Showing posts with label tango. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tango. Show all posts

Monday, June 17, 2013

Sexteto Mayor - La passion règne.




Did you have a nice weekend?


So this is what I went to see on Saturday at the ND theatre, here in Buenos Aires. It was a one-time show to celebrate the group's 40 years! the amazing thing is, that two of it's original members* are still part of the group. They both play the violin. It was a beautiful show, I feel so lucky to have seen them! After the show I wanted to learn more about this sextet (which left me speechless) and here is what I found:


The Sexteto Mayor is a tango music ensemble founded in April 23, 1973 by Luis Stazo and José Libertella.  Since it's early days, the sextet has conducted tours around the world. This has led them to become the most famous Argentinian tango sextet in the world. Sexteto Mayor has received numerous awards including the Latin American Grammy in 2003.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Buenos Aires Jazz














Jazz is to Americans what tango is to Argentinians (uhm… or some say its country music?)

Jazz was born in New Orleans (that’s right, not Chicago, not NYC) just as tango was born on the banks of the Rio de la Plata in Buenos Aires. Like tango, Jazz is also a product of diversity. New Orleans was French, then it was Spanish, then it went back to being French until it finally became American (although, you know what they say in Nola: “third world and proud of it”). Anyone who has been there, has probably noticed how different NOLA is from the rest of the US. In many ways, it's more like Argentina.

New Orleans Jazz was created by immigrants from Africa who met to sing religious hymns, but in the process, their voices started to merge generating different harmonies. Thus, variations on these melodies came to life.

While European music requires careful listening and who interprets it must remain faithful to the score - even in the execution of the expression, in jazz, there is a kind of game. Musicians follow certain rules, but mostly improvise and put their own vibe into the music.

To those who are eager to expose their ears to the sharpness of this genre and also those who simply want to enjoy the pleasure of hearing this music without much thinking, we invite you to the Fourth Edition of the Festival de Jazz de Buenos Aires. Advance ticket sale starts today, while concerts start the following week.

Enjoy!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Neighborhood Clubs

Club Hungría

















Neighborhood clubs have played an important role in the creation of social, cultural and sports identity in Buenos Aires.

In the same fields where soccer, basketball and other sports are played, tango is danced and orchestras can be heard live. During carnivals, the tracks are filled with foam, costumes and music.

Neighborhood clubs are part of the folklore of Buenos Aires; they are symbols of the city and part of our history. Although, at present, their function is not quite the same as before (playing sports is the main thing and not as many social events take place there), their restaurants remain almost intact; we invite you to tour these restaurants, enjoy a simple Argentinian meal and discover the nostalgia they contain.

El Bochin - Julian Alvarez 2355, 4823-7507.
Circulo de Salvavidas - Cabello 3958, 4804-4297
Club Eros - Uriarte 1609, 3832-1313
Club Atletico Palermo - Fitz Roy 2238, 4777-7647
Club Portugues - Pedro Goyena 1468, 4431-9059
Club Hungria - Pasaje Juncal 4250,Olivos, 4799-8437


Club de Salvavidas














Monday, August 1, 2011

Gustavo

















Gustavo Santaolalla


"No city is like Buenos Aires" is the expression Gustavo Santaolalla uses to refer to our hometown.

I didn't know much about Gustavo Santaolalla until he won his first Oscar for "Original Soundtrack" for the film Brokeback Mountain. It was then that I became more curious and started to look into his work. We are from different generations and although Santaolalla has repeatedly said that he has two loves - Rock 'n' Roll and Latin Culture, his music was at first very influenced by Argentine "folk". Perhaps that explains why I was never going to listen to it... because as a teenager, I found it was "uncool".

His electrotango band "Bajo Fondo" however, got me interested in the way he had integrated his "loves" into his music introducing technology to make tango sound different, to bring it closer to other generations. I thought his was a unique idea.

Today, I read that he was from a neighborhood called "Ciudad Jardín". A very small and humble town in the Western section of the greater Buenos Aires area. And, though I still don't know that much about him, this article made me think about his dreams. There is a long way between Ciudad Jardin and Hollywood, California, to name a place he made it to. I can assure you this cause I know how far Ciudad Jardín is, even from Buenos Aires city.

He mentioned in this article that the streets in his hometown were made out of dirt and that services were very limited. He remembers coming to the city was a great, long, and exciting trip and that a common expression in his neighborhood was "I am going to the capital", meaning the city of Buenos Aires. The distance he had to travel and the means of transportation he used to get to town were, at that time, far from convenient and it was a long trip indeed, but he remembers that every time that he arrived he thought: "this is everything they say about a great city, so many avenues! so many different people!"

I see his trip to the city as a metaphor for his later achievements. The trip was probably a little complicated and long, yes, but, in his head he knew the way and in his heart he had passion. He knew, also, how to let himself be surprised and how to surprise others with the ingenuity (the same ingenuity with which he discovered the city) that of the child that lives inside of him.

For your music and talent, thank you Mr. Santaolalla!

Photo:7dias
Post by: Valeria Mendez Cañas

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

past, present, future




















When you're an outsider, some things stand out to you. In my last visit to the United States, I was strikingly surprised to find a sign that read "Available Space" at several locations that were previously occupied by Borders and Barnes and Noble. I was also surprised to find very few bookstores remained in San Francisco and the ones that did, advertised in their website "one of the few bookstores remaining in the city".

I was happy to come back to my house and to our big library. I find it a bit hard to adapt to the idea that in the near future I'll probably be switching to e-books although I do intend to keep all the books in our library as memories from the past. Except for those books I free, of course.

Our library has received some additions in the last year. My beloved father-in-law passed away leaving a huge book collection. I was very sad when he died and had not touched his books until today. His books are older than ours. I came across a book called "La vida cotidiana en Buenos Aires" (Every Day Life in Buenos Aires), by Andres Carretero (Planeta), that discusses the development of Argentine society from 1918 to 1970. Reading the pages of Carretero's book, a few memories came to mind, all related with the place communications have in our daily lives.

I remember my grandparents loved to hear the radio, their favorite transmissions were tango orchestras and soccer, yes, two genuine Argentine passions. I also remember them listening to the radio while drinking mate.

I grew up hearing tango but, can you imagine growing up listening to the voice of a journalist describing soccer moves? Can you imagine celebrating a goal you hadn't even seen? Yes, taxi drivers and porters still listen to soccer on the radio and celebrate goals they only hear about. But back then, it took place everywhere in Buenos Aires. In every home, before TV became popular. You can't imagine the enthusiasm around soccer.

The first TV channel appeared in 1951 (first radio station, in 1935), but TV really became available during the seventies and turned to colors in 1980. There were 5 channels. The signal would come on at 12 pm and go off around 10pm to 12am. When one of my grandparents heard there was such a thing as color TV, he decided to convert his TV to color by putting a piece of colored paper on top of the screen and carefully taping the sides, isn't that funny?

TV was not accessible to everyone in Argentina so some of the people that did not have one would go to their neighbors’ house to watch a given show or soccer match.

Carretero's book says: "If the radio introduced the public word in the intimacy of houses, TV boosted communication by incorporating image. That way, dramas, tango shows, news and even the weather forecast acquired a different and fascinating perspective".

Margarita de la Sota says in an article in Lyra Magazine from 1961 called: "A Memorable Cycle of Argentine TV": "A friend of ours, that is a writer, used to say that the only purpose TV served was to shut your wife up. Inside the magical atmosphere of the TV screen, at last, the equilibrium of marriage was established... the hypnotic virtue of television provided other pleasures less intimate and more productive".

These days, computers, tablets and phones are the radios of Argentina's 1930's and fiber-optics the antennas but they are also the books (have you ever heard of phone novels?) , the TV's, the movies, the games for kids, the music. And, as books become antiquities soon to belong in a Museum along with walkmans, vinyl records, wrist watches, and TV's, I cannot help but wonder what other surprises will the future have in store for us and how we will contribute to shape it.


Post by: Vale Mendez Cañas
Photo: Curiocity Villas

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

tango reborn


















Photo: Aldo Sessa


Tango has been defined by Enrique Santos Discepolo - one of it's greatest poets - as "a sad thought that is danced".

No one can really tell for sure how tango started out. It is said that the word tango was originated in Argentina and Uruguay by the African slaves that arrived in the beginning of the 1800's. It is very likely that it is was the result of mixing a Portuguese word meaning "tambo" (drumming) with an Argentinian word.

The slaves lived by the river (Rio de la Plata), in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, in very rudimentary and basic housing called "conventillos". These consisted of a house with various rooms in which many families lived. One family per room. In Spanish, the word "conventillo" also means "crowded" or "mess". There is a very popular expression: "Esto es un conventillo" meaning "this is a mess".

At first, tango was a dance meant only for the slaves. They met and danced to forget the hardships they went through and to have a good time. Tango was created in the beginning as a dance. There was no music. That came later, musicians improvised trying to adapt their music to the choreographies they saw in a 2 x 4 music compass.

Tango started to sprout in dance houses, in "conventillos" in the southern area of Bs. As., in dating houses, and dance academies with the use of a particular language and very tight codes. In the 1880's it was brought to theaters. Actors began including the dance in their performances.

Slowly, tango started shifting from the outskirts of the city and moving into it. Men began dancing in the streets and hiring women to dance with them in dance academies.

Tango was considered an unacceptable dance by the Argentinian middle and higher classes. In the issue of the magazine "Club de tango" dating from 1922 there is an article called "What do you think about tango", where there is a testimony: "My boyfriend is a good man and never lies. He has said to me that I shouldn't dance tango because in doing it one risks it's own purity and dignity. When he says "I love you", I believe him, now I must believe him as well, that is why I don't like that dance."

It's interesting to see and understand why through time, tango went from being a low street dance repelled by the majority of middle and high class "porteños" (people from Buenos Aires) to a very prestigious and internationally recognized dance.

Tango was introduced in Paris in the early years of the 20th century, when dancers and orchestras from Buenos Aires, travelled to Europe. Tango became very popular in France, where it began to shine around the time of the First World War. The dance later became popular in Berlin and London. It was a hit. In France a new era was born for tango: intellectuals, orchestras and musicians very much embraced tango and contributed to the improvement of the music and the lyrics. It was after this European love for tango that Argentina opened it's arms to it. The thought that prevailed at the time was: "Tango is embraced with passion in Europe, we're missing something."

But, why does tango continue to attract so many people? I don't know if you have ever tried it. It takes some practice and coordination and requires a partner. But once you have it all down and are in the dance floor with your partner, there is a mystic to it you simply can not stop wanting more of. You feel sensual and feminine. It helps if you understand the lyrics of the songs. They are so incredibly sad.

They are mostly about frustrated love relationships, but also about horse racing, drinking, prostitution, cheating, growing up in Buenos Aires, the nostalgia one feels when one is away from Bs. As., etc.

Many talk about loss. They are very melancholic. I have translated one of my
favorites for you and included a link were you can hear it.


The burr

by Jesus Fernandez Blanco (1926)
Translation: Valeria Mendez Cañas

"I burr has stuck on me. Inside of my heart, I have sorrow,
Why did you leave home so ungratefully? Why did you make my
peaceful life, painful?
I will never be able to take off my chest that painful burr.
My soul is agonizing, I'm faithless,
I have lost my home and my love
because of all the sorrow you've caused me.

I don't know why you went away from me
If I adored you with such intense passion
I don't know why you were keeping something from me
without letting your lack of interest show....

Your love made me a very happy man,
I never thought your passion would turn
into a dagger that would cause my
heart such a wound.
I want you to know that I am moving sadly and alone
along the paths of life. The memories I keep have grown on
me like burrs in a pasture land...
I hope we stumble into each other some day
so that I can see if you have finally found everything
you have unconsciously dreamed of.
And maybe then the two of us can start again!

Here is the music and lyrics


In the early nineties a lot of young people started to learn tango, along with many
foreigners and people in-the-know. Before, it was considered a marginal or an old people's dance. It was danced in middle to low class neighborhood clubs called "milongas" (a milonga is a variety of tango).

Imagine the environment: an indoor court, cheap lighting, cheap drinks, tango music. Back in the old days, in the 1950's tango orchestras played live, that is how: Gardel, Goyeneche, Sosa, Pugliese, Piazolla and Salgan, to name a very recognized few, became famous.

Some things have changed, but the spirit is the same.

If you would like to learn more about tango, see a tango show or dance at a milonga, feel free to ask us for information.

Co-post: Vale and Mich