4919 Goodbye bs as rentals...welcome Color Tango
Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 14:24:45 -0600
From: Tom Stermitz <stermitz@tango.org>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Goodbye bs as rentals...welcome Color Tango
To: Tango-L <tango-l@mit.edu>
Do I recall correctly that there two re-incarnations of the group
Color Tango?
I saw one of the Color Tangos at the Ideal the last time I was in
Buenos Aires (June of 2005), and it was embarrassingly awful. The
singer had no guts; the music was off; the mix was off. There seemed
to be a lot of new, younger musicians, almost like a pick-up band.
I have a more general complaint.
Although I love late-Pugliese, why do so many tango orchestras choose
to work in the Late-Pugliese and Piazzolla style (same as late-
Troilo, late-D'Arienzo). Why do the singers always present the over-
wrought 1950s concert style? What is wrong with 1940s Pugliese? If
you have an 8-piece or 12 piece orchestra, why not try to sound like
1940s Di Sarli, or Troilo, or (heaven forbid) 1930s D'Arienzo.
As an organizer, I get bands from all over asking if I'd be
interested in paying them to come do a concert. I'd only be excited
at such an expensive and risky undertaking for something really
special. We have a local tango quartet (Extasis) that does a great
job with the late-Pugliese sound (plus some Piazzolla, and etc), so
yet-another-pugliese-clone is not so special.
In the US there are a lot of jazz bands who love to play in ultra-
traditional styles of different eras: Rockabilly, Gypsy-swing, Big
Band era, Bebop. The swing dance revival generated a bunch of young
swing bands that played swing in an updated style, while still
honoring the originals. I'm thinking of bands like the Squirrel Nut
Zippers or Indigo Swing.
It seems to me that if we want live music, the tango orchestras
should look to honoring and reviving the styles of the 1930s and
1940s instead of the 1970s. In the US (I don't know about Europe) 80%
of the tango audience consists of tango dancers, not jazz or
classical fans, who consider tango sort of curious rather than
compelling.
On May 2, 2007, at 8:14 AM, Alberto Gesualdi wrote:
> dear friends
>
> Sticking to tango essentials, yesterday we went to confiteria
> ideal , since Color Tango from Roberto Alvarez is playing his last
> performances before going in a two months tour abroad.
>
> It has been some time since I listened live to them, I do have
> their CDs, but is not the same. The group stand with Roberto
> Alvarez as director and anchor bandoneon , another bandoneon,
> Hernan Bartolozzi, Diego Lerendegi in viola, Fernando Rodriguez in
> violin , that has , has re entered to the orchestra in 2006, he was
> one of the "historic" members, and is playing as well as ever.
> Gustavo Hunt at keyboard, Analia Goldberg in piano. And Manuel
> Gomez in counterbass.
>
> The orchestra has a new singer, Roberto Decarre , he is very
> young , but he has been singing since he as 9 years old, so his
> performance is good.
>
> The sound system at Confiteria Ideal is not the best for voices
> ( output for live orchestra is reasonable however )
Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 13:56:14 -0700 (MST)
From: Huck Kennedy <huck@eninet.eas.asu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Goodbye bs as rentals...welcome Color Tango
To: tango-l@mit.edu
Tom Stermitz <stermitz@tango.org> writes:
> Although I love late-Pugliese, why do so many tango
> orchestras choose to work in the Late-Pugliese and
> Piazzolla style?
I'd guess because they perceive the music to be more
complex and interesting to play? They probably get bored
with the more rhythmic stuff.
I share your sentiments. As with any business,
it's not about what the seller likes, but what the buyer
wants. If these bands really want to be hired for
dancing gigs (as opposed to concerts), they should play
what more dancers would like to dance to more often
(Golden Age, hello?), instead of what the musicians feel
like playing, because they think it's cool.
Huck
Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 14:05:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: steve pastor <tang0man2005@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Goodbye bs as rentals...welcome Color Tango
To: Tom Stermitz <stermitz@tango.org>, Tango-L <tango-l@mit.edu>
"In the US there are a lot of jazz bands who love to play in ultra-
traditional styles of different eras: Rockabilly..."
I wonder what those poor white country boys who rocked would think of
someone putting their music in the same sentence as ultra-traditional?
(Oh, turns out most early rockabilly records were either rocked up country tunes,
or original tunes, rather than covers of r&b songs.)
Meanwhile, I take this as is my cue to share this seeming oddity from the mid 1950s, an
era in American music not particluarly know for its "diversity". Bill Haley and Argentine Tango? Check it out. https://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/pics/ps/ps19225.htm
In fact I have been surprised at the variety of music included even in the rock'n' roll
movies of the 50s. Nothing related to Argentine Tango like Essex with Haley and
Tango on the same bill, except for the popularity of "Blue Tango", but noteworthy none the less.
Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.
Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 16:24:55 -0500
From: "Tango Society of Central Illinois" <tango.society@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Goodbye bs as rentals...welcome Color Tango
To: "Tom Stermitz" <stermitz@tango.org>
Cc: Tango-L <tango-l@mit.edu>
<cff24c340705021424q77782487ya4abfbb7c4c0e51b@mail.gmail.com>
On 5/2/07, Tom Stermitz <stermitz@tango.org> wrote:
> Do I recall correctly that there two re-incarnations of the group
> Color Tango?
>
> I saw one of the Color Tangos at the Ideal the last time I was in
> Buenos Aires (June of 2005), and it was embarrassingly awful. The
> singer had no guts; the music was off; the mix was off. There seemed
> to be a lot of new, younger musicians, almost like a pick-up band.
I saw Color Tango along with Los Reyes del Tango at Ideal in May 2006.
I believe they had the young singer Alberto describes. They did some
Pugliese with Chanel and Moran vocals from the 40s that were very nice
and generally easier to dance to than most of the instrumentals of
late Pugliese that is their standard repertoire. The young man has an
exceptionally nice voice and I look forward to recordings with his
vocals.
However, Los Reyes del Tango (50s D'arienzo clone or perhaps more
accurately Los Solistas de Juan D'arienzo) was easier to dance to,
although Los Solistas music gets a littel monotonous after a while.
30s D'arienzo has incredibly rich diversity.
> I have a more general complaint.
>
> Although I love late-Pugliese, why do so many tango orchestras choose
> to work in the Late-Pugliese and Piazzolla style (same as late-
> Troilo, late-D'Arienzo). Why do the singers always present the over-
> wrought 1950s concert style? What is wrong with 1940s Pugliese? If
> you have an 8-piece or 12 piece orchestra, why not try to sound like
> 1940s Di Sarli, or Troilo, or (heaven forbid) 1930s D'Arienzo.
I have not heard Gente de Tango live, but their recordings of clones
of Di Sarli (I think they are all 50s versions) are reasonably
danceable. Thay are not Di Sarli, but if we can't have Di Sarli,
they're actually a pretty good substitute. I look forward to seeing
thm live sometime.
San Souci (again based on recordings, not live) does 40s Calo and they
are pretty good but, again, they don't come close to Calo in producing
danceable music with emotional impact. Nevertheless, I also look
forward to seeing them play live at a milonga.
I am not aware of any other contemporary tango orchestras that imitate
classic tango style and thus consistently produce danceable music. As
Tom says, there are numerous late Pugliese - Piazzolla tango
orchestras and there is only so much of this that is danceable. After
a few songs it gets tiring. There has been a trend in recent years for
tango festivals to have live music. It can be nice with a sit down
dinner if they don't play too loud. More than once I've seen a live
orchestra kill a milonga. Why pay more money for less or worse
dancing? The prospect of a killed milonga may be a reason to avoid a
festival.
Ron
Date: Fri, 04 May 2007 15:45:38 -0400
From: "Jake Spatz (TangoDC.com)" <spatz@tangoDC.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Goodbye bs as rentals...welcome Color Tango
To: tango-l@mit.edu
Howdy list,
Tom Stermitz wrote:
> It seems to me that if we want live music, the tango orchestras
> [nowadays] should look to honoring and reviving the styles of the 1930s and 1940s instead of the 1970s.
I agree with Tom's sentiment here, but would add that new orchestras
might benefit by delving into the non-Decarian line of that period.
Especially as most rhythm-centric dance music from the Golden Age was
dance-to-ably rhythmic because the band was often playing accompaniment
to a vocal line. Trios and other small ensembles tend to present these
traditional tangos (e.g., the ones originally w/ vocals) in a more
straightforward way, preserving the once-vocal melody without
sacrificing invention in the arrangement.
Also, I notice that as the Golden Age waned to a close, the lyricists
lost their sense of order, and wrote many more recitative passages
almost as filler... Shortly thereafter the lyricists seem, in my very
limited purview, to disappear entirely. (Perhaps someone can enlighten
me as to the accuracy of this general impression.)
But at any rate... Since most of the tango dance music originated either
in the theater or as radio numbers with a singer, I wonder if the key to
making better songs again might lie precisely here-- in the making not
of Music, but of plain old Songs.
I mean shit you could do with just a guitar and a singer, even. The new
trios succeed more often, in my opinion, because they start with music
on that scale, and enlarge it to a degree that keeps the original
simplicity while increasing the complexity Just Enough. The new
orchestras, meanwhile, most often seem to start with someone else's full
arrangement, and in the blow-up process they just get bloated and
disproportionate. If they went all the way back to the original sheet
music, and treated the vocal line as such, I suspect they'd have a
tighter order and probably wouldn't seem like such copycats & clones.
Just a few stray thoughts from a verse-monger...
Jake Spatz
DC
