[Tango-L] music: live or dead

[astrid]

Janis wrote:
> I obtained the program last night for the IV Campeonato Mundial de Baile
de
> Tango which begins Thursday night with the finals of the Campeonato
> Metropolitano for milonga and tango.  Every year more music which isn't
> tango is being included on the program.  There is something called
> Notantango? directed by El Motivo Tango along with the music of Narcotango
> directed by Carlos Libedinsky.  And the milongas during the Mundial events
> are featuring the recordings of different orchestras each night.  Of the
ten
> milongas, two nights will feature tango electronico, one will feature
> Piazzolla, and another will feature contemporary orchestras; all music is
> selected by Horacio Godoy.  The result is disaster--nondanceable music
> doesn't make for good dancing.

Janis may be right but still I feel that tango music should not be something
that is condemned to being conserved in antique shops and museums. New
creations in the world of the arts are often condemned by the general
public, and later, often posthumously, raised to fame. To name one exemple,
just look at the music of Astor Piazzolla. Most people complained that his
music wasn't danceable, but later, if it was not for Astor Piazzolla, many
of the younger tango dancers would have never gotten interested in tango or
started to learn the dance. New composers and musicians must be allowed into
the scene, otherwise it will die with the people who were young during the
days of the "real thing".
To me, Carlos Libedinsky plays tango alright. It is new, it is different,
but I love it. It does not have the atmosphere of the older tangos but it
has something else: a new quality that attracts and fascinates people who
come to tango from the disco and the techno scene, and gives them freedom to
experiment with tango with their rhythmical sensibilities. We need those
people.

Having said that there is one very special band which does recreate very old
music and their singer has a unique voice that reminds me of the women
singers of the Golden Age of tango: La Chicana. Check out their homepage:
www.lachicanatango.com
They may not well known in the US, as it seems from the info on their
homepage they have avoided this country on their world tours, or maybe the
US has avoided them, with visa restrictions and so on. But David brought
their CDs from BA and played them at Jose Luna's milonga in Tokyo and when
he asked me which ones of his songs I would like to have, I said this one.
Nothing else, just La Chicana, as I had never heard them before nor seen
them anywhere else, and their songs attracted me as something really unique
and outstanding among the music he played. But I found, now they are selling
their CD at HMV Tokyo ! The CD cover contained a leaflet with their lyrics,
in Spanish and in...tadaa.. German !

Here is one verse from one song:

Una rosa y un farol

Robare en la floreria una rosa colorada
te esperare como siempre bajo el farol
llegaras a medianoche despeinada, arrebolada,
me daras un beso largo y me perdiras perdon.

translation (from the German version)

I will steal a red rose from the flower shop
I will wait for you below the street lantern, as always
you will come at midnight, uncombed, with rosy cheeks
you will give me a long kiss and ask me to forgive you...


I love this stuff, it is so genuine. It is written by Acho Estol, this one
is on their newmest album, Cancion Llorada, the cried song.

Here is an excerpt from their homepage:

"La Chicana was formed in the first months of 1996 with the clear intention
of producing tango music with a rougher edge. They favour the "canyengue"
rhythms and humorous melodrama of early tango as opposed to more solemn
later flavours. They truly believe that the essence of tango lies in its
1920's spirit of rebellion and spontaneity witch puts it ideologically
closer to rock music than to the orchestral forms that popularised it in the
world since the '40s.
But they don't lack subtleties or precision ; they are solid musicians with
just a taste for improvisation and noise. All they need is the chance to
prove that tango music should thrive as popular music in the streets while
it continues to dazzle from the orchestral stand. They have performed in
many tango-bars, night clubs and milongas of Buenos Aires never failing in
the task of combining communication with soul ; danceability with pathos.
Their first independent release spans from "guardia vieja" instrumentals to
forgotten gems of the 30s' and their own songs. Since then, they have taken
advantage of numerous tours to the most dissimilar corners of the world
(Spain, Germany, Brazil, Canada, England and Senegal) to add to their music
elements of different cultures akin to tango."

Enjoy
Astrid
>