Re: Music, Tango, & Dancing...

[Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown @DAL.FRB.ORG>]

Yesterday, Mark Celaya posted an extensive list of CDs that were recorded
after the golden age that have dance rhythms.  In doing so, I think it is
fair to say that he established that there are a lot of recordings made
after the golden age that can be used for social dancing.

Working carefully through the list, however, I think that one will find
that these recordings are more valuable as a supplement for an evening of
dance music rather than as the bulk of the music to be played.  I find
these newer recordings fall into four basic categories:

1)  Golden Age and Vintage Redux -- only a few recordings.
2)  A Lush Concert Sound* -- quite a few recordings but all sounding quite
similar to each other.
3)  A progressive Pugliese/Piazzolla/Salgan sound -- quite a few recordings
but occupying the same place on the DJ's sound pallette as Pugliese.
4)  Show tango -- a number of recordings that for the most part combine
difficult rhythm changes, lush orchestration and the progressive sound.
The most useable for social dance occupy the same place on the DJ's sound
pallette as Pugliese.

*The lush concert sound is exemplified by the recordings of Florindo
Sassone and the later recordings by Francini/Pontier on JVC.  These
orchestras largely took the best tangos from the golden age and played them
with larger orchestras with a more full sound.

As I have classified these recordings, it seems as though the DJ can extend
the playing repetoire only slightly by reaching past the golden age into
more recent recordings.  (I could dig more than 15 tandas out of the
material Mark listed, but I am also likely to end up with four versions of
Gallo Ciego on the playlist as a result.)  For many audiences, the ability
to extend the playing repetoire is worthwhile, and I would guess that many
DJs have most of the CDs that Mark listed.

With best regards,
Steve

Stephen Brown
Tango Argentino de Tejas
http://www.tejastango.com/