[Tango-L] another origin of the Milonga - Brasil

[romerob@telusplanet.net]

This is my translation of a section from an article by Juan Carlos Caceres.

Source:Nana García
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
http://www.diariodeavisos.com/diariodeavisos/content/290430/


Diluted Origens

With the pass of time Tango has become a music style recognized in the whole 
world, however when we spoke about the origins of tango it became a subject of 
antagonism, because at determined time there was a negation of our political 
and social history in our country. A culture was fabricated to showcase 
immigrants and denying our past.

This is how the tango as an artistic expression was born through a process of 
multicultural multiethnic mixing between the massive European immigration, 
which settled in the Rio de la Plata and at the end of the 19th century and the 
native population: where one third was black.

Paradoxically the tango was the result of the mixing and therefore was 
considered the music of the dispossessed. 
First, of all the places which congregated in a spontaneous manner, the 
interchange of their cultural their cultural differences resulted in the Tango.

Of the black sources in tango, which Carlos Caceres considers the most hidden 
part, the dance was born. This is the most popular expression of urban roots.

According to the musician, the first musicians and dancers were afro argentines 
and afro Uruguayans. After the second half of the nineteen century they 
distance themselves of their African heritage and cult to the voodoo and 
macumba practices, and recovered the rhythm, and the candombe. Then, they 
continue mixing spontaneously with the couple dances given as result the Cuban 
habanera and the milonga at the south of Brazil.

Carlos Caceres recognizes that the tango primitivo is not related to the tango 
nowadays, which he thinks has become a commercialized dance, and despite its 
flaws, a music foundation of high quality has been created.

With the pass of time Carlos considers that this Tango music became 
sophisticated and was made more European. It dressed up in tuxedo in Paris, and 
afterwards returns to Argentina, and continues with its well know history. This 
part of Tango is of least interest to Carlos Caceres, although his 
interpretations are modern.

Author of reference

With 72 years of age Juan Carlos Caceres has become an obligated author of 
reference for many artists inside and outside of Argentina, not only because of 
his persistent research on the roots of tango, which he references in his 
compositions as author and composer, but rather as the alma mater of the mythic 
cave called “Pasarotus”. This is a jazz club and meeting point of revolutionary 
tendencies in his native Buenos Aires.

In addition to an ample public in Europe and Asia, artists like Fito Paez, 
Calamaro and the Makaroff brothers celebrate him dearly.

In addition to an ample public in Europe and Asia, artists like Fito paez, 
Calamaro and the Makaroff brothers celebrate him dearly.