A few films involving tango have been made recently: I've seen two, but there are others I know just from YouTube. El último bandoneón (2005) looks interesting from some good clips on YouTube. It features a young musician, Marina Gayotto (a student of Joaquín Amenábar, among others) who makes a living with her bandoneón busking on the buses and subway in Buenos Aires. She auditions for the orchestra of Rodolfo Mederas. She plays well, but they see her struggling with a difficult instrument: they open up her bandoneón and see it is completely shot, the bellows, the keyboard, the valves, the reeds... everything. Moreover it is held together with string where she's repaired it. Impressed by her playing on a virtually useless instrument they offer her the job – so long as she gets hold of an AA bandoneón. The film follows her through the tango world of Buenos Aires, meeting the musicians and dancers, searching for an instrument. You can't tell from the clips how much dance is shown, but it is all 'milonguero': no names are given, but the dancers have obviously been around for a few years, and look really excellent. Dancers and musicians talk about themselves and their lives. Geraldine and Javier feature too, awestruck by an older couple. In the end, of course, she gets her bandoneón and all is well.
The AA or 'doble A' is the Strad of the bandoneón world, named after the Alfred Arnold bandoneón company. AAs were played by everyone, Troilo, Piazolla of course, but the company was on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall and was appropriated and turned into a diesel engine workshop. The last of the Arnold family fled to the west, and the company continued limited production until his death in 1971. That accounts for the poignancy of the film's title: there's a limited number of good quality bandoneóns available. I read recently (in El Tangauta, I think) that laws are proposed, or have been implemented, to prevent the export of bandoneóns from Argentina: tourists pay more than musicians. A few contemporary instrument makers are trying to match the quality of the 'doble A'.
Thanks for including the link to the film; I'm going to check my local video rental place for it.
ReplyDeleteYou may have read about the bandoneon here at http://jantango.wordpress.com/bandoneon/ Argentina needs to protect the instrument for the future of tango.
Janis
I went to Zivals at Corrientes and Callao to buy the documentary. They had one copy set aside for someone, but were ready to sell it to me. I saw their price was 51 pesos and didn't want to pay that much. The sales person remarked that it's not many Euros. I told him I don't have Euros to spend, and that I was going to buy it at Musimundo where the price was less. Across the street I asked for two copies which they had and for 24.90 pesos. Two for the price I would have paid for one at Zivals.
ReplyDeleteI want readers to be aware that record stores are charging more because no one questions or compares prices. I did.