[Tango-L] Tete, Originator of Close Embrace?

[Crrtango@aol.com]

MIles wrote:

<Tete is the originator of modern close embrace tango.>

Someone is seriously misinformed. This is absolutely false. There is no one 
originator. It is a by-product of the milongas over the years. Close embrace 
has been around for many years, long before Tete. And with all due respect for 
his contributions, Daniel Trenner is not the most reliable source for tango 
history either. He happens to be a savvy marketer who got involved in tango and 
was one of the first to record and "mass-market" tango dancers on film and are 
only part of the real historical trajectory of tango. It would be a serious 
mistake to base your knowledge solely on his information. As you read more and 
learn more, especially if you can obtain literature from Buenos Aires (usually 
in Spanish), you will find his knowledge somewhat limited and and his personal 
assessment of it a little myopic. Not that he hasn't helped disseminate 
valuable information, but I would be wary of using him as your primary source for 
learning about tango. Unfortunately no one else has been quite as successful in 
marketing and distributing videos so he has gotten some undue credit. It is a 
bit like the owner of one of the dance studios here in New York, who claims 
in a book to have introduced tango to the United States!!!

If you read Spanish, (and the next time you are in Bs.As.) you might try to 
find Francisco Canaro's autobiography "Mis Memorias," or Luis Adolfo Sierra's 
"Historia de la Orquesta Tipica" or a copy of the magazine "Todo es Historia" 
from August 1974 which has an article on the history of the bandoneon. Or try 
to find copies of the video with Miguel Zotto about "Tango por Dos" which has 
some great historical snippets of some of the great milongueros. There are 
others but this is a good starting point.

Cheers,
Charles



  





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