Rob Connaire: tango rants. Personal journey into tango - dance, song and poetry.

Rob Connaire is a dancer and a musician from Philly. I met him at the milonga in Boston.

He is the person with much, much finer understanding of music than I myself ever hope to achieve. And he is passionate about tango.

That's why I asked him to write an essay about his tango. Rob wrote the script, recorded his voice, selected the music himself. My role on this project was humble - sound editing and mixing.

As I worked on this project I learned a lot about tango music.

Rob helped me to discover the pieces of incredible beauty which I have not heard before.

And, you, listeners, will discover those pieces too. Your appreciation of tango as music and dance will not be the same, I guarantee it!
 
  Rob's detailed playlist (with his comments and links - well worth to check out!) and other references are on the bottom of this page.

 

 

Photo: Marty Katz

Special Thanx

HUGE thanks to Rob - without people like you, bud,  Argentine Tango in USA would have never grown! You can write your comments to Rob - he might like to hear them, too.

Sources (with links to iTunes and Amazon)

track 1:

Antonio Lauro, Natalia,Vals Criollo
performed by Manuel Barrueco
from Cantos y Danzas
(Barrueco's Histoire du Tango of PIazzolla w/Emmanuel Pahud from this same album is very fine).

Victor Lavallen, Vigilia
performed by Jisoo Ok and Hector del Curto
from Hector Del Curto's Eternal Tango

Juan Garcia Esquivel, Mini Skirt, (arr. O. Golijov)
performed by the Kronos Quartet from Nuevo

Pedro Laurenz, lyrics by José María Contursi, arr. Luis Borda,
Milonga de mis Amores
from the soundtrack to the movie "12 Tangos" 

Orestes Cufaro y Azucena Maizani, lyrics by Manuel Romero,
La Cancion de Buenos Aires performed by Roberto Rufino,
ensemble directed by Leo Lipesker,
from Robert Rufino como vacalista de las orquestas de DiSarli, Francini/Pontier, Calo, Francini, Triolo

track 2:

L.C. Amadori, lyrics by Charlo,
Cobardía performed by Lidia Borda,
from her CD Entre Suenos

G.F. Handel, opening Sinfonia from Messiah,
performed by the Bach Festival Orchestra (Oregon)
conducted by Helmut Rilling

Bernardo Monk, Ponele la Firma
performed by Bernardo Monk, Abel Rogantini, Leonardo Ferreyra, Matias Gonzalez and Joan Pablo Navarro
from Monk's CD Ponele la Firma

F. Schubert, after poems of Wilhelm Muller, Der Leiermann
from Die Winterreise sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Alfred Brendel piano.

Tomas Gubitsch, Villa Luro,
performed by Lidia Kaminska, accordion, Beau Bledsoe, guitar
from Lidia's CD Breaking Boundaries
 

Aníbal Troilo, lyrics by Homero Manzi,
Sur arr. by Luis Borda
from the soundtrack to the movie "12 Tangos"

track 3:

Carlos Di Sarli, Bahia Blanca,
performed by the Orquesta Carlos de Sarli

Edmundo P. Salvidar, Vieja Casa
performed by Musamistonga (I mispronounce their name on the show), Marcella Pedretti, piano and Ferndando Rezk, bandoneon

Jose Maria Aguilar, lyrics by Celedonia Flores, Tengo Miedo,
performed by Carlos Gardel, with Jose Maria Aguilar, Guillermo Barbieri and Jose Ricardo guitars.

S. Lipesker, lyrics by R. Yiso, Una Carta Para Italia,
performed by Roberto Rufino with the Francini-Pontier orchestra.

Alberto Ginastera, lyrics by Fernan Silva Valdes, Opus 3, Canción del Árbol del Olvido
performed by José Cura with Eduardo Delgado and Ernesto Bitetti

Astor Piazzolla, Chiquilín de Bachin,
performed by Gidon Kremer with Ula Ulijona, Marta Dudraba and Horacio Ferrer
(the poem is at the beginning of this piece, cut for the broadcast -- I'm not talking over Horacio Ferrer!)

track 4:

Gustavo Santaolalla, Luna,
performed by Gustavo Santaolalla
 

Herminia Velich y Juan Velich, music and lyrics, Cualquier Cosa
performed by Ignacio Corsini (guitarists unknown).

Matilde Vitullo, Feos, Sucios y Malos,
performed by Orquesta Tipica Imperial
from their CD Ruidos Molestos

Gerardo Matos Rodríguez, lyrics by Pascual Contursi y Enrique Maroni, La Cumparsita,
performed by Bernardo Monk
from his CD Estacion Buenos Aires

 

Links

Rob mentioned Rick McGary's site. Rick writes about absorbing tango as an outsider of tango in Buenos Aires.