Re: [TANGO-L] Community Growth - The Next Generation

[Robert Hauk <robhauk @TELEPORT.COM>]

Hey everybody,

It has been fun watching this discussion develop.  There are many
different tastes out there, and many ways to listen to and interpret
music.

I don't have much time to say anything right now, I am leaving tomorrow
morning for Buenos Aires.  I am looking forward to seeing the rest of
this discussion when I get back.  While I am in Buenos Aires you can
count on it that I will be listening to the DJs, and asking about the
music if I hear anything I like that I don't know.  I will be listening
to the way the good DJs put together the evening, and how the feeling of
the milonga develops.  For all of the possible experimenting that I
could do with the music at a milonga I would still rather use the good
DJs in Buenos Aires as the model for what I do.

This is not my first trip to Buenos Aires.  On my first trip I listened
very intently to the music, I would try to guess the orchestra, and I
asked people the names of songs, and orchestras when I didn't know.  You
can ask almost any of the older dancers, and they are very happy to talk
with someone interested in their music and culture.  I thought I knew
something about tango when I went there, I had been dancing for almost
four years.  In some ways I did know something, but when I was around
the older dancers I felt like a baby, I felt like I knew very little,
and that it was time to listen up rather than try to tell everyone what
I knew.  I hope to experience the same feeling this time.

What amazed me the most about the best DJs was the fact that I couldn't
make myself sit down.  I would decide that I had to sit out for a couple
of tandas or my feet would fall off, and the next tanda would begin, I
would hear the song, and be asking someone to dance before even thinking
about it.  I would know who I wanted to dance with, and just couldn't
bear to sit down.  The tandas of tropical were a blessing because I had
the excuse that I didn't really know how to dance to the music.  I came
home wanting to DJ like that.  I wanted to learn how to keep the energy
that high in the room, and how to keep most of the people on the floor.

I don't know how close I get to a good Buenoa Aires DJ, I don't know if
I could successfully DJ for one of those milongas, but I still am
learning.  I still want to have most of the people in the room on the
floor, and I want the room to have a great energy.  I want people to
feel like they can't leave until the music stops.  When there are a lot
of people on the dance floor, I feel like I am doing the best I can.

This all relates to community building for me in the following way.  I
have a couple of reasons for using the Buenos Aires DJs as a model.
First I think they are the best.  And second, as a member of my own
community I feel it is important that the people in my community know
the music they will dance to in Buenos Aires, I think most will want to
go sooner or later.  I could play any kind of music, but I really want
them to feel as much at home as possible there.  There is so much to
learn, why should they have to struggle with the music?

I have so much more I could say about this, things I feel about the
golden age music and the amazing musicians who made it.  About the
people who evolved the music, Astor Piazzolla foremost among them, and
about the music they created.  About the modern musicians who are
approaching tango, how they are not typically dancers, about how they
want to evolve the music without first going to the root.  The list goes
on.  These things in the end all are arguments of taste, and arguing
about taste may be fun, but little will ever be resolved.  I like the
things I like for a reason, and I can talk at length about the reasons.
I hope you are all passionate enough to be able to talk all night about
it too.  That is the joy we have in tango.

Many happy tangos to all, and happy new year!

Robert