I love dancing to vocals. I think of the vocal as another insturment playing. Also when I'm teaching musicality, I use the vocals to clearly show where the phrase begins and ends
Sent from my iPhone > On Oct 12, 2015, at 12:09 AM, Shahrukh Merchant > <shahr...@shahrukhmerchant.com> wrote: > > I have no idea where anyone got the idea that people don't dance to > vocals in Buenos Aires. Not to Gardel, clearly (but then I've yet to > hear Gardel being played at a milonga), but over half of Golden Age > stuff has vocals. And everyone dances to them. And not just in Buenos > Aires--in most milongas in any mature Tango community anywhere in the > world (OK, the parts I've been to) you'll hear 50% vocals. > > Sure, there are some singers that sound like they're groaning rather > than singing (there's a DJ--fortunately just one--in Montreal who seems > to like them), and some modern "it's all about me--who cares about the > dancers or the other musicians for that matter" diva-syndrome singers, > and a Tango dancer can be forgiven for wanting to strangle both kinds. > But very little in the Golden Age canon of tango music falls into either > of these categories, and half of the standards if not more will contain > vocals. > > When I was a beginner, I preferred instrumentals, as I think most > beginners do, but even before I could understand the lyrics I started to > like the songs with vocals more and more. Now I prefer the vocals > (except for the ones I don't :-)), and not just because I understand > more of them (there are many that I still don't, nor am I trying to for > that matter). > > If there are any vocals I don't dance to, it's because I can't stand the > singer (quite the opposite of respecting them), e.g., Ledesma or pretty > much any singer associated with Varela (sorry Bianca, if you're > listening ...). From the contemporary orchestras, likewise with Sexteto > Milonguero, which is a fantastic orchestra if only the damn quarteto > singer would shut up. > > Gardel, of course, is in a separate category, and none of the blanket > statements above apply to him, sorry I meant Him. :-) Besides, no > self-respecting DJ plays Gardel for dancing. There's some funny rule > about that (which I endorse, incidentally), even though it's certainly > semi-danceable, and arguably more so than some of the stuff some DJs play. > > Shahrukh > _______________________________________________ > Tango-L mailing list > Tango-L@mit.edu > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l