I arrived at 2020 to cortina music, surprised that the milonga did not appear to have started at the advertised time. In popular milongas, when DJs are known to be good I find people arrive early.
Still, things started well with two nice D’Agostino tracks. I couldn’t quite place the third one, though I knew it and liked it less. I asked the DJ what is was later. De igual a igual he said. I was surprised because I know this track well. Later, I realised I know it better in the De Angelis version which I think far superior. I hear so little De Angelis these days, still less good De Angelis.
I asked why the tangos were in threes and whether they were going to stay in threes - thinking perhaps he was waiting for more people to arrive. He said they would stay in threes because he didn't know the people and wanted them to dance with more partners, or, I think he corrected himself, to have the opportunity to dance with more partners.
Then there was dark Caló, which I suppose presaged the moody musical drama on the horizon. They were I believe La vi llegar, Trenzas and Mañana iré temprano.
The first milongas were very good standard, steady ones - Canaro I think.
Then there was Tanturi-Castillo but I went out to get wine. I didn’t know A Otra Cosa Che Pebeta well. I came back during Decile Que Vuelva, good for me and a better opener I think.
There were the great Di Sarli instrumentals of around 1939-41
There were those wonderful early D’Arienzo vals: Mentias (1937) which I find haunting and Alma dolarida of the same year.
Then things started to slide. Still, I remember the nice Tanturi vals Marisabel (1942) and there was D’Arienzo. There were tracks like Pájaro Sin Luz (1945) and Si supiera que la extraño. The singer is Laborde who - while still not Valdéz or Bustos - strikes me as among the more dramatic of D’Arienzo’s singers. I don’t hear these often, don’t really know them well enough for dancing and don’t even get that sense I occasionally get, almost like intrigue, that a track you don’t know might be good for dancing once you get to know it but that somehow so far you’ve missed it. My copy of this last track is poor in sound and indeed I found the D’Arienzo played was particularly poor in sound quality - these and the famous ones he played later of type El Olivo and Humillación. I love these tracks but the sound was so off or the music by this time was too messed up for me that I didn’t fancy them.
I struggled through a Laurenz: Firuletear de bandoneon which I usually hear in DJs I tend not to want to hear often and I thought it a poor opener. There was Quedate tranquilo which I don’t know well and rarely hear, with, bizarrely, Buzón's Al verla pasar tacked on "for fun". Fun for the DJ perhaps but you rightly rarely hear it because the Laurenz version is incomparably better. I danced it because a woman who knew I wanted to dance with her invited me.
I quit the floor after the first track of a milonga - which had been fine - because I have rarely heard such a weird and dire second (and third) milonga. My experienced partner was understanding - neither had she. We got up instead to a very strong rhythmic tanda of good instrumentals which I think were Troilo. But the cortina cut in loudly part-way through the third track. It was so violent it felt like being crashed into and it was so final the DJ couldn’t have restarted the track so we all walked off the floor.
Looking back I am surprised I stayed so long.
There was Di Sarli / Podestá type of type Déjame but this was the best track of those. There was late Caló - from the 50s I think, with Podestá which were not for me. There were two Pugliese tandas and the Gobbi: Si Sos Brujo (1953) which is when I got up to go, and A Orlando Goñi (1949). I might have tried dancing these if there had been the right guy but he definitely wasn’t at the festivalito this weekend.
Of course, a set remembered after the event can only be impressionistic but I found it uneven, remembering no tangos of Donato, Rodriguez, De Angelis, Canaro, Lomuto, Biagi or Fresedo. At their expense I remember repeats of Caló, Di Sarli and Pugliese, possibly of Troilo and of D'Arienzo, though repeats of D’Arienzo are fine with me.
The DJ pre-listened, but not seriously - only with one ear to one earpiece.
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