[Tango-L] Why are you dancing tango if you don't like tango?

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

No, that's based on most of my experience with actual bands.  The most active band in our community has been approached about their music's undanceability.  They've made a conscious decision to go into a different direction.  Some jazz tango blend, which is a shame because they are good musicians.  But only one of them is a dancer.

For the first tango band that developed here, it took years for them to understand the difference, mostly because I kept at them.  But they were resistance to dancers telling them how the music should sound like.  They did figure it out, but it was not a smooth relationship between band and dancers.  

Nor do bands get real feedback because people will still go to a milonga with live music to support the band, not because they find the music danceable.  So everyone applauds, the musically clueless still dance, and the band thinks they've done a good job.  They don't pick up on the fact that the best dancers are sitting out.

Are there some good bands?  Sure, but if I were to look at the average pool of musicians that an average city has, I'd say the chance of finding real tango musician is pretty slim.  From my city, you'd have to drive about 4 hours to get to another city with live music (DC, whose musicians are actually more concert), but there are about 8 tango communities within that same radius, none of whom have a viable tango band.

Quite frankly, I can't blame musicians if they get a bigger paycheck from non-dancing sources.  I'm sure it's more interesting for them, too.

Trini de Pittsburgh



--- On Wed, 5/5/10, AJ Azure <azure.music at verizon.net> wrote:


> That's certainly the cliché thought
> pattern but, not the correct one. Given
> the opportunity musicians are happy to play older stuff and
> aren't all about
> ego. That's most cliché, stereotypical blanket comment.