Record labels
Have been a bit quiet on this blog for a while, although this certainly does not mean a complete withdrawal from tango. In fact, quite the contrary. Regular milongas have been going steadily, plus a new milonga on Fridays, in conjunction with a guided practica. It is heartening to see the regulars putting in the effort and improving steadily, especially so when some the fundamentals that I have been emphasizing were vindicated in a workshop by visiting maestros over the past weekend!
Well, life and milongas go on. Regretfully I have been able to resist to add to my music collection with little success… 🙁
Anyway I decided to refresh myself with the major tango record labels with the “A beginner’s guide to tango record labels” today. Here is a quick summary relevant to the music I already have or will receive in short order!
- EMI-Odeon: Reliquias, From Argentina to the World, Serie de Oro.
- Sony-BMG: RCA Victor, Tango Argentino, Solo Tango (FM Tango).
- Euro Records: Coleccion 78 RPM, Archivo RCA, Archivo Odeon, Archivo T.K..
- Collectors: Audio Park, Club Tango Argentino (CTA), Buenos Aires Tango Club (BATC).
- Others: El Bandoneon, Harlequin.
Friendly chats
Had an entertaining chit-chat session with Andres “Bichi” Moreno and Isabel Acuna, who are currently visiting Singapore, yesterday afternoon. I sure learnt a lot about some of nuances of Spanish among South American countries. And to hear first hand from an Argentine/Porteno about “chamuyo” (or the ART of) is quite enlightening! 🙂
A fair go
Many blogs and commenters on blogs often dish out criticisms of touring tango teachers for being only interested in our (collectively: all tango “consumers”) money, and nothing else. However, I feel that we must not forget that these people are also professionals who derive a living from their talents/skills that they have acquired hopefully through years of practice and dedication. I have personally had the fortune to interact with quite a few teachers (both internationally renowned and lesser known, and either took classes with or organised workshops for) who have a genuine love for tango and a keen interest to help develop the community they have been invited to. As for the few whose interests are purely financial, well, as long as they conduct themselves professionally during classes, I have no issues with that at all.
What to dance to
Recently, perhaps with the left half of my brain being more dominant lately, I have started to ponder yet again the question: what (part of music) are people trying to dance to?
I think, at the most fundamental level, we can’t escape from the beat/rhythm* – the so-called skeletal fabric of tango music. I think this is most important for beginners and up to intermediate level. Without being judgmental, I believe it’s also fine if one never progresses beyond dancing exclusively on and to the beat of the music. Frankly, very often I still see people having problems recognising the rhythm of a piece of music, let alone move to the beat!
For me, and somewhat in hindsight, after progressing past the stage of “being able to consistently move to the beat”, ideally the next few personal milestones would be:
- Recognising the beginning and end of each beat.
- Attain an inner calmness so that I won’t feel rushed into reaching the next location, step, etc.
- Discovering ways of expressing the melody.
There is no “mystical revelation” here, just a simple calmness to soak in the music and have confidence in myself (after hours of workshops and self-practice…) to have the physical control to move freely to it, at my own pace that is compatible to the music. 😉 After all, we don’t need to be enslaved by the music being played, no?
My favourite quote comes Hsueh-tze Lee (paraphrased, obviously):
Express the melody with the torso, and the rhythm with the legs/feet.
Sadly, there aren’t many good examples of this available for us to learn from nowadays.
* Here I am implicitly talking about music from the Golden Age of 1930’s-mid 1940s.