the All Houston Milonga

a tango community working together and enjoying opportunity.

BUENOS AIRES CULTURE ON THE WEB

Controversial from its beginnings, tango mixes with machines and gives birth to a polemic 2x4 techno sound. By Alejandra Rodríguez When a few couples stay on the dance floor and magic visits to the milonga…, at that moment I started to imagine the music I wanted to dance and to see dancing", says guitarist Carlos Lidedinsky as he reminds how he came to mixing 2x4 rhythm with electronic sounds. Those nights were a couple of years before December 11, 2003, when the porteños' government decided to celebrate the National Day of Tango with a "rave tanguera" in Corrientes Street. Techno beats excited the youngest while "milongueros" exasperated. That evening a recurrent discussion was back for the history of tango: Does this new musical form belong to the traditional Rio de la Plata's cadence? Bandoneon player Rodolfo Mederos, an innovator who got closed to rock and has also played with Pugliese and Piazzolla, described techno tango as "a way of ignorance", and consider it a wrong course for aesthetic search. On the other hand, Adriana Varela and Raúl Lavié approved the trend and even put their voices among beats and samplers. Novelty burst into when Gotan Project -headed by Argentine Eduardo Makaroff- exceeded all the records with its CD La Revancha del Tango. Later on, the collective band formed by Argentine and Uruguayan artists -BajoFondo TangoClub-, produced by Gustavo Santaolalla (former Arco Iris) and Juan Campodónico, opened the doors in the local market. New records appeared, such as Tango Crash, by the duet formed by Martin Iannaccone (bass) and Daniel Andrada (piano); Narcotango, by Libedinsky; Astornautas, by the quintet Ultratango, and MacDougall Tango, by the group from Rosario city, San Telmo Lounge. "This is not Tango", Piazzolla used to hear this phrase when his provocative bandoneon made the world vibrate. Some decades behind, the local repulse had been noted at the most elegant ballrooms in Buenos Aires, where milonga was only accepted after its success in Paris. Gardel, Troilo and Pugliese also had detractors. Loyal to its unorthodox origin, at every new turn, tango lives and seems to continue its endless evolution in this "problematic and feverish" 21st. century. Is your sampler playing Tango? Some of the new recordings which relate tango and techno sounds are:  Narcotango, by Carlos Libedinsky. Astornautas, by Ultratango, the band formed by Leo and Gastón Satragno (sons of tango singer Raul Lavie), Sami Abadi (violin), Julio Pérez (bandoneon) & Braulio D'Aguirre (drums). La revancha del Tango, by Gotan Project, with Eduardo Makaroff, Philippe Cohen Solal and Christoph Muller. Tango crash, by the duet Daniel Almada & Martín Iannaccone. MacDougall Tango, the EP of the group San Telmo Lounge.

Visit Let'sTanGO! for more information about porteños’ culture, including tours, sites of interest, restaurants, museums, milongas and tango shows in Buenos Aires. Enjoy it ! click 

It happen "Down South"? or 
Taking Tango to  the Valley with Frank Huddleston
Greg Brown, one of the local San Antonio Tangueros who has had to banish himself temporarily from the Tango oasis that is San Antonio, in order to pursue his medical studies. Starving for tango, he decided to remedy the situation and start some Tango action in the Valley, specifically, Harlingen. He's been bringing a few people along there, but decided he needed some real star power to give some luster to his endeavors. So where does he turn, but, naturally, to the highly trained and skilled Tangueros of his former pueblito, San Antonio. Formerly he had invited a Tango dancer known, revered, and respected, nay even feared by those whose toes he has literally stepped on, none other than Frank Huddleston, a man whose feet have trod not only on the toes of so many hapless Tangueras, but also upon the hallowed cobblestones of La Boca, San Telmo (carefully avoiding the piles of dog excrement), and Corrientes (oh, yeah; it's asphalt there). He was assisted in this venture by the plucky Sonia Perez, a Valley native and one of the up-and-coming Tangueras in San Antonio who didn't know any better. She now knows better, and on this trip she wisely decided to "visit her Dad", occasionally making cameo appearances. I'm not sure exactly why she elected not to participate in the teaching on this particular weekend, unless it was the understandable intimidation of sharing the floor with such prima donnas as Angela Avila and Pauline Cashion. 

Sonia did say something about having been kept on one leg for something like 45 minutes while I expatiated at length upon the finer points of the pivot. You can't just explain some of this stuff in a few minutes, you know; especially when you know so much about it. This weekend's event was to be a combined Salsa/Tango workshop, with the Salseros teaching the Tangueros on Saturday, and the Tangueros teaching the Salseros on Sunday. Sunday night a milonga was planned at the restaurant "Las Brisas", where the workshop classes were also to be held. I'm not sure how Greg worked this, but by masterfully placing parts of information with different people he managed to form an interlocking whole; something like a Rubic's Cube. I had had the impression that my previous visit had been a warm-up for the real pizzaz of Angela and Pauline on the weekend of the 22nd. This was apparently unknown to Pauline, but by the time she heard about it, it had generated such a buzz that she said sure, she'd come. I pointed out to the girls that they didn't really need me down there; they were going to be the teachers this time, and I was not really needed; Greg could serve as the Tango man-equin. But you know, the girls just like to have me around, so I consented to accompany them. Sonia drove Pauline and me down on Friday afternoon. I kept everyone entertained with a lively and fascinating patter of conversation, which I had prepared over the course of the last 50 years or so. Honestly, I don't know why it's always up to me to provide the conversation. I'm happy to do so, but once in a while it would be nice to have a two-way conversation, you know? Anyway, we got there in time to go to Las Brisas for their Friday show. I had misplaced my earplugs, which put my hearing in jeopardy, but by careful and adroit floor craft I managed to avoid the worst onslaught of the band that night - or maybe they just weren't as loud as before. Or maybe my ears are finally giving up. This band played the usual "Latin" mix, with liberal additions of Disco. The kind of thing that has you looking at your partner and asking, "Is that supposed to be a Salsa?", and you've got to decide if you're going to consider it so and dance it as such, possibly risking embarrassment and lack of inspiration when you realize too late that it makes a really lame Salsa, or giving up on it prematurely, thereby appearing to be a dance snob and general wet blanket. But I had been there before, so I pretty much knew what to expect. The next day, we were roused rather early and informed that breakfast was being served at the Bed and Breakfast where Sonia and Pauline were shacked up for the night. It is owned by the Ramas, a generous and hospitable couple who are also in the local Tango group being taught by Greg. Breakfast had been cooked and was being served by the mistress of the house herself, Ms. Rama, so what could we say? We attended, gratefully. After a tour of the impressive old house, built in the 30's for an ice merchant and nicely refurbished by the Ramas, we went to our Salsa classes at Las Brisas. Attendance was low, but the instructors were good; we had three classes, two in Salsa figures and the last in Salsa Rueda, a form of Salsa danced with groups of couples and a caller, in the manner of square dancing. But square it isn't. That night we decided to drive to McAllen, where the real Salsa action is, at a club called the Yacht Club. Good music, earlier in the evening at any rate. We danced mostly among ourselves, and Angela and I did a few milongas to Cumbia music. Some good dancers; it was nice to see someone do something with the Bachata other than the admittedly graceful and sensuous basic step. Sonia joined us, and even stayed behind when we left, because she was having such a good time, I guess. The next day Angela drove down to join us,. She and I taught a class in Tango fundamentals, and I made sure not to stand her on one foot for longer than 40 minutes. That class was followed by a Vals class with Pauline, and then a Milonga class, also with Pauline. This last class had the best attendance, because the salseros showed up. They were eager and adept students, and picked things up really quickly. As I always say, the easiest way to be a good teacher is to choose your students carefully. We couldn't have had better ones. The lack of sleep was starting to wear on us by then, so we took it easy until time for the milonga. Upon arriving at Las Brisas, we found it closed and dark. Greg didn't seem that surprised, or maybe he was too tired to get upset by then. So we just grabbed our bottle of tequila, our CDs, and Pauline's laptop, and sat out on the patio of the B&B, talking and listening to music. The surface was as though specially designed to discourage Tango dancing, so we didn't dance much, but spent a quiet evening. Next day we packed up, grouped, and drove back. I continued my monologue, more out of concern for my fellow travelers than for my own pleasure. Sitting in the "Death Seat" as I was, I had a vested interest in keeping the driver awake; something I really can't count on my monologues doing, but as it turned out, we arrived in San Antonio, just in time for me to let Pauline and Sonia sample the edible flowers in my back yard (Feijoa), get ready, and go to teach my regular Monday class at Circa. All in all, an experience, one sure to embroider the already resplendent reputation of those San Antonio Masters of Tango who came down from the Tango Mount Olympus of San Antonio to the lowly pueblo of Harlingen and pass some of the Tango flame to the aspiring tangueros there and aid them in their quest to join the great Tango cities like Buenos Aires, Montreal, San Francisco and of course, San Antonio.
Till next time ..... Frank 

For private lessons in San Antonio, TX with  emphasis on technique and rhythm.  Call Frank Huddleston, 210-349-1357 SA Tangueros at 2005 Fiesta !  All photos courtesy of La Vida Tango Photographer Roy Montejano. Tango Art for You Evening Tango Biddle, Trish 19.75 in. x 27.5 in. Buy this Art Print at AllPosters.com