Neotango rant (III)

Nowadays, most people spend far too much energy on the war between traditionalist and nuevo. The problem is not the styles themselves. The problem is that everybody believes that they are right, when probably, nobody is.

Neotango rant (II)

«The artist creates unconsciously, spontaneously. Pichucho, Di Sarli, De Caro, Salgán and even Piazzolla, created their oeuvre and none of them labeled himself as a vanguardist. They achieved that but were unaware of it. They show what they discovered, what they know, what flows naturally from them and nothing more. This is not avant-garde but a testimony of those that are gifted. The avant-garde is a label. The important musicians composed their oeuvre because they had a sacred fire inside them».


Carlos Garcia (1914-2006), founder and leader of the Orchesta del Tango de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires in Café de Los Maestros


So, as far as I see it, neotango (and not alternative tango) is today's innovation. Just like in the early 1920's tango that De Caro tried to do (the melodical tango that gave rise to the music of Laurenz, Fresedo and Di Sarli). At the time everyone called him mad. Now, everyone calls him a genious.

DJing tango - not just chucking your favourite music

This weekend was pretty hectic. I was DJing in Bristol on saturday and in Market Harborough (Leicestershire) on sunday. Both milongas went pretty well, I can say that most of the time two thirds of the people were up dancing and I got good feedback in the end of it.
However, these two milongas had completely different audiences and requirements. I know Bristol tango rather well, not a place for many of the most contemporary of sounds and La Rosa's Whiteladies milonga doesn't go out of that way. However, when I put Sin Rumbo from Otros Aires everybody stood up and went dancing. I decided to follow that with Mi Corazon from Bajofondo and the same. In the end, an Italian tanguera told me that she really likes this kind of music but nobody ever plays it. I got the impression that, allowing for some exceptions, this was the general feeling. Are DJs making a good job?
In Market Harborough there is an older crowd that likes their golden age tangoes. They are very English and it would be the last place that you'd think neotango would be danced to. Well, in fact, I was asked to put some and when Whatever Lola Wants (I was asked to put that, to be honest is not on my favourites to dance to) came on, everybody looked at each other and rose up to go dancing.
My point in this post is that what you like to dance is not necessarily what other people like to dance. My tango mentor, Ricardo Oria, told me once that the DJ's ego has to stay at home. In a milonga, the crowd is who is paying to dance and you have to be flexible enough to cater for the requirements.
The golden age will always be the golden age! I don't think we'll ever get a period like it. But, more importantly, tango is more than the golden age. The good DJ is the DJ that understands that.

Neo tango rant!

Sharna Fabiano seems to be a name to take into account on the other side of the Atlantic. She was recently nominated as one of the ones to watch in an American dance magazine and I heard high opinions about her. So, I went to her website, neotango.
Sharna gives us a extensive list of tracks that we can dance tango to. Fine, I personally like to dance tango to non traditional tango music so I was excited! I started going down the list...
"I Don't Feel So Well" by Vienna Teng, by "A thousand years" by Sting... They are NOT TANGOS! Sharna is feeding what seems to be a rapid build up of antibodies against neotango because she is stating that non-tango tracks are neotango! I can understand how some people in the States are so upset at neotango. But maybe they are upset at non-tango!
Neotango is music made out of tango with a contemporary twist into it. Neotango should have the Argentinian Tango mark in it, it should be a music that makes one reminisce of tango when listening to it, not simply a track that is tango-danceable!
I personally like dancing non-tango musics to tango but that is what they are, non-tango musics! There is a hell of a difference between A Thousand years and Mi Corazon. Sharna should know better than that!