The Monster Orchestra
The Monster Orchestra has been an important part of Tango de los Muertos from the very first year
of the festival, in 2005. Our goal is simple and ambitious: to create a new Golden Age of tango, where
it is common and viable to have really good, live tango music for dancing. To this end, each year
of the festival we create an orchestra from a mix of professional and dedicated amateur musicians who
rehearse throughout the weekend and then perform a set during the last milonga, for everyone to dance
to. The goal is to make live music that matches the general consensus among dancers about what they
really want.
The Monster Orchestra, with special guests
Milo and Carla, performs during TdlM 2007. Photo by Marty Katz.
A Bit of Recent History
Much of the credit for this grassroots tango music education movement belongs to Ben Bogart, who started a monthly Tango Jam in Providence, RI, around the same time as we started planning the first Tango de los Muertos festival in 2005. Before then, no one realized how many musicians were actually interested playing tangos, or how supportive the dancers would be of even modest efforts at creating social-dance friendly music.
Ben was already a tango dancer, teacher, DJ, and professional saxophonist when he started learning to play the bandoneon in 2005 and then started the Tango Jam shortly after. The Tango Jam, an open session that any musician could participate in, served two goals for Ben -- he not only got to practice playing the bandoneon, but he could also use the Jam to educate other musicians about how to play the kind of tango music that he liked to dance to.
 Photo
by Marty Katz, TdlM 2007. |
Since then, Tango Jams and Tango Jamquestras (when the musicians from the jam perform informally at a milonga) have occurred in many cities across North America, either led by Ben or other dancer/musicians. Homer Ladas leads a regular Tango Jam in San Francisco, and Korey Ireland, Evan Griffithsand Alex Krebs have all led ensembles during festival weekends.
Korey Ireland will lead this year's Monster Orchestra. You can read about him on the Artists page.
Good, Danceable Music
Many of today's tango bands play beautiful music, but not all of it is great for the social setting of a milonga. There's a general consensus among dancers that the best tango DJs primarily play music from the Golden Age of tango and play only a few songs with post-1950's recording dates. They rarely play Osvaldo Pugliese's biggest and most dramatic songs, and music by Astor Piazzolla is almost non-existent at a milonga. Yet many modern tango bands prominently feature music in the style of these two musicians.
Dancers agree that Pugliese and Piazzolla are amazing and awe-inspiring, but are perhaps not the best choice for meeting the musical needs of the majority of dancers. In order for dancers of all abilities to feel successful expressing the music, it first needs to have a steady, reliable beat. Then, on top of the predictable beat, one finds the rhythmic complexity and compelling melody that makes the music interesting for even the most advanced dancers. Golden Age orchestras such as Carlos Di Sarli and Juan D'Arienzo - beloved by dancers - have tremendous variety in their music, but a steady beat continues underneath all the pauses and syncopations. With this music, beginners can follow the beat and advanced dancers can choose which musical line or instrument to express at any given moment.
For Monster Musicians
 Photo
by Marty Katz, TdlM 2007. |
There will be approximately 10 hours of rehearsal throughout the weekend. The rehearsal schedule will include sectional and small groups as well as full ensemble rehearsals. (You can see the current schedule on the Schedule page, but note that it is still subject to change, and musicians may not be required at all of those times anyway because of sectional rehearsals.)
The orchestra will play between 6-8 songs. Sheet music and sample MP3s will be available to download as PDFs on this page soon. Until then, check out TangoJam.com and play tango music as much as possible!
For more information, contact the band leader, Korey Ireland. <korey at ko-arts dot com>
All photos on this page by Marty Katz.
