[Tango-L] The Sound of the Music

[Keith Elshaw]

(This verges on a “commercial” post - which L rules allow once a year - 
to share and present to those who’ve never heard).


In 2000 after more than 10 years of continually collecting all the tango 
music I could find, and loving it and dancing and dj-ing and learning 
with a passion, something unique happened which changed my relationship 
with tango.

It was an innocent question from a woman I dated which caused an 
epiphany. She grumpily asked while dancing, “why do you like that OLD 
music?”

She was happy to dance all night to Color Tango or anything recent, but 
really did not want to hear the great old orquestas for more than a 
tanda at a time. It blew my mind that Biagi/D'Arienzo or Canaro or old 
Pugliese didn't make her jump up and want to dance.

This really bothered me. It seemed to me she wasn’t HEARING the music 
and feeling it; and I knew she wasn’t alone in this.

I started losing sleep over it. If people hearing just the noise and 
lack of quality caused them to totally miss the beauty and creativity in 
the music and the possibilities for their dancing, was there something I 
could do about that … humble, just-a-dancer and sound engineer me? And 
wouldn't dancers who already loved the old music not appreciate it even 
more if the quality improved from what is available on CDs?

So I got serious about finding out if I could make a difference.

Thus began my odyssey of tango restoration.

My first renderings weren’t nearly as good as I’d hoped to achieve but 
people around the world (many here) encouraged me keep going. How I love 
them for that; THEY are actually responsible for the later 
break-through, you could say.

Together with finding better source material, the pro audio technology 
rapidly progressed after 2006 and I kept buying new devices to aid in 
the work and developing nuanced techniques.

Every time I made advances I went back over all my tracks and re-did 
them. Of course I am limited by how good my source material is, so I 
constantly collect, searching for versions even a teensy bit better that 
what I already have.

My goal has been to put better sounding music in the hands of people who 
love tango and to make the dancehalls of the world create optimum 
environments for dancers. I teach dj’s how to be better through quality, 
organization and optimum choices in the moment.


It’s a symbiotic relationship between me and dancers: I work on the 
music; people buy it and I put the money back in to revealing more and 
more of the old recordings in their original glory. I have almost 5,000 
songs in my restored catalogue now, and I tell folks that not all are 
purely for dancing – some are just interesting for what the universe of 
tango recordings is and recreating the times in one’s mind. Those 
curiosities are basically thrown in for free in a package I call 
Collector.

I tell you this so you know there is one guy in the world that can 
answer the question for skeptics as to WHY the old music is the best. 
“Listen to this!” Virtually no noise, everything enhanced and leveled, 
cut to optimum length for milonga play, sounding hot on any sound system 
in any dancehall. Organized so everything sits in 
chronological/alphabetical order in your Tango/Milonga/Vals folders. If 
there is a singer on the track, the name appears in the file name (Biagi 
40 Ortiz_Todo Te Nombra - released in 1940 and Ortiz is the vocalist). 
Available in Wav or MP3 or both. Buy a few via download or buy a lot.  I 
just want people to have it - sounding  as good as it can today.

I always tell people that the musicians and singers were kids when they 
made it – when you hear it as good as it can sound, it goes right to 
your heart with the force it had the day it was recorded. It wasn’t old 
then – and it doesn’t have to sound old now.

So if you ever meet someone who would like to really hear it, please 
tell them about me. Based on the feedback I get, they will probably 
thank you.

As much as hoping people would support me if they knew what I am doing, 
I’ve just wanted people to be aware of choosing the best music they can 
for dancing; being able to identify what sounds good and what ought to 
be replaced with a better choice.

I also take my stories and tips on the road and love sharing when I get 
invitations to other cities. I love doing dj workshops for people who 
have no desire to dj; more knowledge from dancers makes everything work 
better and keep going up. I loved being in Pittsburgh; loved being in 
New York at New Year’s for 6 wonderful gigs and look forward to 
Australia’s south-eastern cities.

And as always, thank you for reading.

Keith

Details and free demo and more: http://ToTANGO.net