Monday, February 10, 2014

Tanda of the Week 07 / 2014 - Ricardo Tanturi, Enrique Campos y TangoTunes



1. Ricardo Tanturi - "Mariposita" 1947 - TangoTunes
2. Ricardo Tanturi / Enrique Campos - "El corazón me decia" 1944 - TangoTunes
3. Ricardo Tanturi / Enrique Campos - "Encuentro" 1944 - TangoTunes
4. Ricardo Tanturi / Enrique Campos - "La abandoné y no sabía" 1944 - TangoTunes

http://open.spotify.com/user/anttiveikko/playlist/4fAl8mu8KzWEBMcUYK8CY6
http://www.deezer.com/playlist/781076415The TangoTunes store is offering also some digitized vinyl recordings on the side of their impressively growing collection of digitized shellacs. Here I've put up a tanda of Ricardo Tanturi from songs available on two of the albums available on the store "Que me quiten lo bailao!" and "Discos de Gardel (Serie Tangos de Oro)".

I was happy to find out that their version of "Mariposita" is a lot better than what I had from the "Grandes del Tango 33" compilation and a few other sources. Many Tanturi cd releases have had the problem of badly digitized recordings and a lot of added reverb. While I believe I can hear extra reverb on some of the songs of these vinyl collections, it is far from the horrendous levels of many cd releases. Some songs might have just a bit too much bass (Dj's, learn to use the EQ's!) or some distortion and record noise but I'll take that over reverb and too much filtering anytime. I recommend listening to the short samples of the songs that TangoTunes offers and comparing those to your previous copies of the songs and some other compilations like "Serie 78 RPM : Ricardo Tanturi Vol.2" and "Ricardo Tanturi y su orquesta tipica. Los Indios". I'm sure these releases by TangoTunes will satisfy some of your needs for Tanturi... while waiting for TangoTunes to release digitized shellacs of Tanturi hopefully sometime in the future.

Now... a few words about the tanda itself. First, I wanted to make a tanda of the songs available on these albums. Second, I wanted to feature the instrumental "Mariposita" even though it would mean playing it with vocal tangos. I do not personally mind this mixing of instrumentals and vocals, BUT... First, I will not play more than one or two of these tandas during a night (I still favor very classic set ups for tandas and think some Dj's over do the mixing of vocal and instumental songs). Second, I will follow the instrumental with songs that, in my opinion, have similar melodies, energy, mood and dynamics as well as tempo. This means I want to use songs that on top of the above qualities have the tempo around 62-63 beats per minute when "Mariposita" has a tempo of 63.85 beats per minute (according to my Traktor Pro 2 Dj software). This way the dancing to these songs remains similar (although there are of course more factors to this than simply just the tempo of the songs). Third, I wanted to choose somewhat popular songs but still songs that are not featured on the blog yet. Meaning that I might play in an actual milonga something else with "Mariposita". Nevertheless, I like this tanda and believe it works well. This just to explain more about the thought process behind creating another tanda. I hope you enjoy it!

Tanturi, Ricardo - TOTW - Todo Tangotango.info - TangoTunes - iTunes Store
Campos, Enrique - TOTW - Todo Tango - tango.info - TangoTunes - iTunes Store 
 

6 kommenttia:

  1. Thanks for that Antti.

    "I was happy to find out that their version of "Mariposita" is a lot better than what I had from the "Grandes del Tango 33" compilation and a few other sources."

    The best I've found is on BMG Tango Argentino "Noches de Tango".

    "I do not personally mind this mixing of instrumentals and vocals, BUT... First, I will not play more than one or two of these tandas during a night (I still favor very classic set ups for tandas"

    It's worth noting that the tradition (if there is one) of strictly separating instrumental and songs is largely a European thing.

    In Buenos Aires, DJs often mix. For example, looking at a sample set of one of the best-know DJs there, I find half the tandas containing songs are mixed - usually two songs plus two instrumentals. It's such a tanda that's given as the example of how DJs played in the Golden Age, in this article Tandas at the milonga.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the comment and link to the interesting article.

      Delete
    2. Antti, I wonder if you favoured strict separation when you were DJing from CDs in your early days. From what I've heard over the last two decades, I'd say separation mostly emerged in Europe in the late 2000s at the time of the influx of new DJs using laptops. My feeling is that separation is one of those things that comes less from what DJs and dancers hear in the music and more from what computer DJs see on their screen. Certainly screen data gives very undue emphasis to the singer.

      Delete
  2. If we imagine ourselves at a milonga in the 40s, we dance to live music of these magnificent orchestras. We hear an instrumental or maybe two. A third tune starts with just the orchestra playing but then after an instrumental verse and chorus (about 1 min.) the perfectly dressed and coiffed cantor de orquesta steps out to sing a full verse. The surprise, the visual elegance and above all, the voice sweep us away.

    No reason not to imitate that in our own tandas!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly. I use that train of thought creating such tandas as well. First the orchestra warms up the dancers before the singer comes on stage...

      Delete
    2. They also had one or two orchestras the whole evening. No reason to imitate that, I think! The golden age had a set of limitations, which made it not optimal for dancers. Maybe much better than anything we have today, but still no reason to imitate everything.

      Delete