Carablanca and the Guardian

Some good sense about social tango has appeared in a national newspaper. An article in the Guardian about social dancing features Carablanca (the milonga, not the horse). It isn’t without errors (the milonga isn’t called La Carablanca, it offers good beginners classes rather than ‘tasters’, and it’s as laid-back as anywhere else about same-sex couples even if there may be fewer of them) but it’s great that a visitor notices that social tango is more about inner experience than outward appearance, and in reported conversations dancers say the experience of connection is what really matters to them. It’s great because people usually think of tango as outward show: nothing wrong with that, but a crowded social dance floor just isn’t the place for it.

A few days later the same paper published an article on actor Don Cheadle and his forthcoming film about Miles Davis, Miles Ahead. Don Cheadle is also a musician, and he comments on the experience of playing with a group of musicians: ‘I just love the experience of sitting in a room with people who can play... The fun of all these disparate voices coming together, all different walks of life, all different socioeconomic whatever, then you start playing music and all of that goes away... Everybody’s following, but nobody’s following. Everybody’s leading, but nobody’s leading. It’s an experience that’s unlike anything outside it. That’s the most fun I’ve ever had doing anything.’ All of which sounds familiar, but perhaps it’s not really surprising that the words of a musician describing improvising jazz echo the experience of dancers improvising tango.

Carablanca

Another excellent evening of dance at Carablanca. The music was much appreciated, and set me wondering just how a DJ manages to keep us all on the floor all evening. The answers are pretty much on his website: ensuring that the tanda begins well, which means an extensive knowledge of the music from a dancer's point of view, and meticulous technical understanding of, and attention to, sound quality. I found the sound was particularly remarkable: the music felt warm and rich, with an excellent spacious feel to it, although the tracks are mono. The various lines of melody and rhythm were clear, without the slightest discernible distortion. When you've got sound and a selection of music like that, you feel you can relax, trust it and enjoy it. Bernhard has played in that hall before, so he knows it and the speakers there, and knows how to make the most of it. In any case, it's a good space for music.

As for the dancing, I'm sure it's a lot calmer and smoother than it was a few years ago. I've never seen Carablanca seriously crowded*, but it can feel that way when people aren't skilled in dancing on 'una baldosa' – on a single tile (as they say in Buenos Aires milongas). Out of the dancers there, there were perhaps only one or two with that skill. If everyone had that skill you could just about double the number of dancers and it would still feel perfectly comfortable.

(*On one occasion – but that was virtually a private party.)

Carablanca... and some more YouTube stuff

I should have drawn attention to this last week: Carablanca has a late licence for Friday 8 March. Dancing, great music and empanadas from 8 until 2. DJ Bernhard Gehberger.

While I'm at the keyboard, some more YouTube stuff. Recently I came across bariodorizontal's YouTube channel which is a real cornucopia, mainly of clips of music and food. Over 700 clips to be precise (they seem to include the whole of El último Bandoneón, with Rodolfo Mederas). This clip* shows 'el maestro Oscar Barrios' who was first bandoneón with the de Angelis orquesta. The events seem to be a series of recitals in a cafe somewhere in Buenos Aires, organised by Los Amigos del Galpón de Mingo. I found it worth hunting around on the channel as there are a great many clips like this, usually two instruments plus sometimes a vocalist. The setting is relaxed, and the music is wonderful. It's very simple and charming: a small audience, people sitting chatting at tables over by the window, the traffic outside. 

*PS: For some reason, bariodorizontal has removed the video of Palomita Blanca with Oscar Barrios from the YouTube channel: a pity because it was a wonderful piece. However, all the other clips seem to be still there, including several clips by the same two performers from the same afternoon, and a great version of Pedacito de Cielo with a singer: you can find them on the channel. There are other tracks from Oscar Barrios, too: there's a super version of La Maleva, Oscar with a second bandoneon. 

There's plenty to watch - and listen to - there, and you can 'Load more' videos for a very long time. I've not watched that many, but the music and the setting are wonderful in everything I've seen.

London tango: Bernhard Gehberger at Carablanca

The days when the music was live might have been extraordinary and memorable... which doesn't mean we can't have some great nights with music from CDs and laptops...

I find it remarkable how London tango has changed – improved immensely I think – really over the past two years. It's said that tango in the smaller milongas outside London is better than in the city, but maybe that's changing. A couple of nights ago the Austrian DJ Bernhard Gehberger was at Carablanca milonga in London: the dancing started at 8pm and went on till 2 am, breaking with the regular schedule of a class and a shorter milonga. & it was busy from start to finish, while in the middle it seemed that people poured onto the floor from all directions as each tanda started. It wasn't a party night: no star guests and performers, just a good DJ, a good floor, food and drink. There were a lot of unfamiliar faces: Bernard has a great reputation, and I guess that many people were there for his music. That's probably the first sign of change: people now recognise and welcome a good evening of music. For several years now, the quality of the DJ has been a regular topic of conversation.

To dance as well as I can I need to pause and take breaks, which give me the opportunity to watch. Inevitably I watched the line of dance, which was unbroken throughout most of the evening, and the line of dance was almost exclusively close embrace. (That may not have been the case for the rest of the floor which I couldn't see much.) & when I was actually in the line of dance I had few problems: it was packed, but well-behaved. I can't help wondering where this new and very welcome enthusiasm for close embrace has sprung from: it's as if people feel they've come home, and really enjoy the experience. & a lot of people have developed the skill of dancing on a busy floor. All the demonstrations of visiting teachers I've glimpsed have shown a tango of close and open embrace, but that's not what I watched on the floor. & the overall look of the floor is no longer the confused jumble of movements that (to remember a good friend's remark) resembles clothes in a washing machine. 'Tango nuevo' seems long ago.

Not that the dance has the smooth gravity of the BsAs dance. 'Gravity' is the right word, but I don't want to suggest that the dance of BsAs is 'grave' in any way, just that it's not light, it has a sense of gravity. Maybe dancers here still need to listen to Pedro Sanchez, who has just two phrases of advice in English: 'Take it easy!' and 'Listen to the music!' & what else does he need to say! & even if it is tango in close embrace a really full frontal embrace still isn't to everyone's taste. Having said that, I saw tango – some – that I thought was good by any standards.

As to the music, it was really excellent. A good DJ makes you want to dance every tanda: even if you need to sit out a tanda or two you still feel that if the right partner was there you'd be on your feet. There seemed to be a coherence to it, so at the end of the evening you feel as if you've been on a musical journey. & the cortinas fascinated everyone: 'You can hardly tell them from the tandas!' several people remarked. I happen to have the Orquesta Tipica Viktor 1931-1932 CD 'Viejo Arrabal' (ORQ316 from the Buenos Aires Tango Club) which has a mix of music, so I guessed pretty fast: this cheerful lively music everyone found so fascinating was the 'other music' that the bands we think of as tango orquestas recorded, the foxtrots, the rancheras, the paso dobles, the polkas, the shimmys, the tarantellas, the jazz numbers. It's music that's rarely heard, and such a great idea to use it for cortinas. It fits perfectly.

Here's a curiosity that a quick YouTube search threw up, a Canaro 78 released in 1932. Nine minutes of music, so about 4:30 each side of a 78, unusual but not impossible. (I've got a couple of Canaro tracks from about the same time that go on for over five minutes each, undanceable, I think, kind of symphonic tango.) Anyway, the point of this disc is that it's Canaro's orquesta playing eight one-minute extracts, a medley of tango, foxtrot, pasodoble and ranchera. Hence '8 en 1'.

So, credit to Bernard, and thanks and credit also to those who run Carablanca: it was a ten-hour day/night for them. I hope it seemed worth it to create an event like that. All I can wish for now is a weekly milonga like that in London...

Carablanca's big night out

Recently, for one evening, as a trial, Carablanca milonga in London decided to dispense with a pre-milonga class and use the time instead for dancing. In a bold move the organisers also decided to get an extension, so the milonga started at 8 and finished at 2am. Moreover, they brought in a really good DJ, Bernhard Gehberger. It seems to have been a big success. Plenty of people were on the floor from start to finish, and it was remarkable that almost all the dancing was close or close-ish embrace. It wasn't as disciplined and restrained as a BsAs milonga, but then Londoners haven't had years of practice at dancing on crowded floors. (All it takes is practice! It's not something you can learn in classes!) Although it's a fair-sized hall, the organisers have limited the amount of space available for dance, so everyone is developing the skills needed for tango at a traditional milonga.

I gather that when the Welsh Centre milonga, Carablanca's previous incarnation, started out they had just one CD, a Troilo CD that those who remember those days know by heart, and that it was known as a place for kicking and being kicked. (I hope I'm not maligning it: this was years ago, anyway.) From that to six hours of excellent music, and reasonably good dance too: times have changed for the better I think! It parallels some comments made recently by Irene and Man Yung about Toronto tango: perhaps Toronto has gone through the same transformation as London within a similar timescale. (It's a hilarious post if you haven't already seen it.)

& the good news is that there's more of this coming up. I hear that there are several evenings without a pre-milonga class arranged for the next few months, a full four hours of dance each night, and that an extension until 2am for a further evening has been applied for. Combined with bookings of first-rate DJs, there are some really good evenings to look forward to. Keep an eye on the website.

The good news...

For anyone within reach of London, in case you haven't heard, Carablanca is having an extended evening on Friday 16 March. No class, just dancing, 8 to 2am, with DJ Bernhard Gehberger from Vienna. Six hours, a full-length milonga! A mini-festivalito! Great if you can't afford to travel far for a good evening of tango.