Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Solid Biagi, later Biagi, odd Biagi

The tanda below is not right. The later Biagi [Santa Milonguita, Milonga Triste] is quite different from the super solid Biagi's above it. There's also some very 'odd beat' Biagi. These all have different effects ... the odd stuff is definately for advanced dancers. The late songs have a rich orchestration. But the old, solid stuff will haunt you for days. Clearly Biagi's version of Quejas de Bandoneon is the best. But it needs to be mixed with similar Biagi, or else everything else will pale. Unless you end with it.

But I like putting the best known song at the beginnig, and the best song second ... to make sure everyone dances to it. Robert likes to put the best song last, but I find that too many people are done before the fourth song. Again, it depends on the crowd. It's best to DJ from a computer, but that makes it hard to train other DJ's ...

2 Comments:

Blogger obscure tango said...

'But I like putting the best known song at the beginnig, and the best song second ... to make sure everyone dances to it. Robert likes to put the best song last, but I find that too many people are done before the fourth song."

Greg,

Best known song and best song may or may not be the same song. I can vouch for the received wisdom that it often takes several dances to establish solid rapport with a partner and thus I personally like to have the best songs to be the 3rd and 4th.

I'm not sure what "too many people are done before the fourth" refers to. I have sometimes found myself asking someone to dance what turns out to be the last song of a tanda and then carry over. I have seen couples exiting the floor before the tanda is over and in some cases I recall they had danced a least one previous tanda.

I also find in the case of Pugliese or fast milongas that I am tire after three songs and my concentration suffers a bit during the fourth.

Jonathan

9:47 AM  
Blogger Greg Bryant said...

True, but I still try to get people off the floor at a cortina, and back onto the floor with the first song. It gives the night a certain rhythm. But not everyone does it, you're right. And sometimes no one moves an inch during the cortina. I just keep playing music then.

8:07 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home