[Tango-L] Goodbye bs as rentals...welcome Color Tango

[Tango Society of Central Illinois]

On 5/2/07, Tom Stermitz <stermitz at tango.org> wrote:
> Do I recall correctly that there two re-incarnations of the group
> Color Tango?
>
> I saw one of the Color Tangos at the Ideal the last time I was in
> Buenos Aires (June of 2005), and it was embarrassingly awful. The
> singer had no guts; the music was off; the mix was off. There seemed
> to be a lot of new, younger musicians, almost like a pick-up band.

I saw Color Tango along with Los Reyes del Tango at Ideal in May 2006.
I believe they had the young singer Alberto describes. They did some
Pugliese with Chanel and Moran vocals from the 40s that were very nice
and generally easier to dance to than most of the instrumentals of
late Pugliese that is their standard repertoire. The young man has an
exceptionally nice voice and I look forward to recordings with his
vocals.

However, Los Reyes del Tango (50s D'arienzo clone or perhaps more
accurately Los Solistas de Juan D'arienzo) was easier to dance to,
although Los Solistas music gets a littel monotonous after a while.
30s D'arienzo has incredibly rich diversity.

> I have a more general complaint.
>
> Although I love late-Pugliese, why do so many tango orchestras choose
> to work in the Late-Pugliese and Piazzolla style (same as late-
> Troilo, late-D'Arienzo). Why do the singers always present the over-
> wrought 1950s concert style? What is wrong with 1940s Pugliese? If
> you have an 8-piece or 12 piece orchestra, why not try to sound like
> 1940s Di Sarli, or Troilo, or (heaven forbid) 1930s D'Arienzo.

I have not heard Gente de Tango live, but their recordings of clones
of Di Sarli (I think they are all 50s versions) are reasonably
danceable. Thay are not Di Sarli, but if we can't have Di Sarli,
they're actually a pretty good substitute. I look forward to seeing
thm live sometime.

San Souci (again based on recordings, not live) does 40s Calo and they
are pretty good but, again, they don't come close to Calo in producing
danceable music with emotional impact. Nevertheless, I also look
forward to seeing them play live at a milonga.

I am not aware of any other contemporary tango orchestras that imitate
classic tango style and thus consistently produce danceable music. As
Tom says, there are numerous late Pugliese - Piazzolla tango
orchestras and there is only so much of this that is danceable. After
a few songs it gets tiring. There has been a trend in recent years for
tango festivals to have live music. It can be nice with a sit down
dinner if they don't play too loud. More than once I've seen a live
orchestra kill a milonga. Why pay more money for less or worse
dancing?  The prospect of a killed milonga may be a reason to avoid a
festival.

Ron