Adios, maestro

I was browsing the internet yesterday morning to catch up on tango events in the city when I read “Adios, maestro” with a photo of pianist Emilio de la Peña.  I gasped and was stunned for a moment.  Yet another member of Café de los Maestros has left us. 

As I write this post I am listening to one of Emilio’s compact discs.  It’s the one I heard every Sunday morning at Tango nada más in Chicago after the milonga had ended around 4:00.  Thanks to Bob Dronski for introducing me to this master pianist’s album.  I never reached his level of playing, but I appreciated his perfection and style.  I bought a copy of Emilio’s first CD “Tango New Expresion” from Bob and played it regularly. 

I met Emilio after the awards ceremony in March 2008, when he and the other members of Café de los Maestros received certificates for their participation in the best tango album of 2006 which won a Latin Grammy.  He said he didn’t consider himself a pianist because he worked in industrial machine design most of his life.  He introduced me to his wife and children in front of the Academia del Tango and gave me his card. 

A few months later I learned that Emilio was playing solo piano at Jazz & Pop, a tiny club in downtown Buenos Aires.  I was the first to arrive and seated myself where I could watch Emilio’s hands on the keyboard.  He invited a female singer for a few numbers with him.  He played several of the arrangements I know so well from his album.  What a privilege it was to be in the room while he played.

In February I learned that Emilio was doing a series of Sunday concerts in March at Notorious.  It was the music he recorded for his final compact disc, “Este tango es otra historia,” which has been recorded but not produced as yet because he didn’t have the financial resources.  I regret not attending one of those Sunday evening concerts. 

Emilio studied piano from an early age, but had to go to work in difficult times.  Finally when he retired at 66, he dedicated himself to tango, teaching, and recording.  Last month, the city council recognized him as an outstanding personality in tango culture.  He was scheduled to perform at the Festival Buenos Aires Tango in August.  www.delapena.com.ar

Emilio may have been scheduled to appear with Café de los Maestros in London on June 26, but he suffered a heart attack last week and was hospitalized at the time of his death.  He was almost 80 years old.

Tango’s icon

Carlos Gardel is synonymous with tango to porteños.  He was born December 11, 1890, in Toulouse, France and arrived in Buenos Aires with his mother Berta Gardés in 1893.  They lived in various neighborhoods.  From 1925-1926, Gardel rented an apartment on the second floor at Rincon 137 in Balvanera, about a block from Café de los Angelitos on Av. Rivadavia, where he lived with his girlfriend Isabel del Valle.  His last residence was the house at Jean Jaurés 735,  now the Museo Casa Carlos Gardel, in the Abasto neighborhood which he bought in 1926, and lived with his mother. 

Gardel was also a dancer.  The details of his death on the airfield in Medellín, Colombia are varied.  Many will be gathering today at his tomb in Chacarita Cemetary to pay their respects to Carlitos, who died June 24, 1935.

Club de Tango

During my first visit to Buenos Aires in 1996, our tango tour group was taken on a special tour of tango sites by Oscar Himschoot.  I remember that the Palais de Glace in Recoleta, where young porteños danced in the 1920s, was one of our stops.  During another trip in 1997, I visited Oscar’s tiny office on Paraná in San Nicolas from which he edited his monthly magazine Club de Tango and fulfilled orders for books, scores, and compact discs from tangueros around the world.  The two-room office contains posters, cards, DVDs, CDs, books, sheet music, and Club de Tango magazines.

Oscar was working on compiling a book of milonga lyrics.  He completed it before his death in 2005, but it hasn’t been published.  His wife and granddaughter have that project in hand.  Oscar found approximately 1,500 milongas for his book. 

There are others  like Oscar Himschoot who love tango so much that they continually investigate it.  One has to step outside the milonga in order to find them.

One of Oscar’s most popular books is El tango: la pasión del 2 x 4.  Ediciones La Llave S.A. printed 100,000 copies of this 80-page booklet in 2000.  I bought it recently at Club de Tango, along with the book he co-authored with Ricardo Ostuni: Los Cafes de La Avenida de Mayo.  The former has 19 chapters giving a brief synopsis of tango’s origens, the bandoneon, lunfardo (one of Oscar’s favorite subjects), the first tangos, the singers, the 1940s, the tango in movies, etc. 

I had been searching years in book stores for El Tango en la sociedad porteña 1880-1920 without success.  After attending a lecture by Dr. Emilio Santabaya in May and hearing how highly he recommended the book, I set out to find it.  The publisher Hector Lucci listed Club de Tango as the source.  I went for a visit and requested a copy.  Two days later, Oscar’s wife Hilda called that she had obtained the book for me.  It has been published in larger print by Abrazos Books, although it hasn’t been translated to English.  I admit that I was stunned by the size of the book, but the larger type font meant more pages.  It is the definitive work on the early history of tango taken from public records by Hugo Lamas and Enrique Binda. 

You can visit Club de Tango at www.clubdetango.com.ar and when you are in Buenos Aires.  Hilda is there from noon to 6:00 to personally attend to customers.

Ten commandments of milongueros

After ten years of listening to men who are married to the milonga, I have compiled what I believe to be the ten commandments of milongueros.

1.  Thou shalt always dress well.  A milonguero bathes and shaves before the milonga. A pressed suit, clean shirt and tie are his uniform. Trimmed hair, shined shoes, and scent of cologne complete his attire for the milonga.

2.  Thou shalt dance ones own style.  A milonguero is a self-taught dancer with his own style, who can dance elegantly with any woman and make her happy.  A milonguero has learned by observing others, but he never copied them.  

3.  Thou shalt dance well or not at all.  If there is no woman with whom he can dance his best, a milonguero is content to listen to the music and observe the dancing.

4.  Thou shalt dance for yourself and your partner.  A milonguero dances what he feels and transmits that feeling to his partner.  He doesn’t dance to perform or for applause.

5.  Thou shalt treat women with respect.  A milonguero never approaches a woman at her table nor greets women while entering the milonga. 

6.  Thou shalt invite a woman to dance from the table.  A milonguero uses either a tilt of the head or movement of the lips to invite a woman to dance.  The invitation is subtle and not obvious to others in the milonga.  Once his invitation is refused by a woman, he will not invite her again.

7.  Thou shalt not dance with another man’s partner.  A milonguero takes time to observe the floor for several tandas so that he knows if a woman he wants to invite has a commitment with another man.  This is not always obvious since they are seated separately, but dance only with one another.  A milonguero has learned patience.

8.  Thou shalt dance in the floor space available.  A milonguero dances compactly without interfering with others dancing.  If he touches other dancers, he quickly acknowledges it by raising his hand. 

9.  Thou shalt not dance consecutive tandas.  A milonguero dances only when he is inspired by the music.  He can wait hours to hear his favorite orchestra or a certain tanda that inspires him to dance.  A milonguero prefers quality over quantity. 

10. Thou shalt not be seen leaving the milonga with a woman.  A milonguero arranges to meet a woman on the street.  He always leaves the milonga alone, just as he enters it.