[Tango-L] Judicious editing

[Keith Elshaw]

Those who have complained about the length of some nuevo songs express
sentiments many of us feel.

I have no compunction about taking out a minute or two (sometimes even
more - but sometimes 30 seconds does the trick) of a song to make it go by
at just the right length. Never has anyone come to me and indicated they
noticed.

I sort of let my body tell me what is best. One must really be judicious.

For instance, both Gotan's Santa Maria and Vuelvo Al Sur are long - and
yet they sustain themselves perfectly and I have not touched them. But
other Gotan tracks have fallen to my blade and thereby make the playlist
they would not otherwise inhabit.

Some long songs feel short enough; some short songs can seem too long.
Don't you find?

Never does one feel the need to edit the work of the Golden Age maestros.
They really knew their stuff. They were Masters of compression and
expansion all at the same time. I have always felt Beethoven would have
marvelled at how much wallop the tango composers could put into 3 minutes.
At least I hope he would. I mean, I wouldn't edit his work - but neither
would I dance to it unless condensed. (Some of my favourite cortinas are
Bach concertos I have cut down to 30 seconds - and end sort of bup bup -
no fade out).

Many of the nuevo people can be judged as self-indulgent, that's for sure.

Astor for me lies in between. I would never touch Milonga Del Angel (that
would be an outrage!) but a couple of other of his tunes get a little clip
from me else I wouldn't feel comfortable playing them in a milonga.

Of course, there always being an exception to every rule, I found I had to
take 30 seconds out of Filiberto's beautiful La Maleva. It was just too
redundant. But not my version! ;-)

ke