[Tango-L] Piazzolla is not played at Traditional Milongas

[RonTango]

----- Original Message ----

> From: Steve Littler <sl at stevelittler.com>
> Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Fw: Astor Piazzolla & 50 Essential Tangos for $1.99 starting tonight
> 
> Well, I bought it and for me, I DON'T see it as essential for 
> traditional dancers. The early stuff with Gardel is scratchy. The 
> Piazolla is from a live album. A lot of the other stuff has more of a 
> piano bar/jazz feeling to me. There is NOTHING in the collection that I 
> have ever heard at a traditional milonga here in Florida. (Whenever I 
> have heard a Piazolla tanda at a traditional milonga here in Florida, it 
> was a studio cut - NOT a live cut.) Nuevo fans might find a few cuts they like. 
> El Stevito de Gainesville

Piazzolla is not played at traditional milongas - only tango music from the tango dance orchestras of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, with an occasional tanda of a modern orchestra (after 1960) playing in that style. This is what is played in the overwhelming majority of milongas in Buenos Aires. It is the music, in part, that defines a milonga as 'traditional', although using that label for a milonga is as redundant as using 'Argentine tango' to describe the tango danced in Buenos Aires milongas. The deviations from the cultural tradition are what need the modifiers - 'alternative milongas' and 'nuevo (tango)'.

Ron
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