Re: [Tango-L] Report on the Tango Festival & Mundial Buenos Aires 2011 (Report No. 2)
THANK YOU SHARUKH, four lively reports on this festival. fm tango is covering some events, so for those of you that are outside, you can tune by the web la2x4.com , and listen live some performances , or else, being in buenos aires, 92.7 Mhz. yes, for music, is a good opportunity, there are not too many musicians alive , and those alive are well beyond on their 80´s and 90´s, as Leopoldo Federico and Horacio Salgan. i saw a part of a competition of tango salon well, quality of dance is noot good ,at least in this round, with a japanese couple, and someother competitors from here and there , and anywhere. they said that 490 couples are registered, but that is a white lie, since a couple can register for tango, andor milonga, and/orvalsecito. so , to have a final number of this couples, havingbefore the metropolitano plus regionales plus the shame of a need of a milongueros del mundo category, plus the open event that is the mundial is like Captain Ahabgoing to fish for Moby dick and coming back with little orange and white stripes Nemo fish for music , on the contrary , is a good event to watch some new musicians , that take the ropes from the old ones . i have listened, not in this festival, a german group "Sabor a tango", that play excellent tangos, under the careful watch of Luis Stazo, former founder of Sexteto Mayor. Now I think they have as band name "Stazo Mayor" . Also there are good singers like Ariel Ardit, Esteban Riera , Walter Chino Laborde, Lidia Borda, BrianChambouleyron, and a kind of new troubadours movement, that keep the tango moving may we celebrate this music and the spirit that it summons alberto buenos aires ___ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
[Tango-L] Report on the Tango Festival & Mundial Buenos Aires 2011 (Report No. 2)
Thanks for the comments from those who found this report interesting (Ilene, Alberto, Trini, ...). Before I report on my visit of yesterday, let me comment on this response to the list by Trini: > It sounds like incorporating this time of year would be a good idea for a > trip. > I'm at the point where I'm more interested in the music than the dancing ... I would absolutely recommend this. There were at least two years in the past where I had the opportunity to attend the events and neglected to do so. I think my reason was that I poo-poohed all the drama and posturing surrounding the dance competitions, which in Tango dancing circles at least were the most talked-about part of the festival. And I ended up throwing out the baby with the bath-water. It's really a Tango cultural climax, and Argentines, young and old, who are interested in Tango, take it very seriously and turn up in droves to attend (and not only because it's free, though certainly many of them would find it a hardship paying theatre prices for shows of this calibre). So check the dates for next year and make your plans! You will see another side of Tango, if you have been mostly exposed to the dance-related side and the industry that has cropped up surrounding that, and will appreciate Tango in a distinct light. My reports can only give a glimpse of this, as it's hard to convey the "energy" of an event with words, and besides I'm attending a small fraction of all the events that are being held, and not reporting on all of them either. So on to my visit yesterday (Friday): I stopped by (on a cold and drizzly day) mainly to go to the performance of the Orchestra of Horacio Salgán. Now, as César Salgan, his son, and the leader of this orchestra said, the last time the orchestra of Horacio Salgán played was 30 years ago! So of course, it's a "reconstruction" orchestra, comprising: - The 5 members of Quinteto Real (piano, bass, bandoneón, guitar, violin). - Three additional bandoneonistas, 3 additional violinists, a viola, and a cello -- these were all young musicians, and clearly not playing (in some cases perhaps not even born) 30 years ago. - Four of the five invited bandoneon greats: Leopoldo Federico, Néstor Marconi, Ernesto Baffa (unable to attend for health reasons), Julio Pane & Juan José Mosalini. This last group of invited bandoneon maestros performed only one at a time, in one number each, replacing the Quinteto Real bandoneonista, except for the closing piece in which they all played together a piece by Piazzolla (Verano Porteño, if I remember correctly)--4 bandoneon greats side by side with 4 future greats (as César referred to them), and about 9 other musicians. That brought the crowd to its feet! An aside: Horacio Salgán himself, as I had mentioned, is still living at 95 and in fact was scheduled to appear and listen to "his" orchestra playing for the first time 30 years later--that would certainly have been a very emotional moment. Unfortunately, as César explained, owing to the blustery weather that evening, and to his frailty, it was reluctantly decided not to bring him. Related aside: Leopoldo Federico was assisted to his seat and was noticeable hunched (neither of which I had noticed a year ago), but still played with vigour. And he still has a relatively active performance schedule. I already mentioned that Ernesto Baffa was unable to perform for health reasons. You get the picture--don't delay your Tango musical experience trip to Buenos Aires. Alberto Podestá (yes, the original) still performs regularly but this cannot last indefinitely either. While I'm not a fan of packaged experiences, in this case I think the packaging adds to the experience. Check the dates for 2012 (August again I believe) and plan to show up. Most of the events run from 2 pm to 10 pm (midnight on weekends), though the main ones are in the evenings, and you can still go to milongas every night if you really want to, and do other stuff around the city when you need a break from Tango. After the Salgán performance, I didn't stick around for the "Piazzolla plays Piazzolla" performance (had heard Daniel Piazzolla, the grandson, some months earlier at a Jazz Club) but checked out instead the "Fiesta Electrónica" at the smaller space next door. It had a more club-like ambience, with Tango electrónico playing, a few people dancing but mostly standing on the dance floor and, as one might expect, a mostly younger crowd. At one point there was a very good modern-dance performance by an unbilled couple. So the festival is not just a series of trips down nostalgia lane, but also represents the contemporary tango scene of Buenos Aires. Tonight (Saturday) has some other wonderful performances, including the orchestra of Leopoldo Federico and that of El Arranque, and even a seminar of sorts for Tango collectors, but I will be missing them all, owing to other plans (it *is* Saturday night ...
Re: [Tango-L] Report on the Tango Festival & Mundial Buenos Aires 2011
Wow. Thanks for the informative report. It sounds like incorporating this time of year would be a good idea for a trip. I'm at the point where I'm more interested in the music than the dancing since I'm pretty settled in my own dancing. Trini de Pittsburgh --- On Fri, 8/19/11, Shahrukh Merchant wrote: From: Shahrukh Merchant Subject: [Tango-L] Report on the Tango Festival & Mundial Buenos Aires 2011 To: tango-l@mit.edu Date: Friday, August 19, 2011, 1:15 AM The festival opened on Tuesday, Aug 16 (and runs through Aug 30). I stopped in for music performances on the 17th and 18th. Here is a brief report: The location this year is the Buenos Aires Expo Center (Centro de Exposiciones) at Av. Pueyrredón and Av. Figuero Alcorta, en Recoleta, next to the Facultad de Derecho. It's a rather unattractive structure, industrial looking with awkward access, but they've done a reasonable enough job on the interior, and I'm guessing it's the only relatively economical large space they could get to accommodate a few thousand people at a time with various parallel events going on under one roof. The main space is mostly one huge open space, with a large stage/concert area at one end (called the Escenario Horacio Salgán, after the well-known pianist and orchestra leader, still living at 95, and at least a couple of years ago was occasionally even performing briefly). There is seating at this concert area for 1500 people with a large open standing area behind and on the sides for well for well over 1000 more. You should not have problems finding at least standing room for pretty much any concert being held there, and if you get there 1/2 hour earlier, you will certainly get very good seating. In the same large open area is a large dance floor (with a synthetic smooth material covering what would otherwise be a concrete floor). There seems to be non-stop dancing going on there. When there is no class, there is recorded music playing, unless a concert is going on at the main stage in which case you can dance to whatever live music is playing! There were a number of quite proficient social dancers on the floor both times I went. There is a second concert area called Escenario Horacio Ferrer (after well-known Tango poet/lyricist and author of a well-known Tango historical literary work--the work most likely to be familiar to some readers would be "María de Buenos Aires," the Tango opera composed by Piazzolla, to which he wrote the libretto). This was supposed to be in a similarly sized space connected to the main area but apparently there was some bureaucratic disagreement with Teatro Colón (which I guess owns or has rights to that other space), so it was relocated to a much smaller space of just about 300 seats with a separate building entrance to the right of the main entrance. If you want to see a show that is supposed to be held there, you should (a) make sure it hasn't been relocated to what has now ended up becoming the main stage and, if not (b) show up and stand in line 1/2 hour before the starting time to get a good seat (or even get in). At the one performance I saw at the Escenario Horacio Ferrer, Mr. Horacio Ferrer himself showed up unannounced and was sitting in the audience (but was recognized and introduced from the stage)! Tonight I saw two performances--the one that would be more familiar to most readers would be Orquesta Sans Souci playing pretty much standard Caló (it was a homage to Osmar Maderna, Caló's pianist and arranger until he died an untimely death). The other rather more unusual one (OK, it was weird ...) was a combination of Jairo (Argentine pop/folk singer) singing with classical Tango guitarist Leonardo Sánchez, and backed up by a large classical chamber orchestra of a dozen or so string instruments (violins, violas, cellos, bass). I'm not sure I'm quite ready to get that CD ... Getting back to the rest of the main area, one entire side is a vendors' area, mostly comprising Tango shoe vendors (they seem to have the highest advertising budget and probably outbid everyone else--at least now you know why Tango shoes are so expensive). Another section is an exhibit devoted to Carlos Gardel, and there is an interesting little "radio broadcasting booth" where old-time Tango singers were singing for what was apparently a live radio broadcast. This was just the 3rd of 15 days (my second day), and I will absolutely try to go to something as many of the remaining days as I can. The depth and breadth of Tango performances is just amazing, and here I am referring to music performances, since remember that, in Argentina and to Argentines, the core of Tango is absolutely the music (including or rather especially the poetry of the lyrics), with the dance being a very distant second. Tango dancing is very much a fringe phenomenon in Argentina as far
[Tango-L] Report on the Tango Festival & Mundial Buenos Aires 2011
The festival opened on Tuesday, Aug 16 (and runs through Aug 30). I stopped in for music performances on the 17th and 18th. Here is a brief report: The location this year is the Buenos Aires Expo Center (Centro de Exposiciones) at Av. Pueyrredón and Av. Figuero Alcorta, en Recoleta, next to the Facultad de Derecho. It's a rather unattractive structure, industrial looking with awkward access, but they've done a reasonable enough job on the interior, and I'm guessing it's the only relatively economical large space they could get to accommodate a few thousand people at a time with various parallel events going on under one roof. The main space is mostly one huge open space, with a large stage/concert area at one end (called the Escenario Horacio Salgán, after the well-known pianist and orchestra leader, still living at 95, and at least a couple of years ago was occasionally even performing briefly). There is seating at this concert area for 1500 people with a large open standing area behind and on the sides for well for well over 1000 more. You should not have problems finding at least standing room for pretty much any concert being held there, and if you get there 1/2 hour earlier, you will certainly get very good seating. In the same large open area is a large dance floor (with a synthetic smooth material covering what would otherwise be a concrete floor). There seems to be non-stop dancing going on there. When there is no class, there is recorded music playing, unless a concert is going on at the main stage in which case you can dance to whatever live music is playing! There were a number of quite proficient social dancers on the floor both times I went. There is a second concert area called Escenario Horacio Ferrer (after well-known Tango poet/lyricist and author of a well-known Tango historical literary work--the work most likely to be familiar to some readers would be "María de Buenos Aires," the Tango opera composed by Piazzolla, to which he wrote the libretto). This was supposed to be in a similarly sized space connected to the main area but apparently there was some bureaucratic disagreement with Teatro Colón (which I guess owns or has rights to that other space), so it was relocated to a much smaller space of just about 300 seats with a separate building entrance to the right of the main entrance. If you want to see a show that is supposed to be held there, you should (a) make sure it hasn't been relocated to what has now ended up becoming the main stage and, if not (b) show up and stand in line 1/2 hour before the starting time to get a good seat (or even get in). At the one performance I saw at the Escenario Horacio Ferrer, Mr. Horacio Ferrer himself showed up unannounced and was sitting in the audience (but was recognized and introduced from the stage)! Tonight I saw two performances--the one that would be more familiar to most readers would be Orquesta Sans Souci playing pretty much standard Caló (it was a homage to Osmar Maderna, Caló's pianist and arranger until he died an untimely death). The other rather more unusual one (OK, it was weird ...) was a combination of Jairo (Argentine pop/folk singer) singing with classical Tango guitarist Leonardo Sánchez, and backed up by a large classical chamber orchestra of a dozen or so string instruments (violins, violas, cellos, bass). I'm not sure I'm quite ready to get that CD ... Getting back to the rest of the main area, one entire side is a vendors' area, mostly comprising Tango shoe vendors (they seem to have the highest advertising budget and probably outbid everyone else--at least now you know why Tango shoes are so expensive). Another section is an exhibit devoted to Carlos Gardel, and there is an interesting little "radio broadcasting booth" where old-time Tango singers were singing for what was apparently a live radio broadcast. This was just the 3rd of 15 days (my second day), and I will absolutely try to go to something as many of the remaining days as I can. The depth and breadth of Tango performances is just amazing, and here I am referring to music performances, since remember that, in Argentina and to Argentines, the core of Tango is absolutely the music (including or rather especially the poetry of the lyrics), with the dance being a very distant second. Tango dancing is very much a fringe phenomenon in Argentina as far as most of the population is concerned, but Tango music is very much in the hearts of souls of most porteños and many other Argentines as well (even those who profess to hate it). Having said that, the climax of the festival will be the finals of the Mundial Salon and Stage dance competitions, to be held in a different and even larger venue--Luna Park (which is a large indoor stadium) on Aug 29 and 30. If you are in Buenos Aires and want to attend, you must stand in line this Monday the 22nd, perhaps 1 hour earlier than the 11 am opening time at Av
