Wednesday 1 September 2010

Practice Playlist for the boys

Playlist for a practice session, reposted for the other attendees. We're not trying to DJ here, just practice to a variety of good music. Because if we try to make an effort with the music, we will presumably dance better, and if we arrange it in an orderly, pleasant way we will learn it more easily. And if we don't spend time in our practice session faffing about with CDs, we can use the room hire better. I cut the playlist to a pair of CDs and stuck them in the machine.

If you have a tanda you like to practice to, share it with the world by sticking it in the comments. If you mention the album, people will know what to buy.

Notes: I didn't worry too much about the exact contents or order, beyond trying to avoid anything obviously jarring within the tandas and trying to have at least some variety of style between them. I didn't worry about trying to cover ground, either; I simply chose some artists whose music I own and like and who came to hand before bedtime on the evening I took to prepare. My collection is curiosity level, not expert or DJ level. But I only buy dance music, except by mistake, I'm not really interested in tango for listening except at a live concert.

I made relaxing cortinas in Audacity by chopping up the 'bell song' from Lakmé, leaving out the loud high notes, because they can scare people. It has a handy feature to find the silences for you, for your given threshold of 'silence'.

Title Type Artist
Milongueando en el 40 Tango Aníbal Troilo
Uno Tango Aníbal Troilo
La Maleva Tango Anibal Troilo
Toda Mi Vida Tango Aníbal Troilo; Francisco Fiorentino
Ah! Ou va la jeune Indoue? Curtain Joan Sutherland
El Tío Soltero*Tango Roberto Firpo y su cuarteto
El Apronte*Tango Roberto Firpo y su cuarteto
Estoy Penando*Tango Roberto Firpo y su cuarteto
El Moro*Tango Roberto Firpo y su cuarteto
Ah! Ou va (Instrumental) Curtain Joan Sutherland
El Jagüel Tango Carlos Di Sarli Y Su Orquesta Típica
Shusheta Tango Carlos Di Sarli Y Su Orquesta Típica
El Paladin Tango Carlos Di Sarli Y Su Orquesta Típica
Bahia Blanca Tango Carlos Di Sarli Y Su Orquesta Típica
Choses Curtain Joan Sutherland
El Lloron Milonga Francisco Canaro
Milonga sentimental - Ernesto Fama y Angel Ramos – 1933* Milonga Francisco Canaro
Milonga brava Milonga Francisco Canaro
il faudra Curtain Joan Sutherland
Yo Te Amo Tango; Female Vocal; Duet; Male Vocal Edgardo Donato
Sinfonía De Arrabal Tango; Female Vocal; Duet; Male Vocal Edgardo Donato
Un Libro Tango; Male Vocal Edgardo Donato
Carnaval De Mi Barrio Tango; Female Vocal; Duet; Male Vocal Edgardo Donato
Clochette Curtain Joan Sutherland
El Flete Tango Juan D'Arienzo
La Payanca Tango Juan D'Arienzo
Jueves Tango Juan D'Arienzo
Loca Tango Juan D'Arienzo
Il rougira Curtain Joan Sutherland
Rondando Tu Esquina Tango Osvaldo Pugliese
Emancipación Tango Osvaldo Pugliese
Recuerdo Tango Osvaldo Pugliese
La Yumba Tango Osvaldo Pugliese
finale Curtain Joan Sutherland
La Tapera (Vals) Vals Edgardo Donato
Quién Será (Vals) Vals Edgardo Donato
Estrellita Mía (Vals) Vals Edgardo Donato

* The Firpo tangos were an eccentric and rather unwise choice, they're so old-school, from the period where milonga and tango hadn't really seperated. They feel like milongas without quite being milongas - you could dance them as milongas, or tangos, or using some sort of canyengue-like activity, but it's a puzzle. The boys weren't sure what to do with it. I personally like them but they're not everyone's taste and they were rather a thoughtless choice for practice. Next time I think I'll bring something else instead.

Albums, and what they look like:
  • Troilo and Canaro - various sources including Joaquin's music-teaching disc and El Tango (very useful and educational 10 CD set, currently in stock at Milonga.co.uk). Milonga Sentimental was given to me by someone, I'm not sure what the source is.
  • Firpo - Tangos y Valsecitos
  • Di Sarli - Instrumental Vol. 2
  • Donato - RCA - Colección 78 RPM
  • D'Arienzo - Instrumental Vol 1 'Solo Tango'
  • Pugliese - Ausencia
Firpo - Tangos y Valsecitos
Di Sarli - Instrumental Vol. 2
Donato - Collección 78 RPM
D'Arienzo - Instrumental Vol. 1
Pugliese - Ausencia
El Tango - Pasión y emoción

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

fantastic!

David Bailey said...

"I cut the playlist to a pair of CDs and stuck them in the machine."
- You missed the part where we all re-forgot how to turn the machine on... :)

I like the artwork - nice set of pix.

Captain Jep said...

How about the awesomeness of :

Siempre es Carnaval
Arrabalero
Cordobesita

(Fresedo)

and :

(Calo)

Tristezas de la Calle Corrientes
Un crimen
Cuatro Compases

yes great music does inspire great dancing ..

Andreas said...

Good stuff for general practice is D'Agostino/Vargas. It's got a bit of everything, compas, interesting rhythmic patterns, melody, great vocals. Very balanced and tasty.
To practice rhythmic stuff, Tanturi/Castillo is very good.
For rhythmic walking, I like to use Rodriguez/Moreno.
And Di Sarli is always good. Consider using the old Sexteto Di Sarli recordings such as Chau Pinela for a change. Recently I have discovered the excellency of the 1951/52 (Music Hall, I believe) recordings like those on Glorias Del Tango. Just listen to El Ciruja and try to stop yourself dancing. Pity the sound is not all that great.

msHedgehog said...

@Jep, @Andreas, great. Lots of artists I don't have any of (I stick to music I own), but one of the others might. I might be able to find a tanda of some of those from the 10-set, or we can dig around in the box at the room and just guess. My playlist was fine for one occasion because it's music that gets played a lot, so we can learn it - but we need something else as well.

ghost said...

The TPG runs at a slight surplus - so far it's been used to cover the cost of nights when not enough people turned up and to buy a tripod. I have no problem with using it to buy a tango album / downloading a number of songs every few months or so. So any other specific album / song suggestions from Jep or Andreas (or anyone else) are welcomed.

I'd like to keep the music consistent for at least a period of several months at a time so that we actually can get to know it. I think potentially it's a good way to build up a knowledge base over time. And as David has pointed out elsewhere, the more you dance to a piece of music, the more you get a feeling for what works and what doesn't.

Does the list of music here seem like useful songs to know?

From the current cds I'd take out the Firpo and the Vals (at least until Andreas gets round to teaching a Vals workshop in London).