THE MUSIC

"The classic tangos are classics for a very good reason."

Even though I love digging deep to find special tangos to play I have no shame in playing a lot of classics. As dancers we all need the tangos we know by heart. Orchestras like Canaro, D'Arienzo, Fresedo, Biagi, Donato, Calo, Rodriguez and Troilo are in heavy rotation and I will throw in a carefully selected tanda of Pugliese as well.

I play music I love to dance to and I make sure my selection will please the traditional dancers but also dancers looking for a bit more. I love hearing comments like "our dancers usually beg for alternative tangos but they were blown away by your set (of traditional tangos) tonight".

Here are a couple of track lists of the music I have played:

Tokyo Milonga 7.10.2010 --> MP3
Milonga 8.7.2010

You can find more tandas and mp3's in my blog at http://tandaoftheweek.blogspot.com/

THE DJ

I use my experience in dj'ing other styles of music in making all the transitions from a song to the next and from tandas to cortinas as smooth as possible. I always add a short moment of silence in between songs. This is a strong personal preference as I believe to truly finish the song you need that moment of silence to breath out and release from the emotions before the next song starts.

The dj is in charge of the mood of the milonga and has to act like a good leader as well as a follower; Offer music that inspires the dancers and also be aware of how they dance and be open to their requests.

CORTINAS

I used to work a lot in producing electronic music and still edit a lot of music for my circus performances. The passion for this work has me sometimes staying up all night editing a perfect cortina taking out the best parts of a song and putting them together. Instead of just playing a song and fading it away I have a cortina with a beginning, the middle part and an ending. As most of the tango singers are men I let the women sing most of the cortinas. I also like to choose songs that have lyrics that fit dancing tango:

"Everytime you hold me... hold me like it is the last time..."

TANDAS

Here are some of my favorite tandas at the moment. You can find more tandas and mp3's in my blog at http://tandaoftheweek.blogspot.com/