Just read this morning on Jantango’s blog that Tito passed away in January. Seems that January 2010 is turning out to be a bad month as far as milongueros are concerned…
While Tito may not be a household-name to many people, like for example Tete or Osvaldo Zotto were, I remember him fondly even though we could not communicate and I saw him at the milongas only. By the way, Tito was mentioned on TangoandChaos a few times: Tango in a small space, and On giros.
I first met Tito during my trip to Buenos Aires last year. Always smartly dressed and gentlemanly, he was always friendly and encouraging right from the first few milongas I went to in Buenos Aires, even if I didn’t (and still can’t) understand anything he said. I will definitely miss seeing his delicate touches during milongas. Incidentally he was also the first guy to whisk my partner away from right under my nose at Maipu using the cabeceo!
I had mentioned that a requisite for a tango DJ is the ability to play music which is danceable. The point here is that what makes for great listening is not necessarily what makes for great dance music. In general, what most dancers like is a steady, clear beat. Concert music is designed to appeal to the musicians and to those who are listening; things that work in concert, such as creating subtlety, or having a beat that is partially or completely dominated by vocals, etc., don’t help the dancers. When dancers cannot hear a discernable beat, the dancefloor can become very chaotic. The usual tell-tale signs are having many couples stepping out of sync with the music.
By the way, in case some of you may be wondering: having a steady beat does not equate to the metronomic electronic thumping typical of “Tango electronica”, e.g. pieces from Gotan Project. A steady beat can manifest itself in various forms: light-hearted as in D’Arienzo’s “Pensalo Bien”, the driving rhythm in Biagi’s “Racing Club”, romantic and silky-smooth like Di Sarli’s “Bahia Blanca”, or playful as in many of Donato and Rodriguez’s recordings. There is a richness which is unfortunately not replicated by many of the modern orchestras.
A fine example of milonga con traspie from Adela Galeazzi and Jorge Garcia, who is incidentally the brother of one of the most well known exponents of milonga, El Flaco Danny. In this clip Jorge demonstrates clearly the habanera rhythm as well some nifty footwork! What I am impressed the most is that he stayed calm throughout the dance, and at no stage was he “running after” the beat.
Danced with a certain youthful abandon, in a sort of devil-may-care attitude. While their (Pablo Rodriguez and Noelia Hurtado) style may not be to everyone’s taste, I have usually enjoyed their energetic approach and a nice blend of traditional salon with neuvo ideas.
With the recent increase in milonga venues locally, I foresee a demand for more DJ’s who can arrange decent and danceable music. Now, drawing on my personal experiences and from reading sources online, here’s a basic list of skills I consider necessary for anyone starting out*:
Understand the role of a DJ.
Awareness of pros and cons of softwares available for the job.
Basic approaches on how to a) “pace” for a milonga, b) plan the flow of tandas.
Start to build up a collection: where, how of acquiring music.
See/hear some sample tandas to understand the reasons for their construction.
Develop a ear for danceable music**.
Finally, I think a part of DJ’s responsibility is to get to know your dancers so that you can cater to the right audience!
* Naturally this is not meant to be exhaustive or it won’t be 101 anymore!
** Given that some of the budding DJs may be inexperienced dancers themselves (e.g. as in the case for our community), this may be tough to begin with. One suggestion is to simply watch dance floor to see whether it is chaotic or not, i.e. lots of confused faces that is different to the “not-dancing-to-music” phenomena…
