Tango on the Rocks Late Night Milonga playlist, September 2016

After it's over :)
5:15 AM on Labor Day Monday morning

Denver Turnverein! It's such an honor to DJ at this beautiful, venerable dance hall, at the historic Labor Day Tango Festival, now rechristened Tango on the Rocks (hey, one day we shall answer the naming challenge with "Tango Chilled Neat", the Russian way)!
The flip side is that I have to leave my most beloved Cheesman Park colonnade milonga early to catch a small nap before my work shift. By 10:30 pm - when DJ Martin was just about to play La Cumparsita at Cheesman's - we are already at the venue, beautifully decorated by the original artwork by Amber Schneider & Tiffiny Wine and by Jesica Cutler's paper creations for the event. And I start playing-and-sound-testing right away. The guests begin to trickle in right after the official 11 pm opening time; the first track with dancers on the floor is Hugo Diaz's slow-longa. Thence, the real milonga play-set begins.
001. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Mi noche triste" 1936 2:45
002. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Recuerdos De Paris" 1937 3:12
003. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Ciego" 1935 2:57
004. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Condena (S.O.S.)" 1937 2:39
005. Vitas  "7, the element cortina" 2012 0:23
006. Adolfo Carabelli - Carlos Lafuente "Pa' que lagrimear" 1933 2:37
007. Adolfo Carabelli - Alberto Gomez  "El trece" 1932 2:30
we just chatted with friends about countryside-themed tango songs, and especially about the lazy cows slowly making their way home across a ravine in "El carrerito", so I was tempted to play these old favorites "before the milonga really gets blazing" :)
008. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli - Ernesto Fama "La estancia" 1930 3:25
009. Osvaldo Fresedo - Ernesto Fama  "El carrerito" 1928 3:09
010. QTango Sexteto Canyengue "Milonga Triste (milonga cut)" 2000 4:06
011. Hugo Diaz   "Milonga Para Una Armonica" 1973 4:25
012. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "La Viruta" 1938 2:30
013. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "El pollo Ricardo" 1938 2:30
014. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "Alma en pena" 1938 2:46
015. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "Zorro gris" 1938 2:46
016. Sandro de America  "Yo Te Amo cortina" 1968 0:23
017. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Tango argentino" 1942 2:37
018. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Tabernero" 1941 2:33
019. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Un tropezon" 1942 2:30
020. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Como Has Cambiado Pebeta" 1942 2:37
021. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "En La Buena Y En La Mala" 1940 2:28
022. Lidiya Ruslanova  "Valenki 2 (cortina long)"  0:33
With the vals set, the floor comes truly alive at last. Whew!
023. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Orillas Del Plata" 1935 2:44
024. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "En Tu Corazon" 1938 2:47
025. Juan D'Arienzo - Héctor Mauré "Cuatro Palabras" 1941 2:12
I wanted to deploy a set of energetic (and largely wordless) cortinas, and turned to rock classics, trying some from Argentina (like Sandro's hit two tandas back) and some from the Anglo world (like the one which closes the next tanda) ... but ended up relying the most on just one groundbreaking Russian 1980s band, with its insane variety of dark and driving beats which seemed so perfect for an all-nighter. We just marked 26th anniversary of Viktor Tsoi's untimely death, and I start from a snippet of his song marked by this foreboding, opening with a question, "How many more songs am I destined to write?".
026. Viktor Tsoy  "Kukushka cortina long 2"  0:37

027. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama "Tormenta" 1939 2:38
028. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama "Te quiero todavia" 1939 2:54
029. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama "Algun dia te dire" 1939 2:16
030. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama "No me pregunten porque" 1939 2:54
031. Pink Floyd  "Goodbye Blue Sky cortina long 1"  0:34
032. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "La trilla" 1940 2:21
033. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Catamarca" 1940 2:23
034. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Shusheta" 1940 2:24
035. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Nobleza De Arrabal" 1940 2:08
A wishful thinking cortina title? I don't think so!
036. Kirsty Hawkshaw  "It's gonna be a fine night tonight - cortina long"  0:34
037. Juan D Arienzo - Instrumental "Milonga, Vieja Milonga" 1937 2:33
038. Juan D Arienzo - Instrumental "De Pura Cepa" 1935 2:42
039. Juan D Arienzo - Instrumental "El Esquinazo" 1938 2:29
040. Mammas and the Papas  "California Dreaming cortina long"  0:40
I don't play 4 song tandas all that often, and tonight I sensed how much more freedom they givs me with gradually changing the emotional vibes within the tandas. It felt pretty cool to keep selecting sets of songs not just unified by their similarity, but also developing a directional theme...
041. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray  "Adiós para siempre" 1936 3:03
042. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray  "Angustia" 1938 2:39
043. Osvaldo Fresedo - Instrumental  "Arrabalero" 1939 2:32
044. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "En la huella del dolor" 1934 2:48
As I played a longer cut of Sandro's 1968 super-hit - for a more crowded dance floor - Gustavo Naveira stopped by and asked if I can play the *whole* song. And I didn't have quick enough thinking to tell him that I will do it, if he will dance it... Drats!
045. Sandro de America  "Yo te amo cortina long" 1968 0:44
046. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Asi Se Baila El Tango" 1942 2:36
047. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Noches Del Colon" 1941 2:36
048. Ricardo Tanturi - Instrumental "Comparsa Criolla" 1941 2:53
049. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Pocas palabras" 1941 2:27
050. A.R. Rahman "Ringa Ringa cortina long" 2008 0:32
051. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores "Salud, Dinero Y Amor" 1939 2:39
052. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores "Tengo mil novias" 1939 3:06
053. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores "Fru Fru" 1939 2:57
054. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Old Hotel cortina long"  0:38
055. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos  "A media luz" 1941 2:31
056. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos  "A oscuras" 1941 2:48
057. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos  "Se va la vida" 1936 2:39
058. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos  "Te busco" 1941 2:26
059. Viktor Tsoy  "Kukushka cortina long"  0:55
060. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Qué importa" 1939 2:17
061. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "La bruja" 1938 2:18
062. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Ansiedad" 1938 2:42
063. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "No Mientas" 1938 2:36
064. Johnny Cash  "I walk the line - cortina long" 0:40
065. Carlos di Sarli - Roberto Rufino  "Pena mulata" 1941 2:27
066. Carlos di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Zorzal" 1941 2:40
067. Carlos di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Yo Soy De San Telmo" 1943 2:20
068. Alla Pugacheva  "Million Scarlet Roses (cortina long)"  0:39
069. Francisco Canaro - Eduardo Adrian "Infamia" 1941 3:00
070. Francisco Canaro - Eduardo Adrian "Decile que vuelva" 1941 2:35
071. Francisco Canaro - Eduardo Adrian "Amando en silencio" 1942 2:54
072. Francisco Canaro - Eduardo Adrian "Corazon encadenado" 1942 3:28
073. Viktor Tsoy  "Nam s toboj (For you and me) cortina long"  0:52
The final set of a nearly-continuous torrent of rhythmic and high-drive tandas. It's 2 am already, and we don't expect more new arrivals to the milonga who'd need to be energized into action. So it's now time to mellow it out, and to pave way for a transition to a mid-allnighter's dramatic peak, the one which I would normally reserve for the crescendo of the final hour of a shorter milonga.
074. Pedro Laurenz - Martin Podesta  "Al verla pasar" 1942 3:23
075. Pedro Laurenz - Juan Carlos Casas "Vieja Amiga" 1938 3:12
076. Pedro Laurenz - Instrumental  "Amurado" 1947 2:38
077. Pedro Laurenz - Juan Carlos Casas "No me extrana"  2:44
078. Elleen Burhum  "Interlude long slow cortina" 2006 0:41
the only tanda of slower valses. I wrote about these unusuals and their director here.
079. Juan De Dios Filiberto - Instrumental "Tus Ojos Me Embelesan" 1935 2:34
080. Juan De Dios Filiberto - Instrumental "Palomita Blanca" 1959 2:35
081. Juan De Dios Filiberto - Instrumental "Pensando En Ti" 1935 2:50
(break for the performance, followed by a group dance of the instructors to Di Sarli's beautiful classic)
082. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Ensueños" 1943 2:44
083.   "silence30s"  0:31
084. Robotaki "Visual Dreams (Instrumental long)" 0:36
085. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Jamas Retornaras" 1942 2:31
086. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Que te importa que te llore" 1942 2:44
087. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Trasnochando" 1942 3:04
088. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Lejos de Buenos Aires" 1942 2:54
089. Viktor Tsoy  "Sledi za soboj (Be careful) long vocal cortina"  0:53
We are often told to bracket the tandas with the strongest songs, leaving the weakest tracks for the 3rd place in a four-song set. First song to drive people onto the floor, the final one like a dessert after a meal course, right? But exceptions happen, and in the following dramatic contemporary classic tanda I felt that I needed to make the 3rd song the strongest! Why? Because it was dictated by the logic of the developing theme - from dramatic melody towards raw grounded energy. I already wrote about Ojos de Tango, and their singularly beautiful bandleader, here - and about the exceptional nature of their "El adios", making it so difficult to match it with their other, less powerful tracks. The following night at the Avalon, Marc Hussner tried to prove me wrong, starting an Ojos tanda with "El adios" and continuing with diminishing energy. It actually felt better than I expected, but still the drive was kind of dissipating towards the end. Do you have better ideas how to use this great record in a tanda? Want to share?
090. Orquesta Tipica Fervor de Buenos Aires "Quien Sos" 2007 3:08
091. Orquesta Tipica Fervor de Buenos Aires "E.G.B." 2007 2:26
092. Analíá Goldberg y Sexteto Ojos De Tango "El Adios" 2011 3:13
093. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet  "La Yumba" 2011 2:57
094. The Blues Brothers  "Theme From Rawhide (long vocal cortina)" 1980 0:33
we carry the crazy energy into a candombe tanda, and on to the complex and dramatic De Angelis and Pugliese sets
095. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "El tucu-tun" 1943 2:34
096. Alberto Castillo "El Gatito en el Tejado" 1957 2:37
097. Romeo Gavioli  "Tamboriles" 1956 2:56
first of the extra-long cortinas for the night. Great modern rendition of the classic slow milonga made famous by Atahualpa. I started playing this fav track from near the second stanza, and Gustavo Naveira stopped by and asked me not to cut it short. Thanks Randy for dancing along!
098. Paco Mendoza & DJ Vadim  "Los Ejes De Mi Carreta - danceable cortina cut" 2013 2:12
099. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental "El Tango Club" 1957 2:40
100. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental "Felicia" 1969 2:47
101. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental "Pavadita" 1958 2:52
102. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental "Mi Dolor" 1957 2:51

103. Viktor Tsoy  "Red-Yellow Days cortina long 1"  0:50
104. Osvaldo Pugliese - Instrumental "Recuerdo" 1944 2:45
105. Osvaldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel "Corrientes y Esmeralda" 1944 2:46
106. Osvaldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel "Farol" 1943 3:22
107. Osvaldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel "Rondando Tu Esquina" 1945 2:49
This is the high point of the first 4-hour stretch of the milonga; I know that many dancers won't survive till 5 in the morning, and for them, this could be the crescendo. But we shall try raising another high wave of energy for the survivors in the two hours ahead!
108. Johnny Cash  "I walk the line cortina long" 0:40
109. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Lita Morales "Noches de invierno" 1937 2:47
110. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Angel Vargas "Sin Rumbo Fijo" 1938 2:18
111. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Mario Pomar  "Temo" 1940 2:55
112. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Old Hotel cortina long"  0:38
113. Angel D'Agostino - Angel Vargas, glosas: Julian Centeya "Cafe Dominguez" 1955 2:58
114. Angel D'Agostino - Angel Vargas "Ahora no me conoces" 1940 2:34
115. Angel D'Agostino - Angel Vargas "Solo compasion" 1941 2:58
116. Angel D'Agostino - Angel Vargas "A quien le puede importar" 1945 3:11
117. Sandro de America  "Yo te amo cortina long"  0:44
118. Aníbal Troilo - Instrumental "Guapeando" 1941 2:50
119. Aníbal Troilo - Instrumental "El tamango" 1941 2:35
120. Aníbal Troilo - Instrumental "Comme il faut" 1938 2:42
121. Aníbal Troilo - Instrumental "Milongueando en el cuarenta" 1941 2:33
for the late-night energy flow, transitioning to shorter tandas with occasional longer dance-able cortinas. The catch with these type of cortinas is that for the tangueros who sit them out, the energy may sag with every additional minute of a musical break. Five-plus minutes long salsa interludes invariably do this to myself! So tonight, I mostly stick with approximately 2 minute long pre-cut "danceable cortinas" instead of the full-length tracks. Couldn't make a logical cut of this one, though:
122. Fool's Garden "Lemon Tree" (full-length danceable cortina) 1999 3:11
Meanwhile our crazy chefs Mike Eblen & Trista do everything to support the energy flow with a late-nighter's traditional "early breakfast" :) ...
123. Quinteto Pirincho  - Instrumental "Milongon" 1952 2:30
124. Quinteto Pirincho  - Instrumental  "Arrabalera" 1950 2:41
125. Quinteto Pirincho  - Instrumental "Orillera" 1960 2:24
126. Victor Tsoy  "Gruppa Krovi (Blood Type) cortina long"  0:36
127. Edgardo Donato - Lita Morales y Romeo Gavio  "Mi Serenata" 1940 3:02
128. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales y Romeo Gavio "Sinfonia de Arrabal" 1940 3:07
129. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Lita Morales "Carnaval De Mi Barrio" 1939 2:25
130. Leonid Utesov  "S Odesskogo Kichmana (cortina long)" 1935 0:44
131. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Anorandote" 1930 2:33
132. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli - Ernesto Fama "Flora" 1930 2:38
133. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Belen" 1929 2:44
134. Cream Margot  "Krem Margo - Poka Igraet Dzhaz danceable cortina cut"  1:41
135. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "En el volga yo te espero" 1943 2:40
136. Enrique Rodriguez - El "Chato" Flores  "Las Espigadoras" 1938 2:49
137. Enrique Rodriguez - El "Chato" Flores "Los Piconeros (Vals)" 1939 2:47
138. Damour Vocal Band  "SWAY - danceable cortina cut"  1:39
139. Lucio Demare - Raul Beron "Canta pajarito" 1943 3:24
140. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda  "Sorbos amargos" 1942 3:22
141. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda  "No te apures, Carablanca" 1942 3:29
142. Prince  "Baby Knows (With Sheryl Crow) cortina" 1999 0:35
143. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá  "Alma de bohemio" 1943 2:45
144. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá  "Todo" 1943 2:37
145. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá  "Recien" 1943 2:43
146. V. Butusov  "Goodbye America - danceable cortina cut" 1996 2:00
147. Rodolfo Biagi - Jorge Ortiz  "Todo te nombra" 1940 3:33
148. Rodolfo Biagi - Jorge Ortiz  "Carillón de La Merced" 1941 2:30
149. Rodolfo Biagi - Instrumental "El Recodo" 1952 2:25
150. Viktor Tsoy  "Red-Yellow Days cortina long 2"  1:03
151. Donato Racciatti - Nina Miranda "Gloria " 1952 2:44
152. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Sus Ojos Se Cerraron" 1056 2:47
153. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi  "Hasta siempre amor" 1958 2:57
154. 17 Hippies  "Marlène - danceable cortina cut" 2005 2:46
155. Osvaldo Pugliese - Instrumental "Gallo ciego" 1959 3:33
156. Osvaldo Pugliese - Instrumental "Nochero soy" 1956 3:33
157. Osvaldo Pugliese - Jorge Maciel "Remembranza" 1956 3:41
158. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "La cumparsita" 1951 3:49
and after the hall quites down, and after the traditional 5:15 AM survivors photo, I can't resist adding one more track - Harry Roy and Stanley Black's 1938 rumba remix of the Cumparsita. And guess what? The tired tangueras break into an exuberant dance :)

Denver Tango Festival Spillover Milonga Playlist, May 2016

Memorial Day Tango Festival in Denver, approaching 20 years of age and once on a brink of extinction, shows a good deal of resilience. The DJs were excellent, the floor, pretty good, and the size of the crowd, generally encouraging. Just like in the years past, my most beloved and must-dance "tango pilgrimage" venues were off-site, at Cheesman Park and at the Avalon Ballroom (I'm partial to old Merc too, but it wasn't happening this time - gotta wait till Tango on the Rocks). And just like in the years past, there was a shadow of tension between the festival organizers and the local orgs of the off-site events. But luckily, not as overt a tension as to damage the festive mood!

A visit to Denver without dancing at Cheesman? No way!
(And it had the best music and the best company, one can count on it)

New for 2017: the City Park Bandstand milonga. We couldn't resist stopping there
too before driving to Boulder, and of course in the end I was scrambling
to put the final touches on my DJ preparation...

I'm not in a hurry to start playing recording music exactly at 6:30. Javier Sanchez is leading a bando jam in the hallway and it's a pretty cool thing to listen to. And I know that with Halina's excellent dinner served in the community kitchen, there won't be anybody on the floor for the next 15 or 20 minutes! Some minutes later I make a plan, to add a pre-tanda track or two, and to start playing it very quietly, creating a soft ambient tango sound in the dance hall but leaving the hallway quiet.It would be unfair if the bandoneonists totally lose track of time and miss dinner, wouldn't it?

001. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "Loca" 1938 2:57

OK, here we go!

002. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama  "Todo te nombra" 1939 3:07

003. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama  "Tormenta" 1939 2:38

004. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama  "Te quiero todavia" 1939 2:54

005. Alla Pugacheva  "Million Scarlet Roses (cortina long)"  0:39

006. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Ataniche" 1936 2:32

007. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Yapeyu" 1951 2:26

008. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "El Internado" 1954 2:34

009. Alexey Kudryavtsev  "The heart breaks cortina long 3"  0:33

As expected, by the 3rd tanda the floor gradually comes alive :) It should be noted that my assignment at the Avalon, as always, calls for a variety of non-classic music. And Alex Krebs's isn't a classic orchestra... but it sure can feel like one?

010. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet  "Ella Es Asi (feat. Enrique "El Peru" Chavez)" 2011 2:32

011. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet  "Negrito" 2011 1:53

012. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet  "Largas las Penas" 2011 3:02

013. Jennifer Gasoi  "Happy happy me (cortina long)" 2012 0:36

Dreamy violin-themed alternative tanda built for its beautiful closing piece

014. Lhasa De Sela "La Cara de la Pared" 2005 4:23

015. Carlos Libedinsky "Vi Luz y Subí" 2004 3:17

016. Shigeru Umebayashi "In The Mood For Love"  2001 2:29

017. Lidiya Ruslanova  "Valenki 5 (cortina)"  0:36

Intense, rhythmic pieces of Laurenz ... alas, I won't have time to play his more dramatic favorites this time.

Caged nightingale?
Not at a milonga :(
(Wikipedia image)

018. Pedro Laurenz - Juan Carlos Casas "Vieja Amiga" 1938, 1938 3:11

019. Pedro Laurenz - Juan Carlos Casas "Amurado" 1940 2:30

020. Pedro Laurenz - Juan Carlos Casas "No me extrana"  2:44

021. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Old Hotel cortina long"  0:38

Love the unusual texture of Lomuto's valses!

022. Francisco Lomuto - Jorge Omar "Damisela Encantadora" 1936 3:00

023. Francisco Lomuto - Instrumental  "Noche de ronda (vals)" 1937 2:34

024. Francisco Lomuto - Fernando Díaz, Mercedes Simone  "Lo que vieron mis ojos" 1933 2:22

025. Alla Pugacheva  "Million Scarlet Roses (cortina long)"  0:39

Avalon's obligatory tanda of Polish and European tangos is a DJ's black eye this time :(  To play Utesov's famous "Mystery", I removed its long intro and closing parts, but the remaining section fooled replay gain calculation by several decibels. But it was nothing compared to the problems with Savva's Nightingale. Taisa Savva had a unique skill of artistic whistling, and sometimes she even performed from an oversize golden bird cage, carried onto the scene by four men. But the low-bitrate record did an awful service to her higher-pitch whistle. Ouch. Note to self, never download a cool tune at the last moment!

026. Jerzy Petersburski - Mieczysław Fogg "To ostatnia niedziela" 1936 3:59

027. Leonid Utesov  "Taina (Mystery) (milonga cut)" 1937 2:31

028. Ferdinand Krish - Taisa Savva "Nightingale Tango" 1940 3:13

029. Alexey Kudryavtsev  "The heart breaks cortina long 4"  0:35

030. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "T.B.C." 1928 3:02

031. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Belen" 1929 2:44

032. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Pobre yo" 1929 2:12

033. Leonid Utesov  "S Odesskogo Kichmana" 1935 0:44

Time for a milonga? With a twist.

034. Eendo  "Eshgh e Aasemaani" 2011 3:31

035. Goran Bregovic "Maki Maki" 2009 3:33

036. Kevin Johansen "Sur O No Sur" 2002 4:53

037. Jennifer Gasoi  "Happy happy me (cortina long)" 2012 0:36

038. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Nieblas del riachuelo" 1937 2:25

039. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Sollosos" 1937 3:27

040. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray  "No quiero verte llorar" 1937 2:42

041. The Blues Brothers  "Theme From Rawhide (overlay cortina)" 1980 0:27

"Sweet" Fresedos are followed by some of the most bitter Donatos. Great memories of this tanda!

042. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Se Va La Vida" 1936 2:39

043. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Lagrimas" 1939 2:50

044. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Me voy a Baraja" 1936 2:30

045. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Old Hotel cortina long"  0:38

Andréane Bossé,
 Las Piernas,
2 weeks earlier

046. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "En el volga yo te espero" 1943 2:40

047. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores "Las Espigadoras (vals)" 1938 2:47

048. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores "Los Piconeros (vals)" 1939 2:47

049. Alla Pugacheva  "Million Scarlet Roses (cortina long)"  0:39

050. announcements and a birthday vals request

051. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Quien Sera - vals" 1941 2:15

052.  "silence30s"  

053. announcing the community "waterfall" dance. This is the traditional Canaro, but slightly later years than the usual. I owe the inspiration to DJ Andréane Bossé of Montreal's Las Piernas. The strong, grounded drive of "Infamia" is something. Perhaps a version of this tanda will sound at a milonga near you soon.

054. Francisco Canaro - Eduardo Adrian  "Amando en silencio" 1942 2:54

055. Francisco Canaro - Eduardo Adrian  "Decile que vuelva" 1941 2:31

056. Francisco Canaro - Eduardo Adrian  "Infamia" 1941 3:00

... and a chacarera ... no, make it two!

057. Juan Maglio Pacho, Jorge Cafrune  "Characera loca de Ledesma"  0:26

058.   "silence30s" 

059. Varios  "Chacarera del Rancho"  2:21

060.   "silence30s" 

061. Various lbum ar "Chacarera del violin"  2:12

062. Jennifer Gasoi  "Happy happy me (cortina long)" 2012 0:36

D'Arienzo's to re-initiate the milonga flow after all the specials and breaks

063. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Indiferencia" 1938 2:31

064. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Ansiedad" 1938 2:38

065. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Que dios te ayude" 1939 2:28

066. Alexey Kudryavtsev  "The heart breaks cortina long 4"  0:35

I am not a natural for Troilo, even though I appreciate his contrasts of fast and slow... and my first intuition would be to play a tanda of his uptempo pieces (or a vals tanda). But it's time to diversify. So I put together a more lyrical tanda for this night, and it feels good.

067. Anibal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "Pa Que Bailen Los Muchachos" 1942 2:49

068. Anibal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "Sosiego En La Noche" 1943 3:05

069. Anibal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "No Le Digas Que La Quiero" 1941 2:51

070. Leonid Utesov  "S Odesskogo Kichmana" 1935 0:44

071. Carlos di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "La mulateada" 1941 2:21

072. Carlos di Sarli - Roberto Rufino  "Pena mulata" 1941 2:27

073. Carlos di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Zorzal"  2:40

074. Victor Tsoy  "Gruppa Krovi (cortina)"  0:36

An alternative tanda of unhurried guitars...

075. Jem "Come On Closer" 2004 3:47

I only played the following Ukrainian/Russian track at one hometown venue before, where the organizer likes it. Its lyrics are crudely antiwar, which may no longer be popular in that part of the world. I don't know, I just couldn't help noticing a perplexed look or two from the public. But I would be very hesitant to ban a song from a milonga because of its lyrics .... believe me, there are so many questionable letras in old tangos! What do you think?

076. 5Nizza "Soldat" 2003 3:13

077. Damien Rice "Volcano" 2003 3:21

078. Jennifer Gasoi  "Happy happy me (cortina long)" 2012 0:36

079. Enrique Rodríguez - Armando Moreno "Como Has Cambiado Pebeta" 1942 2:37

080. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Tabernero" 1941 2:33

081. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Llorar Por Una Mujer" 1941 2:47

082.   "silence30s" 

Javier Sanchez plays a wonderful composition ... alas, limiting it to just this one piece.

083. Leonid Utesov  "Road to Berlin (slow)"  0:27

084. Rodolfo Biagi - Andres Falgas "El Ultimo Adios" 1939 2:09

085. Rodolfo Biagi - Andres Falgas "Déjame amarte aunque sea un día" 1939 2:55

086. Rodolfo Biagi - Jorge Ortiz "Por Un Beso De Amor" 1940 2:44

30+ second cortinas seem to be too long for the night, so I start replacing them with shorter ones.

087. Lidiya Ruslanova  "Valenki 4 (cortina)"  0:24

I already played a tanda of the more classic 1935-1937 Fresedos with their bel canto of Roberto Ray. There is a distinctly different vibe in Fresedo records of about 1940, with their cascading harp. It reaches a pinnacle in "Buscandote", and it's always an interesting challenge to build a tanda leading up to it. Here I stay with Ricardo Ruiz's vocals, but perhaps instrumentals like "Arrabalero", or very late Roberto Ray records like "Vuelves", would fit even better?

088. Osvaldo Fresedo - Ricardo Ruiz "Y no puede ser" 1939 2:28

089. Osvaldo Fresedo - Ricardo Ruiz "Plegaria" 1940 2:24

090. Osvaldo Fresedo - Ricardo Ruiz "Buscándote" 1941 2:49

091. Zhanna Aguzarova "Old Hotel" 1987 0:22

092. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda  "Sorbos amargos" 1942 3:22

093. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda  "Manana zarpa un barco" 1942 3:22

094. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda  "No te apures, Carablanca" 1942 3:29

095. Anzhelika Varum  "Autumn Jazz"  0:20

When the milonga's end is in sight at the beautiful Avalon, I can't ever resist this type of a non-traditional tanda with its overpowering late-night drama. This night's selection starts a bit softer and a bit closer to the classics, with a 1960's ensemble of such titans of the dusk of the Golden Era as Pedro Laurenz, Horacio Salgan, Leopoldo Federico. Then it snowballs on to the most recent decade of BsAs tango music!

096. Nuevo Quinteto Real  "Ensuenos" 1966 3:10

097. Orquesta Tipica Fervor de Buenos Aires "Quien Sos" 2005 3:08

098. Analíá Goldberg y Sexteto Ojos De Tango "El Adiós" 2011 3:13

099. Alexey Kudryavtsev  "The heart breaks cortina long 3"  0:33

100. Edgardo Donato - Lita Morales - Romeo Gavio  "Mi Serenata" 1940 3:01

101. Edgardo Donato - Lita Morales,  Horacio Lagos y Romeo Gavio "Sinfonia de Arrabal" 1940 3:07

102. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Lita Morales "Carnaval De Mi Barrio" 1939 2:25

103. Zhanna Aguzarova "Old Hotel" 1987 0:22

104. Osváldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel "Farol" 1943 3:22

105. Osváldo Pugliese - Instrumental "Malandraca" 1949 2:52

106. Osváldo Pugliese - Instrumental "Gallo ciego" 1959 3:33

107. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "La cumparsita" 1951 3:49

for those who can't stop, and for cleanup and furniture moving, a few more minutes of music with a bonus Cumparsita "estilo rumba"

108. Goran Bregovic  "To Nie Ptak" 1999 4:41

109. Goran Bregovic  "This Is A Film (feat. Iggy Pop)" 2003 4:18

110. Harry Roy "La cumparsita" 1938 2:58

Tango on the Rocks Festival Loco Tango Milonga playlist

So happy to be back in Denver and Boulder and to DJ at the Avalon once again! We had to cut our California adventure short, and to start driving East in the dead of the night, after Homer and Cristina's Berkeley practica, just to catch a short rest home and then to keep driving East to meet them again at the Merc 4 days later. But whatever it takes to support our dear Colorado friends in their most recent, most crazy project. Welcome to Tango on the Rocks, John Miller and Jesica Cutler's radically novel concept of a tango festival - an anarchically decentralized event where 3 nights of the milongas are organized by the notable local hosts at their classic venues, and only the Saturday matinee and night milongas are fully festival's. We had a blast at the Merc and Savoy and La Rumba and the Avalon and of course the Cheesman Pavilion! Homer and Cristina taught class after class, John and Homer and Marc and Jessica La Vitrolera DJ'd, Orquesta Tipica Natural Tango played live - with an amazing powerful bando section and a stunning shivers-down-your-spine trumpet solo, Grisha and Erskine and Olga jammed together too, Jurni and Naseema volunteered, Halina created an unbelievable dinner meal for the milonga, and it all would have been just like coming to root for the hometown team except this time around I signed up to play along, too. Thank you for your work and your talents and your sleepless nights, friends! Thank you for the tandas and the conversations and for your companionship! Here's to many more Colorado nights together!

Memories of the Merc, Savoy, and Cheesman milongas
(including photos from Naseema and Kim)

So my "work shift" falls on Labor Day's night. The dinner at the Avalon Ballroom is soo good, and so well advertised, that the crowds of people start filling the space right after the first chords of the first tango. But it still takes 3 full tandas before the first couples actually make it to the dance floor :) Everyone is so busy with their delicious baked salmon and their dinner table conversations :) But then, almost in an instant, el gente's on the floor dancing. (Later at night I learn that despite Halina's traditionally opulent super-abundance, the food actually ran out this time ... maybe that was the secret to the sudden shift of the public from the tables onto the floor ;) ... anyway, the music of the opening tandas provided a nice backdrop for the party).

001. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "Champagne tango" 1938 2:30
002. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "El garron" 1938 2:27
003. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "Loca" 1938 2:57
004. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Old Hotel cortina long"  0:38
005. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos  "A media luz" 1941 2:31
006. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos  "Te busco" 1941 2:26
007. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos  "A oscuras" 1941 2:48
008.  "Katyusha"  0:33
009. Rodolfo Biagi - Alberto Amor "Paloma" 1945 2:28
010. Rodolfo Biagi - Alberto Lago  "Amor Y Vals" 1942 2:48
011. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás "Dejame Amarte Aunque Sea un Dia (vals)" 1939 2:55
012. Carmen Piculeata  "Egy kis cigainy dal" 2013 0:29
013. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Jamás Retornarás" 1942 2:28
014. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Cuatro compases" 1942 2:43
015. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Que te importa que te llore" 1942 2:44
016. Victor Tsoy  "Blood type (cortina)"  0:36
The first alternative tanda is united by its spring-like "up" feeling - the closing track stands out a bit because it achieves this effect with any guitar strings, just by exuberant singing a capella, but it is the sweetest piece of the set and I'm confident that it belongs there. Yet I am really stressed at this moment - as I was pretty much all day, actually - because it's such a difficult task for me, to try to build a semi-alternative playlist which will accommodate all tastes and rock everybody with its energy waves, those who love alt and those who sit it out. I wrote at length about "the alternative allure and quandary" last time when I DJ'd here. Tonight, too, several classics-only dancers remain uncomfortable with the musical format, and it weighs heavily on my mood. But the floor fills up with people, and I field my first "what-was-that-cool-thing" questions for the night, and my stress level begins to dissipate.
017. Fool's Garden  "Lemon tree" 1995 3:09
018. Jason Mraz  "I'm Yours" 2008 4:20
019. Damour Vocal Band  "Sway"  3:49
020. The Blues Brothers  "Theme From Rawhide 1" 1980 0:21
The vibe is passed on to a springy, smiley mixed-orchestra milonga set, getting just a touch more grounded at the end (where we leave Uruguay and return to BsAs ... but perhaps Miguel Villasboas's "El sentir del corazon", "La mulita", or "Mozo guapo" or even "Pena mulata" could have completed the tanda instead?)

021. Emilio Pellejero - Enalmar De Maria "Mi Vieja Linda " 1941 2:26
022. Miguel Villasboas - Instrumental  "La Milonga Que Hacia Falta" 1961 2:18
023. Julio De Caro - Luis Díaz "Saca Chispas" 1938 2:30
024. Carmen Piculeata  "Egy kis cigainy dal" 2013 0:29
025. Carlos di Sarli - Alberto Podestá "Tú, el cielo y tú" 1944 2:58
026. Carlos di Sarli - Alberto Podestá "Llueve otra vez" 1944 3:05
027. Carlos di Sarli - Alberto Podestá "Lloran las campanas" 1944 2:57
028.  "Katyusha"  0:33
029. Enrique Rodríguez - Armando Moreno "Tango argentino" 1942 2:37
030. Enrique Rodríguez - Armando Moreno "En la buena y en la mala" 1940 2:26
031. Enrique Rodríguez - Armando Moreno "Como has cambiado pebeta" 1942 2:37
032. Victor Tsoy  "Blood type (cortina)"  0:36
The lone alternative vals tanda for the night ... I love the classic Argentine valses so much, and there could be so few vals tandas anyway, that I'd be hard pressed to give them up to play any more alt's. But this is a nice ethnic-vibe tanda mostly gravitating to the Old Bygone Poland. The first track is in Yiddish, a beautiful song inspired, as I understand, by an Ukrainian tune. Alas, to put it in the beginning of a tanda, I had to cut a wonderful segment of joyful klezmer from the ending section, just to make sure that a waltz transitions seamlessly into the next waltz...
033. Klezmatics - Chava Alberstein "Di Krenitse (milonga cut)" 2001 3:39
"She was pretty like an angel and fat like an intestine sausage". A humorous Polish folk romance from the antebellum Lwow which has been nicely remixed but, alas, largely without the flavor of the (now extinct) local dialect. For the milonga, I cut the ballad at the verse where it becomes clear that the star-crossed lovers are going to die, creating a new crescendo finale and skipping several more verses about their death, burial, etc.
034. Zespół Starling  "Ballada o pannie Franciszce (milonga cut)"  3:14
Felipe Antonio's is a small Argentine band playing classic scores with a distinct folk vibe, which kind of fits to this very folksy waltz tanda
035. Felipe Antonio  "A mi madre"  2:27
036. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Old Hotel cortina long"  0:38
We start in the antebellum Poland again, and continue the European oldies tanda in Austria / Latvia / Russia and France. I wrote many more details about the stories of these songs last time when I played in Boulder (and still more here) - there is so much talent and so much pain and heartbreak behind their lines - please follow the links if you're interested!
037. Jerzy Petersburski - Mieczysław Fogg "To ostatnia niedziela" 1936 3:19
038. Frank Fox - Piotr Leschenko "Chernye Glaza (Dark Eyes)" 1933 3:15
039. Rafael Canaro - Roger Toussaint "La Melodia Notre Adieu" 1936 3:15
040. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Old Hotel cortina long"  0:38
The Tanturi-Castillo tanda gradually accelerates in preparation for the nuevo milongas:
041. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "La última copa" 1943 2:39
042. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Recuerdo malevo" 1941 2:33
043. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "La Vida Es Corta" 1941 2:23
044. The Blues Brothers  "Theme From Rawhide (long vocal cortina)" 1980 0:33
045. Otros Aires  "Un Baile De Beneficio" 2010 3:42
046. Juan Carlos Cáceres "Tango Negro" 2003 3:45
047. Kevin Johansen  "Sur o No Sur" 2002 4:53
048. Carrapicho  "Tic Tic Tac cortina 1" 2007 0:17
049. silent pause
(a call for birthday valses which turn out to be quite chaotic ... so many birthday boys and girls show up, and so many other guests don't know them well, that figuring who's staying on the pista and who's leaving is all but impossible. Well, tango can accommodate a lot of chaos in it ... but ... note to self: if we ever play a birthday vals at a well-attended milonga with many out-of-towners, them we need to mark the birthday tangueros more clearly. Give them wreaths or bright ribbons for heads or arms? Introduce them better, too. A microphone may be necessary, too)
050. Enrique Rodriguez - El "Chato" Flores "Los Piconeros" 1939 2:47
051. Carrapicho  "Tic Tic Tac cortina 1" 2007 0:17
and the following tanda is for the Avalon's traditional community / "waterfall" dance:
052. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Recuerdos De Paris" 1937 3:12
053. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Condena (S.O.S.)" 1937 2:39
054. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Solo una novia" 1935 3:23
055. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Invierno" 1937 3:25
056. Carrapicho  "Tic Tic Tac cortina 1" 2007 0:17
057. silent pause  - a call for chacareras
058. "Chacarera del violin"  2:12
059. Carlos Carabajal  "De la Banda a Santiago"  2:21
060. Russian Folk  "Kalinka-Malinka 2 (cortina)"  0:25
And, phew, the many specials, however wonderful, are over, and it's time to "whip the milonga back into action" with D'Arienzos - which works like a charm.
061. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Que Importa" 1939 2:08
062. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Indiferencia" 1938 2:31
063. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Mandria" 1939 2:22
064.  "Katyusha"  0:33
065. Edgardo Donato - Hugo del Carril "El vals de los recuerdos" 1935 2:18
066. Edgardo Donato - Félix Gutiérrez "La Tapera - vals" 1936 2:54
067. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Quien Sera - vals" 1941 2:15
068. Victor Tsoy  "Blood type (cortina)"  0:36
a cooldown / dreamy vibe alternative tanda
069. Jem  "Come On Closer" 2004 3:47
070. Mecano  "Hijo De La Luna"  4:29
071. Haris Alexiou  "To Tango Tis Nefelis" 1998 4:07
072. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Old Hotel cortina long"  0:38
and back into the energetic roll with the tanda of softly rhythmic Di Sarli instrumentals setting the stage for the trifecta of Otros Aires's milongas:
073. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "La Trilla" 1940 2:21
074. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "Shusheta" 1940 2:24
075. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "Nobleza De Arrabal" 1940 2:07
076. The Blues Brothers  "Theme From Rawhide 1" 1980 0:21
077. Otros Aires  "Milonga Sentimental" 2005 3:57
078. Otros Aires  "Rotos en el Raval" 2005 3:53
079. Otros Aires  "Los Vino" 2010 2:43
080. Carmen Piculeata  "Egy kis cigainy dal" 2013 0:29
the grounded, highest intensity tanda of the night:
081. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet  "La Yumba" 2011 2:57
082. Fervor de Buenos Aires  "E.G.B." 2007 2:26
083. Ojos De Tango "El Adios"  3:13
084. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Old Hotel cortina long"  0:38
085. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda  "Malena" 1942 2:57
086. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda  "Sorbos amargos" 1942 3:22
087. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda  "No te apures, Carablanca" 1942 3:29
088. Victor Tsoy  "Blood type (cortina)"  0:36
A surprise, unplanned special here - Grisha Nisnevich, Erskine Maytorena, and Olga Tikhovidova jamming together! When they finally dared to do it less than half an hour earlier, I suggested that they start after a more melodic / romantic randa - and here they blast in with two final milongas of the night.
089. Kayah & Bregovic  "Ta-Bakiera [This Tabakeria]" 1999 4:17
090. Kayah & Bregovic  "To Nie Ptak [Not a Bird]" 1999 4:40
091. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Old Hotel cortina long"  0:38
The time is almost up and we swirl towards the dramatic crescendo with some of the best Uruguayan tangos, followed by a merged late De Angelis - Pugliese tanda.
092. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi  "Hasta siempre amor" 1958 2:57
093. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Sus Ojos Se Cerraron" 1956 2:47
094. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi  "Queriéndote" 1955 2:49
095. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Old Hotel cortina long"  0:38
096. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental  "Felicia" 1969 2:47
097. Osváldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel "Rondando Tu Esquina" 1945 2:48
098. Osváldo Pugliese - Jorge Maciel  "Remembranza" 1956 3:41
099. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental  "La cumparsita" 1961 3:33
100. silent pause  0:31
(followed by last-hugs & cleanup / furniture moving set)
and I doubt if I could ever possibly end the night without "Los ejes" if I ever DJ the closing milonga of a Colorado tango weekend again, because it's always the endless I-80 across the prairies of Wyoming which awaits me after it's over. Always the same repeating lines: "Es demasiado aburrido seguir y seguir la huella! Es demasiado aburrido seguiiir y seguiiir la huella..."
101. Paco Mendoza & DJ Vadim  "Los Ejes De Mi Carreta" 2013 3:23
102. Alacran  "Reflejo De Luna" 2010 3:44
103. Souad Massi  "Ghir Enta" 2008 5:06

The stats? Well, if you let me be "greedy" & count all contemporary / outside of Argentina tandas as non-classic, even the post-Cumparsita set, then we end up with an (arguably inflated) 11 / 13 alt / classic ratio. Wow. Could it even be true? Perhaps a more reasonable thing to do would have been to tally the Uruguayans among the classic, and to stop at La cumparsita. Then the alternative / classic ratio tallies as 8 / 15, with fully half of the remaining alt's being totally faithful to the classic tango and milonga genres. Now that's more or less what I had in mind.

P.S. Jessica already has (most of) her Pavilion Tango Colorado playlist up on Spotify, and Homer will probably add his alternative milonga playlist to his great DJ Resource page soon, too. 

Denver Tango Festival Spillover Milonga playlist, May 2015

Denver Festival lives! The History The Alternative Music The Playlist

The historic festival is alive!

Denver Tango Festival has already been a legend when we were tango newbies - actually, I am on record saying that my birth as a tanguero happened right there, a dozen festivals ago. In fact, Tom Stermitz's organizer's prowess left its mark not just in his hometown, but continents and oceans away, from Russia (where the nation's oldest and strongest festival, Moscow Milonguero Nights, has been godfathered by Tom) to San Diego with its famous New Year's festival, originally Tom's brainchild as well.

My rookie's milonga many,
many years ago. And I still
consider a year without dancing
in the slanted rays of Sun at
Cheesman, a year not fully lived

But it's also true that the tango festival organizers' world had changed dramatically in the past two decades. There are myriad festival-goers' options now, and the tangueros know almost in real time who's heading where, what's hot, what's not. For, ultimately, it is the guest list which makes the festival. And to stay hot and to attract the cool guests, one must constantly innovate, be generous and personable, always ratchet things up, always keep abreast with the trends - or better yet, set the trends, and never let the fickle Fortune look at you dismissively. In hindsight, Denver Tango Festival already showed signs of slow decay and of the organizers' inattention even when we first visited it 7 years ago. The oldtimers would already tell you that it used to bigger, that it used to be a trend-setting novelty, but by the late 2000's it's become a dependable, solid but kind of stolid thing. Frictions within the community didn't help things either, and by fall 2014, the grand old fest was at the edge of the abyss.

The power of the locals, DEN 2015:
John Miller and Nick Jones introduce a miraculously restored Victrola;
Jesica Cutler crafts the festival banner, as Pugliese watched approvingly;
Martin Rybczynski outshone all of the DJs in my personal perception

We are so happy to see that the community bandied back together to return the West's flagship tango event to life! Great, great thanks to John Miller and Jesica Cutler for selflessly helping to turn around the fortunes of this historic Festival, to its visionary founders Tom Stermitz and Amy Beaudet, to the DJ's, musicians, instructors, and volunteers. And my special warmest gratitude to Halina Morgucz Palmer for the invitation to DJ in my beloved Avalon, for her wonderful hospitality, and for pushing me to include lots of alternative tandas, and to Grisha Nisnevich for his great friendship and his very timely sage DJ advice.

The alternative conundrum

Defamiliarization :) :
Victor Shklovsky, who coined the word,
with his wife Serafima. The 1950s.

Broadly defined, the alternative tango music is (doh!) not a classical milonga music but a variety of passionate dance music with an ample room for our tango vocabulary, tango musicality, and tango social conventions and skills. Alternative music serves two very different primary purposes - to put the experienced tango dancers "outside of the box" to stimulate their creativity and to enrich their music interpretation skills, AND to reconnect the tango dancers with the more familiar musical cultures and styles to which they may have been attached even before embarking on their tango journeys. In other words, to expose the dancers to The Strange and to give them footing in The Familiar. Actually, there may be less contradiction between these two goals than it seems at first. "Defamiliarization" through the juxtaposition of the familiar and the strange is at least a century-old creative arts method (the word itself has been first coined by the Russian avant-guarde in the 1910s) and it works just as intended, destroying stereotypes and automatic behaviors and fostering creativity.

"It's not a mere matter of taste": Cultural warfare Pure bodies, pure blood, pure food, pure music .... it's ageless The classics-only school of thought assigns to the Golden Age tango music a strong ritual-purity quality, harnessing the millennia of the human beliefs in the pure, righteous Self and the dangerous, contaminated Other. This gives a truly primal quality to the cultural wars over the choices of the music. Sometimes it even pushes bona fide classic orchestras such as Donato or Rodriguez to the "other" side.  I am no stranger to partisanship in the culture wars myself. But DJing requires a different state of mind. It takes giving up one's ambition and one's lofty ideals for the higher-yet ideal of serving the dancing public. This blog is named "humilitan" for the same reason - to remind me that I may be free to pick sides as a private person, but that as DJ, I should bow to the community needs. Only it's still very hard to serve the community where different key opinion leaders call for addition or deletion of alternative tandas - not even because of the sets' artistic and functional merits, but because these people want to make radical statements!

But these two cool goals don't come without a major liability. For great many tangueros, one of the best things about the milonga culture is exactly this Great Wall of the cultural divide separating the tango universe from the popular and contemporary cultural influences and from the music forms from outside Argentina, and they love being safe and predictable in the beautiful bubble of the Golden Age. They don't volunteer into the surprising discoveries of, eh, defamiliarization. They may or may not join a fully alternative milongas, as a matter of an informed conscious choice ... but the "mostly classic / part alternative" format has worse pitfalls. The guests generally don't know if an alt tanda is coming, and if they are prepared to dance but choose to sit it out, then it may drain some of the energy. Moreover, I try hard to select the moods, the rhythms, and the textures of the consecutive tandas to generate a good flowing wave of energy, a predictably accelerating and decelerating but unstoppable momentum. But it is a lot harder to create a parallel wave experience for those dancers who skip all alternatives, so they may be shortchanged in this respect, too.

The relative unpredictability and the sheer variety of the alternative tango music lead to one more inseparable yin-yang pair of a pro and a con. Generally it makes little sense to weigh the opening bars of an alt tanda to decide who exactly is the perfect partner for this music. You know the drill, "X is a superb Di Sarli - Podesta tango follower, or Y is just right for a fiery vals of Biagi's". It is a cliche, and IMHO it is largely a fallacy, yet another automaton stereotype which detracts from our creativity. Sure thing this "Y" could be great for this specific flavor of music, but if it's all you ever dance with him, without variation, then you are probably missing out. Anyway, with an alternative tanda, you better "expect the unexpected" & throw most of these prejudicial who's-good-for-what ideas out of the window. The result is a better social openness, and it is a big pro in my book. But the flip side is that it's much harder to mix the alt tandas, to make sure that "the unexpected" doesn't become "the haphazard" or even "the untenable". (On the contrary, in the classic tanda mixology, a DJ needs to watch out for "the predictable" not to segway into "the unexciting" and "the contrived").

To cut the long story short, the flow-of-energy magic resulted in the final setlist being 25% non-classical - which is lower that 35% requested by the host, but still a LOT higher than anything I played to date (Interestingly, Adam's supposedly "50:50" milonga two days before also came at about 30% non-classic?).

The playlist with comments

01. Quinteto Don Pancho "El garron" 1938 2:27
02. Quinteto Don Pancho "Alma en pena" 1938 2:46
03. Quinteto Don Pancho "Champagne tango" 1938 2:30
I re-cut cortinas to various lengths between 33 and 45 seconds based on my visual memories of the floor of the Avalon Ballroom. Having played them, I can now conclude that just about 30 seconds would have been perfectly OK for this venue (and it can be as short as 20" for the earliest tandas with the lighter attendance)

The dance floor of the Avalon
fills up fast!

04. Alla Pugacheva "Million Scarlet Roses (cortina long)" 0:39
05. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Cascabelito" 1941 2:34
06. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Tristeza Marina" 1943 3:09
07. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Charlemos" 1941 2:30
08. Leonid Utesov "S Odesskogo Kichmana" 1935 0:44
I had a sheepish thought. You see, people come early to Halina's milongas. But they head straight to the dining hall, bypassing the dance floor - because they know that the best food won't last. Tonight, there is a stupendous black bean soup, fantastic quinoa, ham ... and the bread is just about to come out of the oven ... and ... (well you know where I got some inspiration for our local events ;) ). In any case, I was making a guess that nobody will dance the first three tandas because they'll go eat, and that I will get a chance to sneak in some contentious alt set and nobody will even notice :) But ... the dancers already fill the floor during the Di Sarli tanda. Therefore, they need a good classic tango warmup. Therefore, my 3rd tanda will be alternative almost in the name only. Yes, this stuff doesn't get played at the regular classic milongas. But .... I think it should be. Hats off to Alex Krebs!
09. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet "Largas las Penas" 2011 3:02
10. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet "Negrito (milonga)" 2011 1:53
11. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet "Ella Es Asi" 2011 2:32
12. Zhanna Aguzarova "Old Hotel cortina long" 0:38
13. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ahora No Me Conocés" 1941 2:35
14. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Solo compasion" 1941 2:58
15. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ninguna" 1942 2:59
16. Lidiya Ruslanova "Valenki 5 (cortina)" 0:36

"It looks like they love it!": A DJ's myopia? I know what to do if, G*d forbid, el gente refuses to dance to my tanda. But now I see the full floor, I see the people dancing well to the music, Nobody is making grimaces. No obscene gestures. Do I have to assume that the people like the music? What other body cues do I have to watch for? Experienced DJs out there, can you share your advice? "Poor mice wouldn't stop eating $%$#& cactus ..." Dave Schmitz told me not to be mislead by the sight of the masses dancing. They paid so much money to be here, he said. What you see isn't their contentment, he said. Its their avarice, their primal greed. They may be totally feh about your music, but they paid big bucks  and they'll suffer but keep on dancing just to make a good use of their money. (Actually the milonga admission was $10, and with great food and a great company it ought to be one of the best milonga deals anywhere - not that it really matters). Of course I can't help remembering a classic Russian meme: "The mice took jabs from the spines, cried, but kept on eating cactus". It means, if one *really* hates something, then how come one would't stop doing it?

17. Soha "Mil Pasos" 2008 4:07
18. Feist and Ben Gibbard "Train Song" 3:03
19. Alacran "Reflejo De Luna" 2010 3:44
20. "Katyusha" 0:33
Should I have called these valses alternative? Of course, it is a fav BsAs orchestra, and it is the late 1930s and early 1940s ... but Enrique Rodriguez remixes old Europe's folk hits here, from a Russian gypsy romance to an Andalusian buleria. And, strictly speaking, his orchestra isn't even a tango tipica - it was officially "an orchestra of all different rhythms"! ( It is also time to celebrate the upcoming Armando "Muñeco" Moreno's birthday, May 29th. He joined the orchestra of Enrique Rodriguez at the age of 18 and kept returning there to record more hits. Alas I didn't have time for another tanda with Moreno! I love so many of his tangos, valses, and foxes!)
21. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "En el volga yo te espero" 1943 2:40
22. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores "Las Espigadoras (vals)" 1938 2:47
23. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores "Los Piconeros (vals)" 1939 2:47
24. Leonid Bykov "Smuglyanka" 0:33
And of course Fresedo's birthday is also in May
25. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Isla de Capri" 1935 3:16
26. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Canto de amor" 1934 3:25
27. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Sollosos" 1937 3:27
28. Lidiya Ruslanova "Valenki 2 (cortina)" 0:33
I haven't played these more rhythmic Tanturi's for too long!
29. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Decile Que Vuelva" 1942 2:33
30. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Asi Se Baila El Tango" 1942 2:36
31. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "La vida es corta" 1941 2:25
32. The Red Elvises "Cosmonaut Petrov 1 (-3dB)" 1999 0:28
33. Fool's Garden "Lemon tree" 1995 3:09
34. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole "Over The Rainbow" 2001 3:32
35. Souad Massi "Ghir Enta" 2008 5:06
36. The Blues Brothers "Theme From Rawhide (long vocal cortina)" 1980 0:33
37. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "La Mulateada" 1941 2:22
38. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Zorzal" 1941 2:40
39. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Pena Mulata" 1941 2:27
(A DJ's nightmarish oops here - my deepest apologies for it. A cut for flamenco, with a switch to a different computer, has been requested, but just as I switched, the dancer whispered that she wasn't ready! Hurriedly returning to my laptop and to an appropriate next tanda, I fatfingered a few seconds of the previous tanda's milonga before correcting it to a cortina. Blush.)
40. Leonid Utesov "S Odesskogo Kichmana" 1935 0:44
41. Orquesta Tipica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli) "Nino bien" 1928 2:43
42. Orquesta Tipica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli) "Che, papusa, oi" 1927 2:37
43. Orquesta Tipica Victor (dir. F. Scorticati) - Angel Vargas "Adios Buenos Aires" 1938 2:36
44. Alla Pugacheva "Million Scarlet Roses (cortina long)" 0:39
cut for a birthday vals followed by a flamenco demo
45. Alfredo De Angelis - Carlos Dante - Julio Martel "Sonar y Nada Mas" 3:06
46. Leonid Utesov "S Odesskogo Kichmana" 1935 0:44
and a community / waterfall dance tanda of Canaro classics:
47. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Recuerdos de Paris" 1937 3:12

Some of Florian Hermann's compositions
available from a 1900 German sheet music catalog

I wrote a little about the Russian roots of Canaro's "Ojos negros" ("Dark eyes") before, but I've found many more details since. The music and the lyrics are inspired by a timeless Russian Gypsy romance of the same name - a song with the history spanning borders of Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, the way it's common with best Eastern European songs which as a rule claim several mother countries and tongues. Russian "Dark Eyes", a Gypsy romance, was put together in 1884 by Soyfer (Sergey) Gerdel, a Jewish musician from the same Ukrainian town where my grandfather was born. But Gerdel used a verse published by an Ukrainian Yevhen Hrebinka in a Russian newspaper in 1843 (it was a prophetic poem ... indeed Hrebinka died only 4 years after meeting the gaze of the Dark Eyes, aged only 36). And the music was based on a slow waltz of Florian / Feodor Hermann, a composer of waltzes, polkas, mazurkas, marches, and little plays, mostly dedicated to a myriad of his Russian and Polish noblewomen students and published in Russia, Poland, and Germany. Many Russian sources claim that Hermann lived in Germany, while a popular Ukrainian legend claims that Hermann was a French military composer with the Napoleon's Army. Neither tale could be true, somebody must have been fooled by the French titles and German music catalogs. Hermann lived later in the XIX c., in fact some of his composition are dated late 1870s (and respond to the patriotic outbursts of the Russo-Turkish war of 1876). His works are Russian-, Ukrainian, and Polish-themed (and occasionally Lithuanian), and they use Russian and Polish lyrics. The place names in his titles imply a connection to the Wilna strip and specifically to Roubno (now Kirtimai) on the outskirts of Vilnius in Lithuania (but in those days, a part of Russian-governed Poland). My hunch is that Hermann was a mid-XIX c. Jewish piano teacher in then-Polish/Jewish/Russian Wilno relying on French and German languages for better marketing. I mean I'm sure I read more details on it on the Internet, but just couldn't find it now. (Update: the enigmatic life path of Florian Hermann has been pieced together; he turned out to be a Vilnius native, a Catholic nobleman of German and Polish descent. Details here)
48. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Ojos negros que fascinan" 1935 2:51
49. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Mi noche triste" 1936 2:45
50. Victor Tsoy "Gruppa Krovi (cortina)" 0:36
Two very different pieces of Bregovic in the following tanda - in Polish with a beautiful voice of Kayah, and in English, from the soundtrack of Kusturica's failed American movie, "Arizona Dream". All three pieces are on the long side, making a nearly 15-minute tanda, and I stand by ready to cut it to just two songs if the energy comes short - but no, the whole floor is dancing.
51. Pentatonix "Say Something" 4:39
52. Goran Bregovic - Kayah "To Nie Ptak [Not a Bird]" 1999 4:40
53. Goran Bregovic - Iggy Pop "In the Deathcar" 1999 5:13
55. Juan Maglio Pacho, Jorge Cafrune "Chacarera loca de Ledesma" 0:27
56. "Chacarera del Rancho" 2:21
57. "Chacarera del violin" 2:12
58. Leonid Bykov "Smuglyanka" 0:33
59. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Ansiedad" 1938 2:38
60. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Mandria" 1939 2:26
61. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Que importa" 1939 2:17
62. "Kuznechik Cortina" 0:39
A Polish and Russian 1930s-1940s tanda. Lots of tragic stories behind it - not just the heartbreak of the lyrics which the Polish poets so perfected starting in the 1920s. It is a relatively low energy tanda but it always strikes a chord with the people with Eastern European musical affinities. We travel to Poland - then Russia - then Romania and Latvia with these songs.

Artur Gold & Jerzy Petersburski orchestra, Warsaw, ca. 1930

Jerzy Petersburski, a composer and pianist, belonged to a Polish Jewish clan with a telling surname, the Melodists. His 1928 "Tango Milonga", a dream of the faraway Argentina, has become an international hit in the West, but his best remembered tango in Poland and Russia is "To ostatnia niedziela" ("This is the Last Sunday"), a song of separation and the end of love. The 1939 military defeat of Poland sent Petersburski on an escape route East to Białystok, where he was enlisted into the Soviet Belorussian State Jazz Ensemble. There, he composed Poland's favorite waltz, "Blekitna Chusteczka" ("Blue Handkerchief") which has become even more deeply ingrained in Russian conscience with the folk lyrics as the song of the heartbreak of the War. 

Mieczysław Fogg
(from Sophisti ezine)

But Petersburski didn't stay with the Belorussian band long. His short stint with the Polish Air Force in the opening weeks of WWII earned him a right to enroll in the Polish Corps of General Anders in 1941, and thus an escape ticket from the Soviet Union. After travels across the Middle East and Latin America, Jerzy Petersburski finally made it to Buenos Aires in 1948. There, he built a career of a prominent radio and theater musician but didn't compete with the Argentines on the turf of tango again. Petersbursky's life had a happy ending of sorts - he finally returned to Warsaw in the late 1960s, remarried, and died peacefully at the age of 84.

Mieczysław Fogg's life story is amazing and inspiring - his voice helped to propel the 1928 "Tango Milonga" to world fame, and he was still touring with concerts in the post-totalitarian times right until his death in 1990! He fought with the Polish Resistance, he sang at the barricades of the Warsaw Uprising, he has become Righteous among the Nations for saving a Jewish family from the death camps, and he has been repeatedly voted the best radio singer both before WWII and during the People's Republic times.
63. Jerzy Petersburski - Mieczysław Fogg "To ostatnia niedziela" 1936 3:19

Eddie Rosner soon after his return from Gulag labor camps. Having lost his teeth to scurvy,
he had to re-learn to play trumpet with dentures. 1955.

We are just one day away from the birthday of Eddie Rosner, another titan of Polish and Russian music who has already been featured on this blog exactly a year ago. Born May 26 1910 to the Jewish parents from Poland in Berlin, Adolf Rosner has become the top German jazz trumpet player, before the rise of the Nazism forced him to reinvent himself as Eddie, a Polish jazz star. And then the war made him the leader of the Belorussian State Jazz Ensemble, really a collection of Polish Jewish musical talents who all managed to escape the advancing Wehrmacht to Białystok / Belostok just as the Soviets took the city in their short-lived land grab of "Western Belorussia". Five wartime years later, the Germans were finally being pushed back from Belorussia, and Rosner's band saw the limelight at last. They were assigned a star Russian jazz singer, Georgy Vinogradov, because all the musicians spoke too heavily accented Russian to make the authorities happy. Georgy Vinogradov already recorded Russian tango super-hits such as "Schast'ye moyo" with Efim Rosenfeld's band. Eddie and Georgy made only of handful of records together but they really enjoyed their chance encounter and its fruit. In 1946 Eddie Rosner has been jailed for an attempt to return to Poland, and spent 7 years in the dreaded Subarctic labor camps of Magadan. After Stalin's death Rosner rebuilt his jazz trumpet star career - only to be blacklisted because of his Jewish roots. He never saw Poland again. Only in the mid-1970s the authorities allowed the sick and dying musician to return to his hometown. He died in Berlin in 1976.
64. Eddie Rosner - Georgy Vinogradov "Zachem (Why)" 1944 3:11

A memorial plaque at the King of Tango's Riga home has been unveiled in 2013

"Dark Eyes" is the first and perhaps most famous tango of Oscar Strok, the future King of Russian Tango, composed in 1928 and alluding to the same classic Russian Gypsy romance as Canaro's "Ojos Negros" which I just wrote about 3 tandas earlier. Oscar Strok (1893-1975) was born to a Latgalian family of small-town Jewish Klezmer musicians, and composed popular Klezmer pieces himself, played piano in movie theaters, accompanied for visiting vocalists... A hot romance led him to Paris in the mid-1920s, and exposed him to the music of tango. The sorrow of the end of his Parisian love flowed into the score and the lyrics of "Dark Eyes". Having returned to Latvia and to financial ruin, Strok composed his next tango ... in debtor's jail, it was called just like that, "The Debtor". But later in the 1930s, Oscar Strok won a tremendous success as a composer of 300 tangos and a band director, and earned the nickname "The King of Tango". The lightning advance of the Nazi troops led to the fall of Riga in just two weeks of war, and most of Strok's orchestra musicians couldn't escape in time, and perished in the Holocaust. By sheer luck, Oscar escaped, and composed and performed many patriotic pieces during WWII. But after the war, the "corrupt" tango was banned by Stalin's regime, and its composer, blacklisted and banished from the musician's guild. Oscar Strok has been forced to earn living as a regular piano teacher. Only at his funeral, the band dared to play his banned tangos in public. (More on Oscar Strok can be found in my more recent post)
I already mentioned that Strok's "Dark Eyes" has also been interpreted by an Argentine tango orchestra decades later (Florindo Sassone, 1968) 

Before Leschenko became famous as a singer, he
was a professional folk and exotic dancer

Piotr Leschenko (1898-1954) hailed from a completely different corner of the post-Revolution Russian cultural diaspora, from Romania, where his tango singer career began in the Northern city of Cernăuţi (now in Ukraine, and better known in America as a once-grand Jewish cultural center of Tchernovitz). Leschenko was actually born out of wedlock in a village in Ukraine, but grew up in Moldova, singing in choirs as a child, and convalesced in a military hospital there from a battlefield wound and concussion when the region became a part of expanded Romania in 1918. After WWI, Leschenko kept on singing, but his main occupation has become stage dance, first locally, then in the nation's capital, and then in Paris and across the globe. His dance partner was his ethnic Latvian wife whom he met in Paris. Piotr Leschenko had to restart his vocal career in 1930 when she became pregnant and stopped performing, and quickly reached fame as a singer of regional folk. It was his wife who introduced Leschenko to her fellow countryman, Oscar Strok, during a visit to Latvia. Strok's tangos have become the highlights of the repertoire of Piotr Leschenko almost overnight. And "Dark Eyes" - which fused together the singer's acclaim in both Gypsy Folk and Tango - was the most popular of them. The best Leschenko recording of "Dark Eyes" was actually done in Austria, with Frank Fox - born Franz Fux in today's Czech Republic, then Moravia  - who conducted an orchestra and composed music for dancing and for movies in Vienna. Piotr Leschenko's bootleg records were immensely popular - albeit technically illegal - in Russia, but he only set foot there under most tragic circumstances, as a Romanian conscript in the Nazi-allied occupation forces in WWII. Despite this stain of being a collaborationist, Leschenko was offered forgiveness and a clean slate in the Soviet Union after the end of the war. But at his farewell party, the singer confessed his love to Romania too eloquently. A snitch denounced him, and the Russians withdrew the invitation at the last moment. Instead, Leschenko has been sent to the Romanian labor camps, to the malarial swamps of lower Danube, and languished there even after Stalin's death. He died in a prison hospital, and his case remains classified even now.
65. Frank Fox Tanzorchester- Piotr Leschenko "Chernye Glaza (Dark Eyes)" 1933
66. "Katyusha" 0:33
67. Francisco Lomuto - Jorge Omar "Damisela encantadora (vals)" 1936 2:58
68. Francisco Lomuto - Instrumental "Noche de ronda (vals)" 1937 2:34
69. Francisco Lomuto - Fernando Díaz, Mercedes Simone "Lo que vieron mis ojos" 1933 2:22
70. Leonid Utesov "S Odesskogo Kichmana" 1935 0:44
71. Sexteto Carlos Di Sarli - Ernesto Famá "Flora" 1930 2:44
72. Sexteto Carlos Di Sarli - Ernesto Famá "La estancia" 1930 3:25
73. Sexteto Carlos Di Sarli - Ernesto Famá "Chau pinela" 1930 2:41
74. Zhanna Aguzarova "Old Hotel cortina long" 0:38
75. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Jamas retornaras" 1942 2:31
76. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Tristezas de la Calle Corrientes" 1942 2:46
77. Miguel Calo - Raul Beron "Que te importa que te llore" 1942 2:44
78. The Blues Brothers "Theme From Rawhide (long vocal cortina)" 1980 0:33
79. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Milonga criolla" 1936 3:00
80. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Tangon (slow milonga)" 1935 3:17
81. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Milonga triste" 1937 3:33
82. Victor Tsoy "Gruppa Krovi (cortina)" 0:36
Two Argentine bands and one from Portland OR find a match in this almost-classic, high energy tanda. "Fervor", the mid-2000s phenomenon, got named after Borges's book. Their main album, "Quien sos", has several interesting dramatic danceables. "Ojos", led by a strikingly looking pianist, Analíá Goldberg, are known to play live at the milongas. Their "El adiós" is one of kind piece IMHO, a standout far surpassing most of the rest of their records.
83. Orquesta Tipica Fervor de Buenos Aires "E.G.B." 2007 2:26
84. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet "La Yumba" 2011 2:57
85. Analíá Goldberg y Sexteto Ojos De Tango "El Adiós" 3:13 2011

86. Leonid Bykov "Smuglyanka" 0:33
87. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda "Sorbos amargos" 1942 3:22
88. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda "Mañana zarpa un barco" 1942 3:22
89. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda "No te apures, Carablanca" 1942 3:29
90. Zhanna Aguzarova "Old Hotel cortina long" 0:38
91. Osváldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel "Rondando Tu Esquina" 1943 2:48
92. Osváldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel "Corrientes Y Esmeralda" 1944 2:49
93. Osváldo Pugliese - Jorge Maciel "Remembranza" 1956 3:41
94. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "La cumparsita" 1951 3:49
... and a whole set of the apres-dancing, last drops of wine, last-hugs and furniture-moving music. The first song, a remix of a 1947 milonga sureña classic, feels really personal for me, with a lot of stubborn defiance, a bit of sadness, and no need for silence. And the long, long roads. Es demasiado aburrido seguir y seguir la huella...
95. Paco Mendoza & DJ Vadim "Los Ejes De Mi Carreta" 2013 3:23
96. Eendo "Eshgh e Aasemaani" 2011 3:31
97. Goran Bregovic "Maki Maki" 2009 3:33
Adiós, Colorado! Los ejes de mi carreta nunca los voy a engrasar.....