[Tango-L] Vocals and Dancing

[Tim Pogros]

I love dancing to vocals. I think of the vocal as another insturment playing. Also when I'm teaching musicality, I use the vocals to clearly show where the phrase begins and ends

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> On Oct 12, 2015, at 12:09 AM, Shahrukh Merchant <shahrukh at shahrukhmerchant.com> wrote:
> 
> I have no idea where anyone got the idea that people don't dance to 
> vocals in Buenos Aires. Not to Gardel, clearly (but then I've yet to 
> hear Gardel being played at a milonga), but over half of Golden Age 
> stuff has vocals. And everyone dances to them. And not just in Buenos 
> Aires--in most milongas in any mature Tango community anywhere in the 
> world (OK, the parts I've been to) you'll hear 50% vocals.
> 
> Sure, there are some singers that sound like they're groaning rather 
> than singing (there's a DJ--fortunately just one--in Montreal who seems 
> to like them), and some modern "it's all about me--who cares about the 
> dancers or the other musicians for that matter" diva-syndrome singers, 
> and a Tango dancer can be forgiven for wanting to strangle both kinds. 
> But very little in the Golden Age canon of tango music falls into either 
> of these categories, and half of the standards if not more will contain 
> vocals.
> 
> When I was a beginner, I preferred instrumentals, as I think most 
> beginners do, but even before I could understand the lyrics I started to 
> like the songs with vocals more and more. Now I prefer the vocals 
> (except for the ones I don't :-)), and not just because I understand 
> more of them (there are many that I still don't, nor am I trying to for 
> that matter).
> 
> If there are any vocals I don't dance to, it's because I can't stand the 
> singer (quite the opposite of respecting them), e.g., Ledesma or pretty 
> much any singer associated with Varela (sorry Bianca, if you're 
> listening ...). From the contemporary orchestras, likewise with Sexteto 
> Milonguero, which is a fantastic orchestra if only the damn quarteto 
> singer would shut up.
> 
> Gardel, of course, is in a separate category, and none of the blanket 
> statements above apply to him, sorry I meant Him. :-) Besides, no 
> self-respecting DJ plays Gardel for dancing. There's some funny rule 
> about that (which I endorse, incidentally), even though it's certainly 
> semi-danceable, and arguably more so than some of the stuff some DJs play.
> 
> Shahrukh
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