[Tango-L] Live music

[Tom Stermitz]

On Aug 15, 2006, at 7:50 PM, Keith Elshaw wrote:
> ...Rare indeed is the musician or arranger who can play with that  
> inspiration
> and still make it great for DANCING.The subtle distintion is mostly  
> lost
> on even the exceptionally brilliant musican. They read music on a  
> page.
> They play it with feeling. But that doesn't make it danceable -  
> especially
> through a long set.
>
> Even if a modern orchestra (outside Argentina) plays Don Juan and  
> other
> standards, most are infected with the musician's perspective - not the
> dancer's. They want to show you how great the music is when played  
> as good
> as they can play it. It is an honest wish. If they don't dance,  
> they might
> not intuitively know what makes good DANCE music. That's what a  
> musician
> does all his life. Play for dancing? Huh. Not many musicians want  
> to lower
> themselves. To do so can have a faintly distasteful flavour to many
> musicians. It's not in their history.
> ...

I agree a lot with Keith's comments above.

As a festival organizer I feel it is important to offer some variety  
during the weekend, and also serve the interests of a variety of  
people. This includes live music. Yes, even despite the fact that I  
produce festivals oriented to social dancing, which attract a lot of  
people who really know tango music and really love the traditional  
music of the 1930s & 40s.

The Friday event usually features our local orchestra, Extasis, who  
tend to play in a late Pugliese style.

This event is sponsored by a separate milonga organizer key to the  
growth of tango in Denver (what kind of a nut would give up a busy  
Friday night at her night club for a chance that tango might someday  
make money?!). She has made a career of featuring live music and  
supporting live musicians. I respect her choice, and agree that it is  
important to honor and support our live musicians. If i were running  
the milonga, I would have the orchestra play earlier in the evening,  
perhaps in a concert setting, then move into their more danceable  
sets, before letting a DJ bring us all the way into the night. Also,  
things are better when Extasis doubles up their voices to make an  
octet with cellos and violins. Everything becomes a lot more full and  
powerful.


First, what I notice about most the working orchestras is that their  
focus is the Tango music of the 1960s, either Pugliese or Piazzola  
dominated. If there is a singer the orientation is the concert tango  
of the 1950s &60s., not Maure, Calo or Rufino, etc. That is fine,  
that is what they like. I also like late Pugliese, and I like  
Piazzola. Frankly, I really dislike the concert singers of the 1950s.

Second, I agree that the modern orchestras feel the need to feature  
their musicianship and arranging skills. They don't realize that the  
dancers are PART OF THE ORCHESTRA, meaning that the orchestra needs  
to leave space inside the music for the dancers. They are usually  
quite busy trying to fill every nook and cranny of the music with  
hooks and excitement. Maybe that is just a modern sensibility. Older  
music was pre TV, pre video games.

It is the same thing in Jazz. After John Coltrane jazz musicians have  
to make a career choice whether to be modern or vintage. The swing  
revival was pretty cool because it spawned a number of revival bands,  
like the Squirrel Nut Zippers or Indigo Swing. They aren't as good as  
30s Duke Ellington, but they found the groove that dancers like.  
Also, we have a huge, live jazz (and swing) tradition in every high  
school in the US. Every college basketball game has a hot swing band  
with a trumpeter that can hit the high notes.

I think that even in Argentina, tango is more nostalgic, rather than  
living.


i would really like to see more tango orchestras pursuing.a "revival"  
sound instead of a modern sound.



Tom Stermitz
http://www.tango.org
2525 Birch St
Denver, CO 80207