Good tango music for practice

LCbaseball22 said:
Yeah, I looked it up...it didn't. The original was by a guy named Astor Piazolla and was purely instrumental. Oh, and I just realized this but "Bond" does not mean that it's from one of the Bond movies (though it sounds perfect for a number of scenes, lol) it's actually a band consisting of a female string quartet...doh! :eek: And man oh man it's a sexy song...if only all Tango music sounded like that! :p
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It was Grace Jones who made Libertango famous with her song "I've seen that Face Before" but her record company stole the song without the artists permission. Its a great piece of music but doesnt lend itself to sovial dancing, though Sally Potter's Choreographed dance in 'the Tango Lesson' is quite thrilling.
 
bordertangoman said:
It was Grace Jones who made Libertango famous with her song "I've seen that Face Before" but her record company stole the song without the artists permission. Its a great piece of music but doesnt lend itself to sovial dancing, though Sally Potter's Choreographed dance in 'the Tango Lesson' is quite thrilling.
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Um ok, why doesn't it lend itself to social dancing?
 
If you want music you can actually dance to, and sounds good, "Tango Project" (not to be confused with Gotan Project) is worth looking out for. This is an American trio who provided the music for "Scent of a Woman".

Or Miguel Villasboas. A Uruguayan orchestra with a nice steady beat and no messing about. Unfortunately only available secondhand.

Or what about Malando? The guy whose aim was to introduce the authentic Argentine stye to Europe? Even though some unkind people said he sounded Dutch. Nice danceable tangos, and the records are easy to get.

The arty stuff and scratchy 78's can come later.
 
piimapoika said:
If you want music you can actually dance to, and sounds good, "Tango Project" (not to be confused with Gotan Project) is worth looking out for. This is an American trio who provided the music for "Scent of a Woman"...
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Tango Project is popular amongst the Ragtime Tango aficionados. Both of their CDs are very nice, but I wouldn't call them Argentine Tango. For one thing, they have an accordion rather than a bandoneon.
 
Almost everyone starting tango loves to dance to non-tango music because it's familiar and even fun. But as you progress, you come to realize that tango is so much more than just another dance. It's not just doing tango steps to the music; it's more like absorbing the emotions from the song and whispering them through your body to the person you're dancing with. It's more of an emotional experience than a just a dance.

The tangos from the golden age have so much emotion (sadness, loneliness, betrayal, love, happiness, abandonment, playfulness, heck even love of your pets; whatever you can think of, there's a song about it), with the best rhythm for dancing tango, which is why you would dance your best tango to a good golden-age tango. A catchy tune with a techno beat just doesn't provide that emotional experience. Besides, I can go almost anywhere to hear pop, hip-hop, techno, country, etc. But the only place I can go and hear some golden-age tango is at a milonga. Which is why I don't appreciate going to a milonga only to have the DJ play mostly non-tango. My 2 cents.

If I had to rank golden-age orchestras from easiest to dance to (Clear rhythm, smooth & slow) to hardest (fast rhythms, constant switvhing between extremely lyrical to extremely smooth) )(very subjective list):

Calo
Canaro
Di Sarli
Demare
Tanturi
D'Arienzo
Laurenz
Biagi
Troilo
 
salthepal said:
Almost everyone starting tango loves to dance to non-tango music because it's familiar and even fun. But as you progress, you come to realize that tango is so much more than just another dance. It's not just doing tango steps to the music; it's more like absorbing the emotions from the song and whispering them through your body to the person you're dancing with. It's more of an emotional experience than a just a dance.

The tangos from the golden age have so much emotion (sadness, loneliness, betrayal, love, happiness, abandonment, playfulness, heck even love of your pets; whatever you can think of, there's a song about it), with the best rhythm for dancing tango, which is why you would dance your best tango to a good golden-age tango. A catchy tune with a techno beat just doesn't provide that emotional experience. Besides, I can go almost anywhere to hear pop, hip-hop, techno, country, etc. But the only place I can go and hear some golden-age tango is at a milonga. Which is why I don't appreciate going to a milonga only to have the DJ play mostly non-tango. My 2 cents.
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so you are advising a beginner to dance to non-tango music until they get to like Golden Age classic tangos?
 
bordertangoman said:
so you are advising a begiinner to dance to non-tango music until they get to like Golden Age classic tangos.
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Absolutely not. I edited my post to include a list of golden-age orchestras ranked by order of easiest to dance to to hardest. What I am saying is that the infatuation of beginners with non-tango music seems to be natural, mostly because golden age songs are unfamiliar. And a lot of teachers and DJs indulge them because they want to keep the students coming to their classes and milongas.
 
Dave Bailey said:
It doesn't matter. Beginners won't be dancing to the music anyway.

;)
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Right on the money! But the earlier they get acclimated to good tango music, the better. Also, musicality should be an integral part of any tango lesson. But, the tango as a dance is complicated enough (leading, following, connection, navigation, etc. etc.), to make it almost OK to keep teaching the mechanics of the dance to beginners and hope the musicality comes later.
 
Dave Bailey said:
It doesn't matter. Beginners won't be dancing to the music anyway.

;)
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rofl.gif
 
I tend to agree overall on the main suggestions. When I looked at our beginner playlist it is heavy on Canaro, Di Sarli and Calo for starters, with a little bit of D'Arienzo (like Paciencia and Pensalo Bien).

I tend to side with dchester for some of the smoother stuff like Fresedo for newer dancers, and I am a big Rodriguez fan but I'd save that for later, as I would Laurenz.

You might also consider Orquesta Tipica Victor for some steady music. Some of it is scratchy...but I like it.
 
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