4163  [TANGO-L] A criticism of the criticism of

Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 14:42:39 -0500
From: "Christopher L. Everett" <ceverett@CEVERETT.COM>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] [TANGO-L] A criticism of the criticism of
"TANGO: The Art History of Love...
To: TANGO-L@MITVMA.MIT.EDU

Bill King wrote:

>I am sorry; I think many are missing the point or points.
>1. Thompson's book is good and enlightening, and not the least thought
>provoking, but he has a clear agenda,
>

I suppose you could also say he has a clear agenda, but he also an
art historian specializing in the impact of African culture on Europe
and the Americas, and he provides the referenced to back up his
assertions. I'm not sure that he could have written the book any
differently given his source materials.

>and he has a tendency to overemphasis the
>African contributions by under playing the local Argentine and European
>contributions.
>

"Local Argentine" would certainly include Afro-Argentines, just as
we consider African-American bluesmen local to the United States.
When the 1880's came around, they had been in Argentina for
several generations.

>2. I think the African contributions to Tango and other dances and to music
>in the new world are considerable, but by no means were they the primary and
>continuing influence on all of them all of the time, especially Tango.
>Thompson's work gave me that impression. I got the distinct view if it was not
>for the African influence initially and continually, Tango would not exist as
>we know it. IMO, I seriously question that point of view.
>

I agree with Thompson. Something would have evolved in
BsAs, but if you take away the habanera, you never get to
milonga, and without milonga, there is no canyengue, and
by extension no tango.

Also, the Guardia Vieja owes a formative debt to innovations
of black composers, poets and musicians (Mendizabal, Flores
and Thompson), as well as the habanera. I think that after
1930 as tango became demarginalized, black influence in
the music was less direct as the number of whites in tango
increased.

>Because Dizzy
>Gillespie plays in BsAs in 1956 doesn't, in my mind, equate to a continued black
>legacy of tango but rather that of a great musician from a different musical
>world crossing over to another compatible genre, like Getz and the Samba.
>
>

This is true insofar as it goes, the Dizzy/Fresedo collaboration is a
major stretch, especially since tango was dying on the vine in '56
under the triple threat onslaught of military governments, rock
music and television.

More to the point were the ongoing and continuing relationships
of black dancers with the tango revolutionaries El Cachafaz and
Petroleo, as rivals, colleagues and/or partners.

You make a good point about the compatibility of tango and jazz
... both use Afro-derived rhythmic structures, so that's at least a
partial reason why they are compatible.

>3. Finally editorial criticism are written to enflame, and many times the
>author takes his point which may be correct and embellishes it to create
>controversy, and in doing so he will also overstate the issue.
>

I can understand stretching a point here and there. Blatant
dishonesty in the name of circulation is reprehensible. We
can have an argument about whether Thompson belongs in
that boat, but Howell does without doubt.

>If they didn't, who
>would waste there time reading them. So, IMHO this is one of those cases,
>where the book overstates its principle point and the critic creates the
>controversy by doing likewise. The truth lies somewhere in between.
>

What I take away from the book is that the Kongo influences
on tango are direct and essential, and that blacks continued to
provide inspiration out of proportion to their numbers to tango
culture at least up to the end of the Golden Age.

As a example of the same phenomenon in the US, hardly
anyone listens to the old bluesmen in the USA and Great
Britain. But it's just impossible to overstate the influence
of people like John Lee Hooker, Muddy Watters and B.B.
King on music here, because that's what all the musicians
used to listen to ...

Same thing for hip-hop these days. In 10 years, I predict
that the influence of hip-hop will be be pervasive worldwide.
It already is for most electrotango ... just listem to those
stupid drum machines.

>Just some thoughts,
>
>

They are much, much appreciated.

Christopher