the landmark tango.
The first single, “What A Wonderful World,” is one of the album’s emotional centers. A song Ricci first connected with as a child, it takes on new meaning here as he revisits it as a father, bringing tenderness, vulnerability, and emotional depth to the performance.
“Besame Mucho,” the second single, reimagines the beloved Latin standard through Ricci’s blues-rock guitar voice, shifting the song from its romantic bolero origins into an earthier, cinematic live performance.
Another standout is “Naranjo en Flor.” Following its appearance on So Amor, this live version gains a new sense of immediacy through Oscar Giunta’s spontaneous, in-the-moment drumming, giving the piece a fresh sense of motion and conversation.
The album also includes a striking version of Radiohead’s “Creep” [Explicit], reinterpreted in an intimate live jazz setting. The performance turns tension and alienation into a slow burn that builds from near-classical restraint to an explosive emotional peak.
Born in Buenos Aires and based in Southern California, Ricci has performed across the United States, South America, Europe, and Asia. With Happening in Buenos Aires, he returns to his birthplace not simply to document a concert, but to capture a musical meeting point between the cities, styles, musicians, and personal history that have shaped his sound. Ricci will also return to Asia this summer for a series of performances across Taiwan and China, continuing the international thread that runs through the album.
