tango lessons: movement, sound, image, and text in contemporary practice edited by marilyn g. miller

8/13/2019 Tango Lessons: Movement, Sound, Image, and Text in Contemporary Practice edited by Marilyn G. Miller

1/41MARILYN G. MILLER,editor

Movement, Sound, Image, and

Text in Contemporary Practice

TANGOLESSONS


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TANGO LESSONS


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TANGO LESSONS

MOVE MEN T, SOUND,

IMAGE, AND TEX T

IN CONTEMPORA RY

PRACTICE

MARILYN G. MILLER, EDITOR

Duke University Press Durham and London


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Duke University Press

Al l rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

Typeset in Arno and Univers by Copperline Book Services, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tango lessons : movement, sound, image, and textin contemporary practice / Mari lyn G. Miller, ed.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

---- (cloth : alk. paper)

---- (pbk. : alk. paper)

. Tango (Dance) Social aspects History. . Tangos

History and criticism. . Miller, Marilyn Grace,

.

.' dc

Duke University Press gratefully acknowledges the support

of Tulane University, which provided funds toward the

publication of this book.


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FOR EDUARDO


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CONTENTS

ix Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION MARILYN G. MILLER

CHAPTER ONE OSCAR CONDE

Lunfardoin Tango: A Way of Speaking

That Defines a Way of Being

CHAPTER TWO ALEJANDRO SUSTI

Borges, Tango, and Milonga

CHAPTER THREE MARILYN G. MILLER

Picturing Tango

CHAPTER FOUR ANTONIO GMEZ

Tango, Politics, and the Musical of Exile

CHAPTER FIVE FERNA NDO ROSENBERG

The Return of the Tango in Documentary Film

CHAPTER SIX CAROLYN MERRITT

Manejame como un auto: Drive Me Like a Car,

or Whats So New about Tango Nuevo?

CHAPTER SEVEN MORGAN JAMES LUKER

Contemporary Tango and the Cultural

Politics ofMsica Popular

CHAPTER EIGHT ESTEBAN BUCH

Gotan Projects Tango Project


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Glossary

Works Cited

Contributors and Translators

Index


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A great many colleagues and fellow tangueros in Argentina, Uruguay, theUnited States, and elsewhere were extraordinarily gracious in sharing theirtime, knowledge, resources, and personal histories during the gestation of thisedited volume. In addition to the contributors and translators whose formida-ble knowledge and hard work is represented in these pages, I would like to ac-knowledge and thank the Academia Portea de Lunfardo, the Academia delTango, Carlos Alonso, the Ateneo Popular de La Boca, Carlos Barea, LilianaBarela, Salvador Batalla, Florencia Bazzano, Marcos Blum, Eduardo Bucich,Juan Carlos Cceres, Carlos Cas, Giselle Casares, Juan Carlos Copes,Edgardo Cozarinsky, Arlene Dvila, Claudia DeBrito, Horacio de Dios, Lea

Dolinsky, Estudio Tango, Luis Feldman, Horacio Ferrer, Paula Ferrio,Jorge Firpo, Sebastin Freire, Fundacin Knex, Florencia Garramuo,Omar Gasparini, Diego Goldberg, Adriana Groisman, Fermn Hontou(Omb), Daniel Kaplan, the Latin American Library at Tulane University,Hernn Lombardi, Jorge Lpez, Marcos Lpez, Alfredo Lucadamo, CristianMacEntyre, Acho Manzi, Deborah Miller, Gabriela Mir, Ben Molar, Al-berto Mosquera Montana, Gustavo Mozzi, Jorge Muscia, the Museo de laCiudad, Curry ODay, Marcelo Hctor Oliveri, Shannon Payne, Albert Pazand Valerie Hart, Marta Porto, Lydia Pugliese, Olga Reni, Walter Romero,

Fernando Saavedra Faget, Alejandro Saderman, Marino Santa Mara, Gus-tavo Santaolalla, Walter Santoro, Marcia Schwartz, Claudio Segovia, CarlosSemino, Aldo Sessa, Luis Sessa, Gabriel Soria, Martn Soubiate, RodrigoSpagnuolo, Rafael Squirru, Manuel Surrib, Julie M. Taylor, Cristina Tor-rallardona, Ignacio Varchausky, Rubn Vela, Leo Vinci, Manrique Zago, andall my colleagues and students at Tulane, with whom and from whom I learnso much.

Four figures who nurtured my metejnwith the tango by providing anunending supply of information, friendship, and inspiration throughout theprocess deserve special mention. Oscar Conde indulged my curiosity and


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x Acknowledgments

questions from start to finish with patience, wisdom, and good humor. Fer-nando Rosenberg, a cosmopolitan porteo par excellence, recommended

people, places, classes, and resources that were exactly right. HermenegildoSbat accompanied the project with his art, vision, ear for jazz, and remi-nisces of New Orleans. Gregorio Traub, the oracle of Barracas, offered privi-leged information on the histories of tango and Buenos Aires from a massivememory bank that he keeps in his head.

Research and assembly of this book was made infinitely richer and sweeterwhen Eduardo Alvelo stepped in as the projectsguitarrista de Gardel, its es-sential accompanist. A great many of the contacts and interviews with hal-lowed figures of rioplatensecultural history were secured through his inter-vention. This is very much his book, too.

Many thanks to Valerie Millholland, Miriam Angress, Susan Albury, andeveryone else at Duke University Press who helped see the book through topublication.

Research for this edited volume was supported by several generous grantsfrom the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and the School of LiberalArts at Tulane University.


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INTRODUCTION

M A R I L Y N G . M I L L E R

The ango is an infinie possibiliy.

popular saying

The Tango Continuum

For more han a cenury, an eclecic array of sudens, scholars, and fans havedebaed he origins, meanings, and relevance of he ango. Where didi orig-inae? Who invened i, and who has composed, sung, played, or danced ibes? How did i develop ino wha we know oday as ango, and how should

i be performed and preserved in our own imes? Why is i called tangoin hefirs place?The scholars convened in his edied volume address he fieldsof music and dance bu explore angos vialiy in language, lierary criique,film, and ar as well, concluding ha ango is alive and flourishing in all hesevenues, in some cases o a degree perhaps never before seen. For some, hisheighened ineres and enhusiasm signals a resurgence, for ohers a conin-uaion, and ye for sill ohers a rupure wih hallowed radiions. Howeverone undersands is recen hisory, ango praxis oday consiues a hub ofrich, diverse, and mulifarious aciviy in conexs boh local and global.

Quesions abou angos presen sae in relaion o is soried hisory areno new. In an essay published in , he Argenine wrier Jorge Luis Borgesdisinguished beween a conemporary picuresque ango and a more gen-uine primordial ango buil of pure insolence, pure shamelessness, purehappiness in bravery (On Argentina). Such caegorizaions, resing onhe ensions beween radiion and innovaion, auheniciy and creaiviy,sill generae impassioned debae. Atesing o angos deep resonance in heweny-firs cenury, he weny-four members of s Inangible Heri-age Commitee named he music and dance forms of he tango rioplatenseaworld culural heriage in .


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Marilyn G. Miller

As scholars and sudens who find ourselves in is hrall, we are winesseso angos vialiy and complexiy. Though we ake ino accoun is many

hisorical rajecories, here we focus principally on is curren resonance andpower. In addiion o is relevance as dance or music or lieraure, ango pres-ens a useful ool for sudying global culural flows and heir ineracions.Indeed, here are few popular culural forms so horoughly inerdisciplinaryas he ango.In ango, musical and nonmusical maerials [are ap] o com-men on, criicize, or reinerpre each oher as well as o repea each oher(Kramer, Music as Cultural Practice ). Noneheless, scholarly invesiga-ions from differen disciplines have rarely acknowledged his mulivalence.As dancers, liseners, and paricipans in oher pracices of he form, we usehis edied volume o make a case for ango as a vas reposiory of local ex-perience, wide-ranging knowledge, and global significance. Inspired by heluminaries who have conribued o is rise o inernaional fame in he lascenury, we offer fresh perspecives on angos vigor and coninuing appealfor new generaions of aficionados.

The backsory o angos unlimied possibiliies can be found in he par-allel and complemenary processes of local developmen and ransnaionalcirculaion. Wihin his sory, scholars refer o varied influences in he forms

and syles ha conribued o is basic srucure (candombe, milonga, mi-longn, habanera, tango andaluz, ec.), in he home culures of hose elemens(Spain, Uruguay, Cuba, Africa, Ialy, he Argenine pampas, specific BuenosAires neighborhoods, ec.), and in he colorful characers who implemenedhem, such as immigrans from Europe, people of African descen, compa-dritos (pimps), and payadores (sree poes), among ohers. These myriadmusical and kineic pracices conjoined and coalesced as ango rioplaensein Buenos Aires and across he Ro de la Plaa in Monevideo abou .The iniial atracions were he dance and he rhyhms driving i, rhyhms so

infecious ha weny-firs-cenury ango sill reains a movemen reperoirebased on he same holy riniy of milonga, vals(walz), and ango proper.

Of is hree principal rhyhms, milonga offers a key o undersandingangos hisory as well as is conemporary pracices. Milonga harkens back ohe lae nineeenh cenury and a brash, rules-bashing dance syle (canyengue)ha developed from African diasporic elemens and aligns ango wih oherpopular American forms such as jazz and Cuban son (see Thompson; SalinasRodrguez).Anbal Ford describes he milonga, popularized in rural zonesand Buenos Airess suburbiosor marginal neighborhoods, as a slow, conver-saional, boasful, rebellious, a imes reflexive and a imes laudaory form


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Introduction

of expression ().Rober Farris Thompson calls i simply he conscienceof ango (). Like blues nex o jazz, or son montunowih salsa, milonga

keeps ango hones, being close o he roos (Thompson ).While musicologiss, culural hisorians, and wriers, including Borges,

discuss he specific role of milonga in angos evoluion, mos agree on ishybrid lineage, which displays races of he habanerarhyhm popularizedhroughou he Americas. The dance hisorian Sergio Pujol cies a commenin an ediion of he magazine Caras y Caretas, published in , ha doc-umens his process over a cenury ago: The sleepy and seady habaneraseasily won over he lazy compadrito, who was already enjoying he lubriciousback-and-forh of he milonga, and he later and he former fusing ogeherengendered he plebian ango, whose baby seps are praciced oday onhe sidewalks of he conventilloso he bea of a sree piano (qd. in Pujol).Whaever he exac ingrediens and heir order of aggregaion o heango mix, he movemen synhesis described above would soon be comple-mened by increasingly elaborae insrumenal and vocal accompanimen.The srains of he bandoneon, a small accordion-like insrumen imporedby German immigrans bu adaped o he hybrid srains of he ango, uli-maely came o define he characerisic ango sound.

Born in Brothels

In is earlies manifesaions as a form ha was danced and played in hebrohels of Buenos Aires, he ango was jovial and ribald (G. Varela, Malde tango). Even before he inroducion of he tango cancinwih CarlosGardel and oher vocaliss, o which we will reurn, ango lyrics exhibiedcharacerisics of verbal daring and signifying.From on, periodicalspublished in rioplaense black communiies conain curious references olos angos negros, como erribles, significando bonios, graos de escuchar

(black angos as errible, meaning prety, pleasan o lisen o) (Carreero ).The earlies fans, who were overwhelmingly male and immigran (Pujol ),oen danced o songs wih iillaing iles such as Echale aceie a la manija(Grease he handle), Ponela, sacala y volvmela a poner (Pu i in, ake iou, and pu i in for me again), Tocmelo que me gusa (Touch i, I likeha), Mordeme la oreja izquierda (Bie my le ear), El fierrazo (The or-gasm), Tomame el puslo (Take my pulse), and Dos sin sacar (Two wihouwihdrawing) (G. Varela,Mal de tango), all unes for which accompany-ing lyrics arguably would have been superfluous.Early wenieh-cenurysongwriers such as Angel Villoldo, famous oday for such sandards as


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Marilyn G. Miller

El choclo and La morocha, also penned eyebrow-raising iles such asChiflala, que va a venir, a maserpiece of double enendre ha could mean

Whisle a her, shell come or, alernaely, Blow her, shell come.Thejuicy qualiy of hese lyrics resonaes wih long-held assumpions abouango as an aciviy inimaely ied o sex, as a form of physical conac boundby he convenions of heeronormaiviy and subjec o (and of) a long his-ory of male dominance. Such iles serve as prophesies of he charged genderdynamics of he dance as i develops hroughou he wenieh and weny-firs cenury. Many such song iles confirm ha early ango and sex wereoen companion aciviies: True, men and women descended from Kongo,Andalusia and Ialy me and creaed a new dance in rough neighborhoods.Some danced for sex; some danced for ar; some danced o show off heirbodies. New seps could hardly have emerged, however, had he bes no beendancing for dance. In a ciy in moion, bravura moves were he cres of allchange (Thompson ).

I is ou of his dynamic amosphere of experimenaion, paradoxically,ha angos classic syle and markers would begin o ake shape. Thecanyengue syle would cede o a more uprigh, less closely danced tango desalon. Tango dancers would move from he marginal bordellos andpiringun-

dines(early wenieh-cenury dives) o he dance halls and glossy cabaresof ciy ceners. Sree musicians playing under he iconicfarol or sreelampwould move inside o inegrae orquestas tpicas and even concer ensem-bles.Bu firs, early wenieh-cenury ango needed an image makeover.

Transatlantic Traffic

Alhough Buenos Aires and Monevideo provided an ideal growing mediumfor ango as dance, music, and ex, i was ransnaional and ransalanic cir-culaion ha convered i ino a global sensaion. One of he earlies and mos

celebraed of angos ravels was is appearance in Paris in he second decadeof he wenieh cenury. Upper-class Argenines who regularly raveled ohe Ciy of Ligh o polish and display heir European family pedigrees dis-covered ha he same dance sill associaed wih marginal figures and housesof ill repue in Buenos Aires had unexpecedly become a sensaion in heFrench capial. Whas more, dance skills could rump an illusrious surnameo open he doors o Parisian high sociey.

Accepance by French sociey was an essenial key o angos reevaluaionin Buenos Aires, which had by hen been dubbed he so-called Paris of Lain


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Introduction

America. Word spread ha even he Princess Bonapare had aken classesa one of he Parisian dance academies specializing in ango (Gasi ),

proving oporteosha his dance of ruffians and rapscallions had become,raher shockingly, he dance of royaly.Sill, he ransformaion of angosrepuaion from savage o civilized by virue of he French connecion wasperhaps less sudden and wholesale han migh firs appear.In Ocober he Algerian-born Jean Richepin gave a lecure a he Insiue of France haserved as a easer for his sage show Le Tango, which opened wo monhslaer in a Paris heaer house. By presening ango in an elie academic con-ex and an opulen sage show, Richepin celebraed ango in boh empiricaland aesheic erms. The same year he newspaperLa Raznpublished a re-por by he Sociey of French Medicine affirming ha, from he poin ofview of physical educaion, [ango] offers, beyond all oher [dances] of helas weny years, he advanage of making he body and arms work more,forcing he flexions and alernaive exensions of he musculaure of he la-eral region of he orso, he exensions of he muscles of he ches region . . .[and] he exensions of he lumbar group and he laeral abdominals (qd. inG. Varela,Mal de tango). In oher words, he dance previously dismissedas a social ill was now espoused as a cure. Is urn in he salons and parlors of

Paris (as well as in London and oher European meropoles) convered heango ino somehing infectiousin an enirely differen way.Richepins sumpuous producion fascinaed heaergoers and sparked

a revoluion in Parisian syle rends as well, bu no wihou a backlash.Cardinal Amete, he scandalized archbishop of Paris, prohibied he faihfulfrom dancing ango, direcing priess o include a phrase in confession man-uals ha claimed he impored dance was of a lascivious naure and offensiveo morals (Gasi ).The publiciy generaed by evens such as Richepinslecure and sage show, combined wih he churchs prohibiion, ulimaely

unleashed a media frenzy around all hings ango, inspiring a hos of newrends in Paris and beyond: clohing designed o be more danceable, a spe-cific color and desser labeled ango, a mens haircu a la argentina, a spaeof ango-hemed dinners in London (Fuenes ), and a series of drawingsby Xavier Sager based on Richepins show (Gasi ). The Parisian medialamened, we have o pu up wih i everywhere, in every deail of life (qd.in Gasi ).

Upon is reurn o he Ro de la Plaa aer aking Paris by sorm, angospopulariy exploded. We can see is progressive repurposing as an icon of


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naional culure in he way song lyrics ake cener sage in poery, narraive,adverising, and everyday language. Tha process iself is documened in

he ango Como se pasa la vida (How life goes on), composed by ManuelRomero wih words by Albero Novion:

Cuando el ango se invenera nada ms que un baile . . .Pero ahora es una canciny de las ms populares . . .Todo el mundo cana el ango

[When he ango was invenedi was nohing bu a dance . . .bu now i is a song,and one of he mos popular sors . . .Everybodys singing he ango] (Collier )

Song iles reveal shis as well, as ongue-in-cheek numbers make way forloier senimens and local pride in hemes such as Viva la paria (Long livehe homeland) (G. Varela,Mal de tango). So horough was his process ha

by he s, ango had become he cenral componen of Argenine popularenerainmen in cabares, cafs, dance halls, and heaers and could be heardon he radio and sound recordings as well (Collier ). Soon, i would occupya cenral role in cinema and elevision.

The saus and culural value of ango would from hen on reside in he in-ersices of he primiive and he modern, he popular and he culured (Gar-ramuo ).Despie lingering associaions wih he underclass, he versesof renowned lyriciss Homero Manzi, Enrique Discpolo, Culo Casillo,and Enrique Cadcamo were early on caegorized and canonized as poery

and prined in Buenos Aires lierary magazines such as Sur.We can see hisgraphically illusraed in he work of vanguardistaariss who used ango oell he sory of modernizaion while oen reaining radiional or nosalgicelemens (Garramuo ). In Picuring Tango, chaper in his edied vol-ume, I invie readers on a virual our of angos represenaion in ar from heearly wenieh cenury o he weny-firs cenury, revealing how painersand oher visual ariss helped build a local aesheic informed by cosmopol-ian values, an aesheic in which ango plays a key role.


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Introduction

Art of Walking, Art of Talking

If is Parisian success creaed broad accepance and increased ransnaionalcirculaion during he so-called golden age of ango from abou o ,ango has in he weny-firs cenury become even more popular, even wihcompeiion from a hos of oher music and dance. Despie preservaioniseffors by radiionaliss, ango as music, dance, ex, and language has exhib-ied an exraordinary elasiciy and is now more accessible o inernaionalaudiences han ever before, hough perhaps no wih he same widespreadaccess across social classes ha characerized earlier periods in Argenina(see, for example, Dvila). Tango has successively absorbed influences fromjazz, rock, hip-hop, and oher musical and dance syles. In Ocober iwas he focus of a globalizaion conference convened a Harvard Universiyby he culural criic Homi Bhabha iled Tango! Dance he World Around:Global Transformaions of Lain American Culure. Paricipans examinedglobalizaion, gender issues, urban developmen, and performance hisory omove beyond he idea of ango as simply music or dance.

However global or diverse i becomes, hough, ango reains a core mys-ery; despie commonplace, even hackneyed associaions wih he pas and

is atendan nosalgias, somehing of he uncanny boh verbal and corpo-real, boh on and off he sage sill accompanies us as we wach, lisen o,and paricipae in ango performances in Buenos Aires, Monevideo, Paris,Porland, and beyond. New ariculaions invie us o see ango as abundanceraher han as loss and lamen. The renowned Argenine poe Juan Gelman,himself an avid dancer from he age of fieen, atribues he paradox of he bi-naries dispossession/marginalizaion and connecion/pleasure o he noionof he danceable dialogue. While acknowledging Borgess characerizaion ofhe ango as a way of walking, as an arte de caminar, he himself saw i as a way

of making conversaion, as an arte de conversar.Tangos abiliy o serve bohas a vehicle of communicaion and he subjec of a musical, kineic, or poeicconversaion marks i as a perpeually renewable resource. This elemenalconnecion beween dance parners or he members of a musical colleciveis emphasized and respeced by proponens of all ango syles includingfans of so-called nuevo tango, in which he classic embrace may be opened orrelaxed and he sandard ango musical signaure quesioned bu never com-pleely abandoned. The connecions graed in he hree-minue duraion ofa sandard ango are he source of he release and fulfillmen we experiencein is embrace.


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The quinessenial characerisic of ango dance performance resides inhe pursui of a communion beween wo or more bodies in a single dynamic

srucure, using an improvised form (Dnzel , ).Juan Carlos Copes, con-sidered one of he bes milonguerosever o grace boh a dance floor and aheaer sage, explains ha ogeher, dance parners creae a unique bodywih one head and four legs, a body ha exhibis is combined passions wihhe hope ha he orchesra will never reach he final chan-chan, he wo-noe rhyhmic resoluion characerisic of he ango (). Rodolfo Dnzel,recognized as an exper bailarnand heoris of ango movemen, noes haone plus one in he ango isn wo, bu one ().

Unil he weny-firs cenury, ango dancers generally advocaed he for-mula of a male leader and a female follower, in which he sough aer commu-nion of one plus one equals one did no erase problemaic gender relaion-ships. Works by such scholars as Esela Dos Sanos, Julie Taylor, Donna Guy,and Anah Viladrich acknowledge he male privilege and dominance hahave characerized dance pracices, bu hey also show how women havebeen hisorically able o defy convenional gender sereoypes boh hroughlyrics and performance (Viladrich, Neiher Virgins nor Whores ).These specialiss reveal ha wihin a form creaed, manipulaed, and dom-

inaed by men, ango conains a zone a tolerance house, o use an old ermassociaed wih he brohels hemselves in which women were allowed osing, dance, compose, and perform (Dos Sanos,Las Cantantes).

Noneheless, female dance parners wen unnamed alongside heir malecounerpars on heaer marquees, women composers assumed male pseudo-nyms o improve heir chances of publicaion or circulaion, and singers prac-iced female ransvesism by inerpreing angos whose lyrics were writenfor male vocaliss (see Viladrich, Neiher Virgins nor Whores). Furher,acresses who eschewed performing in seedy bars brough ango o life in

radio dramas, and iconic figures such as Tia Merello challenged gender ex-pecaions and rejeced prevailing sandards of female beauy. All of hesewomen harnessed diverse resources and alens o challenge and spurn hemale dominance a he hear of he indusry hroughou he wenieh cen-ury. In he weny-firs cenury, as Carolyn Merrits chaper in his collec-ion shows, women are aking on increasingly imporan roles in expandingglobal ango dance circuis. Their exploraions and innovaions as eachers,dancers, choreographers, and musicians enable us o broadly rehink genderroles in ango oday.


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Introduction

From the Feet to the Eyes, Ears, and Mouth

Milongueros sill dance in couples, seeking creaiviy and conneciviywihin he conex of hepareja, however ha duo is consiued. Bu angodancers in he weny-firs cenury hear he accompanying soundrack dif-ferenly. Conemporary dancers are oen oblivious o he rich exual leg-acy of song lyrics, poems, and a ango-influenced popular vocabulary haconsiued anoher aspec of he danceable dialogue referred o by Gelman,who himself graned ango a cenral role in his lierary endeavors. In hischaper in his edied volume, Oscar Conde analyzes he conemporary leg-acies of lunfardo, a popular argo of Buenos Aires ha daes back o he laenineeenh cenury, when i developed among immigrans and naive-borninhabians in he enemens and oulying areas of he ciy. He shows howlunfardo reains a semanic richness ferilized by successive waves of culuralinfluences from he Argenine pampas, oher naional regions, as well as fromSpain, Ialy, Easern Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. Remarkably, many wordsha figured in he firs lunfardo dicionary from , such as mina(youngwoman),guita(money), and buln(den, love nes), are sill in common usagein he Ro de la Plaa region.In a sory ha parallels ha of he ango i-

self, lunfardo is ypified by uncerain and dispued origins and by a muddiedprocess of consolidaion in a laboraory of everyday pracices of a mesizo,working-class populaion. Aer is early circulaion among mosly poorand fringe groups siuaed along he orillasor ouskirs of he modernizingciy, songwriers and poes appropriaed boh ango and lunfardo and vali-daed hem as cenral enes of local culural ideniy.

However, whereas ango dance and insrumenal music ranslaed well oforeign publics, lunfardo erms and he ango lyrics ha incorporaed hemremained indecipherable o all bu local liseners. Consequenly, lunfardo

has been someimes exploied by Argenine lyriciss and poes keen on ac-cenuaing privileged local knowledge and proving heir auheniciy; i wassimulaneously rejeced by hinkers more ineresed in he cosmopolian fea-ures of local culure.For songwriers and poes such as Culo Casillo,Homero Expsio, Enrique Sanos Discpolo, Enrique Cadcamo, and Cele-donio Flores, hough, lunfardo erms were like keywords or shorhand in heenunciaion of a criollo poeics ha sough legiimacy no hrough copyingimpored syles and ases bu hrough he elevaion of a locally owned andoperaed vocabulary.


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These hisories of ango reflec volaile dynamics of he couple, he neigh-borhood, he naion, and he canon in uneven and uneasy formaion. The

early wenieh-cenury Argenine novelis Robero Arl believed ango washe escape valve for he pain of he ciy; he famous le-leaning composerand orchesra direcor Osvaldo Pugliese called i a regiser of neighbor-hood complains; he conemporary poliical figure Susana Rinaldi deemedi he proes song ha expresses he pain of a people (Horvah ). Theseassociaions wih release, free expression, and boundary crossing beweengenres, genders, social groups, and zones of he ciy ake us back o angosearly associaions wih carnival (see, for example, Chaseen ). Carnivalprovoked he illusion ha happiness was possible and egaliarian, illusionsha exended ono he ango dance floor (Pujol ). Even as i underwen aprocess of adecentamientoor genrificaion ha placed new value on glamour,high sociey syle, and more socially condoned behaviors, ango coninuedo offer he allure of emporary release from he everyday consricions ofrank and class.

Descripions of ango as an escape valve highligh is propensiy for la-men, complain, or confronaion and frusrae he characerizaion of sen-imenaliy ha ypically accompanies he sock images of ango in is global-

ized forms. They show how ango can funcion as a predicable performanceof sandardized elemens as well as an oule for local expressiviy. Formos fans of ango as a exual form, songwriers he likes of Discpolo andManzi remain is rue poes and privileged mouhpieces. Manzi brillianlycombined erudie and popular elemens, synhesizing he wo predominanschools of expression represened by he le-leaning, working-class Boedogroup on he one hand and he more refined, cosmopolian aesheic of heFlorida group on he oher.In , when Argenina celebraed he hun-dredh anniversary of Manzis birh, he aris Hermenegildo Sba creaed

a ripych porrai of he beloved lyricis wih he heading Manzi SomosTodos (We are all Manzi). In fac, Manzi and many oher grea wenieh-cenury lyriciss are sill so revered ha he younges and mos innovaiveperformers of odays ango coninue o inerpre heir songs and sample heirvoices in elecronic remixes. As Eseban Buch and Morgan Luker show inheir chapers in his edied volume, new ango music is as much abourecycling, recombining, and repurposing as i is abou innovaion.


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Introduction

Tangos Intersecting Histories

Besides providing a rich accoun of iself, he ango rioplaense also givesus a ool wih which we can plumb a whole hos of oher relaed hisories.For example, if he mos imporan evens ied o angos emergence werehe consrucion of he new por of Buenos Aires in , he end of he warwih Paraguay in , and he federalizaion of Buenos Aires in (Nogus), hen work on ango will lead us o a broader knowledge of he Alanicworlds mariime and por hisories, Souh American miliary hisory, andnineeenh-cenury poliical hisories. Wih ango, we can also examine helabor and economic hisory ha atraced millions of Ialians, Spaniards,Poles, and Russians o he Ro de la Plaa region in he early wenieh cen-ury o work in slaugherhouses and oher burgeoning indusries, an influxha in urn increased prosiuion, pety crime, urban overcrowding, andimpoverished living condiions so oen associaed wih he early develop-men of he music (see Casro, The Argentine Tango). Or, we migh invesigaehow growh in he film indusry and inernaional ravel and ourism subse-quenly spread angos fame o vas new publics.

Tango hisory also inersecs wih African and Jewish diasporas in he re-

gion in surprising ways. George Reid Andrews, Gusavo Goldman, RoberFarris Thompson, and Juan Carlos Cceres all make a case for he key con-ribuions of Afro-Uruguayans and Afro-Argenines o ango.Julio Nudlerand Jos Judkovski have similarly shown how ango bisecs wenieh-cenury Jewish hisory, boh in he Souhern Cone and in Europe. Tango wasvery popular in Berlin, Vienna, and oher European culural capials by hes, and hese scholars noe ha Jews imprisoned in concenraion campsin Germany, Poland, and elsewhere composed many angos, including somein Yiddish (Judkovski ).Many Jews who emigraed o Argenina (includ-

ing a long lis of classically rained violiniss) found in ango a performanceenvironmen in which hey rubbed elbows wih composers and musiciansfrom a wide variey of immigran backgrounds. Togeher, hese new Ar-genines and Uruguayans explored common hemes of uprooing, nosalgia,insecuriy, dispossession, and despair, bu hey also faced he danger of con-agion or diluion of religious pariculariy in he process of assimilaing oheir inensely hybrid environmens (Nudler ).

Tango carries he freigh of memory and ideniy in he saga of Argenineexile as well. Anonio Gmezs chaper examines Tangos, the Exile of Gardel


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and The Pavements of Saturn, wo films ha porray he Argenine exile com-muniy in Paris during heir home counrys dicaorship from o .

In boh picures ango accompanies he proagoniss as hey navigae hecondiions of poliical repression and exile and as hey discover ha heireffors mus conform o French audiences preexising noion of angosmeaning and funcion. Ulimaely, he sory of Argenine and Uruguayanexiles seeking refuge from a brual dicaorship a sory he proagonissatemp o ell in par hrough ango is hwared, even repressed, by Euro-pean parons more ineresed in enerainmen han hisorical experience.In anoher chaper focused on film, Fernando Rosenberg shows how recenango-hemed film documenaries frusrae a reading of inernal Argeninehisory ha is seamless, linear, or sraighforward. The works he akes up re-veal unsetled boundaries beween daily life and filmic arifice and beweenhe real in quoidian experience and is cinemaic evocaion.

In his chaper on shis in Borgess ideas concerning ango and milonga,Alejandro Susi demonsraes ha while we may never resolve he conrover-sies over angos origins or rue naure, such debaes compel us o considercompeing undersandings of naional and regional hisory and aesheics.Susi shows how in his essay A Hisory of he Tango, published in ,

Borges modified his earlier, sricer posure regarding he forms provenance.Aer reexamining he asserions of he Uruguayan culural hisorian ViceneRossi, who argued for is African anecedens (by way of he Afro-Uruguayancandombe), and of he Argenine musicologis Carlos Vega, who jus as ad-amanly affirmed is Spanish roos,Borges conceded ha hese and oherhisories migh all have heir meris (On Argentina). Beyond a few essen-ial facs, such as is emergence in he brohels souh of Buenos Aires around or , he ruh abou he ango, Borges concluded, depended on whowas asking and answering he quesion (On Argentina).

Great Moments around the Globe

By he hird decade of he wenieh cenury, he previously disrepuabledance of he underclass had been proudly rechrisened as a marker of Ar-genine naional characer. Growing numbers of poreosfrom many socialclasses danced and lisened o ango, and angos early riumph in Paris,London, and elsewhere in Europe creaed a foohold for is ongoing rans-coninenal circulaion. The increased ravel of Argenine ango performersand eachers o meropolian ceners in Norh America, Europe, Asia, andelsewhere in Lain America;angos incursions in radio broadcasing;he


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Introduction

producion, sale, and disribuion of recorded music in several formas (rec-ords, s, digial formas, ec.); he porrayal of ango in film, on elevision,

and in visual culure;and he diffusion of exual maerials ouching onango in hisory, lieraure, anhropology, sociology, and oher disciplines allrepresen imporan deails of his colossal circulaion hisory. Wihin hisepic accoun, cerain performers, performances, and producions sand ou.Confessing beforehand o gross oversimplificaion, we sugges four greamomens ha have overly deermined angos global recogniion and in-ernaional populariy: Carlos Gardels creaion of he ango cancin in and he heralding of angos so-called golden age; he rise of nuevo ango wihhe unique syle of he bandoneonis Asor Piazzolla in he s, direcedprimarily a audiences of liseners raher han dancers; he rebirh of heinernaional ango sage show wih Claudia Segovias opulen producion ofTango Argentinoin Paris in ; and finally, beginning in , angos irrup-ion in he world music arena wih recordings by Goan Projec, Bajofondo,and oher elecronic ango musicians.

The mos sacred of hese sories for older generaions of ango enhusi-ass is ha of he inimiable (hough frequenly imiaed) Carlos Gardel (ca.), whose dispued origins, like hose of ango and lunfardo, are sill

holy debaed hree quarers of a cenury aer his deah. Uruguayans, Ar-genines, and he French all claim him as heir own, and his birh dae andbirh place remain maters of fiery conenion, despie he proofs ha havebeen presened all around.Simon Collier, he firs researcher o publish abiography of Gardel in English (), idenifies he singer as Lain Americasfirs and perhaps greaes enerainmen supersar (xi). More han he ale ofa remarkable voice, his was also an immigran success sory, imbued wih hegood forune of belonging o an era and a place wih a rich radiion of pop-ular music ha would soon be disseminaed o a global audience. Privileged

heir o a hos of song syles from he Argenine provinces as well as fromimmigrans from Spain, Ialy, and elsewhere, Gardel also learned from hepayadores, dueling masers of verbal and musical improvisaion who begano disappear jus as he was coming of age.

In Augus , while performing wih Jos Razzanno, Gardel was inviedo sing for Edward, Prince of Wales, who was visiing Argenina. Tha con-cer proved Gardels abiliies o win over an inernaional, celebriy-suddedaudience and inauguraed a ransnaional our wih sage and film perfor-mances in France, he Unied Saes, and Lain America. From Paris, Gardelwroe o Razzano ha seveny housand of his records had been sold in hree


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monhs, an incredible figure for ha era (Collier ). By he was mak-ing his firs feaure film, Luces de Buenos Aires(Lighs of Buenos Aires), ac-

companied by he grea Julio de Caro and his orchesra. De Caro famouslyposponed a gig a Buckingham Palace for King George V in order o filmwih Gardel (Collier ). Audiences were so aken wihLucesha hey forcedprojecioniss o rewind and replay he segmen in which Gardel sang hisown composiion Tomo y obligo (Collier ). The public reacion waseven more deafening when Paramoun Picures released he New YorkshoCuesta abajoin . A Buenos Aires film house repored delirious publicapplause and audiences insisence ha Gardels singing scenes be replayedover and over (Collier ).

Thanks o hese huge successes, by he mid-s Gardel had come oepiomize many of he supreme values of poreo sociey: friendship, cour-age, viriliy, and he capaciy for seducion (Mascia ). These qualiies ofGardelism oulived he songbird himself, and for decades Gardel was ahousehold name in Argenina and oher pars of Lain America, as well asin France and he Unied Saes. Colombians joke ha hey may no knowwhere Gardel was born, bu hey definiely know where he died: he planecrash ha cu shor his life in Medelln in convered he inernaional

sar ino a characer more ragic and heroic han any he had embodied inhis film and sage performances. When Gardel died, i was almos as if hevoice of Buenos Aires iself had been cu off, a reporer for Crtica wroe(qd. in Collier ). Radio saions in Buenos Aires agreed o no broadcasa single noe of ango, wheher of Gardel or his inerpreers, for an enireweek (Ulanovsky e al. ), and desolae fans in several ciies commited orconemplaed suicide (Collier ).

Aer his period of mourning, Gardels voice reurned o he airwaves,and oday we can hear him inone such beloved favories as El da que me

quieras (The day ha you love me), Volver (Reurn), and Mi BuenosAires querido (My beloved Buenos Aires) on he radio as well as on soundrecordings and digial downloads. His aural presence is complemened by asrong visual imprin: Gardel has a subway sop named aer him in his oldbarrio, a sauesque final resing place in Buenos Airess Chacaria Cemeeryo which he faihful sill flock, and a face so famous is recogniion quoienin Lain America is second only o ha of a laer revoluionary named Er-neso Che Guevara. The Uruguayan phoographer Jos Mara Silvas fa-mous porrais of Carlios adorn millions of walls and businesses (see DelBarco) and grace he covers of newspapers and magazines designed o atrac


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Introduction

his nosalgic fans. Gardel sill grins ou a us in beloved caricaures by Her-mengildo Sba and in huge, Warhol-hued sree murals by he conemporary

aris Marino Sana Mara.Despie he ime ha has lapsed, Gardel and his version of ango have

sayed he es of ime, in and beyond Argenina. In he Unied SaesPosal Service included him in a samp series commemoraing Lain musiclegends along wih Tio Puene, Carmen Miranda, Celia Cruz, and Selena.In Argenina his philaelic fame had already spread via posage samps cre-aed by he ariss Carlos Alonso, Hermenegildo Sba, and Aldo Severi. Hisdevoees mainain ha hrough he combined miracles of high fideliy soundrecordings and he fideliy of his fans, cada da cana mejor (every day hesings beter). Indeed, i does seem ha Gardels enduring appeal remains un-mached in he vocal hisory of he genre. Somehing in Gardels syle andpersona sill saisfies our need for an expressiviy so broad ha i can encom-pass joy, pain, longing, and hope, all in he same full-hroaed noes.

The Piazzolla Phenomenon

On he se of he New Yorksho El da que me quieras (), Gardel mea hireen-year-old exra named Asor Piazzolla (). Piazzollas faher

Vicene had moved he family from Argenina o Manhatan a few yearsearlier, bu he remained a grea fan of Gardel and ango. When Asor waseigh, his faher had given him a bandoneon, wagering (raher prescienly,i urns ou) ha his son would go far wih he insrumen (Fischerman andGilber ).Asor sudied classical and popular musical syles wih variouseachers, ook bandoneon lessons wih Andrs DAquila, and made his firsrecording a age eleven (Kuri ).

The young Piazzolla demonsraed his skills for he grea singer, andGardel invied him o join he crew on is upcoming Lain American our.

Vicene insised his son was oo young o go, saving he budding bandoneon-is from he ragic fae of Gardel and he ohers; Piazzolla laer joked ha ifhis faher had agreed o he our, he would be playing a heavenly harp inseadof afuelle.Tha foruious missed opporuniy noneheless planed a seed.In Asor reurned o an Argenina in which ango reigned supreme andwhere hundreds of orquesas picasensembles composed of piano, ban-doneon, bass, guiar, flue, violin, and someimes oher sring insrumens played in nighclubs, cabares, and dance halls hroughou Buenos Aires andbeyond. Piazzolla sa in wih several of hese groups, mos noably wih haof he revered composer and direcor Anbal Troilo or Pichuco, considered


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by many he bes bandoneon player of all ime. He was simulaneouslysudying piano and composing wih classical musicians such as he pianis

Arhur Rubinsein (hen living in Buenos Aires) and he Argenine composerAlbero Ginasera. By day Piazzolla was scoring his own composiions in-spired by he works of Sravinsky, Barok, and Ravel, while by nigh he wasseeing how well his alens on he bandoneon sood up o he demands of heporeo public for msica popular.

In PiazzollasBuenos Aires Symphonywon a cones ha allowed himo sudy in Paris wih he acclaimed composiion eacher Nadia Boulanger.Boulanger, concerned ha an emoive core was missing from his symphonicworks, reporedly quizzed Piazzolla on his personal life and creaive endeav-ors, finally uncovering he diry secre of his bandoneon playing in henocurnal hauns of he Argenine capial. Legend has i ha when he beganplaying his ango composiion Triunfal, Boulanger sopped him aer jusa few bars, ook his hands and said, Don ever abandon ha. Tha is yourmusic. Here is Piazzolla (Fischerman and Gilber ). As wih Gardel de-cades earlier, he French connecion allowed Piazzolla and oher Argenineso approach ango differenly, o see i no as an unrefined culural producdireced a an unsophisicaed mass public bu as a legiimae arena for cre-

aive inquiry, skills developmen, and musical performance of he highesorder. In Paris ango was ime and again redefined as cosmopolian andransnaional, and is recepion here enabled and ennobled new levels ofexperimenaion.

In fac, Piazzollas immigran experiences in New York (where he modifiedGeorge Gershwin and Bach for he bandoneon) and Paris (resonaing in heearly s wih he hard bop and cool jazz sounds of he likes of Ar Farmer,Sonny Clark, and Miles Davis) were crucial o he subsequen inegraionof foreign mater in his radiion-bending ango composiions. These bor-

rowings were considered heresy by many ango puriss, some of whom wouldheckle Piazzolla a his performances by shouing Ahora quese un ango,maesro! (Now play a ango, maesro!). Bu he incorporaion of jazz andclassical syles would also garner he composer and musician worldwide ac-claim among a new kind of fan, one more prone o appreciaive lisening hano dance floor derring-do. Wih composiions feauring bold, new harmonicand melodic srucures, arrangemens ha included insrumens previouslyunassociaed wih he ango such as saxophone and elecric guiar, and asignaure syle of playing sanding up, wih one foo propped on a sool orchair o help suppor his bandoneon, Piazzolla singlehandedly inauguraed


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Introduction

he firs coming of nuevo ango or tango nuevo, a erm ha a ha momenreferred o musical innovaion and would laer describe radical changes in

ango dance as well. Though he would remain misundersood by many,especially his fellow Argenines (see Fischerman and Gilber), Piazzollais currenly he bes-known ango composer on he plane. Dancers ofcanyengue, milonguero, and ango de saln syles may sill choose o si ouhe Piazzolla pieces as undanceable, bu such works, described as baroqueand avan-garde and praised for heir conrapunal qualiies, have found amore recepive audience in a new generaion of dancers rained in he moreopen, improvisaional, and musically diverse environmen of nuevo. Rendi-ions of his works by classical musicians and ensembles such as he cellisYo-Yo Ma and he Kronos Quare have also helped fulfill Piazzollas wish obe considered a serious musician. Undoubedly, he Piazzolla sound, whichcan be heard in a broad array of projecs, is a cenral reason for Argenineangos coninuing influence.

Lives and Deaths of the Tango

Before oulining wo final grea momens in global ango hisory ha bringus curren wih is conemporary prominence and manifold pracice, we sep

o he side o recognize he undersudied Ben Molar. In he Buenos Airesman-abou-ango mouned an energeic campaign o cones he noion haango had become aniquaed or moribund, a vanquished compeior in heglobal circuis of popular music. True, he golden age of ango was by henover, as was he heyday of he orquesas picas. Some hisorians dae his de-cline o , when a miliary coup ended he firs presidency of General JuanPern. Perns ousers were less sympaheic o Argeninas popular classes andconsidered he beloved msica popular o be subversive and dangerous. Theyblacklised or imprisoned many ango musicians, insiued new curfews,

and placed new resricions on free assembly, all measures ha reduced hecirculaion of ango musicians in Buenos Airess prime performance venues(Gi ). Atendance in he dance halls also plummeed (Horvah ).

Oher reasons for he decadenciaof he ango in he lae s included herise of U.S.-based recording houses wih which local labels simply couldncompee, and mos imporanly, he soaring populariy of oher dancerhyhms from Norh and Lain America. Sergio Pujol marks as he yearof he mambo, as he year of he cha-cha-ch, and as he momenwhen he welve-year-old singer Robero Snchez perfecly imiaed ElvisPresley, launching his ascen o worldwide fame as Sandro (Pujol ).


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A column published in in he newspaper La Razn asked Qu pasacon el ango? (Whas going on wih he ango?) and bemoaned he fac ha

popular preferences were ending ever more o Norh American rhyhms(qd. in Horvah ).

Molar, however, was undauned, and he se ou o prove ha ango noonly remained an essenial elemen of local culure bu indeed consiuedhe very pulse of he counry and regions expressive ideniy. Tha pulse,he argued, could be heard in he music and is lyrics, and i could be seenin he painings, drawings, and engravings of he counrys mos celebraedariss. Agains enormous odds, Molar managed o convene foureen eachof Argeninas renowned poes, composers, and painers o collaborae ona long-play record he iled con el tango( wih he ango). By includingfoureen full-color reproducions of commissioned arworks in he packag-ing of he , as well as he full ex of all he lyrics alongside commens byhe feaured auhors, Molar combined he audiory and exual experiencesof ango wih a visual feas of images. His ideologically, generaionally, andaesheically diverse lis of conribuors represened a veriable Whos Whoof lierary, musical, and ar world names, including auhors Jorge Luis Borges,Erneso Sbao, Manuel Mujica Lainz, and Len Benars; musicians Juan

DArienzo, Alfredo De Angelis, Lucio DeMare, Sebasin Piana, AnbalTroilo, and Asor Piazzolla; and painers Hcor Basalda, Carlos Cas,Carlos Alonso, Ral Soldi, and Carlos Torrallardona.If angos deep andwide influence oday in language paterns and gender relaions; in helocal and naional economy; in heaer, elevision, radio, and oher media;in ar and popular ar; in musical performances ranging from he classicalconcer hall o elecronica; and in he highly sylized choreography of elab-orae sage shows as well as in heganchosand volcadasof he hipser nuevoango se seems ubiquious, Mr. Molar deserves credi for his vision of is

inerdisciplinary value a half cenury ago. His projec was one of he chiefinspiraions for he book readers now hold in heir hands.

Once More, with Feeling, in Paris

Despie he dogged defense of he ango by ambiious cusodians such asBen Molar, from he s on poliical and economic facors increasinglyconspired o push ango from cener sage ever furher o he margins of rio-plaense culural life. Perhaps ango never died or disappeared, as manylamened, bu is populariy definiely waned, boh a home in Argenina andUruguay and abroad. By he s only a fracion of he earlier masses of


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Introduction

milongueros and musicians were performing he dance or music in BuenosAires and Monevideo. So i was a risky, daring proposiion when he cho-

reographer Claudio Segovia and he designer Hcor Orezzolli eamed upo sage Tango Argentinoin Paris in . Responding o a reques from hedirecor of he Parisian Chaele Theaer o creae a compleely original sageshow, Segovia reurned o Buenos Aires and rounded up he bes dancers,musicians, and singers he could find (Falcoff).

While Segovia considered enlising Piazzolla in he projec, he role ofmusic direcor ulimaely wen o he grea pianis, composer, and arrangerHoracio Salgn; he was joined by a hos of gied musicians and singers, in-cluding he Sexeo Mayor, Robero Goyeneche, Ral Lavi, Elba Bern,Jovia Luna, and Mara Graa. The impressive lis of dancers included JuanCarlos Copes (who choreographed he show) and Mara Nieves, Carlosand Mara Rivarola, Gloria and Eduardo Arquimbau, Pablo Vern, Nlidaand Nelson, and Miguel Zoto and Milena Plebs. Wih his fanasic pool ofalen, Segovia saged a general rehearsal in Buenos Aires in anicipaion ofhe Paris engagemen. The response of he Argenine specaors a ha re-hearsal was epid, Segovia recalled. Why do a ango show when here were somany oher hings happening in he music scene? poreos wondered. Why

sign hese musicians, singers, and dancers, who were noiceably older andplumper han in he glory days of ango? Was his he bes Buenos Aires hado offer a Paris audience?

Upon heir arrival in France, he ide urned in a very decisive way forSegovia and Orezzolli. Since advance icke sales were fla, he heaers di-recor insised he cas perform for an audience of reporers. Segovia andcompany obliged, and he opening nigh of Tango Argentinome wih ravereviews inLiberation, Le Matin, and Le Mondehe nex morning. Many Ar-genines hen living in Paris were par of he delirious public, and a leas one

old Segovia, eary-eyed, I spen hiry years haing he ango, and in realiylife is a ango (Falcoff). Almos immediaely, he performers had a conracfor he Fesival of Venice and oher our daes in France and Ialy; he showlaer raveled o Canada and hen hi Broadway in , where i me wiheven more hunderous applause (see Ferrer,El tango).

The recepion of Tango Argentinowas so ecsaic ha he show spawneda slew of imiaors and avaars: Forever Tango, Tango Inferno, Tango Fire, andso on, wih many of hem working wih members of he original crew. How-ever specacular, such performances arguably have been unable o surpass(or equal, some would say) he Segovia-Orezzolli show. Wha hese shows


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have accomplished, noneheless, is o place ango back on cener sage, whererap specaors are once again ranspored and delighed by a heady (and

fooy) mix of insrumenal music, dance, and song. If weny-firs-cenuryfans can find milongas in such disan sies as Verona or Alaska or even inBuenos Aires (where he producion arrived en years aer is Paris debu),hen much of he credi undoubedly mus go o Segovias iniial saging ofTango Argentino.

Nuevo Tango Redux

Tango in he weny-firs cenury conains all of he poliical, geographic,economic, and culural shapings of a cenury and is ye sill new. As a dance,i coninues o expand exponenially, hanks o increased ravel by dance in-srucors from Argenina o more ciies worldwide and by dance sudens oclasses and workshops in Europe, he Unied Saes, and elsewhere.Tangoenhusiass can find classes or milongas in many, if no mos, of he majorciies of Europe, Asia, Africa, he Americas, and Ausralia. The Unied Saesboass he greaes number of ciies wih regular social dance venues, wihmore han wo hundred from Akron o Ypsilani. And in he mecca of Bue-nos Aires, foreigners now oen ounumber he locals in many milongas and

prcticas.Newcomers ener his phenomenon on he heels of an evoluion of musicand dance forms ha began in he s and has been variously labeled nuevoango, ango nuevo, neoango, elecronic, alernaive, or fusion ango labelsha hemselves have been rejeced by he key players we migh idenify as hearchiecs of his evoluion. These labels have only a angenial relaionshipwih he nuevo ango musical syle of Piazzolla, bu hey do allude o he em-phasis on innovaion and improvisaion a he core of hese new performaivesyles. Gusavo Naveira, one of he conemporary dance insrucors mos as-

sociaed wih nuevo, clarifies ha for him, a leas, ango nuevo is everyhingha has happened wih he ango since he s . . . Tango nuevo is no onemore syle; i is simply ha ango dancing is growing, improving, developing,enriching iself, and in ha sense we are moving oward a new dimension inango dancing. . . . We have learned, and we have developed our knowledge.The resul of his is a dance of greaer possibiliies, and also of a much morearisic qualiy (qd. in Gi ).Tradiionaliss warn ha a lack of respecfor ime-honored codes will produce a dance display ha may be ahleicallyimpressive bu risks being devoid of argentinidador even ango. For is pro-ponens, hough, nuevo offers he chance o incorporae new music, revamp


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Introduction

dance syles, experimen wih he embrace, reconfigure he sandard male-female lead-follower roles, and in shor, rehink he dance in erms of he

physics and logics of human movemen, as well as un senimieno que sebaila (a feeling ha is danced).

In her chaper in his edied volume, he anhropologis Carolyn Merritexamines how noions and experiences of gender and sexualiy inersec inhis conesed field of Argenine conemporary dance and music pracice.New generaions of dancers ask o wha exen hey can queer ango whilesill reaining is hisorical, aesheic, and social inegriy even as all ofhese are simulaneously being quesioned. Merrit conends ha he emer-gence of a new generaion of praciioners wih access o ever more venues inan increasingly fluid and inerconneced global communiy signals he liber-aion of he dance from he hold of place and radiion, while sill respecingangos hisoric propensiy for experimenaion and hybrid incorporaions.

Similar quesions inform he rapidly growing presence of music sylesin he global arena classified as nuevo or elecronic ango. In his analysisof he phenomenal success of he Parisian-based collecive Goan Projec,he musicologis Eseban Buch argues ha in quaniaive erms, a leas,Goans massive appeal has no equal in he hisory of ango recordings or

performance. Wih sales numbering in he millions (wih he recordings fig-uring prominenly in boh he world music and dance/elecronic chars), andviewings of heir videos on YouTube approaching or opping he seven-figuremark, he members of Goan have become he bes-known ango musiciansin he world if you consider heir music o be ango, of course.

Buch examines how angos nomadic endencies, already in evidence acenury ago, have expanded due o he capaciies of weny-firs-cenuryechnological crossover, in which he srains of he bandoneon, angos sig-naure insrumen, are now joined or replaced by digial sounds creaed

on a compuer. He mainains ha while he group incorporaes unorhodoxelemens, a respec for angos long hisory and canons can be seen in Goansinegraion of classic ango musicians such as bandoneonisas Nin Floresand Facundo Torres and pianis and arranger Gusavo Beyelmann, as wellas in he inclusion of sraigh ango numbers in concer performances andrecordings. In fac, heir recordings reference a surprising number of reveredango personaliies from Gardel o Piazzolla and cie key evens in Argen-ine culural and sociopoliical hisory.For example, in Tango ., releasedin , hey lay musical racks over a recording of he Argenine auhorJulio Corzar (who also relocaed o Paris and produced many of his mos


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Marilyn G. Miller

imporan works here) reading excerps from his novel Rayuela.For ra-diionaliss, he radical modificaion and repackaging of he beloved ango

genre for sale o a massive world music marke unaware of is angled naionaland ransnaional social hisories hreaen o srip he music of everyhingbu perhaps a lingering tangotude. Bu Buch avows ha such producs atracnew generaions of liseners and specaors o social and aesheic hisorieshey migh oherwise ignore. Thus, he musical resul of Goan Projecs ex-perimenaions can be a one and he same ime like ango iself a lessonin he new and he hisorical, a sexy combinaion of chillou programmingand auhenic ango.

As Morgan Luker demonsraes in his chaper on conemporary effors ore-creae ango as msica popular, he same ension beween preservaionand renovaion is equally a play in conemporary versions of classic ango.While he members of Asillero and oher conemporary groups may rejeche radical changes of he elecronic secor, hey ulimaely mus engagewih he same hisory of globalizaion in heir effors o reacivae ango asa msica popular produced for and hrough a locally based social collecive.This reacivaion impulse, iself fueled by sociopoliical crises in Argeninasince , has generaed subsanial aciviy around he preservaion of

ango as an all-access genre bridging old and new. Musicians emulae andre-creae he sounds of revered masers from yeseryear; composers and ar-rangers archive and updae musical scores and oher documenaion fromearlier periods; young players sage live performances for new audiences ofliseners and milongueros oo young o have winessed angos social powerprior o . Bu, as Luker noes, Asillero and oher musicians commitedo ango as msica popular circulae in he same global conex as heir fellowelecronic musicians and may find a more responsive audience in Berlin hanin Buenos Aires.

The New Language of Tango

The Golden Globe and Grammywinning composer, musician, and filmmusic producer Gusavo Sanaolalla is perhaps bes known for his work onhe film soundracks ofBrokeback Mountain,The Motorcycle Diaries,Amores

Perros, and Babel. Bu Sanaolalla is also a cenral figure in weny-firs-cenury ango. His self-confessed obsession wih he quesion of rioplaenseideniy led him o experimen early on wih ango and many oher local folkmusic from his home counry, including hose he found and recorded on a


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Introduction

road rip ha exended from he norhern ip of Argenina o is souhern-mos ciy. Those recordings formed he basis of he groundbreakingDe Ush-

uaia a la Quiaca,produced wih he fellow Argenine rocker Len Gieco andrecenly rereleased in a wenieh-anniversary ediion.

In Sanaolalla eamed up wih veeran musicians from Argenina andUruguay o creae he Bajofondo Tango Club. While heir earlies work wasmosly elecronic, by he ime he and his colleagues producedMar Dulcein, hey had dropped he Tango Club o become jus Bajofondo and con-sidered hemselves principally a rock band.The resuling elecronic dancemusic fuses Lain alernaive rock, ango, and milonga in a syle ha is unde-niably conemporary. Sanaolallas hybrid effors include a collaboraion wihhe Puero Rican reggaen sars Calle , anoher wih he Spanish rapperMala Rodrguez, and ye anoher down-empo join effor wih he alerna-ive rocker Elvis Cosello. Wih Bajofondo, says Sanaolalla, we don likehe label elecronic ango because we ry o make a conemporary music ofRo de la Plaa. . . . Obviously, if you wan o do music ha comes from hereor represens ha par of he world, ango is going o be par of i bu, inour case, so is rock n roll, elecronica and hip hop. Hopefully a new language[resuls], no pure ango.

Whereas Bajofondo brings ango o a global audience of mosly youngerliseners, Sanaolallas radiion-honoring Caf de los maestrosoffers a lushlyproduced aural and visual archive of ango as he exquisie and unique ex-pression of a generaion ha will soon pass away.Tha effor brough o-geher singers, musicians, and arrangers from he so-called golden age ofango o record in he sudio, perform on he sage of he Tearo Coln inBuenos Aires, and laer sar in an award-winning documenary of he samename in . A wo- box se iled Caf de los maestros, produced bySanaolalla and Gusavo Mozzi and mixed and masered by Anbal Kerpel,

was released in . Alhough he audio-visual synergy of Caf de los mae-stroshas led some o compare i o he recording and film versions of Cubas

Buena Vista Social Club,Sanaolalla has said he sees i more as an ougrowhof his road rip research decades ago. In any case he ambidexrous producerhas managed o simulaneously maser lierally and meaphorically hesoundracks of ango as innovaion and as preservaion.

Sanaolallas varied engagemens are jus one noable example of he myr-iad ways in which he ango rioplaense lives on, appreciaed by ever-largerlocal and global audiences. Like he vocalis and songwrier Carlos Gardel,


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Marilyn G. Miller

he insrumenalis and composer Asor Piazzolla, he sage show direcorClaudio Segovia, and his fellow musicians and elecronic wizards in Goan

Projec, Sanaolalla embodies a meejn (obsession or love affair) wih heango ha acknowledges previous masers, responds o conemporary de-sires, and paves he way for new renovaors and innovaors inspired by anever-vaser reasure rove of sensorial pleasures. This is a meejn he wriersin his volume all share. Wha new worlds of ango now srech ou beforeus? Wha hidden gem of is inexhausible hisory will we find in a libraryor dusy booksore? Wha new sound will cach our ear? Wha movemenwill we maser o help us ranslae is complexiy and mysery o he dancefloor? Wha difficulies and disappoinmens will i express and ease? Howwill ango connec us wih neighbors and culural kin near and far? And whowill be he nex singer, player, dancer, poe, painer, or philosopher o schoolus in is many lessons, is infinie possibiliies?

Notes

. On he origins of he erm tango, see Salas, El tango; Gobellos Tango, vocabloconroverido inLa historia del tango; and Megenney.

. The adjeciverioplatenserefers o angos origins and developmen in boh Argen-ina and Uruguay, especially in he principal por ciies of Buenos Aires and Monevideo

locaed on he Ro de la Plaa or River Plae. A glossary a he end of his edied volumeprovides brief definiions of ango-relaed erms.

. As Ramn Pelinski noes in El tango nmade, ransehnic and ransechnical,ransregisered bricoleur, he nomad ango is relucan o le iself be resriced by heypologizing and philologizing procedures of radiional musicology; is semanic pos-sibiliies and is composiional sraegies are open on all horizons ().

. See also Kramer, Dangerous Liaisons.. See, for example, R ivera. A defense of angos Cuban roos is offered by Oriz Nuevo

and Nuez. Daniel Vidar includes a lenghy discussion of norhern and souhern Ialianinfluences in he ango inEl tango y su mundo.

. There are many variaions and combinaions of milonga, vals, and ango, bu hehree basic rhyhms are sill disinguishable for musicians and dancers; in he radiionalmilonga (dance even in a salon or hall), each tandaor se of hree o five songs is devoedo one of he hree rhyhms. More recenly, s have begun o add andas of nuevo tangoor oher musics no idenifiable as ango.

. Canyengue is he erm oen used o describe he firs dance recognized as ango.Canyengue firs appeared in he slums a he ouskirs of Buenos Aires around heurn of he h cenury and is considered o have los is populariy by he lae s,

when ango de salon pr imarily replaced i as he predominan manner of social angodancing (Tango Voice, Canyengue, Candombe and Tango Orillero: Exinc or Non-

exisen Tango Syles?,Tango Voice(blog), accessed May , , htp://angovoice.word


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Introduction

press.com////canyengue-candombe-and-ango-orillero-exinc-or-non-exisen-ango-syles/). Tango Voice also offers an excellen summary in English of he kineic

characerisics of his syle.. La milonga en sus formas primigenias rurales y suburbanas haba ido desarrollandoen pulperas, almacenes, fogones de milicos, comis, una forma de expresin lena, con-

versada, jacanciosa, rebelde, a veces reflexiva, a veces homenajeadora (Ford ).. Thompson provides addiional eymological and formal deails: Milonga, spiried

and srong, emerged in Argenina in he s. I was no a mere precursor o angobu a radiion in is own righ, wih is own sound, is own mode of acion. Derivedfrom Kimbundu and Ki-Kongo words meaning, respecively, argumen and movinglines of dancers, milonga furhered a radiion of aesheic dueling: pugnaciy as poery,

batling as dance. I was, in shor, African-influenced carving coness on a scale urned

heroic ().. A conventillois a enemen or boarding house, associaed wih he hrongs of im-migrans who arrived in Buenos Aires from Europe and elsewhere a he end of he nine-eenh and beginning of he wenieh cenuries.

. A definiion of signifyin(g)from a glossary of erms relaed o he blues idenifies ias he ac of using secre or double meanings of words o eiher communicae muliplemeanings o differen audiences, or o rick hem (, Blues Glossary, The Blues,accessed July , , a htp://www.pbs.org/heblues/classroom/glossary.hml).

. Pujol noes ha in his era, ango, like sex in he Vicorian era, is whas notsaid,wha appears in prin only by error ().

. Villoldo even wroe and performed some of his unes under he pseudonym Lopede la Verga, a play on he name of he famous Spanish Golden Age dramais Lope de

Vega ha made use of he slang erm for penis, verga (or dick) (G. Varela,Mal de tango). Is likely ha Villoldo was influenced by he challenge songs of Afro-Argeninessuch as Gabino Ezeiza (Thompson ). While Thompson has surprisingly litle o sayabou Villoldos more off-color work and is possible relaionship o black precedens orinfluences, he noes he elecro-obsceniies included in Villoldos La biciclea, whichcus he preensions of modernism down o size (). Thompson provides a ranslaion(albei parial) of a paricularly amusing secion of ha ango:

El elfono, el micrfono,

El an sin rival fongrafo,El pampirulininfano,

Y el nuevo cinemagrafoEl bigrafo, el causgrafoEl pajalacaflunchincfano,El chincaapunchincgrafo. . .[The microphone,The elephoneThe panpirilininophone

Plus cinemaography


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Marilyn G. Miller

Biography, causography,Pajalacafluchinography,

No o menion chingaapuchinography]. ()

Vil loldos ongue-wising mockery of he wonders of modern echnology bears winesso he discomfors and disconen modernizaion produced in urn-of-he-cenury Bue-nos Aires. See, for example, Sarlo, Una modernidad perifrica.

. An excellen source on he orquestas tpicas, and indeed on he insrumenalizaionof ango from is incepion o he s, is Sierra .

. This is likely a reference o Princess Marie Bonapare (), he same figurewho would gain fame for her psychoanalyical and sexual research, her professional andpersonal relaionship wih Sigmund Freud, and her role in faciliaing he laters escape

from Nazi Germany. See Berin.. The perceived need for civilizaion in he face of barbarism was he primar y cul-ural problem of he Souhern Cone region and arguably of all of Lain America in henineeenh cenury; Sarmienos midcenury reaise on ha ension (Facundo: Civili-zation and Barbarism) predaes he emergence of ango bu also predics is complicaedale of rejecion and ulimae incorporaion by he guardians of naional and regionalculure. Carlos Fuenes includes ango in his broader discussion of Lain A merican civ-ilizing campaigns ().

. In a review published in he magazineMundial(direced by he famed modernistapoe Rubn Daro) in , Enrique Gmez Carillo concluded ha he show elevaedhe ango beyond he superficial and he senimenal and consiued a profound moralsudy (qd. in Gasi ).

. When his sudens sopped atending his classes due o he archbishops ecclesias-ical admoniion, a prominen dance eacher named Si lson sued he church for wenyhousand francs in damages and won. The religious auhoriies were forced o concedeha hey didn in fac condemn he ango iself, only cerain ways of dancing i (Gasi). Noneheless, many A rgenines, including he wrier Leopoldo Lugones, main-ained heir abhorrence of he form, despie is populariy in Paris. Cualquiera eniendeel prejuicio moral que compora el adjeivo argenino pegado a esa innoble y basardadanza, con la cual cana sus folias de licencia la canalla mesiza de nuesro suburbio des-caracerizado (Anyone can see he moral prejudice ha he Argenine adjecive carries

when ied o his ignoble and basard dance, wih which he half breed low life sings hislicenious explois), claimed Lugones (qd. in Gasi ).

. For many younger Argenines, angos appeal and relevance were long ago sur-passed by hose of rock, rock nacional, cumbia, and, more recenly, reggaen. In poinof fac, hese seemingly unlike genres oen inersec. See, for example, Plaza on heineracions of ango and rock and Gallego on he relaionship of ango and cumbia.

. While each of hese wriers is emblemaic in his own way, Cadcamos biography isan especially resonan example of he profoundly inerdisciplinary naure of wenieh-cenury A rgenine ango. Born in , Cadcamo regisered over , songs before hisdeah in December . He was a favorie composer of Carlos Gardel, who beween

and recorded weny-hree of his composiions. He auhored several volumes


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Introduction

of poery (Canciones grises, ;La luna del bajo fondo, ; and Viento que lleva y trae,), as well asEl debut de Gardel en Pars,La historia del tango en Pars, several exs

for heaer and film, and his own memoirs. In a preface o a phoo-essay on ango by heacclaimed Argenine phoographer Aldo Sessa (), Cadcamo reflecs on he Africanorigins of ango dance and he synheic naure of ango lyr ics: wriing a ango involvesreducing he plo of a hree-ac play ha lass wo hours, wih a beginning, a middle, andan end, o jus hree minues, which is he ime i akes o play a ango; ha is o say, oneminue per ac. In ha essay, Cadcamo also atribued angos appearance o is blackroos, wheher from Guinea, Angola, or elsewhere in Africa and i was hen brough o

Argenina by Poruguese slave raders (Sessa ).. I urns ou ha Bhabha himself was exposed o ango growing up in Bombay,

where his faher was an avid lisener as well as an accomplished dancer. See Gewurz.

. See Gelmans auobiographical ex iled Semblanza.. Heighened atenion o improvisaion wihin he space of he ango embrace,unique among oher popular dances of he Americas, is already much in evidence in heearlies exising moion picure recordings of he form, including Luis Jos Moglia Barhsfilm Tango!, released in . Tha landmark picure (which helped iniiae he film in-dusry in Argenina) enlised a hos of popular performers such as Liberad Lamarque,Tia Merello, Pepe Arias, and Azucena Maizani, all a lready familiar o Argenines fromlive sage acs, earlier silen films, or heir paricipaion in radio broadcass of elenove-las and musical programs (Falicov ). The legendary figure Jos Ovidio BenioBianque, beter known as El Cachafaz, also appeared briefly. The basic srucure ofhe embrace, he mechanics of dissociaion, and oher elemens of he ango movemen

vocabulary performed by he dancers in ha film can sil l be winessed in ango danceoday. Despie is early producion dae, Tango like Borgess essay represensango from an earlier era. A clip of he film can be viewed on Youube (htp://www.youube.com/wach?v=YvV-APpc, accessed May , ). Carmencia Caldern, ElCachafazs parner in he film, looks almos as spry dancing a age niney-six (htp://

ww w.youube.com/wach?v=-kXj_WJY-c&feaure=relaed, accessed May , ) andwas sill dancing on he occasion of her hundredh bir hday (htp://www.youube.com/wach?v=AuLVZnEpgE&feaure=relaed, accessed May , ). Dnzel recognizesangos mechanics of dissociaion, in which he aciviy of he body from he waisdown is disinc from ha of he body from he wais up, as he principal proof of is

African anecedens ().. The Dnzels fame has exended o he Whie House, where hey danced during

he Reagan adminisraion (Ferrer and del Priore,Inventario del tango, vol. : ).. Viladrich uses a ranslaed fragmen of Dos Sanoss ex as he epigraph of her

Neiher Virgins Nor Whores.. An online Lunfardo-English dicionary can be found a htp://www.freelang.ne

/dicionary/lunfardo.php, accessed May , .. For a discussion of angos problemaic relaionship o oher mesizo culural dis-

courses in Lain America, see M. Mil ler, Tango in Black and Whie, in Rise and Fall ofthe Cosmic Race.

. Borges regreted he sudious crassness of ango lyrics and poems oo heavily laced


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Marilyn G. Miller

wih lunfardo (On Argentina ), and he generally avoided he local vocabulary in hisown references o ango in such maserpieces as he poem The Myhical Founding of

Buenos Aires, published in :

El primer organio salvaba el horizonecon su achacoso pore, su habanera y su gringo.El corraln seguro ya opinaba ,

Algn piano mandaba angos de Saborido.

[The firs barrel organ eeered over he horizonwih is clumsy progress, is habaneras, is wop.The car-shed wall was unanimous for .Some piano was banging ou angos by Saborido]. (Selected Poems )

Enrique Saborido () was a Uruguayan-born musician, dancer, and composer.A celebraed figure of he vieja guardia, his composiion La morocha (jus one of hismany successes) sold wo hundred and eighy housand copies aer i was recorded in. He also became a much sough aer dance insrucor in Paris. Hiplio Yrigoyen() was wice eleced presiden of Argenina ( and ), andBorges is apparenly referencing he period leading up o his firs erm. Known as hepresiden of he poor, Yrigoyen insiued social reforms, including universal suffragefor all male voers. In he was deposed in a miliary coup.

. In a reporer for he Buenos Aires daily newspaper La Nacinasked he re-nowned Mexican auhor Carlos Fuenes () wha his adolescence in Buenos

Aires had conribued o his lierary voice. A grea deal, Fuenes responded, i washere ha I read Borges for he firs ime. I frequened he Aeneo booksore; I followedhe orchesra of Anbal Troilo and I learned he lyrics of he ango, which is anoher wayo learn Spanish (Reynoso).

. Despie being frequenly idenified wih he second of hese groups, Borges con-sidered he anagonism beween he wo a pseudopolemic, and in he published hisessay La inil discusin de Boedo y Florida [The useless argumen abou Boedo andFlorida] inLa Prensa . See Salvador.

. The ango-infleced verbal ex pression ha appeared on song shees and in lierarymagazines from he s on soon found many echoes in scrips for radio, heaer, andfilm performances, and poes and songwriers became culural provocaeurs and enre-preneurs of he firs order. Along wih his work as a songwrier, filmmaker, screenwrier,poliical milian, and labor acivis, Manzi, for example, also creaed he record label

Aula wih he idea of proecing songwriers inellecual righs, founded he journalMicrfono, and par icipaed in he formaion of he poliical par y Forja. And whileManzi is a noorious example of his cross-pollinaion of forms and fields, he is jus oneof many such sories in ango pas or presen. When he se abou researching his fahersparicipaion in ango hisory, Acho Manzi discovered ha i wasn only lyrics of pop-ular songs ha appeared during ha period. Every ime I opened a file, here appearedscrips for films ha were never filmed, libretos for radio programs, and works for he

heare (). See Ford; Romero; and Salas, Homero Manzi y su tiempo.


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Introduction

. Two ineresing examples of his phenomenon are Fernando Ayalas filmEl cantocuenta su historia[The song ells is sory], released in , which feaures ango wihin

a broader song hisory in Argenina, and Humbero Ross film El tango es una histo-ria[The ango is a hisory], released in , wih performances by A sor Piazzolla andOsvaldo Pugliese.

.El tango en la Economa de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires(), published by Argeni-nas Minisry of Producion, examines angos economic impac in such fields as ourism,he online music indusry, ango insrucion, public policy, and copyrigh maters.

. Anoher par of his African diasporic hisory is he relaionship beween earlyango and early African American jazz. A key figure in his sory is he black pianisHarold Phillips, who was acive as a performer and composer of cakewalk, ango, andoher syles in Buenos Aires and Monevideo from abou unil , when he le for

Europe. A poscard sen from he coninen aer German forces advanced ino Belgiumrepored ha he had been accused of espionage, imprisoned, and sho here (Nogus).

. Wha is less well known is ha oher Jews a he Janowska camp were forced by an officer o accompany marches, orures, omb excavaions, or execuions by playingor singing Plegaria, a composiion of by he Argenine composer Eduardo Biancoha became known as The Tango of Deah (Judkovski ; Nudler ). The Jewsinegraing ha orchesra were apparenly murdered by he before Janowska wasliberaed (Nudler ). Nudler noes ha Bianco had played he ango for Hiler andGoebbels in . In an inerview Bianco noed ha he had even earlier played Ple-garia for King A lfonso XIII of Spain, a grea fan of he ango o whom he composiionis dedicaed. I was apparenly par of his reperoire for he seveneen monhs he per-formed in various oher cours, where he was praised by Salin, among ohers. Bianco

was giving concers in Germany when war broke ou, and hough he sough o leave hewar-orn region, he was arresed a Innsbruck. The fear of being consanly wachedreporedly produced hear problems so severe ha Bianco was hospialized in Magde-

burg (see Eduardo Bianco, htp://www.odoango.com/spanish/creadores/ebianco.asp, accessed May , ). Nudler noneheless aligns him wih fascis forces in Ialyand noes ha Enrique Cadcamo accused Bianco of working for he Gesapo (Nudler). The Tango of Deah anecdoes from he camps likely informed he wriing of he

Jewish poe Paul Celan, whose Tangoul morii [Tango of deah] was penned in Ger-man in (Nudler ). The lyrics o Biancos Plegaria can be found a htp://www.odoango.com/spanish/las_obras/Tema.aspx?id=UUPUSyhwUOM=, accessed May, . There are reporedly wo oher composiions ha bear he name Tango de lamuere as well as a film and sainete(shor heaer piece), see htp://www.odoango.com/spanish/biblioeca/CRONICAS/el_ango_de_la_muere.asp, accessed May ,.

. Despie hese difficulies, Tangos. El exilio de Gardelreinsalls he ango-dance inhe audiovisual field of conemporary culure, Pujol assers ().

. Rossis Cosas de negros is considered a groundbreaking if conroversial argumenfor he African origins of he ango, an argumen susained by conemporary hisori-

ans and musicians such as Goldman, Thompson, and Cceres. The opinions of Carlos


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Marilyn G. Miller

Vega, considered he forefaher of musicology in Argenina, are summarized by Kohan,Carlos Vega y la eora hispanisa del origin del ango.

. Borges poined ou ha, by he middle of he wenieh cenury, cinema had prop-agaed ye anoher compelling if no enirely accurae sory of he ango, and his fromrags o richesBildungsromanis by now a sor of inconesable or proverbial ruh (On

Argentina).. See, for example, Viladrichs work on he presence of ango immigran commu-

niies in New York (Tango Immigrans in New York Ciy; From Shrinks o UrbanShamans). For a general hisory of ango in he Unied Saes, see Groppa.

. An excellen source on radio hisory in Buenos Aires is Ulanovsky e al. One of hehighlighs of his broadcas hisory was he Glosora Tango Club program, a daily showfrom El Mundo Radio recorded before a live audience ha firs broadcas in (,

according o Ulanovsky e al. ) and coninued on he air for more han wo decades.. See, for example, P. Ochoa.. On ango in lieraure, see Rossner; Orgambide. Anonioti and Sebasin adop a

broader culural sudies approach. Azzi sAntropologa del tangooffers one of he earliesincursions from ha discipline; Taylors Paper Tangosprovides an innovaive anhro-pological engagemen ha addresses psychosocial aspecs as well. On ango as socialhisory, Carreero is a good resource.

. Gardel claimed, on differen occasions, o have been born in all hree places(Monsalve ).

. Boh Gardel and Razzanno reporedly me he grea payadorGabino Ezeiza inearly wenieh-cenury poliical commitee meeings in he San Telmo neighborhood,according o a websie dedicaed o he hisory of he payador Gabino Ezeiza: htp://

www.ensanelmo.com.ar/Culura/MiosyBohemia/gezeiza.hm, accessed July, .

. Sana Maras work can be viewed a htp://www.marinosanamaria.com/, ac-cessed May , . I ouch on Marcos Lpezs phoographic homage o (or parody of)Gardels beloved image in my chaper on ango ar in his edied volume.

. A Buenos Airesbased all-ango radio saion ha frequenly plays Gardel can besreamed a htp://www.lax.gov.ar/, accessed May , .

. Aer moving he family from Argenina o Manhatan in search of economic op-poruniies, Piazzolla Sr. worked as a barber o he Sicilian mob in New York, he samecohor immoralized by Herber Asbury in The Gangs of New York and by Borges inHistoria universal de la infamia(Fischerman and Gilber ).

. Gardel reporedly claimed ha he young Piazzolla played bandoneon like a Gal-lego, ha is, l ike a Spaniard or oher foreigner, call ing atenion o a formaion akingplace ouside he Argenine radiion. See Fischerman and Gilber .

. Fuelleor bellows is a lunfardo erm for he bandoneon.. Piazzolla also arranged angos for Troilos orchesra, bu Troilo reporedly would

go back and edi he arrangemens, fearing hey were oo advanced and would scareaway he dancers (Pessinis and Kuri).

. Fischerman and Gilber quesion he influence of hese privae classes wih

Boulanger on Piazzollas developmen, noing ha he anecdoe presens us wih a


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Introduction

recurring fanasy amongs musicians in he popular radiion, who a he same imerejec and envy he mannerisms of he academic musician; hey poin o a parallel nar-

raive in he memoirs of George Gershwin ().. Though he wroe an esimaed hree housand works and recorded some fivehundred of hem, Piazzolla is mos revered for pioneering composiions such as AdiosNonino, writen in o commemorae he deah of his faher, and Liberango, wri-en in and considered he quinessenial example of Piazzollas paricular musicallanguage.

. The operetaMara de Buenos Aireswriten on a libreto of he poe Horacio Ferrer,he soundrack of he film Tangos. The Exile of Gardelsudied in his edied volume, anda landmark recording in of poems by Borges inerpreed by Piazzolla and he

vocalis Edmundo Rivero are jus a few examples.

. For a full lis of conribuors, see Ben Molar and His Maser piece: con eltango,Todo Tango, htp://www.odoango.com/english/biblioeca/cronicas/_con_el_ango.asp, accessed May , . I sudy he ar segmen of Molars projec a morelengh in my chaper in his edied volume.

. A line in he shows original program sums up Segovias dual undersanding ofangos role on and off he sage: The ango resembles, reassembles all of life. Segoviafurher clarifies, I ry o reflec on he sage a life ha acually exiss, and ha a hesame ime should come ogeher as a scenic eniy . . . I look for puri y, for roos, bu wihariss who have dominion of he sage, who won ge sage frigh, who can give heir al l(Falcoff). Whereas oher Argenines had moved on by he s, seting aside ango foroher genres, Segovia forged ahead, convinced ha a show conceived wih a genuine lovefor popular culure would be read by audiences as a love sory of sors. For his effors, he

was credied wih he second worldwide success of ango, some seveny years aer i hadoriginally aken Paris by sorm.

. Segovias singular achievemen was furher recognized in he reurn of Tango Ar-gentinoo he Argenine capial in February of , his ime under he auspices of heMinisry of C

tango lessons: movement, sound, image, and text in contemporary practice edited by marilyn g. miller

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