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The Rise of Neo Tango Music
© copyright Sharna Fabiano 2003, revised 2007
The reawakening of the argentine tango at the turn of the new century is that of a great spirit rising after a deep slumber. In its recent revival since the late eighties, the tango has inspired legions of new dancers all over the globe with its powerful partner connection and intricate, elegant movements.
Right now we are witness to a fascinating process of integration: tangos from previous generations are being embraced and reinvented by the current one. As social dancing finds its place in the modern world, stylistic changes begin to stand out: casual dress, the exchanging of leading and following roles, and notable technical choices such as relaxing the hips and lightening the dance embrace can be seen as a sign of the modern interpretations of tango.
One of the most exciting changes is a new genre of experimental tango music. Young dancers especially are dancing tango to non-Argentine music, and at the same time, contemporary tango musicians are collaborating with electronic musicians to create a hybrid sound. I call this new genre "neo tango," and include in its scope the modern creations of artists such as the Gotan Project, BajoFondo TangoClub, and Carlos Libedinsky as well as all songs not classically Argentine tango that dancers choose to play at their milongas.
Nearly all of the music used for dancing today's social tango is taken from old recordings of Golden Age orchestras. Even most contemporary tango bands tend to fill their repertoire with compositions from that period, and although classical tango must and should be preserved, our era is different from the Golden Age of tango in Buenos Aires (1930s-50s). We have different musical instruments and technologies, different social venues, and different styles of dress. All of these things inspire today's tango dancers and musicians to play and improvise in new ways.
Suspiciously, there is something familiar about this creative urge. One might say, in fact, that invention and experimentation are at the very root of the tango tradition. Let's recall that in the early 1900's, hopeful immigrants from Italy, Germany, Eastern Europe, and other countries converged on Argentina's port city of Buenos Aires, bringing with them not only their hopes and dreams, but also their portable instruments and their cultural traditions. Like today, it was an atmosphere of discovery, conflict, and social adjustment. As the disparate members of Buenos Aires' early century melting pot gathered together, the tango was born. Today, we witness its re-birth. Creeping into the souls of enthusiasts around the globe, the tango is searching for a contemporary cultural context.
This is why modern music is so essential to effectively renew the spirit of the tango. The "neo tangos" that the aforementioned groups have produced are hybrids of traditional instrumentation and electronic sound, artistically bridging the gap between the Golden Age and the new millennium. This hybrid tango music strikes a chord with mass audiences, and its vibration has the potential to generate not only small gatherings of aficionados, but an international social and artistic movement.
Carlos Libedinsky had been dancing tango and playing classical tango music for more than a decade when he began to feel a creative inconsistency in the milongas of Buenos Aires. Prior to the release of his 2003 album Narcotango, he explains:
"There was something that seemed strange to me. There were many people experimenting with a new form of dancing, but the music they were dancing to didn't seem to me to harmonize. I also felt a rich, living energy in the milongas, but at the same time the music being played there was all by artists who were already dead. It seemed that a part of the tradition had been left behind."
Opened in 1986, his music school and recording studio, Tademus Productions, soon became a musical laboratory. As an artist, Carlos represented an important combination of cultural elements, and it seems that his knowledge of traditional tango, his love of social dance, and his curiosity about electronic sound technology have come together at a crucial point in the Tango Renaissance:
"Much of what I was listening to at the time (Massive Attack, Tom Waits, Bjork, Primal Scream) began to inspire me to dance as if it were tango. I was going out dancing at night and then at home in my CD player I had this modern music playing, and I began to feel a connection between the two. It was very interesting the first time I invited some friends to the studio to play them the new tracks I was recording. Suddenly, we all started dancing here on the patio. At that moment I realized that it wasn't just me, that there were others who were also eager for new music."
These sentiments were echoed around the globe, and in the fall of 2003, Narcotango became an overnight sensation within the global tango community. Produced independently and with no marketing budget, the music sold itself as if dancers everywhere had been waiting for it to arrive.
Neo tango is not limited to the fusion of electronic music with traditional instruments. On the contrary, so deep is the desire for modern expression that adventurous tango dancers of today are claiming music from genres across the board: blues, rock, disco, Portuguese fado, Turkish and Russian tangos, and countless world music sub-categories. Phrases like •alternative tango' and •non-tango' are standard lingo. At a workshop on this subject in Rochester, NY, my students came up with three essential characteristics that a compelling neo tango shares with a Golden Age tango: 1. It has a consistent, walkable tempo; 2. It tells a story through melodic and rhythmic sophistication; 3. It has powerful emotional substance.
Dancers who have learned tango outside Argentina often sift through their personal CD collections in search of music they can use for tango practice. Regional music preferences have begun to emerge within the global tango community, and DJs are beginning to win accolades for their distinctive tastes in non-traditional tangos. Dan Ksmayr writes from Germany:
"Here in Munich, we have a milonga called "Tango-Fusion" which basically is a mix between a milonga and a dance club event. The music that gets played is [traditional] tango (3 out of 20 songs?), stuff like Gotan project, Bajofondo, some songs from soundtracks to the movies "Amelie", "Chicago", and some more music that I cannot categorize, probably nujazz, house etc. It was never intended as a replacement for classical milongas, but in my world it is a really essential addition."
Dan's description of •his world' reminds me suspiciously of the 1940's, when most Buenos Aires neighborhoods had their own orchestras, and dancers would choose where to go dancing depending on who was playing. Today, we have a wider variety to choose from, and I think we will soon see more events like Dan's cropping up in cities around the globe. In Buenos Aires, a similar energy is growing.
In 2003, the city's first tango-rave, Ambientango, premiered with a blend of tango and electronic music, and even at more long-standing milongas like Torquato Tasso, La Catedral, and Canning, adventurous DJs will occasionally play a song that is not, strictly speaking, tango. At the early evening practices, younger dancers are lured by the promise of extra space to experiment with movements that twirl, spin, and suspend. Here, the music for dancing is becoming more and more varied, ranging from electronic to jazz to traditional tango.
Until now, many have assumed that there was a natural ceiling on the growth of tango communities, perhaps because traditional music and traditional atmosphere only appeal to a small segment of today's population. The manifestation of neo tango music in the tango world pushes against that ceiling. Young people especially are drawn by the eclectic sound and by the fun and experimental atmosphere that typically accompanies it. Andrew Burt writes from Portland,
"I DJ the •mixed music' practica here in Portland, and I think it's great for the younger side of community building. It infuses a lot of joy, gaiety, and humor into the dancing, and there's a lot more laughing than you normally hear."
In the spirit of playfulness, young dancers are inventing new moves, new embraces, and new clothes for dancing. Tango has benefited immensely from the influence of salsa and swing vocabulary, and underarm turns, spins, and changes of arms provide rich material for this next evolution of tango social dance. Dance sneakers and cargo pants, for example, make both men and women feel more free physically than if they were wearing suits and evening gowns, and this feeling leads to a unique movement aesthetic and style of dance. It's important to remember that the drive to invent and re-invent is very much the "traditional" spirit of Argentine tango.
And so the contemporary tango music library is growing, and with it the allure of tango for a key portion of the 20- and 30-something demographic. The songs have the tango's unmistakable 'walking beat' and the edge of the new millennia in their melodies. Innovation is at the very core of the tango - contemporary evidence includes mixing string instruments with synthesizers, salsa turns with conventional tango figures, denim with fishnets.