New old CDs
Recently saw some good deals on certain gems of tango music online. Well, how could I pass on the chance to add to my collection!? So, after a relative lull, I made my orders of a number of CDs, this time around concentrating on materials from the 1920s to early 1930s. My final “targets” included music of Francisco Canaro, Edgardo Donato and Osvaldo Fresedo.
Since the parcels just arrived today, I have only had a chance to listen to the Canaro (1926-1927). From the front cover photo, it appears that Canaro himself might have been playing in the orchestra at this point in his career. The music is slow-paced and more intimate (though not as sweet as Di Sarli’s Sexteto sound), quite a big contrast from his grander and more upbeat sound in his 40’s output. Well, now really can’t wait till my copy of La Cumparsita – Tango Argentino (Francisco Canaro), which took me quite a while to track down a reasonably priced copy (as mentioned here) arrives. It will have some rare tracks not available elsewhere…
Making of vinyl records
A very interesting documentatary on the production of records (the three stages: master, mother matrix and stamper), made by who but RCA Victor! How is this related to tango? Well, it just so happens that RCA Victor was and still is a major player in tango music and I enjoy these old documentaries…
Production of records in the 40s – Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Danceability
This is the first of a series of follow-ups to previous post on DJing.
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.
DJ 101
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… 😉