510 Interesting tango ties to New Orleans
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 15:14:05 -0400
From: Manuel Patino <white95r@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Interesting tango ties to New Orleans
I read this in the ATOF and though it might interest the tango folks of the
Tango-L
Cheers,
Manuel
William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Walker Percy and many other authors
have written about Louisiana and its people. It is no accident that tens of
countries can not claim ever to have attracted the attention of half so much
literary talent as the Bayou State. An author may write about Colorado or
New Hampshire, Malaysia or Chile, and s/he will write about, well, Colorado
or New Hampshire, Malaysia or Chile. Nothing less, nothing more. If the
setting of the novel is Louisiana, especially South Louisiana, the themes
start to multiply like the outlets of the Mississippi Delta. Involuntarily,
writers will find themselves holding forth on ethics, pleasure, mortality,
and what Monty Python called "The meaning of Life."
The first writer to leave a lasting impression on America about the seamy
side of New Orleans, tainted with voodoo, debauchery, and mystery, was
Lafcadio Hearns, who from 1877 to 1888, prowled the streets of New Orleans.
In ten years of serving as a correspondent and selling his writing in such
periodicals as the New Orleans Daily Item, and Times-Democrat, Harper's
Weekly, and Scribner's Magazine, he crystallized the way Americans viewed
New Orleans and its South Louisiana environments. With his writing, he
virtually invented the national perception of New Orleans as a kind of
alternative reality to the United States as a whole.
The writings of Lafcadio Hearns have been published in a book called,
INVENTING NEW ORLEANS, edited by S. Frederick Starr. In the introduction,
Starr writes, "In the realm of the written word, Louisiana is an idea that
symbolizes everything that the New England tradition in America literature
and culture and thought is not. Louisiana
represents the heart over the intellect, spontaneity over calculation,
instinct over reason, music over the word, forgiveness over judgment, and
community over the isolated and alienated individual."
And what about them musicians? Jelly Roll Morton, Edgar Kid Ory, Louis
Armstrong, Sydney Bechet, Pete Fountain, Kermit Ruffins... A lot of them are
buried, but all of them are forever present because New Orleans is also a
city of sounds. She has a beat, street rhythms, her own pulse. It is
universally recognized as the cradle of jazz, but nearly 100 years ago, it
harbored the hybrid son of the African candombe and the Creole milonga,
during the formative years of the Argentine Tango.
On the corner of Burgundy and Bienville in the French Quarter, there is a
sign that reads, "TANGO - BAR and SALON" which we first discovered while
exploring around. The owner of the bar pointed out that on that corner of
the French Quarter, there existed a district called THE TANGO BELT, which
was along with STORYBILLE
across the street, the center of indulgence and decadence at the turn of the
twentieth century. It seems that Tango fever gripped New Orleans with such
heat and fervor nearly 100 years ago that officials almost had to put a stop
to it. Like any outbreak, tango fever eventually subsided here, but it was
only dormant. Come this August, we are
excited to predict that it's back and spreading quickly.
Jason Berry, Jonathan Foose, and Tad Jones, write in their book, UP FROM THE
CRADLE OF JAZZ, "In the early years of last century, environmental sounds
were rich as gold. Imagine a city without belching autos, without groans
from truck or bus, no airplanes disturbing the sky." Is it possible that the
young Tango, while being held against the bosoms of the Tango Fiends in
Storyville's Tango Belt, might have heard "the familiar clickety-clack of
horses hooves and rote accompaniment of the wagon wheel. The ring of the
triangle announced the iceman's wagon. A busy port," like Buenos Aires,
Tango's birthplace, "New Orleans was a junction where the locomotive push
and wheeze and the jangling bells blended with the deep boom of foghorns on
the river." The Mississippi River, like the Riachuelo in Buenos Aires, has a
sound of its own, wind rushing over the waters, the lapping of waves beneath
the docks, the bells of boats and barges, foghorns, the creaks and moans of
lines mooring the boats to the docks.
We can't get over our luck and blessings of being in such a natural setting
for the drama and passion of the Argentine Tango. We hope that your
imagination can capture what you will see from high above the city as night
comes quickly in New Orleans. Crimson-and-gold-flecked sunsets flickering
intensely, lingering
long enough only to tease, then vanishing as glistening blackness drops
rapidly and remorseful over the city. And that's when the true life of the
Crescent City begins like the shadow-dwelling protagonists of Anne Rice's
books, New Orlenians tangueros convey a distinct preference for darkness
over light.
Please join us at the First Annual New Orleans TangoFest, this August 23-25
at the Doubletree Hotel on historic Canal Street and other locations around
the city. And by the way, we will also have teachers, live music, a show,
lots of dancing they way you like it, and a taste of the rich historical,
cultural and culinary character of the Crescent City.
Check the details on line at,
or call us at 504.894.1718
