ISSUE 7 - Pasion Criolla

JOURNAL OF SALON TANGO IN LONDONwINTER 2010/2011

T h e 4 0 0 C l u bA couple of months ago, well probably six or so now you come to mention it, the400club attended a lecture given by a certain academic, who shall remain nameless for the moment, entitled something like Tango for Export – Globalization and the Tango Economy. The lecturer declared from the start that they were neither a tango dancer, a tango teacher, or indeed, a tango expert, merely an Argentinian interested in the economics of health and tourism, and the main thrust of the argument seemed to be that tango had sold it’s soul to the devil, and that, with it’s insatiable appetite for consuming the exotic, the fi rst world (the West) was now somehow set on stripping Argentina of a long hard fought for, and homegrown, culture.

Amongst other things, the lecturer decried claims of authenticity made by modern tango entrepreneurs abroad – something that they felt went hand in hand with the global export of tango, and bemoaned the commercial effect on Argentina of the infl ux of tourism de tango (everyone’s a seller, a dealer, a money maker in tango now). Above all, they felt that those involved in the ‘consuming’ of tango were somehow exploited – the seller exploiting the consumer with false claims of greatness, experience, authenticity; and the (foreign) consumer exploiting the seller through an evident economic imbalance between individuals and

Back in the 1970s, Carlsberg used to advertise it’s Lager in TV commercials voiced by Orson Welles, as “Probably the best Lager in the World...” And more recently, whilst the brand has virtually disappeared as a beer of choice for English drinkers, their TV adverts have played on the renown of the earlier campaign by showing a near perfect beach/bar/girl etc. stating rhetorically “if Carlsberg made holidays/banks/(substitute whatever you wish) etc...”. Well for the400club, both of these statements describe their feeling for Tango DJ Damian Boggio. We caught up with him, following his visit to Gallo Ciego Tango Club in Birmingham (accompanying Javier Rodriguez and Andrea Misse) and asked him about his approach to DJing.

The questions and answers below were very kindly translated by Loyd Vidal of Gallo Ciego and, in a fi rst for the400club, we record them below in fi rst Spanish and then English...

The400Club: Hace cuanto tiempo que es haciendo el DJ? Y porque has empezado?DB: Empecé como Tango DJ en 1999. Empecé a trabajar en el tango porque no tenía otro trabajo y, como soy músico y bailaba un poco de tango me fue casi natural empezar a pasar música.

The400Club: Cuando fue tu primera grande noche como DJ (cuando la gente te has reconocido como DJ)?DB: En 1999 pasé música una vez, en la milonga “El Tasso”, reemplazando a un dj amigo que tenía que viajar. Esa noche actuaban “LOS REYES DEL TANGO”. Me acuerdo que estuve muy nervioso. Después en el 2001 empecé en el Salón Canning todas las semanas. En aquel tiempo venían muchos de los queridos “viejos milongueros”. Creo que a partir de ese año ya la gente me reconoció como Tango DJ.

The400Club: Ahora es en los ultimos momentos de tu gira de Europa, y el empiezo de una perioda que mereces de no trabajo. Puedes decirnos algo sobre las personas con quien has trabajado en Europa y cual fue los momentos mejores para tu de esta gira?DB: Vengo a Europa desde 2004 como Tango DJ. Hay milongas que vengo todos los años desde la primera vez que vine. Y siempre es un placer hacerlo. Generalmente trabajo mucho en Italia, pero este año también estuve en festivales y milongas de Sitges (España), Francia (Paris), Polonia (Varsovia), Turquía (Estambul) y Gran Bretaña (Birmingham). Tengo muy buena relación lo la gente en general, entre los organizadores y gente que viene a bailar. Hay muchos, que después de estos años y de haber compartido muchas cosas, más allá del tango, también considero amigos. Estar en Europa, trabajando de lo que me gusta y me da placer es un buen momento, quizás uno entre los más felices de mi vida. Siempre estoy acompañado por gente buena. Y la gira no se limita sólo al tango, sino también al placer de compartir otras cosas con la maravillosa gente que el tango me hace encontrar y conocer. Me considero afortunado. Y estoy agradecido por todo lo que el tango me da. La única asignatura pendiente sólo es formar una familia.

The400Club: A donde trabajas por DJ en BA?DB: Hasta abril de 2010 trabajé en Salón Canning, organizando mi “Mina Milonga”, los días martes y como djs otros más, pero desde 2006 sólo fui dj de mis propias milongas y proyectos. Pero anteriormente trabajé en estos lugares: Mondays / Tuesdays / Fridays Parakultural - Salón Canning (www.parakultural.com.ar); Tuesdays Porteño y Bailarín; Wednesdays: Milonga La Nacional; Saturdays Milonga De Las Morochas; C.I.T.A. 2003; World Tango Festival 2002/2003; Gavito y sus Amigos 2003

The400Club: Cuando te vuelves en Inglaterra?DB: Vuelvo a Inglaterra para participar de “Gallo Ciego Tango Festival”, en la ciudad de Birmingham, organizados por los maestros y amigos Loyd y Sandra. También participan los geniales bailarines Sebastián Missé y Andrea Reyero. El encuentro es en Marzo de 2011.

The400Club: Puedes decir algo sobre los temas y tandas que pones en momentos especifcidos de la noche y como haces la structura de la noche con la musica?DB: En una milonga la gente va a bailar Tango Argentino, por eso siempre pongo Tango Argentino, pero 100 por ciento bailable. Hay orquestas que hicieron música bailable y otras que no. Sobre todo paso música de los primeros años ‘40, con un poco de los años ‘30, y un poco de los 50’s o ‘60s, junto a algo de contemporáneo. Organizo mi música de la siguiente manera: TANGO - TANGO - VALS - TANGO - TANGO - MILONGA. Cuando comencé a pasar música ya existía esta estructura y yo la adopté.La noche puede tener muchos diferentes momentos, la misma gente no es la mísma al principio o al fi nal de la noche. Hay muchos factores que infl uyen en el estado de ánimo o de cansancio. Lo importante siempre es tener en cuanta que la gente debe bailar, que no debe aburrirse. Siempre trato de terminar la milonga con mucha gente todavía bailando.

The400Club: Cuantos temas pones en una milonga?DB: Depende cuantas horas dure la milonga. Las tandas de Tango y de Vals siempre las organizo de 4 temas, las de Milonga de 3. En Salón Canning comenzaba a pasar música a las 23 hs y terminaba a las 6 hs del otro día. O sea que pasaba muchísmos temas. Hubo un tiempo entre 2001 y 2006, que pasaba 5 noches por la semana, en las mejores milongas de Buenos Aires de aquel entonces. En esos tiempos tenía que no repetir las tandas porque siempre venía la misma gente a las milongas y tenía que lograr que la música no sea repetitiva.

The400Club: Y cuanto temas, en totalidad, tienes en casa y cuatos ‘clasicos’ tienes?DB: No sé exactamente cuántos temas tengo. Seguro que son muchísimos, pero seguro hay mucha gente que tiene más temas que yo. Además como dije anteriormente hay muchos temas de tango que no son bailables, ya porque sean ejecutados con otros instrumentos, con los que no cuentan las orquestas típicas, por lo tanto no estamos habituados a bailarlos, o porque directamente no fueron concebidos para ser bailados. Pero sí, tengo muchisimos temas, seguramente unos cuántos miles.

The400Club: Puedes explicar la diferencia entre poner la musica que te gusta y la musica por la gente?DB: La música que me gusta yo la escucho en mi casa. Voy a

D a m i a n B o g g i o : T a n g o D J

la milonga a trabajar, a poner la música que pienso que es la mejor para cada momento. No voy a escuchar la música que me gusta a la milonga. Seguramente hay orquestas que me gustan más que otras, pero no por eso pasaré las que sean sólo de mi gusto. Mi trabajo es hacer bailar a todos, alos que tienen un gusto musical como el mío y a los que no.

The400Club: Como DJ, estas incredible, no podemos sientarnos cuando trabajas de DJ en una Milonga... Pero una cosa tambien muy interesada es tu seleccion de Cortinas. Puedes decir algo sobre como las cortinas pueden ayudar a la Milonga y como les eligen?DB: Los memoriosos recordarán que hace unos 12 años en las milongas de Buenos Aires siempre se pasaba la misma cortina. Recuerdo que la única que cambiaba siempre las cortinas era la dj Silvia Ceriani. De ella tomé la idea de cambiar siempre y de buscar una lógica aplicable a la milonga. Las cortinas que paso casi siempre son cortinas que todos conocen, o pueden conocer. Y que casi siempre tienen que ver con el pasado de los que vamos a una milonga. Casi todos nacimos después de los ‘50s. Somos parte de una misma cultura, o escuchamos casi la misma música. Cuando viajo a pasar música a países un poco diferentes a Buenos Aires siempre pregunto cual es la música que se escucha en el momento y cuál escuchaban en los ‘80s. Siempre compro un magazine de música, si los hay, y trato de escuchar la radio o presto atención a la música de shoppings, taxis, etc. Preguntando y comprando unos cds siempre paso música original de la ciudad o país en donde me encuentro. Lo siento también como un gesto o detalle de respeto. La gente del lugar abrazó el tango y por eso yo estoy allí. Con su música, como cortinas, yo respondo diciendo que también me intereso por saber en donde y con quien estoy. Hay países que después que estuve pasando música, los djs se dieron cuenta que podían pasar su propia música como cortinas.

The400Club: Por su puesto tienes mucha passion por la Milonga. Puedes decir algo sobre la relacion entre la Milonga, el DJ, el lugar y los bailarines?DB: La milonga es un espacio en donde actúan e interrelacionan muchas cosas al mismo tiempo, se pueden llamar de muchas formas: pasión, emoción, sentimiento, etc, etc. Además representa diferentes cosas para las personas que la conforman. No todos buscan o quieren lo mísmo. No todos desean o piensan lo mísmo. Lo único seguro es que todos van allí para encontrarse. Y tal vez la música es el vehículo de ese vínculo.

The400Club: En la Milonga hay muchos estilos, diferenta gente y todo, pero hay un momento en la Milonga cuando el lugar se cambio en un uno, con una grande choregrafi a de gente que baila con la musica todos juntos. Pienses que se puede construir desde el DJ or es una coincidencia total?DB: El dj, como un servicio más de la milonga, debe trabajar bien y pasar buena música. Si eso sucede, y los servicios de la milonga, como el bar, el piso, el lugar, la ambientación, el servicio del personal, etc, etc, funcionan bien, la milonga será esto que decís “una coreografía grande de gente que baila con la música todos juntos”. Es muy emocionante cuando sucede, pero hay que trabajar y bien para que suceda. El dj no es un artista. Los artistas fueron los que sembraron la cultura centenaria que hoy cosechamos.

The400Club: Hay otros DJ que te han dado inspiracion?DB: Por supuesto, mientras estaba en Buenos Aires, antes y después de ser Tango DJ, me inspiraron: Osvaldo Natucci, Mario Orlando y Horacio Godoy. Cuando empecé a viajar por Europa conocí personalmente a Félix Picherna, de quien ya había escuchado, de boca de los viejos milongueros, que lo habían conocido en Bs As, su epopeya por Europa.

The400Club: No se puede decir que hay una tanda perfecta, pero puedes decirnos los 3 o 4 temas que estan los mas cerca de la perfeccion para vos?DB: Una tanda que se aproxima a la perfección: Carlos Di Sarli, con sus cantores Alberto Podestáo con Roberto Rufi no y Jorge Durán. o Pugliese de cuando quieras,o D’Arienzo con Mauré o Echagüe,o Aníbal Troilo de todos los tiempos, o...ya comienzo a ser subjetivo, y en la milonga, como dije anteriormente, no paso la música que quiero, sino la que pienso.

The400Club: How long have you been a tango DJ, and what brought you to the Tango in the fi rst place?DB: I started as a DJ in 1999. I started working in tango because I didn’t have any other jobs, and as I am a musician and I was dancing a little bit of tango, it was natural to start DJing.

The400Club: How did you get your fi rst break as a DJ?DB: In 1999 I was DJing in the Milonga “El Tasso”, replacing a friend of mine who had to travel. At this night there was “LOS REYES DEL TANGO”. I remember that I was very nervous. After, in 2001, I started in “Salon Canning” every week. In this time, there was a lot of the beloved old Milongueros. I think that from this year on, the people recognized me as a DJ.

The400Club: You are now at the end of a long tour of Europe (having starting in April) and, hopefully, the beginning of a well-earned rest. Could you talk a little about where and with whom you have been performing and what were the highlights of the Tour for you?DB: I have been going to Europe since 2004 as a Tango DJ. There are milongas that I go to every year since I have started. And it is always a pleasure to do it. In general, I work a lot in Italy, and this year I have also been to festivals and Milongas of Sitges (Spain), Paris (France), Warsaw (Poland), Istanbul (Turkey) and Birmingham (UK). I have a very good relationship with people in general, with the organisers and dancers. After all these years a lot of them, after having shared many good moments - more than just tango wise, I consider as friends. Being in Europe, working in what I love to do, is a great moment of satisfaction, maybe one of the best in my life. I am always with very nice people. And the tour does not limit itself to the Tango, but as well I share great times with the wonderful people that I meet thanks to the tango. I consider myself very fortunate. I am grateful for all that Tango gives me. The only thing that I need to do is start a family.

The400Club: Where do you usually DJ when in Buenos Aires?DB: Until April 2010 I was working in Salon Canning, organising my “Mina Milonga”, on Tuesdays as well as being the DJ that night, but since 2006, I was DJ of my own Milongas and projects. Before that I worked in these Milongas: Mondays / Tuesdays / Fridays Parakultural @ Salon Canning; Tuesdays - Porteno y Bailarin Wednesdays - Milonga La Nacional; Saturdays - Milonga De Las Morochas; C.I.T.A. 2003; World Tango Festival 2002/2003; Gavito y sus Amigos 2003.

The400Club: And when will you be back in the UK?DB: I am coming back in the UK to participate in “Gallo Ciego Tango Festival” in the town of Birmingham, organised by maestros and friends Loyd and Sandra. In this festival there is also the genius Sebastian Misse and Andrea Reyero. It is from 4-6th of March 2011.

The400Club: The last time the400club were in Buenos Aires, it felt like you could almost set your watch by the tracks DJs were playing - so consistent were the sets at all the top milongas. Could you explain why specifi c records / tandas are played at specifi c points during the evening, and also talk about how you yourself structure a milonga?DB: In a Milonga the people come to dance Argentine Tango, therefore I always put Argentine Tango, that can be danced 100%. There are orchestras that do tangos to dance to and others not. Mostly, I put music from the 40’s with a bit of 30’s and a bit of 50’s and 60’s. I organise my music with the following pattern: TANGO - TANGO - VALS - TANGO - TANGO - MILONGA. When I started to DJ, this structure did not exist, so I adopted it.

In the night there are different moments, the people are not the same at the beginning as at the end of the night. There are a lot of factors that infl uence the mood or the fatigue. The important thing, is to always bear in mind that people must not get bored. It is important to fi nish the Milonga with many people still dancing.

The400Club: About how many tracks do you get to play during the course of a milonga?DB: Depends on how long the Milonga lasts. The tandas of Tango and Vals always last 4 tracks, the Milongas 3. In Salon Canning, I start putting music at 11pm and I fi nish at

6am the next day. Therefore I put on a lot of tracks. There was a time between 2001 and 2006 , where I was playing music 5 nights a week, in the best Milongas of Buenos Aires. In those times, I had to be careful not to repeat the tandas because there were the same people at the Milongas and I had to make the music non repetitive.

The400Club: And from about how many tracks are you choosing (how many in total in your collection and how many ‘classic’ tracks that one might expect to hear).DB: I don’t know exactly how many tango tracks I have. I’m sure I have a lot, but I know some people have more tracks than me. As well, I have a lot of tracks, as I said previously, that are not made to dance to. Because they are made with different instruments, or tracks that we are not used to dancing to, or they were simply not made to be danced to. But yes, I have a lot of tracks, surely in the thousands.

The400Club: Could you talk a little about the difference between playing what you like, and playing what is ‘right’ (for the milonga).DB: The music that I like, I listen to at home. I go to the Milonga to work, to put on music that I think is the best for each moment. I will play just the music I like to listen to in the milonga. Of course there are orchestras that I prefer more than others, but it is not for this reason that I will put them on. My job is to make people dance, those who like the same music as me and the others.

The400Club: The400club have had the pleasure of your dJing on at least four occasions now, (stunning music that means you can’t sit down) and each evening has been punctuated by a very interesting and inspiring selection of Cortinas. Could you say something about how the Cortina can help to defi ne a milonga and how do you choose what records to play as the Cortinas.DB: 12 years ago, all the Milongas of Buenos Aires were using the same cortina. I remember that the only one that was changing cortinas was the one where the DJ Silvia Ceriani was working in. She had the idea to change the cortina and to fi nd a logic applicable to the Milonga. The cortinas that I play are nearly always known by everyone, or that people can know. And they should always have something to do with the past of the people who go to the Milonga. The great majority of us were born after the 50’s. We are part of the same culture, or we listen to more or less the same music.

When I go to play music in countries a bit different from Buenos Aires, I always ask what is the music that people listen to today and what was the music that was listen to in the 80’s. I always buy a music magazine, if they have one, and I try to listen to the radio or I put attention in the music put in the shopping centers, taxis, etc.. I ask and then buy music, and I always play music that is local to the city or country where I am. I feel it is like a gesture or mark of respect. The local people embrace the tango and that is the reason I am there. With their music as a cortina, I respond saying that I too am interested in knowing where and with whom I am. There are countries where, after I have been working there, the local DJs realize that they can put their own music as a cortina.

The400Club: It is evident that you have both passion and respect for the event of the milonga. Could you expand a little on your thoughts about the event, and the relationship between the venue, the DJ, the music and the dancers.DB: The Milonga is a space where a lot of things happen at the same time, you can call it many things: passion, emotion, feeling, etc. It represents different things for all the dancers of the Milonga. Not all look for, or want the same things. Not all wish, or think the same thing. The only sure thing is they all go to meet one another. And the vehicle is the music.

The400Club: Sometimes, there seems to be a point in the milonga were despite the many differing dance styles etc., the room seems to become one, to be of the same mind, to somehow be part of single massive choreography. Do you get any sense of this from behind the decks, and if so, do you think that it is possible to construct this through the power of DJing? Or is it just a happy coincidence of time, place and people.DB: The DJ, as an extra service of the Milonga, must work well and put on good music. If this is a success, and the other services of the Milonga like the bar, the fl oorcraft, the place, the climate, the personnel, etc. are also working well, the Milonga becomes as you say “a big choreography of people who dance with the music all together.” This is very impressive when it happens. but we have to work hard for this to succeed. The DJ is not an artist. The artists are those who planted the culture that today we harvest.

The400Club: Have there been other tango DJs who have inspired you?DB: Of course, when I was in BA, before and after becoming a Tango DJ, these people inspired me: Osvaldo Natucci, Mario Orlando y Horacio Godoy. And when I started to travel in Europe, I met personally Felix Picherna, of whom I had heard a lot, from the mouth of old Milongueros who knew him in BA - of his glory and epic travel to Europe.

The400Club: And fi nally, although it could be said that outside of the milonga there is no such thing as the perfect Tanda, could you name three or four tracks which get close to perfection for you?DB: A tanda that is touching perfection would be : Carlos Di Sarli, with his singers Alberto Podesta·or with Roberto Rufi no y Jorge Duran. or Pugliese from anytime,or D’Arienzo with Maureo Echague,or Anibal Troilo at all times, or...now we are starting to be subjective... and as I said previously, in the Milonga I don’t put music that I like, but music that I think is best for the moment.

Many thanks to Damian and Loyd for their time & help with this feature. As mentioned above, Damian will be back in the UK for Gallo Ciego’s Tango Fiesta with Sebastien Misse and Andrea Reyero between 4-6 March. If you would like to fi nd out more about this visit, please check out Gallo Ciego’s website at

http://www.tangoinbrum.co.uk/

T a n g o P a s i o nnational states / economic groupings.

Doubtless to say, the lecture left the400club both a little wound up (perhaps incandescent might be a better description) and not just a mite frustrated. And, although probably the best thing to do with these experiences is just to ignore them, and let sleeping dogs lie, somehow, in those idle hours of long train / tube journeys, the mind kept returning to the issues raised – largely because of what seems to the400club to be a massive misreading of the situation and partly because possibly, some of the comments, in the back of our mind, may have stuck a chord – a chord requiring some sort of response, particularly following an Autumn season of dancing which has perhaps seen an excess of ‘special’ ‘not to be missed’ events in London (our pockets are only so deep don’t you know!).

Now, any non-Argentinian learning and dancing the Tango is acutely aware of their status as a non-Argentine; and acutely aware that this will not change. Aware that for someone looking in, there will always be a part of the jigsaw missing. But this is a given, an immutable fact immediately understood and accepted- and then we all move on. Tango dancers and musicians are either good or bad, regardless of nationality and or location. This has

been demonstrated throughout the genesis and development of Tango through the last 100 years - witness the elliptical arc of Tango in the 20s via Pedro Maffi a, Carlos Gardel and Paris… Berlin, Poland, Shanghai and Paris again with Piazolla. An integral part of Tango has, and will always be, it’s travel.

No, we know that nationality does not confer greatness, skill or authenticity. What’s more, we, here at the400club, are not aware of any participants on ALL sides of the tango economy that are not only already entirely aware of the deception, the incongruity, the commercial basis of the TRADE, but who choose to accept it, to ignore it, to pay for it/be (under/over) paid for it, and then, choose to KEEP ON DANCING. Because we have no choice. Because this is the nature of our passion - our passion for the Tango.

So of course, for the400club, the big misunderstanding of this particular, and perhaps many other academics, is an undervaluing of, an ignoring of, or maybe even an ignorance of, passion.

Not the manufactured, pretence of passion of the big shows and Strictly Come Dancing (we were tempted to include the tourist

pavement shows in La Boca here - but we are actually full of admiration for the passion which keeps these dancers going, dealing with bumpy pavements, rude teenagers, fat Americans, local gangsters etc. etc.). No, this is not a passing interest in the exotic. This is the passion of an individual for the dance itself, for the music, for the learning, for the teaching, for the milonga, for the social interaction… A passion in something deep within. An unstoppable passion.

So welcome to the400club Issue 7, the Passion Issue, where we talk to Damian Boggio, tango DJ extraordinaire and a man with a true passion for giving you the music you need; where we hear Thomas Keenes tell us tales of tango, passion and drugs; and where you can fi nd the best advice on what to wear, and where to wear it!

Please note that we are planing the next issue, Issue 8, as a “Ladies Special”, guest edited by Ella Sharp and Tina Baxter of Todo Trajeado. If you have a contribution you would like to make, please contact Ella and Tina through the400club’s regular email address:

the400club@esharpstyle.co.uk

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For others such drug-taking was a signifi er of society’s slide into decadence, as seen in the opening lines of ‘Tiempos viejos’ (‘Old Times’, 1926), Manuel Romero’s lyrics to music by Francisco Canaro:

¿Te acordás, hermano? ¡Qué tiempos aquéllos!Eran otros hombres más hombres los nuestros.No se conocían cocó ni morfi na,Los muchachos de antes no usaban gomina.

Do you remember, brother? Those were the days!There were other men, greater men than us.They didn’t know coke or morphine,The guys back then didn’t use hair gel.

Certainly there were casualties of the lifestyle. ‘Griseta’ (1924, lyrics by José González Castillo, music by Enrique Delfi no) tells the sorry tale of a Parisian ingenue who arrives in Buenos Aires with romantic illusions only to fall foul of prostitution and drugs in the world of the cabaret. The title derives from the French grisette, meaning a young, independent working woman (more specifi cally one working in the garment or millinery trades), coquettish at least or of loose morals at worse and a staple fi gure in 19th century French literature, references to which occur in the lyrics:

Mas la fría sordidez del arrabal,agostando la pureza de su fe,sin hallar a su Duval,secó su corazón lo mismo que un Muguet...Y una noche de champán y de cocó,al arrullo funeral de un bandoneón,pobrecita, se durmió,lo mismo que Mimí,lo mismo que Manón...

But the cold sordidness of the slum,withering the purity of your faith,without fi nding your Duval,dried up your heart just like a Mayday lily...And a night of champagne and coke,to the funeral lullaby of a bandoneón,poor thing, she fell asleep,The same as Mimí,The same as Manón...

We cannot know how many dancers and musicians succumbed to drug addiction and an early death around this time, but one notable recorded instance is violinist Tito Roccatagliata who died aged 34 in 1925. Roccatagliata was a virtuoso who played with Eduardo Arolas and Roberto Firpo but whose last fi ve years of life were blighted by alcohol and cocaine - he was even said to have forced his wife into prostitution to fund his drug habit. The great bandoneónist Aníbal Troilo, whose orquesta típica was among the most popular with dancers during the forties and fi fties, was also often alleged to use cocaine, but he at least lived to the age of 60. Pharmaceutical grade cocaine was manufactured in Buenos Aires into the 1940s and by the 1950s, as the Golden Age of tango drew to a close, illicit cocaine from Bolivia was also being smuggled in to Argentina.

More recently, Buenos Aires has seen a tremendous growth in cocaine use, just as have major European cities, and the milongas have alledgedly become favourite places for dealing and consumption. In January 2010 a Buenos Aires-based tanguera blogging under the name of Maraya wrote “At some point you start wondering just... how do they ‘keep it up’ all night – so to speak – especially if they are still working during the day. I’ll tell you how they do it: cocaine”. A comment on the blog reads “Finally someone publishes what has been whispered about for years in the milongas” (the400club cannot vouch for the accuracy or otherwise of these comments - the internet is a notoriously fi ckle place for truth, and on their last trip to BA, we saw no evidence of cocaine use in the big milongas. The level of cocaine use is presumably known only to regular milongueros and /or regular cocaine users).

Freud described the effects of taking cocaine in terms that could almost describe the tango high: “the most gorgeous excitement” and “exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which in no way differs from the normal euphoria of the healthy person... You perceive an increase of self-control and possess more vitality”. Freud soon regretted his early enthusiasm for the drug, and it did his reputation no favours. The list of negative effects of cocaine ranges from the minor, including irritability and anxiety, to the major, such as destruction of the nasal septum, strokes and heart attack. Tango is our drug of choice: unlike cocaine, it has long-term positive effects on physical, mental and emotional health and rather than ever-diminishing chemically-induced rewards the natural but elusive tango high only gets better with time.

Thomas would like to thank Paul Gootenberg and Alberto Paz for their help in researching this article.

to enjoy themselves just as much as men - some stashed cocaine in their cosmetic compact for a quick pick-me-up when out on the town.

Symptomatic of fashionable recreational use, a cluster of references to cocaine occur in tangos from the mid-1920s to early 1930s, several of which were recorded by Carlos Gardel. Most famously, in Carlos César Lenzi’s 1924 lyric set to music by Edgardo Donato, ‘A media luz’ (‘In the Half-Light’) describes the cosy delights of a well-appointed ‘little house’ on Corrientes Avenue. It is open to interpretation as to whether the address is a private apartment kept for assignations, an intimate tango club or simply a high-class brothel, but the lower end of Corrientes Avenue was certainly a red-light district at the time:

Juncal 12-24. Telefoneá sin temor.De tarde, té con masitas,De noche, tango y cantar,Los domingos, tés danzantes,Los lunes, desolación.Hay de todo en la casita:Almohadones y divanesComo en botica... cocó!Alfombras que no hacen ruidoY mesa puesta al amor.

Juncal 12-24. Don’t be afraid to phone.In the afternoon, tea with cakes,At night, tango and song,On Sundays, tea dances,On Mondays, desolation. The little house has everything:Cushions and sofas,And like a drugstore... coke!Carpets that soak up the soundAnd a table set for love.

A few blocks up Corrientes the hedonistic streetlife on the corner where it met Calle Esmeralda was affectionately celebrated in Celedonio Flores’ lunfardo-laced ‘Corrientes y Esmeralda’, written in 1933 to music by Francisco Pracánico:

Esquina porteña, tu rante canguelase hace una melange de caña, gin fi tz,pase inglés y monte, bacará y quiniela,curdelas de caña y locas de pris.

Porteño street corner, your shameless whorehouseBecomes a mix of sugar cane liquor, gin fi zz,Dice tricks and three card monte, baccarat and lottery,Women drunk on liquor, crazed on charlie.

Perhaps a frequenter of Corrientes Avenue, the sassy cabaret girl of ‘Ché papusa, oí!’ (‘Hey Gorgeous, I Heard!’, 1927, Cadícamo/Rodríguez) takes cocaine ‘with rare snootiness’ (‘por raro snobismo tomás prissé’: pris, prisé or prissé is lunfardo for a pinch of coke sniffed off a fi nger or fi ngernail). Drugs were not only taken for pleasure, they could also ease pain: an obscure tango titled ‘Cotorro azul’ (‘Blue Batchelor Pad’, 1927?, authors unknown) contains the line ‘I have there my elixir, the coke that must make all ills disappear’ (tengo allí mi elixir, la cocó que ha de hacer disipar todo mal); and in ‘Noches de colón’ (‘Nights at the Colón Theatre’, 1926, Lino Cayo/de los Hoyos), the narrator seeks drug-induced relief: ‘To forget her I savoured the paradises of the alkaloid’ (‘Los paraísos del alcaloide para olvidarla yo paladeé’). In this instance, alcaloide might refer to either cocaine or another alkaloid drug, morphine.

Tango and passion - you can’t really have one without the other, or so it would seem. But the expression of passion often takes a great deal of stimulation, and sometimes, perhaps this stimulation has not always been of the entirely natural kind. Now, we have all heard myths and stories of a connection between tango and drugs, not surprisingly given the time and setting of the genesis of tango – but often there has been very little documented evidence. And so for this excellently researched piece, Thomas Keenes writing for the400club, went back to the most obvious source material available - the lyrics of the contemporaneous tangos themselves, to look at the infl uence of narcotics in early and developing tango culture.

But before any of you get upset that we are presenting tango in a bad, or unfair light, please note that we are not suggesting in any way that an interest in artifi cial stimulants was solely particular to tango, to Buenos Aires or to Argentina. There was, and has been, a general world wide preoccupation with the effects of artifi cial stimulants and narcotics throughout the late part of the nineteenth and whole of the twentieth centuries, anyone doubting this should visit the Welcome Institute’s recently opened “High Society” exhibition in London - documenting the history of recreational drug us in British culture. No, here, we’re simply looking at the representation of drugs in the music itself, so sit back, inhale deeply and enjoy…!

“Tango, my friend, is cocaine, women, horse racing and whisky” claims Gotan Project’s Eduardo Makaroff, “And a good tango neighbourhood will have all these things on tap” adds his recent collaborator, singer Daniel Melingo, whose stage show includes miming the snorting of stray grains of coke from the stage fl oor. With several new milongas having opened this year it seems as though London is gradually becoming one huge tango neighbourhood, but while women and whisky are easy to come by, as are branches of William Hill if you fancy taking a punt, fi nding cocaine will prove more diffi cult as of course it is illegal. But this wasn’t always the case.

THE 400 CLUB Issue 7 - Pasion Criolla Winter 2010/2011

T a n g o C h a r l i eThomas Keenes

And Finally...The 400 Club is an irregularly produced, amateur news-letter for the London Tango scene. We do not intend to cause offence to any parties and take no responsibility for the accuracy of information, views or otherwise ex-pressed in this newsletter.

The next issue will arrive when and if we have suffi -cient time and inclination to get round to doing one. If you would like to contribute an item please contact:

the400club@esharpstyle.co.uk

Milongas Regulares... (a non-comprehensive list) Tuesdays: Dance Tango at Vino Latinos, W1 Tango @ the Light, E1Wednesdays: Zero Hour at The Dome, N19Thursdays: Abrazos at The Tommyfi eld, SE11 El Portenito at The Bedford, SW12 Milonga Bohemienne at The Old Cholmeley Boys Club, N16 Poema at Latvian House, W2 Milonga Sur at The Old Whitgiftians, South Croydon Fridays: Negracha at The Wild Court, WC2 Carablanca at Conway Hall WC1 Midnight Milonga at The Tango Club, WC1Saturdays: Corrientes Social Club at Haverstock School, NW1 (2 Sats a month) Dance Tango or El Once at The Crypt, EC1 Tango at the Light Temple, E2 Stardust Milonga at the Putney Club, SW15 (one Sat of the month)Sundays: Dance Tango at Pavadita, W6 Milonga Sur and Corrientes Social Club at The Royston Club SE20 Tangology @ Jewel, W1 La Mariposa a St John’s Hill, SW11 El Portenito at The Bedford, SW12 (every other week) Tea Dance at Aldenham War Memorial Hall WD258DY (2 Sats a month) TangoSouthLondon at The Constitutional Club, SE22 (last Sunday of month) Remember to always check times and dates with the organ-isers BEFORE you plan your trip.

Tie Me Up/Tie Me Down

A TangoDandy writes...Over the past few months, a number of you raised important questions of etiquette and procedure for the dedicated TangoDandy. And so, for the benefi t of all, we reveal just one of recent postbag discussions:

Dear TangoDandyI have recently noticed that a number of ladies seem determined to ignore my best and clearest cabeceo - occasionally muttering about open neck collars, gold medallions, and Saturday Night Fever. Not wanting to remain forever on the sidelines, please could you advise on the correct etiquette for open neck shirt collars, chest hair and the like.Gareth (Hants)

Dear GarethWe suggest, no actually, we insist, that there should never be even the faintest sign of chest hair. Chest hair is for Studio54, the sauna and the swingers party - never the milonga. Shirt collars should, on almost all occasions, remain fully buttoned, accompanied by a ‘four in hand’ (necktie) tied in a double, not single, Windsor Knot. The knot must, and I repeat MUST, be pulled tight – to form a tell tail crease just where the tail enters the narrow pinch point of the knot. Remember that loose ties are only for schoolboys, mobile phone salesmen, dodgy fake indy band musicians and all appearances on Match of the Day.

Classically, when tied, the tip of the wide tail of the tie should align with the centre of the belt buckle. Occasionally, and only really as a tribute to the great 30’s gangster, we permit the tail to fi nish above this, say around the belly button. But beware, this should only be attempted by the most experienced TangoDandy – as there is a fi ne line between looking like Al Capone or Al Pacino and looking like Billy Bunter.

Should the tip of the narrow tail fi nish below that of the wide tail, it is acceptable to tuck this into the shirt – somewhere between the last two buttons before the waistband. It is also sometimes acceptable, particularly during an intensive technique lesson with say Senor Diomar Escobar, to tuck the whole tie in to the shirt somewhere between the two buttons below the collar – in the style of American airmen of the second world war. Under absolutely no circumstances, however, should the tip of the wide tail of the tie fi nish below the belt buckle or be tucked in to the waistband / boxer shorts etc. etc. This is inexcusable and may result in fellow tango dancers undertaking a citizen’s arrest and/or instant ejection from the milonga.

At informal, largely daytime, milongas the omission of a tie and loosening of a top button may well be appropriate. In this case, however, the neckline may still demand some form of dressing. Step forward the neckchief, the cravat, the Brummel, the wearing of which is always fraught with danger. Fear and respect this informal item of dress with good reason - the history of gentlemen’s dressing is strewn with reputations broken on the anvil of the cravat. The cravat can be worn single knotted at the front, and below an open buttoned shirt collar – in a style adopted by Cary Grant, Noel Coward, the Duke of Windsor et al. More stylish perhaps, might be to wear the neckchief below a part or fully buttoned up collar. This is perhaps more easily achieved without a knot at the front - the neckchief merely ‘wrapping’ the neck underneath the shirt collar. The effect of this later technique can achieve a surprisingly rakish ‘just got off my vintage motorbike / aeroplane / open top sports car’ feel, particularly when teamed with the old argyle sleeveless pullover, wide tweed trousers and vintage leather jacket. Most Edward Fox...”Whatto”?

Occasionally, the cravat can be worn not below the collar, but between the collar - similar to a regular tie. The aim is to achieve a late 19th century, classy, Doc Holiday, wild-west feel – something not unknown in the early days of Tango. But I say occasionally, because if not handled correctly, the fi nal effect can be less like Doc Holiday, and more like early eighties Robert Smith from the Cure.

As for colour. pattern and fabric of neckware… well there are so many generally accepted rules governing the combination of suit / tie / pocket handkerchief that we cannot possibly go in to them all here. Suffi ce to say that all rules are most defi nitely there to be broken, except for the ones prohibiting the wearing of neckwear with printed cartoon characters, football club names and piano keys.

Ultimately, my advice to you, Gareth, is to choose an alter ego, and not necessarily the same one every evening. They could be an actor, a fi lmstar, Gary Cooper say, or Cary Grant, Fred Astair, Carlos Gardel or, Jack Nicholson playing Jake Gittes in Chinatown, and, after assembling your outfi t for the night, take one last look in the mirror before you leave and ask yourself “would, Gary/Cary/Fred/Carlos or Jake wear this?” If the answer is yes, then you’re pretty much cleared to go – and disappointed will be the ladies who’s enquiring eyes you avoid!

Forever debonairly,A TangoDandy

The stimulating and hunger-supressing effects of coca leaves - cocaine’s raw material - had been known to Europeans since the 16th century but the drug’s widespread use was not popularized outside the Andes until the second half of the 19th. The active alkaloid in coca leaves had fi rst been isolated in 1855, then the process improved - and the drug ‘cocaine’ named - in 1859. By the mid-1880s major pharmaceutical companies were aggressively marketing the more powerful drug in powder or solution form, along with a range of over-the-counter preparations that included throat lozenges and toothache drops, digestive tonics, impregnated cigarettes and even hypodermic kits. Their catalogues promoted cocaine as a panacea that would “supply the place of food, make the coward brave, the silent eloquent and ... render the sufferer insensitive to pain”. A young Viennese neurologist named Sigmund Freud became an early user and enthusiastic proponent, publishing a well-recieved paper on cocaine’s virtues in 1884.

At the end of the 19th century the modern stigma-bearing notion of ‘drugs’ had yet to emerge: cocaine and other now-illegal drugs such as opiates and cannabis were culturally sanctioned inasmuch as they were on open sale. But with widespread availability recreational use and abuse of cocaine erupted as early as the 1890s. Stories of addiction and overdose proliferated in the early twentieth century and the drug began to be associated with crazed “cocaine fi ends”, becoming part of a media-infl uenced moral panic in the United States. After a succession of international trade acts and state regulations the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of December 1914 restricted cocaine to prescription-only use in the US (cocaine would not become a fully controlled, or illegal, drug in the US until 1970). Similar laws would be enacted across Europe in the years that followed and later adapted into permanent prohibitions. But nothing could stop the drug from leaking out into the black market, eventually becoming one of the world’s largest criminal enterprises.

Early written evidence of cocaine use by tango dancers can be found in the New York Times in 1915. Tango mania had taken hold of New York in the winter of 1913-14 with dance halls and Sunday afternoon tea dances becoming fashionable there just as they had done in Paris and London: in January 1914 the New York Times announced “All New York Now Madly Whirling in The Tango. Every Day New Places Where You May Dance Are Springing Up and Older Establishments Yielding to the Craze, Which Apparently, Has Come to Stay”.

But in May the following year the paper was warning of the danger young women were exposing themselves to at these dances under the headline “Tango Pirates Infest Broadway”: young men who hired themselves out “at $5 an hour and expenses. For that they will eat, drink, dance, motor, fl irt or explain how to get cocaine or heroin. All of these tango pirates are victims of the cocaine habit ... And they are always expert and eloquent in depicting the

delightful sensations resulting from cocaine sniffi ng”. The young woman would be persuaded to try some “just for a lark. Now, this is not, in itself, either a criminal act, nor even a very dangerous one. What the pirate is after is money. He is well aware that the most signifi cant and fi rst effect of cocaine is to deaden all sense of cupidity ... with her fi rst sniff of cocaine ... [she] will immediately lose all thought of money. She will give away what she has and obligate herself for more. What every parent in New York ought to know thoroughly is that no girl can spend her afternoons in the cafés and escape with her money - or her reputation, even if she survives with all else”.

Before 1913 there would have been few if any places in Buenos Aires where society women would be seen dancing the tango in public as it had always been a working class pastime, associated in the minds of the middle and upper classes with prostitution and brothels. But after Paris and London had given tango their seal of approval the dance’s popularity rapidly spread throughout wider porteño society and cabarets soon began opening in the centre of town, often with French names to add an air of sophistication. The best orquestas played in these venues, but the cabarets often functioned as high-class brothels and, like their working-class antecedants, were legendary coke dens (in France dance halls and tango teas also became notorious for spreading cocaine throughout society whereas previously it had been, according to the New York Times, “practically unknown outside a small circle of degenerates in Paris”). In Buenos Aires class barriers disappeared on the dancefl oor, where niños bien (‘rich kids’) took to the fl oor with milonguitas, working class women dancers dreaming of an escape from the hard life of the arrabal (slum). During the early twentieth century - and in the Roaring Twenties particularly - there was a mood for social transformation. Women sought their independence and claimed their right