Friday, September 4, 2015

Tanda of the Week 36/2015 - D'Agostino / Garcia - DJ Xenia




I will be playing my UK premiere at the Brightangothon in Brighton in the end of October!

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1. Ángel D'Agostino / Tino García - "Era en otro Buenos Aires" 1947
2. Ángel D'Agostino / Tino García - "El trece" 1951
3. Ángel D'Agostino / Tino García - "Alma de bohemio" 1947
4. Ángel D'Agostino / Tino García - "La cumparsita" 1952

https://open.spotify.com/user/anttiveikko/playlist/37JlbiH8XRFc9oodbtz4uiThis weeks guest DJ tanda is from DJ Xenia from Israel. The tanda showcases later recordings from D'Agostino with the singer Tino García. Here's how Xenia introduces herself:

http://www.deezer.com/playlist/1363697095"I am an Israeli DJ traveling abroad and playing music in Europe. I see myself as a very diverse DJ, being able to play light and dynamic music, keeping high and flowing energy, or creating more sophisticated and calm atmosphere depending on the dancers need.

My first education (MA) was in the field of history of XX century culture, so I could continue my research when arrived to tango, and it allows me to bring you a lot of lesser known danceable music.

A part of my style is introducing a new danceable music from the end of twenties to the middle of fifties. Please, pay attention: the keyword is 'danceable', not 'new'".

You can check out Xenia's DJ page at https://www.facebook.com/Tango.DJ.Xenia
And her interview with DJ Super Sabino at http://supersabinotango.blogspot.it/2014/10/xenia-mikhailov-part-of-my-style-is.html

Thank you Xenia!

Have a nice weekend all!

D'Agostino, Ángel - TOTW - Todo Tangotango.info - TangoTunes - iTunes Store

11 kommenttia:

  1. Sorry, but this is not dance music.

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  2. Thank you for inviting me, Antti! It was a pleasure to join you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely, Xenia! A less commonly seen (heard?) side of D'Agostino.
    I would enjoy dancing to this with my love. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Tina!

      Yes, it's another D'Agostino. Playing it for the first time I worried a bit how people will react to this tanda but in the end of a long and intense milonga with high energy level it is usually very successful and people love dancing to it. Besides, it's one of the most beautiful Cumparsitas I know.

      Hope to play it for you at one of my milongas!

      Delete
  4. I am sorry to have to add another discordant voice here but it seems that the search for the "new" has (sadly) been at the expense of the "danceable" in this particular selection. That said, I readily concede that many tango enthusiasts will happily dance to just about any tango music- even if it seems obviously better suited for seated listening pleasure.

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  5. > A less commonly seen (heard?) side of D'Agostino.

    Somehow I think D'Agostino is secretly quite happy about that ;-)

    Beginner DJs, you might like to compare the version of D'Agostino's La Cumparsita suggested above with the popular version often heard in milongas.

    The popular (1946): click.

    The not (1952): click.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Agreed with
    - "not danceable"
    - "many tango enthusiasts will happily dance to just about any tango music- even if it seems obviously better suited for seated listening pleasure"
    - The popular (1946) D'Agostino La Cumparsita. I suggest a slightly clearer and less noisy version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvJ2xgg49zM

    What has become clear to me is that there are broadly two categories of DJ. Those who like this sort of tanda and the less popular La Cumparsita and those who prefer more mainstream music. The division is so clear as to represent incompatibility between the two camps and as such it is more a question of choosing where you stand.

    The characteristics of the former group are to:
    - give tanda space to music pre-1930
    - play 3rd rate orchestras such as Firpo or Orchestra Tipica Brunswick and similarly little-heard orchestras under the broad and spurious justification of "rediscovery"
    - to make claims of "rediscovery" of tracks such as Canaro's Invierno that never were forgotton (how could they be!)
    - to play music of high drama, usually post 1950, in an orchestral style, and/or with emphasis on tracks with singers in passionate, declamatory style who enter early in the track.
    - to claim that true strength of feeling is seen in the "complex" pieces of e.g. later Troilo and Pugliese or dramatic Di Sarli and to completely fail to see that the range of emotional expression is found in the spectrum of pieces by the top orchestras, not a mere few.
    - to be vocally and corroboratively against those playing traditional tango hits for dancing which they style "boring", "repetitive", "jurassic", "old-fashioned", "outside the current European trends" or will even go so far as to deny there is any such thing as tradition at all.

    It is a question of whether or not you are more influenced by such claims or by the music you actually hear and that makes you want to get to your feet.

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  7. Felicity wrote: "What has become clear to me is that there are broadly two categories of DJ. Those who like this sort of tanda and the less popular La Cumparsita and those who prefer more mainstream music."

    Two categories yes, but I think those are simply Alternative and Traditional (a.k.a. mainstream). These DJs promoting unpopular old music are a small minority of the alternative category, sharing with the majority there that prefer electronic music, non-tango etc. the desire for music that's different from the mainstream. Both accord with the defining principle of Alternative, being: music that's relatively unpopular for dancing tango. That's why it's labelled Alternative! :-)

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  8. It raises two questions for me:

    1. Why be *so* vehemently against popular dance hits, against the mainstream to the point of denying it is mainstream, to the point of claiming its out of date? I find something very topsy-turvy about "alternative" people calling mainstream "alternative". I see what mainstream is because everyone gets up to dance it whereas only a few attend or get up to "special" music.

    2. Why would anyone want to play music unpopular for dancing?

    Re 2) I can only think it is a marketing strategy where DJs attempt to differentiate themselves for bookings & to be billable as different from other DJs. If all DJs played from among the most popular music for dancing, bookings would then be based on other factors like the DJs willingness to DJ free, their availability, soundcraft, reliability, how easy they are to work with etc.

    Yet it's not great differences that are required between DJs, quite the opposite. In a weekend of social dancing the main difference between DJs that interests me is a not too proximate repetition of tracks/tandas among the many great tracks that there are to choose from.

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  9. Felicity wrote: "I can only think it is a marketing strategy where DJs attempt to differentiate themselves for bookings & to be billable as different from other DJs."

    I agree.

    There's no problem when that difference is clear in the advertising E.g. the event of my first experience with the UK's probably best known (old-music) alternative DJ, advertised "... will be our DJ, so expect the unexpected!".

    That's honest.

    The problem is where alternative DJs get promoted (by themselves and organisers) by misrepresentation. E.g. a recent UK event advertised with "a team of carefully selected DJs will play the best 'Golden Age' tango music" and a set starting with fingernails-on-blackboard Guardia Vieja and seriously struggling to get uphill for the next hour (at which point I quit).

    That's less than honest.

    Then you get the same, plus the DJs/organisers seek to undermine advertising of music type by disputing the consensus meanings of the terms, with "well, Golden Age can be different things" and "what does traditional mean anyway?" etc.

    The's even more less than honest.

    ReplyDelete
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