605  Music for dancing (inside the box)

Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 08:56:58 -0700
From: Barbara Garvey <barbara@TANGOBAR-PRODUCTIONS.COM>
Subject: Re: Music for dancing (inside the box)

Sorry, I just sent a blank message, I think only to Manuel. What I meant to
send is a comment on good and bad music from the Golden Age (which in my
mind stretches from the late '20s, with Julio de Caro's incredible advances
in orchestration, to the early '50s. At that time political changes in
Argentina, rock and roll, television and (according to some sources)
continuing pay increases for orchestras (which, according to the same
sources, happened simultaneously in the US with the same result) led to a
decrease in dancing, especially to live music, and the orchestras moving to
radio, tv, and the concert hall. The following years also saw the creation
of star vocalists (e.g. Julio Boca) who did not adhere to dance rhythm.

Al and I, and a number of our friends join Manuel in a strong preference for
the 'old' music which was composed and interpreted especially for dancing.
The best way to learn to distinguish between good and bad tracks from that
era is to spend a lot of time in the milongas of Buenos Aires, paying
attention to the music. What Al and the other best DJs (by our standards)
here in the Bay Area play is exactly what is played in Buenos Aires at
almost all of the milongas-- it's that simple. For our milonga on the last
Friday of the month in Marin County Al creates the program in advance on
minidiscs, with cortinas, prints it out, and distributes it at the door.
During the evening he doesn't try to psych out the mood of the crowd, but
the dancers can identify what he's playing and skip any tandas they don't
like. I don't think Al has any special rules such as when to play D'Arienzo
or Pugliese. He just mixes rhythms and orchestras in a nice balance, adds a
few tandas of waltz and milonga, and is able to dance most of the evening.
He will play a special request if available (sometimes Hugo Diaz, his own
special request), of course for a birthday waltz or to please an
out-of-town guest.
Thanks for listening to my 2 cents.
Abrazos to all, Barbara

Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2002 11:18:31 +0100
From: John Ward <jmward@BUN.COM>
Subject: Music for dancing

If anyone asks me what sort of music I like and why, I will tell them - probably at great length. I will certainly not criticise anyone else's =
choice. If you like to play, listen to, or dance to Firpo 78's, or come to that Scott Joplin piano rolls, ODJB cylinders, or Albert Chevalier =
centrestarts, I wish you joy in your favourite music. However, having said all that, I think that if the music played at a milonga was all =
recorded before anyone present was born, the tango is not a part of live culture but a historical reconstruction. Some people may want that I =
suppose. Ballroom is the most hidebound, formalised and conventional of all dance forms, but at a ballroom event you do not hear Bert Ambrose or =
Jack Hylton, even though they come from the glory days. I am not a classical music buff, but it seems that the classical radio stations =
play mostly new, rather than old, recordings. I have never been to Buenos Aires, so I do not know if they play old stuff or new stuff on =
local radio. Or if the answer is relevant to this discussion.

John