Newcomer looking for Some Great Tango music Suggestions please

[bordertangoman]

OK, it sounds like you should go with the neo-tango stuff. Groups like: Gotan Project, Otros Aires, Bajofondo Tango, etc

There is also Narigon by Daniel Melingo, maybe try Tango Del Pecado by Calle 13.
these work as milonga ( the dance as opposed to the event)

 

[Dave Bailey]

thanks i promise i will learn to tango soon and wont have to ask these basic questions anymore

Good luck

a lot of the neo tango stuff, has electronic beats over it, some are clearly a crossover to house music and trip hop, this seems to mix quite well with the basic rythm of tango.

but do you think a tango audience could be satisfied if all of the tango music played in a given night were of that persuasion? or does the mechanically driven rythm restrict them ?

I think people who attend a "fusion" night would probably be OK with neo-tango; they probably won't expect a night of the traditional Di Sarli / Troilo / Puglisese tracks.

So as Dchester says - Otros Aires, Gotan, Bajofondo.

I've got a couple of Neo playlists here:
http://www.learningtango.com/OtherTangoMusic.html

- enjoy

 

[newbie]

hi there

i am a DJ of Latin Music , i normally play mostly salsa and then some merengue, bachata etc..

we have recently started a club night in collaboration with a tango school. but im afraid im not a tango dancer and know nothing about the music.

i would like to impress them with some very nice tango music, do you have any suggestions for me?

Depends on the public. If you DJ in an environment where most people came for salsa and merengue then you must choose very famous tangos, so that everybody thinks "Hey this is tango!". A kind of best of with Cumparsita, El Choclo, Yira Yira and so on.
If the people are seasoned tango dancers then on the opposite you may avoid the famous songs (because the dancers have heard them one million times) and play series of very different orchestras. Also if the tango school is milonguero-oriented then you have to bring only very old pieces. Anything recorded later than 1940 and you will see them coming at you, "Hey this not danceable!".

Very nice tango music is not always easy to dance on, for instance Color Tango orchestra sounds nice but may be challenging for dancers, while Los Reyes del Tango is easier to dance on, while having a less refined sound.

 

[UKDancer]

I really like Color Tango and have all their stuff. Very much in the Pugliese style, or is that the problem?

 

[bordertangoman]

I really like Color Tango and have all their stuff. Very much in the Pugliese style, or is that the problem?

i love Pugliese but hate Color Tango..Los Reyes are much more danceable.

 

[matty]

Depends on the public. If you DJ in an environment where most people came for salsa and merengue then you must choose very famous tangos, so that everybody thinks "Hey this is tango!"

exactly!

i do value use songs like that,
not necesarily famous, perhaps but certainly, songs that present the music style in a strong way to get the message across to anyone potentially confused, i use such songs when changing form one style to another, even with merengue, and i find that people will hit the dancefloor quicker that way.
then once the dancefoor has accepted that a particular style of music is playing, i can follow up with the song that may have otherwise thrown them off.

something i want to do in my djing is to help people to be able to get to know the music styles which so importantly relate to their dancing. i guess i would not be djing otherwise.

so i certainly do welcome any particular suggestions of songs, that have this effect, though i will in mind not to over do it so as not to bore any of the tangueros as you mentioned

good advice!

 

[matty]

A kind of best of with Cumparsita, El Choclo, Yira Yira and so on.

i notice there are a lot of versions by different artists, which versions should i be looking for?

 

[Captain Jep]

probably too late to reply to this (I have rubbish Internet access at the moment)but ...

La Cumparsita is traditionally played at the end of the evening. Every band seems to have recorded one or several versions of it. Any "classic" orchestra will do eg de Angelis, Di Sarli , Anibal Troilo.

El Choclo - I prefer D'Arienzo
Yira Yira a classic? Hmmmm..

Many of the fusion pieces I suggested in my previous (lost) mail were jazzy little numbers - eg

Jazmine Sullivan/ Bust your Windows
Jason Mraz/ I'm Yours
Eva Cassidy/ Wade in the Water

I'd be interested to know whether you think these would work as transition numbers, and if so what they could act as transitions to.

 

[borisvian13]

i notice there are a lot of versions by different artists, which versions should i be looking for?

Matty:

I do think that in your case playing ACCESSIBLE versions is what is really important. In a mix party environment people wouldn't be able to recognize more than a couple of famous tangos at best anyway.

I recommend playing mostly instrumentals by the orchestras of Di Sarli, D'Arienzo, Pugliese and De Angelis from the 1950s (in the case of D'Arienzo some vocal pieces would be fine too). Not that this is my favorite period, but this is what would likely be appreciated by a wider audience.
To be specific, you should start by getting hold of these CDs:

RCA Victor 100 Anos by Carlos Di Sarli
Archivo RCA - 1954-1957 by Juan D'Arienzo
Instrumental vol. 1 (from the Solo tango label) by Juan D'Arienzo (the second half is material from the 50s)
Instrumentales inolvidables by Alfredo De Angelis
From Argentina to the world by Osvaldo Pugliese

And if you want to get involved more seriously into tango DJ-ing, look at this info and the CD list at the end:

http://web.archive.org/web/20130715085027/http://www.yaletangoclub.org/tangomusic

 

[v22TTC]

Matty: I can't remember if you said where you're based, and don't know if DJs have some special ability to get hold of CDs that the rest of us don't (or whether you use CDs rather than downloads), but I'd be mindful of the fact that some of the better CDs mentioned (especially in Borisvian's post above) are now out of print, so it's the whole £60-£80 malarky to get them.

Milonga UK gives you the best idea of what's actually available now (generally the second or third best CD from each orchestra...).

I haven't ordered from them yet (but will soon), but have just beefed up my Tango collection from all over the place, and 2-3 weeks to get any Tango CD seems to be the standard (in the UK, even if the CDs are shipped from the UK... allegedly).

Dunno - might be best to get some downloads to get you going, then take your time researching the CDs... and waiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiting for them to arrive.

Best of luck!

Oh yeah, and I'll give another vote for kicking off a tanda with an 'obvious' Tango... I suspect that most of the Tanguero/as there will be so delighted to hear some Tango that they'll overlook this, where they might roll their eyes if it were in an actual milonga.

 

[Dave Bailey]

I just remembered, I did a neo playlist last week.

Here's the list - it may be of use.

 

[Valis]

You say that you've started a new nightclub in collaboration with a Tango group. I'm wondering exactly how this is going to work. Are you going to play a set or two of tangos but play mostly what your salsa audience expects or are you going to attempt something more ambitious? The former will probably work best. Personally I'm all for experimenting but you have to be careful you don't get too far ahead of your core audience.

Salsa and tango are very very different, even when you have dancers who do both, mood-wise and atmosphere-wise they create different ambiences from each other. Also, tango dancers circle the dance floor while other dances like swing and salsa don't have this etiquette and that too can create problems if you're trying to combine both groups of dancers.

In my experience trying to appeal equally to two audiences can backfire, because you are likely to end up not pleasing either, and when that happens you are in danger of losing some of your core audience because nobody will know what to expect. Then you can expect to see attendances will dip. So yeah, experiment, see what works, what doesn't but don't try to be all things to all people or you might ruin what good vibes you already have going.

 

[Lilly_of_the_valley]

You say that you've started a new nightclub in collaboration with a Tango group. I'm wondering exactly how this is going to work. Are you going to play a set or two of tangos but play mostly what your salsa audience expects or are you going to attempt something more ambitious? The former will probably work best. Personally I'm all for experimenting but you have to be careful you don't get too far ahead of your core audience.

Salsa and tango are very very different, even when you have dancers who do both, mood-wise and atmosphere-wise they create different ambiences from each other. Also, tango dancers circle the dance floor while other dances like swing and salsa don't have this etiquette and that too can create problems if you're trying to combine both groups of dancers.

In my experience trying to appeal equally to two audiences can backfire, because you are likely to end up not pleasing either, and when that happens you are in danger of losing some of your core audience because nobody will know what to expect. Then you can expect to see attendances will dip. So yeah, experiment, see what works, what doesn't but don't try to be all things to all people or you might ruin what good vibes you already have going.

That is all very true, which makes me still quite confused about the OP question, about the possible venue, its format, and why a tango group (or a school?) would chose to do things that way...

 

[borisvian13]

Matty: I can't remember if you said where you're based, and don't know if DJs have some special ability to get hold of CDs that the rest of us don't (or whether you use CDs rather than downloads), but I'd be mindful of the fact that some of the better CDs mentioned (especially in Borisvian's post above) are now out of print, so it's the whole £60-£80 malarky to get them.

Milonga UK gives you the best idea of what's actually available now (generally the second or third best CD from each orchestra...)....

That's true unfortunately, two of the ones I mentioned are out of print now. But the rest are still available on Amazon.
In general, I'd recommend Amazon (the US one, I believe many sellers are willing to ship overseas) as a source for cheap tango CDs. Everything on Milonga UK looks quite pricey indeed...

 

[matty]

You say that you've started a new nightclub in collaboration with a Tango group. I'm wondering exactly how this is going to work. Are you going to play a set or two of tangos but play mostly what your salsa audience expects or are you going to attempt something more ambitious? The former will probably work best. Personally I'm all for experimenting but you have to be careful you don't get too far ahead of your core audience.

Salsa and tango are very very different, even when you have dancers who do both, mood-wise and atmosphere-wise they create different ambiences from each other. Also, tango dancers circle the dance floor while other dances like swing and salsa don't have this etiquette and that too can create problems if you're trying to combine both groups of dancers.

In my experience trying to appeal equally to two audiences can backfire, because you are likely to end up not pleasing either, and when that happens you are in danger of losing some of your core audience because nobody will know what to expect. Then you can expect to see attendances will dip. So yeah, experiment, see what works, what doesn't but don't try to be all things to all people or you might ruin what good vibes you already have going.

well what we are doing is, running a salsa latin night , where we do salsa/bachata classes and tango classes before the party

yes its a challenging balance, but we live i a small enough town and in this sense, variety is welcome to keep numbers up. the tango crowd dont have a disco to go to at the moment, and are limited to some meet-ups in bars around the place. i went to one and im certain some of the people there would not be into our parties.

so its more of a case of promoting tango within our circles rather than mixing two completely different crowds of people. but i do see what your saying about the mood being different etc... so it will be something of an experiment to try and find the right way to do things

anyway our parties are known for having a little bit of variety, we will sometimes throw in a latin mainstream tune, or so when there are some people who dont know how to dance salsa.. while at the same time, we always try to deliver for the salsa audience.

so you might want to call it, salsa peppered with some tango.
we are open to let the thing grow, if the people want it then we play more of it we will have to see how things go

the tango instructors did a wonderful show for us the other night.