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Digest from 6 Jul 2000
to 7 Jul 2000
Reply-To: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
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Subject: TANGO-L Digest - 6 Jul 2000 to 7 Jul 2000 (#2000-185)
There are 5 messages totalling 361 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Metamorphasis
2. Tango and the Individual Talent
3. non-argentine tango
4. tango hello, and then some
5. Social Dance Versus Posing
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 10:18:56 -0800
From: Steve Hoffman <DrSteveH @IBM.NET>
Subject: Metamorphasis
Deborah, I enjoyed your post.
One of the things I really like about the tango, for us gringos, is that
special opportunity, even relatively later in life, to discover a part of
ourselves that was heretofore either not permitted (by one's self), or only
dreamed about, or lost. We on the Peninsula have become a tango family.
We joke about our addiction, and how we should really "get a life" outside
of tango. (Actually, these are educated and accmplished people mostly, who
do have pretty amazing lives outside of tango, but like to pretend they
don't, for the sake of jokes about ourselves.) But in any case, there is
this incredible power and opportunity to "re-invent" ourselves again - a
Metamorphosis.
Just the other night, as a 12-hour Fourth of July tango party was slowing
down, some of the women were talking about the secret transformation in
their heads when they put on their sexy tango outfits. They become exotic
night creatures, they live a certain fantasy, they have allure, beauty,
drama, a wealth of suitors... and they love it. Also, the men, as you say,
can have their dream of being a night panther, a mysterious tanguero, a
gypsy king, a gracious leader.
One theme in all this, most seriously, is a process of healing. Tango,
with its intimacy, it's dance conversation, it's embrace, and perhaps even
more importantly, it's socializing, can heal people with deep emotional
wounds, can help shy people blossom forth, can restore and re-integrate
souls who have fallen off the social cliff. The love and affection that is
brought to the floor, or to the party, by tango friends, is evidence of a
new family, sometimes the first family that a person has had in a long
time. Transformation, even a new life, can come from the power of
friendship, respect, nuturing, and freedom... which the tango brings.
Steve Hoffman
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 18:06:13 -0400
From: Nitin Kibe <nkibe @WORLDBANK.ORG>
Subject: Tango and the Individual Talent
A comprehensive and quite well written/informed review of
Le Grand Tango: The Life and Music of Astor Piazzolla
by Mar=EDa Susana Azzi and Simon Collier
http://www.tnr.com/070300/eichler070300.html
Good wishes.
Nitin Kibe=
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 17:52:39 -0700
From: Michael Knowles <binkster @SLIP.NET>
Subject: Re: non-argentine tango
> From: robin thomas: i'm very interested in the international history of the tango.
>
Robin:
As far as I can tell from looking around the web and searching for old 78rpm tangos
during the last couple of years there was a lot of tango ALL OVER THE WORLD since the
very beginning. Argentine tango sheet music exists from the late 19th century and we
know that Argentine musicians were recording tangos on the earliest record-making
equipment. The tango appeared suddenly as a high-society dance event in Paris and
London around 1913-14 and the first Finnish tango disc I know of was recorded in 1915!
The French brought Argentine tango to the global stage and quickly embraced and
changed it. The 'Continental' tango sound began to develop at this time. Big port
cities and national capitols frequented by an international pre-jet-set crowd bent an
ear to the new, popular sound and demanded local dance bands that were frequently
salted with one or more Argentinean or Uruguayan musicians. In a surprising case of
reverse transfer Argentine high-society picked up the dance craze, paying for big
halls and the best musicians, accidentally ensuring that a generation of
musically-minded kids would gravitate toward learning to play the devilishly difficult
bandoneon throughout the Golden Age of tango (40's-50's).
In Germany "Die Tango-Prinzessin" became the rage in 1913 with at least thirty other
tango-ish recordings being made available the same year. Though the bandoneon is an
early German instrument, it took until 1927 for Walter Pvrschmann, a German musician,
to actually play one in a tango band as he toured South America. Surprisingly, he only
wrote tango arrangements for accordion, apparently leaving the more primitive
bandoneon to the musical genre he respected as originally Rio Platense. Back in
Germany the dance was exceedingly popular and influenced existing German bandleaders
plus attracting some from neighboring countries like Barnabas von Giczy from Hungary
and Marek Weber who was born in Poland of Jewish Romanian parents. The Nazi rise to
power convinced Weber and many South American musicians like Juan Llossas to leave the
country but their seats were taken by local German musicians. I recommend for your
listening enjoyment the Harlequin CD entitled German Tango Bands 1925-1939.
http://venerablemusic.com/FolkRecordPages/HARL_127.htm
In Russia, as you know, the tango was popular in St. Petersburg but was banned by the
Bolsheviks in 1918. This did not stop the populance from sneaking in copies of tango
recordings manufactured in other countries by Pjotr Leschenko! There are three Rien
CDs that I know of which feature Pjotr Leschenko's music: Everything That Was
1934-1937, Tangos, Foxtrots & Romances 1935, Gipsy Songs and other Passions, 1931.
http://www.oriente.de/e/rien06.htm
http://www.oriente.de/e/rien12.htm
http://www.oriente.de/e/rien18.htm
In Brazil, the pianist Ernesto Nazareth composed about a hundred melodies in a tango
vein in addition to arranging Padula's 'Nove de Julho' for piano. His solo
instrumental works are lyrically beautiful and clear. There are several modern
recordings by talented pianists who interpret his works. Slow is better, in my
opinion, so Joshua Rifkin's reading of 'Plangente' is my favorite:
Joshua Rifkin - Rags and Tangos
http://www.ragtimers.org/~ragtimers/artists/rifkncds.html
Polly Ferman - Brazilian Waltzes and Tangos
http://www.ragtimers.org/~ragtimers/artists/fermncds.html
and also - Habaneras, Milongas, Tangos
http://www.piazzolla.org/works2/habaneras.html
Dominique Cornil - Brazilian Tangos and Waltzes
http://www.ragtimers.org/~ragtimers/artists/cornlcds.html
Other Nazareth-inspired artists I haven't heard yet include Clilia Iruzun, Arthur
Lima, Marcelo Bratke.
Frank French has a tango brasileiro sample of 'Plangente' you can hear at this page if
you can stand the sluggish server: http://www.viridianaproductions.com/tango.htm
The French version of tango is represented by hundreds of recordings. Many vocalists
and orchestras thrived in the fertile atmosphere of the 20's and 30's. Tino Rossi is
one singer whose works you'll find easily -- he was the French equivalent of Carlos
Gardel. My favorite French CDs are:
Gallerie CD 424 "A Portrait Of Tango" (disc 1 is French, disc 2 is Rio Platense)
http://www.downtown.co.nz/netCD/Gallerie/424.html
Disky CD855842 "Etoiles de la Chanson - Les Plus Beaux Tangos du Monde" (which
includes one Carlos Gardel vocal in French!)
Musidisc 771 "Accordion Paristango" (which includes both vintage and modern
recordings)
Malibran Music 506 "Tango/Tino Rossi"
Tango in England profited from the world scene and adopted the dance style, usually
substituting accordion for bandoneon. Early Mantovani hits predate that tepid
'Cascading Strings' sound -- his gritty and rhythmic interpretations of ''Spider of
the Night" and "Blue Sky" stand up well today. In 1930 Geraldo and his Gaucho Tango
Orchestra became well known and even played a Royal Command Performance in 1933. If
they could just get rid of the pseudo-operatic stylings of their singer, Monte Rey!...
Victor Silvester took the tango and fitted it into his ballroom-oriented concept of
strict tempo. Check out this CD:
Flapper (Pavilion Records Ltd) Past CD 9752 "Tango! The Dance That Swept The World"
Hawaiian guitar sounds find their way into a few tangos... Hawaii native Frank Ferera
and his wife Helen Louise recorded a couple of Hawaiian-flavor tangos around 1917 with
duet and trio instrumentation including "Hawaiian-Portuguese Tango". Adalbert Lutter's
(German) Tango Band in the mid-30's included the American guitarist Mike Danzi famous
for his Hawaiian specialty sound. A Greek tango "Dos Mou Dio Philia" from 1934 has
Hawaiian guitar accompanying Nikos Perdikis' vocal. The tango instrumental called
"Avant de Mourir" (Berlin, 1944) features the Hawaii-Guitarre playing of Gino Bordin.
I guess the exotic sound of the tango fit well with steel slide guitar in more than
one arranger's mind!
The Turks were prolific tango composers and performers. Istanbul, standing as the
gateway to the Orient, was influenced by contact with globe-trotting tangophiles. A
great website about Turkey's tango music history is here:
http://www.kuresel.com/tangohist.htm
My favorite early Turkish tango singers are Ibrahim Vzg|r and Seyyan Hanim. You can
get the Vzg|r CD from Oriente Musik: http://www.oriente.de/e/welcome.html
Seyyan Hanim "Tangolar 1932-1940" is available from Canzone:
http://www.canzone.de/tan_and.htm
Greece, too, was a popular spot for tango. The composer Kostas Giannidis wrote many
great tangos starting in 1932. Contemporaneously, another gent known familiarly as
"Attik" penned tangos and sang some of them, too. A surprising number of ladies are
featured in recorded Greek tango; I found more female than male singers. Either Danai
Stratigopozlou or Sophma Bimpo recorded the most songs but also check out Kakia
Mindri, Artemis Manesi, Elini nte Rozi and Kozla Nikolaodou for starters. Nikos
Gounaris was a popular male singer with a very pleasant voice. Here's a site selling
vintage Greek recordings:
http://www.musicstore.gr/cgi-local/shop.pl/SID=943960231.3491978/page=category10.htm
Attik's tunes are here: http://www.greekmusic.com/cgi-bin/products.exe?sku=CDPAN-203
Later in the century the influence of early Greek tango was felt in many of the songs
of Manos Hatzidakis (Never On Sunday, 1961) especially in his album "15 Vespers"
(1965).
Finland! What can we say about this country's wild love affair with the tango?
Finland's strong entry into the tango scene came quite a bit later than the first
Finnish parody-tango recording in 1915. During the 20's Finnish tango was simply
Argentine- and Mediterranean-flavored exotica performed in the cold North. But in the
mid-30's new lyrics began to be written for the Finnish audience incorporating local
imagery and the native language. Accordions reigned supreme at least partly because
their modern materials stood the severe temperature fluctuations more stoutly than the
finicky wood-and-leather bandoneon. Musically, the Finns dropped most of the Argentine
syncopation and made sure to stay in the minor key like the familiar folk romances.
One writer also notes that the Finns dropped the erotic component of the "war between
the sexes" in favor of a "melancholic togetherness". In the 40's and 50's, Tango
became king of the dance floor with Olavi Virta, Markus Allen, Reijo Taipale and Eino
Grvn leading the way. It is notable that the vocalist's rtle became ever more
important. The Finns almost never dance tango to orchestras playing without a singer.
Unfortunately, the dance lost momentum to rock and roll in the late 60's and 70's but
had a reawakening in 1984, probably initiated by the more stubborn folk in the
northern part of the country...
A good website with Finland's tango history is here:
http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/tangoeng.html
Several CDs seem appropriate for the person who wants a small taste of Finnish Tango.
The best by far is "Finnischer Tango - Tule Tanssimaan" by Trikont-Produktion in
Munich. You get a wide cross-section from 1915 to 1998.
http://www.jpc-highlights.de/8823531.htm or http://www.digelius.com/finland.htm
Two other good CDs are the Fazer Records releases "Suuret Suomalaiset Tangot" and "...
Tangot 2" available from Digelius (see above). These discs feature mostly 1960's-era
songs but also offer a smattering of tunes from the 50's through to the 1990.
Would you believe there are a few Klezmer tangos? It seems that some Klezmer bands in
Warsaw and other cities with a large Jewish population wanted to satisfy their
audiences with songs they'd enjoy including minor-key waltz and tango. (Similar
stories played out around the world, too.) Cabaret musical stylings of the day
included many influences from American ragtime to Latin rhythms and all the best
musicians could jump into any style at the drop of a hat. Perhaps German-born Kurt
Weill is the culmination of cabaret/klezmer-styled tangos with his earthy-yet-inspired
compositions like "Youkali Tango" and "Matrosen-Tango".
United States tango seems not to have formed a center in the early part of the
century. I think we here in the States looked largely to European nations to help
categorize this new dance. Ballroom tango as practiced by the British and French took
hold with some changes but there wasn't the same breadth of live tango bands to choose
from. Vernon and Irene Castle popularized the tango in 1914 without the overt
eroticism associated with the dance's origins. Only in the production of films did we
define our tangos as wild and exotic and here it was over-the-top melodramatic
flourishes that attracted the audiences. Rudolph Valentino and Joan Sawyer lent a
primal tone to the tango. The bands that brought in the dancing public were frequently
associated with a hotel ballroom. Some bandleaders like Emil Coleman even 'cloned'
themselves and had several bands at once touring the nation, all billed as the same
band! Artists sold a lot of records, since the citizenry owned a a large per-capita
number of record players. In addition to welcoming established musicians fleeing from
Nazism like composer Kurt Weill and bandleaders Marek Weber and Henryk Gold, the USA
benefited from an influx of touring Latin musicians like Juan Flores and the Hurtado
Brothers. Spanish/Cuban Xavier Cugat made the USA his home and composed some spicy
tangos before going into rumba and mambo. USA-born musicians that dabbled in tango
range from Carmen Cavallaro's florid piano stylings to Nat Shilkret's tight
arrangements for the Victor International Novelty Orchestra recordings. For a 26-song
dose of American-based tango check out Xavier Cugat's remastered 1998 compilation
"Loves To Tango!" by Harlequin.
As much as I would like to present more information on Spanish and Italian tango, I
have come up short here in my searches. Can anyone help me discover more about early
tango in these countries?
I'm leaving out other large cities that developed an early tango scene but you can
start with investigating Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Rio, Granada, Madrid, etc.
I hope that your discovery of non-argentine tango is rewarding!
--
Michael Knowles
binkster @slip.net
http://www.binkster.net/
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 19:29:22 EDT
From: Rico Lombard <ricolombard @HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: tango hello, and then some
Hello tango-L, I'm new on the list and have never posted before, So
far your discussions seem typical for tango talk. The age old rivalry
between weak male dancers and females who assume that they are great because
some Argentine officianado told them "your a wonderful dancer", is as old
as tango itself. There are only so many things a man can say to a woman
after he has experienced her tango.The real question is can a woman keep her
balance when dancing with a novice of several years experience. I have
studied the womans part and my experience is; that it is easy to perform any
move with balance and grace when the leader is a master. However, when I
teach tango and dance the womans part I find I am not able to execute the
simple ocho with the same grace as with a tango master leading me. Although,
I am constantly hearing from women that they dont want to dance with this
man and that man because he is a terrible leader. I think,however, that this
is not the case, rather the woman is not able to properily execute the tango
move on her own, and consequently she must find someone to blame for the
lack of fluidity on the floor.
Tango masters frequently take small steps from side to side or forward
and back even to the corners without leading at all. These simple move are
just providing the ladie with opportunities to express themselves as they
will. It really depends on here ability to do so, the man can just stand
there and wait, then step, wait and, step all day long. If the woman doesnt
have the ability to think for herself out there, it is a sure sign of here
lack of experience and or abilty to dance tango. It is simple to follow
Fabian anywhere on the floor but, can you take some bigginer and make him
look like he is more than that. Some women can and often do. Imagine
controling your partner ladies and telling him to move slowly when he is
trying to fly across the dance floor, it is simple. Just use him as a post
to dance around like a pole mounted in the ground, he can do nothing and you
can still look fantastic on the floor at a molonga, if you have the ability
within yourself to produce the tango you DREAM OF DANCING. A man is not
necessary he is just an adornment a piece of jewelry for you to display.
So, what I am really saying is that when women blame men for the lack of
great tango experience outside of BA, they are ADMITTING THAT THEIR OWN
SKILLS ARE NOT AVAILABLE TO TAKE UP THE SLACK. Any woman should be able to
train a man to gently and slowly step to the rythm while she performs her
own passionate expression of tango. Women who depend on men to give them
passion on the floor are showing and telling everyone about their own lack
of experience about tango.
I remember dancing with a famous tanguera years ago and trying to lead her,
she held my hand and used her touch to slow me down and she move around me
like a goddess with wings always holding my position at bay never letting me
move where I should not be. It was an incredible experience I will always be
thankful for what I learned with her.
Rico
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Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2000 10:41:15 +0800
From: Pete Hollings <Pete_Hollings @CORRS.COM.AU>
Subject: Social Dance Versus Posing
Hello Tango-L....
Just thought I'd post something to get your collective opinions...
I am currently living in Perth, Western Australia and have been dancing
Tango for about a year now.
Perth being a small city (comparatively speaking) has a proportionately
small Tango community and very few venues at which one can take the
opportunity to dance their own Tango. We have one particular venue that
operates every Sunday for only an hour or so.
The question I wish to pose is.
Do you think it is fair, for supposed experts, to dominate floorspace
giving what amounts to demonstrations of complicated and intricate figures,
in what is already quite a cramped venue. Whilst all others that have
just gone along to enjoy a pleasant social dance, find themselves cornered
or cramped while these people thrash their legs around???
What bothers me most about this sort of thing is, that the people doing
this don't really seem to be enjoying themselves that much. They just
seem to be going through a series of set figures with the same partners.
There is no passion, there is no life, just legs....
It's not that I'm jealous of these people, frankly I have no doubt that I
am just as (if not more) competent dancer, it's just that I and the
majority of people go to enjoy ourselves and not show off.
Does this sort of thing happen in other communities???
regards
Pete Hollings
End of TANGO-L Digest - 6 Jul 2000 to 7 Jul 2000 (#2000-185)
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