Strawberry Hotel / Tango
November 18, 2007 at 11:46 am
“Y oigo el eco de esos tangos de Arolas y de Greco
que yo he visto bailar en las veredas”.
- Jorge Luis Borges, El tango.
.
“Sunday 2 a.m. / Tango / Solidad”
01. µ-Ziq - Strawberry Fields Hotel
Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique (Planet Mu, 2007)
02. Federico Aubele - Mona
Gran Hotel Buenos Aires (ESL, 2004)
03. Agustín Carlevaro - Tanguísimo
Agustín Carlevaro Interpreta Piazzolla (Gourmet Musical, 2001)
04. Venetian Snares - Mentioning It
My Downfall OST (Planet Mu, 2007)
05. Astor Piazolla - Buenos Aires Hora Cero
The Tango Chill Out Experience (Central E., 2004)
06. Laurindo Almeida / Charlie Byrd - La Cumparsita
Tango (Concord Records, 1985)
07. Agustín Carlevaro - Palabras Sobre Atilio Rapat
Agustín Carlevaro Interpreta Piazzolla (Gourmet Musical, 2001)
08. Gidon Kremer - Soledad
Hommage A Piazzolla (1996)
09. Baltazar Benitez - Taquito Militar
Channel Classics (Channel Classics, 1995)
note: A night list. I don’t have too many tango tracks, but Piazolla’s ‘Milonga Del Angel‘ from Tango: Zero Hour is easily my one of my favorite song of all time. It captures what night is about. Moody and temperamental yet defined precisely. Tango song flows elegantly in strict dance tempo, thick with chords, wailing bandoneon swirling here and there full of tension and release. Sentimental longing. The list above is a light mix of electronica, traditional and a Gidon Kremer piece. It’s nothing mind blowing, but hopefully works for night listening. have fun.
see also: tango (wiki), Tango and Milonga (article).
image: PrASanGaM
Translation: ” and I hear the echo of those tangos of Arolas and Greco
that I have seen danced in the streets ”
also listen to this radio show:
highly recommended.
http://www.tangotales.com/archive/Borges.htm
Segment 2: Tango Poetry. In the 1960s Piazzolla and Borges cooperated on the musical project. It produced a number of memorable milongas, such as Jancinto Chiclana. Also, Borges created many other poems dedicated to tango and wrote about the connection of early milonga poetry to the Argentine national character.
Bernardo Monk of MassTango makes a guest appearance on segment 2.
http://www.tangotales.com/audio/Borges_2.mp3
I was meaning to do a tango post some months ago for a colombian friend who dances tango (and she’s quite good at it I must admit) but my collection of this type of music is nothing if not amateurish (pretty much consisting of Carlos Gardel and Anibal Troilo). She then promised me to send me a tango mixtape with her favorite songs but she keeps forgetting to do so.
Milonga del angel is a magnific song, I find it so strange that you mention it because it was one of the songs I was considering for the playlist originally.
ps: venetian snares track seems to be mislabelled.
If you can get your hands on it, I highly recommend “Tango: Un giro extrano,” a great documentary on the contemporary tango scene in Buenos Aires.
Ellegant post…
Dear Squashed,
I came across your blog by digging the statistics of my site dedicated to Argentine tango (Tango Tales, http://www.tangotales.com). Thanx for your kind words about my radio pieces about Borges. They were one of my favorites to script and to record.
I came up with other decent (from my point of view) shows:
Literary tour to Borges’s Buenos Aires (based on book Tango Singer by Tomas Eloy Martinez)-
http://www.tangotales.com/archive/LitTourWithMartinez.htm
Understanding Tango genius of Astor Piazzolla (with Yo-yo Ma, Carlos Prieto, Osvaldo Golijov speaking about Piazzolla) -
http://www.tangotales.com/archive/Piazzolla.htm
Also, check out the section Voices and Places in Archive section of my site: http://www.tangotales.com/archive_voices_and_places.htm
One show, 10 years old production This is The Tango by Guadalupe Jolicour I salvaged from one of the websites. It is the beautiful series about Argentine tango.
On the same page you can listen to the interview with Astor Piazzolla (in English - he spoke English very well)
Hi elmira,
thanks for the links. I’ll use them for my next list with tango tracks.
(sorry for late rescuing your post from the spam filter. The spam has been brutal so can’t turn off the filter.)