[Tango-L] Vocals and Dancing

[Tango 22]

A couple of observations to add to the mix.  Joaquin Amenabar, in his workshops on dancing to Tango music notes that instrumentals are more complex, played in 5 parts, whilst vocal tangos tend to be simpler, played in 2 parts.  From memory he prefers the more complex instrumentals for that reason.  As noted in other posts, the singers generally only sing the bridge, not the entire song, in dance music.

Keith Elshaw discussed vocalists in his Australian tour.  We talked about the change after WW11 when the dance bands went into decline and the tortured singers came to prominence. (The ones Shahrukh loves). We discussed the numerous reasons for this, not the least the clampdown on dancing in Argentina and the global melancholy of the Cold War.

It’s not just a vocal v instrumental issue, though.  There are many excellent Tangos that do not have a dance rhythm and are meant for listening, concert style.  Of course Piazzolla after 1950 is top of this list.  I put one of our favourite bands, Orq. Victoria, in this category, too.  Generally, people do not dance to them at their concert on Monday nights in Cafe Vinilo.  The dancers wait for the recorded music.  We had an interesting experiences with Joaquin Amenabar here in Brisbane at Milonga Para Los Niños some years ago.  The (locally recruited) band played an excellent concert Friday night.  He rehearsed them for 4 hours the next day, converting the same songs into dance music with a steadier rhythm for the milonga.  I found that quite revealing.

So dance music is dance music, concert music is concert music.  Love it all.
Cheers,
John