Verdemar Versions :: Tango DJ Lamentations

Okay, so lamentations is really the wrong word, because I'm not lamenting about anything...but observations...thoughts and ponderings and thinkage...whatever...bubbling primordial soup type stuff...

(it just dawned on me that Verdemar is pretty much lamentations, so maybe I should have titled this post "Verdemar Lamentations"...I'm digressing and blabbering...sorry...

Anyway, I just thought I would share a little of the inner workings/goings-on of DJ'ing...curating a music collection and playlists for milongas...this was something I got side-tracked on this morning...I can't even remember now what triggered me to delve into this...oh well...I'm glad I did...

As a once-in-a-while DJ here in Austin, I spend a little time here and there in my spare time while I'm resting tweaking my music library, which is now sitting at about 300 albums, 3,000 songs. A big part of being a Tango DJ is doing the investigatory work into the various recordings of a single song - to determine which recording is the best audio quality, which is the best orchestra and arranging, the best singer, the best year/version, and last but not least and probably most important - the most danceable.

Most tango songs were recorded by several orchestras, sometimes several versions over the years with the same orchestra but different singers, sometimes with the same singer.

Take Verdemar as an example. Carlos DiSarli composed it in 1943, with lyrics by José María Contursi. There were ten or eleven recordings done, with six by Di Sarli. It's one of my all-time favorite tango songs.

I don't care for the 1943 version sung by Roberto Rufino, whose voice is a little nasal-y sounding. The version I've loved and played the most over the years is the 1955 Oscar Serpa version - 3 minutes, 3 seconds. However, I just discovered a 1954 Serpa version that's a tad slower at 3:12, and seems more sad and forlorn. Which it should be. Based on the subject matter.


Here's the newly discovered 1954 Di Sarli/Serpa version - the audio quality is kinda glitchy - but it's available on TangoTunes. Very clean, and stretched out to 3:16.




Here's the 1955 version (that used to be my favorite) - Di Sarli/Serpa:




Here's the 1943 Di Sarli/Rufino version:




Here's a 1943 version recorded by Miguel Caló with Raúl Iriarte - the arranging here is a little to upbeat and happy for the lyrics - to me anyway:
Note that there's also a 1966 Caló /Rufino version...fwiw...



Reading the lyrics/translation, I also just became aware that they've dropped the last verse in every version.


Here is Alberto Paz' (may he rest in peace) translation from PlanetTango:

Verdemar... Verdemar...
Se llenaron de silencio tus pupilas.
Te perdí, Verdemar.
Tus manos amarillas, tus labios sin color
y el frío de la noche sobre tu corazón.
Faltas tú, ya no estás,
se apagaron tus pupilas, Verdemar.

Te encontré sin pensarlo y alegré mis días,
olvidando la angustia de las horas mías.
Pero luego la vida se ensañó contigo
y en tus labios mis besos se morían de frío.
Y ahora... ¿qué rumbo tomaré?
Caminos sin aurora me pierden otra vez.

Volverás, Verdemar...
Es el alma que presiente tu retorno.
Llegarás, llegarás...
Por un camino blanco tu espíritu vendrá
Buscando mi cansancio y aquí me encontrarás.
Faltas tú... Ya no estás...
Se apagaron tus pupilas, Verdemar.
Verdemar... Verdemar...
Your eyes filled with silence...
I lost you, Verdemar.
Your yellow hands... your lips without color
And the cold of the night in your heart.
You are missing... you are no longer here...
Your eyes have extinguished, Verdemar.

I met you without thinking it, and I cheered my days
forgetting the anguish of my hours.
But soon life was merciless with you
and in your lips my kisses died of cold.
And now... what course will I take?
Roads without dawn get me lost again.

You will return, Verdemar...
It’s the soul that has a premonition about your return.
You will arrive, you will arrive...
Through a white road your spirit will come
Looking for my fatigue and here you will find me.
You are missing... you are no longer here...
Your eyes have extinguished, Verdemar.


Here is Derrick del Pilar's translation, from Poesía de gotán: The Poetry of the Tango:

Seagreen
lyrics by José María Contursi
music by Carlos Di Sarli

Seagreen…Seagreen…
your eyes filled with silence.
I lost you, Seagreen.
Your yellowed hands, your colorless lips
and the cold of the night upon your heart.
You are missing, you aren’t here anymore,
your pupils have gone out, Seagreen.

I found you without a thought and I brightened my days,
forgetting the anguish of my hours.
But then life became enraged with you,
and upon your lips my kisses died of cold.
And now…what road shall I take?
Dawnless paths lose me once again.



So that's it. That's all I have to say about that. For now.

Have a good weekend y'all...

I couldn't bear to watch, check your ballroom dynamism at the door, or I ate too much...

The following post is laced with profanity. Mostly the F word. Okay, only the F word.

NOTES TO FESTIVAL/MILONGA ORGANIZERS ::

As the organizer, the buck stops with you. Just because it's your Nth annual event, doesn't mean you can sit back and rest on your laurels.

Observe with a critical eye.

Listen with a critical ear.

Feel the energy of the room with your heart and soul.

Feel the temperature of the room with your skin. From meat locker one night, to muggy, subtropical evening the next is indicative of a problem. Make sure you've got the building engineer or facilities guy on a short leash. If guys are shedding jackets and changing into dry shirts in the men's room - check the T-stat.

Get rid of the fucking plastic wrist bands. The implied/default assumption that people are going to try to steal from you - steal a milonga, or steal a class, is insulting. Tango people don't steal tango. If a few do, fuck them, but don't fuck with the rest of us. Tickets or badges or a list or even a stamp on the hand are the best - least obtrusive.

I'm stopping here, not sure of where to go with this...each year bring in someone with a fresh viewpoint and tweak things...with a "continuous improvement" mindset and approach...and don't lose sight of the fact that your festival is for the dancers, not the teachers, not the DJ's and especially not you.



NOTES TO STUDENTS/DANCERS ::

DO NOT EVER TEACH OR WORK THROUGH 'MOVES' ON THE DANCE FLOOR AT A SOCIAL MILONGA. YOU ARE EMBARRASSING YOURSELF, AND YOU ARE EMBARRASSING THE WOMAN YOU ARE DANCING WITH. WE ARE EMBARRASSED FOR YOU, AND FEEL SORRY FOR HER.

Do not ever teach or work through 'moves' with your partner [you just learned in class today] in the corner, off the dance floor, at a social milonga.

TANGO IS NOT BALLROOM. TANGO IS NOT SWING. TANGO IS NOT SWANGO. TANGO IS NOT SALSA. TANGO IS NOT TWO-STEP. TANGO IS NOT MERENGUE. TANGO IS NOT BACHATA. TANGO IS NOT MAMBO. NONE OF THESE DANCES OFFER ANYTHING, ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING, THAT CAN BE TRANSFERRED OR CARRIED OVER TO TANGO. THIS MEANS CHECK YOUR BALLROOM DYNAMISM AT THE DOOR, AMONG OTHER THINGS.

EL TANGO ES EL TANGO. Google it, do the research, and figure it the fuck out.

In a social milonga setting, do not lean against the wall and do ballet type stretching and leg swinging. Even if you are an old fart. If you need to warm up and stretch, do it in your hotel room, outside where no one will see you, or in the privacy of a toilet stall after you've taken a dump.

Wash your fucking hands when you leave the bathroom. With soap. Your followers and the leaders who dance with them after you do will appreciate it.

Ladies, do not hold on to a chair and do boleos to warm up before dancing at a milonga. This is a turn off.

For festival milongas, go buy some black slacks at WalMart for $19.95. Jeans are a sign of your lack of respect for all that tango is, dude. Especially the high waisted Wranglers, cowboy. Do the jeans at local milongas, practicas, and classes, no problem. Tango is supposed to be elegant and beautiful. Jeans ain't elegant nor beautiful.

If you can't tell by now, I am in a mood.

Your woman just wants to dance. Dance her. Dance with her. Do your best to make her feel special. Purge all thoughts of yourself, your 'self', your feet, your 'moves', the figures you just learned today. That stuff will sink in - in time - with practice - with dancing - with sleeping - but not tonight. Be present with that woman in your embrace. The Power of Now.


NOTES TO DJ's AND ASPIRING DJ's ::

Think "Top 40".

You know the dance, the feeling, is totally inspired by/from/of the music. Play music that inspires, that makes people get up and want to dance.

Like it or not, you are educating the newbies. If they learn to dance to crap, they will dance like crap, and they will only want to hear crap. Don't play crap no one's ever heard before. We don't want to dance to the music you like. We want to dance to the music WE like. If it's something new and unusual, just make sure it's good. Damn good.

Invest in your music collection. Make the acquisitions. Spend the $2k to travel to Buenos Aires and listen to what they play there. Spend the $1k on music while you're there. Spend another $1k on more stuff once you're back home. Beg, borrow or steal everything else. Pay attention to what all the other DJ's are playing. Do the research. Do the hard work categorizing everything. Do the hard work listening to EVERYTHING in your collection. Do the hard work. If your collection is not there, if it's weak, if the hard work has not been done, then you are not a DJ and do not offer yourself as such - especially at the festival level.

For a milonga that goes until 3am, playing nuevo/alt music at midnight is too soon. This is a TANGO festival. People have traveled far and wide at great expense to listen to TANGO music and dance EL TANGO.

If you must play nuevo/alt music, play music that is tango danceable. Look for a 4 beat. It's not a good sign if your nuevo song has half the dancers dancing swing or some swango aberration. Nuevo/alt music should inspire nuevo and/or traditional tango, not some other dance. Again, this is a TANGO festival.

Re: Milonga tandas - there are not that many milonga tandas in an evening. There are a great many FANTASTIC milonga songs. If you are playing foursies in a TTVTTM format, there will be three milongas per hour. In a six hour milonga, usually the max, you are looking for 18-20 top shelf milonga songs. Don't play some 'off' crap we've never heard.

If lots of people are sitting, this is a bad sign. If almost no one is sitting, this is a good sign. If the people staying until the very end do not want to sit down or stop dancing, this is a good sign. If the crowd appears to be thinning early-ish, or people are noticeably just getting up and leaving, this is a bad sign.



IMPORTANT NOTE ::

I am NOT an authority on tango, milongas, festivals, DJ'ing, teaching, learning, etc. Take this with a grain of salt. This is my personal opinion, mis dos centavos. I ate too much and woke up from a bad dream about hammerhead sharks trying to eat me and I should have just gone back to sleep.

Oh well...there ya have it.

I did have one excellent vals tanda with a good friend tonight, and then I left.

On the importance of the DJ :: In conclusion...

This was a comment that I left on the original (Part 1) post. It was so long, my afterthought is that it should have been a separate post...so here it is...

Thanks everyone for some great commentary!

Here are my final thoughts - especially based on Steve's latest post - and it goes to the more esoteric/abstract end of the subject.

Thought 1 ::
As observed by Steve, poor music selections/mixes can have a negative influence floorcraft and navigation.

Thought 2 ::
Poor music selections/mixes can have a negative influence on musicality, connection and emotion - and ultimately the overall dance/milonga "experience".

Thought 3 ::
Poor music selections/mixes can have a negative influence on the inexperienced or uninitiated tango dancer's music/al "taste", "knowledge", and "understanding" of said tango music.

Thought 4 ::
Based on the aforementioned three "thoughts", "pervasive" poor music selections/mixes can have a negative influence on the tango community as a whole, in the areas of connection, emotion, musicality, and floorcraft/navigation.

Conclusion ::
Ergo, in my view, the importance of the DJ is very high indeed, even if we may not consciously be aware of this factor in deciding to attend a milonga or not. It is only after we arrive at a milonga, and in general for the more experienced dancers, and to a higher degree for those who have been to Buenos Aires (per Steve's observation), that we are able to determine that the DJ may be sub-par, or at least playing sub-par music. A fact which may be imperceptible to less experienced dancers.

It's kinda like really good architecture/design/urban planning. Some buildings/rooms/spaces/neighborhoods/cities just "feel" good. They feel good and cool and right the moment you walk into them. It's an energy thing. You don't know why. You can't determine why or what it is about the place that makes it that way, even if you try.

And so it is with the tango DJ. If they are astute and doing a good job, the only thing anyone notices is lots of good connections/emotions, good dances and a great night at the milonga - they forget the DJ is even there.

Anyway, this is what I was thinking - and everyone knows I think too much.

Sorry for the long comment, it should have been a post, which I suppose I will do now...again, thanks for all the commentary, and all the reading if you made it this far!!!...

On the importance of the DJ...Part II

Here is the link to Part I, where I am also posting this as a comment for convenience...

Here are follow-up posts from Yura and Steve on the YahooGroupsTangoDJ forum...

From Yura, replying to Tom's post ::

Tom,

I agree that DJ holds the energy on a milonga, and his/her role to manage energy and mood is important. But there are two points of view: point of view of a DJ and point of view of a dancers. Try to ask dancers at different milongas why they coming here. And count how often they will name the DJ... :) It seems to me that to many dancers (I think, most of a dancers) DJ is as jukebox -- and nothing more.

As Christopher wrote, there are different types of dancers with different priorities (I completely agree with all he wrote). The purpose of my post was to stress this: to dancers (not to all) DJ is not the most important factor for milonga. Most of the dancers, whom I interviewed, identified following important factors: location, place, time, other dancers (familiar). Very few people named DJ in the list.

It was very interesting result for me that I wanted to share and discuss with forum. Many thanks to all who shared the thoughts on the subject.

Yura


From Steve ::

I think place, time and other dancers matter a lot to most dancers, but the answers Yura received makes me wonder how much the quality varies across the djs in the community (Moscow?) that was polled. It also makes me wonder about the quality of the dancing.

There is a phenomenon where the dj can have a big impact on the quality of the dancing, but the dancers don't consciously realize the effect the dj is having. I've been to milongas where the djs stray too far away from music with a solid dance beat. The dancers don't dance very well with each other because the music isn't helping them with the connection. The navigation suffers because the lack of a solid dance beat has too many people disconnected from the music and moving at somewhat different times from each other.

What do the dancers think? They think they or their partners and most are having a bad night and that everyone is being rude about navigation. They don't necessarily associate the difficulties with the dj.

When I dj, I always watch to see how well the dancers are connected to the rhythm of the music and make adjustments to what I play.

In general, I've found it is the dancers who have been to Buenos Aires that are the most conscious and have the strongest opinions about the music that is played.

With best regards,
Steve

Everybody knows this right? :: Why some tango music is scratchy...

Photo by Alex

So now I've got tango music and DJ'ing on my brain again. I should do a photoshoot "This is your brain....This is your brain on Tango...". Remember the old public service announcement showing the egg and then the egg in a frying pan? "This is your brain...This is your brain on drugs...". Damn! I hate how I can digress from a post in just the second sentence.

This is actually a post I've been thinking of for a while. I'm surprised that I can still remember it. There are so many things about tango that we all assume everyone knows. On the subject of scratchy recordings, I've heard (and read things about) people saying they "don't like" the old scratchy tango music.

Granted, listening to a live tango orchestra in the Golden Age [roughly 1935 to 1945] was about as high fidelity as you could get. Recording technology in that day was "mono", not "stereo", which did not become prevalent in commercial recording until the 1960's. So, to start with, the original master recordings were not exactly "hi-fi". All of the musicians and the singer were facing a large "horn". All the highs and lows and mid-ranges and musical details laid down on one, single track. The discs pressed from the master showed an immediate decrease in fidelity and quality. The vinyl records got scratched and worn with use.

There were two primary recording companies working with the tango orchestras - Odeon and RCA/Victor. In the 1960's an RCA warehouse manager, in order to make more room for a new venture, destroyed most or all of their original master recordings. So today, many recordings (CD's) do not come from a master, but from vinyl records [many from private collectors], and from recordings of recordings, most of which result in scratches, pops, clicks and of course, lower fidelity.

Some of the current recording companies do their own, sometimes poor quality, "restoration". Some of the recordings have even been sped up, and/or the pitch changed. The resulting "restorations" can sound muddy or tinny. Some individuals are also doing high quality restoration. Keith Elshaw at totango.net is a restorer and authority on tango music and recording. There is a great wealth of information on his website. You should check it out.

Finally, I'll get to the gist/crux of this post. There is a reason some of the music sounds scratchy and old. That reason is part of the history and culture of tango. Yes, if all of the music played was like this, it could get on your nerves after a while. Some DJ's avoid the older/poorer recordings. I never have. I have always enjoyed dancing to the few/several old funky recordings that I have, so I play them at the milongas/practicas I have DJ'd.

When those start to play, I envision an old couple in Buenos Aires, at home, putting that old scratchy disc on the turntable, and dancing a few tangos together before bedtime, remembering the old days.

When a clearer, higher quality recording of an orchestral/romantic tango plays [like DiSarli's Verdemar] I envision myself dancing during the Golden Age, in a lavish, architecturally beautiful ballroom, to a live orchestra, with the particular beautiful woman I hold in my embrace. I transport myself, I transport the two of us, to that time, that song, that orchestra, that dance floor.

All of this makes me wonder. I wonder if some DJ's avoid some of the richer recordings, with more character. I wonder if this "conditions" dancers, conditions entire tango communities to more bland recordings. More bland versions by more bland orchestras. Sometimes I will hear a particular version of a song [by a certain orchestra] playing, and wonder, "why is he playing this version? it's the worst one!..."

I would much rather dance to a richer, more full-of-character, more romantic, "scratchy" tango/vals than some clean, bland, piece of shit.

And that, my friends, is an understatement.

On the importance of the DJ...

From the Yahoo Group "TangoDJ"...a thread that just popped up...

The first post from Yura ::

Posted by: "Yura"
Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:13 pm (PDT)
Hi all,

I think that the imporantce of the DJ and her/his contribution to a milonga often highly exaggerated - and not least by the DJs themselves. The DJ would like to believe that people come to the milonga because they like the music which she or he plays, but this is not true. Rather, this is not completely true. People come to a particular milonga, because they like the room, the location is convenient for them to get to, they can eat well there, because the floor here is just slippery enough, and because a lot of good dancers come there. Nobody goes to a particular milonga only because this is the place where a particular DJ plays the music. Choosing between a milonga in a convenient location, with a long bar, good floor, moderate prices, and mediocre DJ, versus a milonga held in a place not entirely comfortable, attractive, or convenient, but with a very good DJ, I bet that all other things being equal, most people will choose the first milonga.

Various factors contribute to this choice, but there is one lesson from this is that among all the factors influencing the dancers' choice of a milonga, the DJ is far from being in first place. And I belive the DJ should remember this.

Many thanks to Kirill for his help in translation.

Yura



Reply posted by Andy ::

Posted by: "Andy"
Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:02 pm (PDT)

hi Yura,

I'm afraid you compare apples and oranges. The point is not to choose
between a good DJ and a bad floor or vice versa, but between 2 DJs at
otherwise similar circumstances.

It also depends how you define mediocre. The main border line is not
mediocre but "acceptable" and this is a individual choice. I don't' know
the name of all good DJ I had ever the pleasure to enjoy, but I
certainly remember the ones that I never want to hear again, doesn't
matter how gorgeous the place, the attendance, etc. are!

Actually the choice between two milongas running at the same time is a
sum of all criteria, like every choice in life. There are "knock out"
criteria and acceptable criteria. The choice is made by the weighted sum
of the criteria after excluding the knock out candidates. One doesn't
have to know anything about decision making theory, it happens
unconsciously. For me the long bar and the prices are absolutely
irrelevant, the floor a little bit, what counts is if one or better
three of my favourite dancers are there and a maximum one or two, better
zero kamikaze dancers attending ;-).

Andy




Reply from Tom ::

Posted by: "Tom"
Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:34 pm (PDT)

Sorry, I couldn't disagree more. Well, it isn't about the music, it is
about the emotions evoked by the music.

The DJ manages the energy of the dance and creates the psychological
experience for the attendees. A good DJ can make things work out okay,
a bad DJ can suck the life out of the party, and a great DJ? A great
DJ can create an extraordinary experience. It is an art, not an
analytical understanding.

The DJ is like the master of ceremonies, or in a new-age sense, the
ritual master, the keeper of the drum-circle, if you want to go new-
agey. Once you have experienced a milonga that takes you beyond
yourself, then maybe you understand. If you haven't, well many things
can get in the way: inexperience, bad mood, lack of "good" dancers,
missing your favorite dancers, non-musical crowd, a crowd that just
doesn't feel the music.

You are right that it works better when all the practical things are
in place, but a good DJ creates the psychological experience. This is
what the great DJs from the electro/trance-scene or even the disco-
scene have taught us.




Reply from Jake ::

Posted by: "Jake"
Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:41 pm (PDT)

Yuri Alekseev wrote:
> Choosing between a
> milonga in a convenient location, with a long bar, good floor,
> moderate prices, and mediocre DJ, versus a milonga held in a place
> not entirely comfortable, attractive, or convenient, but with a very
> good DJ, I bet that all other things being equal, most people will
> choose the first milonga.
>

"... all other things being equal"? We might as well propose that both
milongas are taking place in the middle of a power outage, and vote in
favor of whichever DJ can whistle.

"Most people" would, I imagine, have a better experience at /both/
milongas if no element was unnecessarily compromised but instead raised
to its optimum. Put the strong DJ in the strong venue: it's not very
complicated. Why follow a recipe for mediocrity, when there's an easy
chance for excellence?

I.e., there is no convincing reason to retain a mediocre DJ when you
could have an excellent one (or two), all other things /actually/ being
equal. Ego is in fact the only thing (to my knowledge; I omit the
possibility of malice) that could prompt one to decide otherwise.

Jake




And finally, a very lucid analogy from Plademan ::


Posted by: "plademan"
Mon Aug 11, 2008 10:27 pm (PDT)

Thank you Tom for your perspective.

I hope this analogy can provide a parallel perspective.

A good dancer dances steps, rhythms and melodies of the music.
A great dancer dances the emotions of the music.

A good DJ manages the energy and plays balanced tandas.
A great DJ plays emotionally connected tandas that pulls the dancers heart strings.




For me, it is always about the music, which always comes down to the DJ. I would dance on a street corner in the rain, hungry, thirsty, cold and tired if the music (DJ) were good/great. I have left many a milonga two to three hours before it ended because the music being played was crap.

The first poster, Yura, (whom I do not know) represents a great number of tango dancers who I believe don't "get" that tango is about the music first, the connection second, and everything else is not even a consideration.

Well, almost...