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Articles and Interviews
The Musicalizadore of Argentine Tango
Part Two - How to improve as a DJ?
(by Stephen Brown)
“The questions that remains though is, HOW can I learn to become a better DJ? Am I just left to my own wits and skills of observation? What do you recommend, Steve”
Let's divide the task into four parts: development of a playlist, development of tandas, programming the evening's music, and learning from djing and dancing.
Development of a Playlist:
Sorting through the available tango music and creating a playlist of the tangos suitable for dancing is a good start. To develop my playlist, I started with my own list of tracks that I considered suitable/enjoyable for dancing. To further add to the list, I began asking djs and dancers who know the music by song title to tell me what they considered the classics of tango dance music. With all this information, I assembled a lengthy playlist, which can be found online http://www.tejastango.com/classic_tangos.html.
I then can get various views over the whole database filtered and grouped by various criteria, i.e. only tangos suitable for dancing, grouped by mood and orchestra. Because the resulting playlist was long, I began classifying the music by its characteristics and orchestra. For characteristics I used the following:
Old Guard |
Orquesta Tipica Victor, Carabelli, Firpo, Lomuto, etc. |
Early Golden Age |
De Caro, Donato, early Fresedo, early Canaro |
Golden Age Harder Rhythmic |
D'Arienzo, Biagi, Rodriguez |
Golden Age Softer Rhythmic |
early Troilo, some Troilo/Fiorentino, Tanturi/Castillo, Caló instrumentals, Caló/Podesta, Federico, Laurenz, D'Agostino/Vargas, early Di Sarli |
Golden Age Smooth |
most Di Sarli instrumentals, some Canaro instrumentals, some Fresedo instrumentals, some Troilo instrumentals |
Golden Age Lyrical |
Caló/Beron, Di Sarli/Rufino, Di Sarli/Duran, some Troilo/Fiorentino, some Canaro with singers, Fresedo/Ray, Tanturi/Campos, Demare with singers, DeAngelis with singers |
Golden Age Dramatic |
DeAngelis instrumentals, Pugliese |
Transition Era |
Sassone, Varela, Francini/Pontier, Garello |
New Tango |
New York Tango Trio, Litto Nebia, Trio Pantango |
Modern Dance Orquestas |
Color Tango, El Arranque, Sexteto Sur |
Neo-Tango |
Gotan Project, Bajofondo Tango Club, Juan Carlos Caceres |
Milonga |
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Vals |
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La Cumparsita |
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Some of the categories were suggested by other people, such as Dan Boccia (Alaska) and Tom Stermitz (Colorado), who participated in the project. A few of the people participating in creating the list of classics did not agree completely with how I ended up categorized things. One-person pointed out that the distinction I made between golden-age harder rhythmic (D'Arienzo, Biagi and Rodriguez) and golden-age softer rhytmic (early Troilo, some Calo, Tanturi/Castillo, and D'Agostino/Vargas) was not completely clear. Another pointed out that Di Sarli and Pugliese instrumentals, which I had separated as smooth and dramatic, shared the characteristic of being powerful. I recognize the validity of these comments, and tried to incorporate them in my organization, but could't find a way to do so. Ultimately the person assembling the playlist must decide what works for them in categorizing the music.
Development of tandas:
According to my experience and what I had read in discussions on the American e-list, a good tanda has coherence. That coherence provides a continuity of theme and tells the dancers what kind of music to expect for the entire tanda. In my opinion, achieving that coherence requires more finely subdiving the music of a given orchestra by its sound. (On the other hand, playing two pieces of music that sound exactly the same doesn't work very well either.) Let's consider a Pugliese tanda that starts with La Yumba and ends with Gallo Ciego. La Yumba sets a very powerful mood. The dramatic Gallo Ciego is one logical way to close such a tanda. It rewards the dancers with more of the same. We have numerous choices for music to use between La Yumba and Gallo Ciego. We can use La Rayuela and Tupungatina in the second and third spots. These two tangos continue the La Yumba beat, but with a somewhat different feel. I hear La Rayuela as sounding a bit bitter and Tupungatina as beautifully sweet. If we are looking for a bit lighter feel to the tanda, we can use Raza Criolla and Pelele in the second and third spots.
If we are looking for a more progressive feel, we can use Nochero Soy and La Mariposa in the second and third spots. In my opninion, using Emanicpacion and A Evaristo Carriego in the second and third spots would represent to much of a departure from La Yumba and Gallo Ciego. Let's also consider a tanda built around D'Arienzo's El Flete. El Flete is such a rhythmic masterpiece, that it is difficult to find anything that will stand up to it. So, I place it last in the tanda. Union Civica and Canaro en Paris have similar rhythms but I do not consider them quite as powerful. Because Union Civica is the stronger of the two, I play it first, then Canaro en Paris. For the third spot, I use Pensalo Bien. Pensalo Bien does have a vocal, but falls into the category estribillistas (refrain singers), and the rhythm is very strong. Anyway, the idea is to build coherence and sufficient variety in the tanda. Working with pre-set tandas is one way to assure this coherence at the beginning. You can see my ideas for tandas online http://www.tejastango.com/tandas.html .
Programming an evening's music and learning (from djing and dancing):
Let's start with a simple formula: two tandas of tango, one of milonga, two of tango, one of vals. To build in variety, let's follow the rule that no two consecutive tandas of tango can come from the same category of music, but let's not jump too far across categories. (No pairing a tanda of D'Arienzo with one of Pugliese.) As an example:
1. Tangos: softer rhythmic -- Tanturi with Castillo
2. Tangos: harder rhytmic -- D'Arienzo
3. Milongas: Canaro
4. Tangos: smooth -- Di Sarli
5. Tangos: lyrical -- Troilo with Fiorentino
6. Vals: Calo with Beron
Do these tandas work together? Is there enough variety across tandas? What mood has the music created? Are the dancers connecting to the music? Are the dancers on the rhythm of the music? Are the dancers staying out on the floor or sitting down? Do people quit dancing in mid-tanda? Is it the entire tanda or just a clinker in the middle of the tanda? Are you getting requests to play something different? Would you dance to this music with that special someone? What tanda of tangos follows the Calo valses?
Another example:
1. Tangos: softer rhytmic -- early Troilo instrumentals
2. Tangos: lyrical -- Di Sarli with Duran
3. Milongas: Tanturi/Castillo
4. Tangos: softer rhytmic -- Calo with Podesta
5. Tangos: harder rhythmic -- D'Arienzo
6. Vals: Laurenz
When I find the dancers are not responding well to harder rhythmic music, I end up playing mostly smooth, lyrical and dramatic tangos, a few softer rhythmic and one modern tanda. After a while, my order evolves into something like this:
1) tangos - lyrical 2) tangos - softer rhythmic 3) milongas 4) tangos - smooth 5) tangos - lyrical 6) valses |
1) tangos - softer rhythmic 2) tangos - smooth 3) milongas 4) tangos - lyrical 5) tangos - dramatic 6) valses |
1) tangos - lyrical 2) tangos - softer rhythmic 3) milongas 4) tangos - lyrical 5) tangos - more dramatic 6) valses |
1) tangos - lyrical 2) tangos - smooth 3) milongas 4) tangos - lyrical 5) tangos - modern 6) valses |
This order builds some dramatic tension, but it doesn't build much rhythmic tension, which the dancers would not accept.
And the question are always the same….:
How does playing the music like this affect the mood and the feeling of variety? Are the dancers connecting to the music? Are the dancers on the rhythm of the music? Are the dancers staying out on the floor? Are you getting requests to play something different? Are the dancers staying until the end of the evening?
