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Pleasures of the Dance
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Albuquerque Journal, Pleasures of the Dance >>
Pleasures of The Dance: ‘Tango Voices’ profiles the pride of Buenos Aires and provides insights into what makes it irresistible
Review by David Steinberg
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“Tango Voices, Songs from the Soul of Buenos Aires & Beyond” compiled and edited by Donald Cohen
Wise Publications, $49.95 cloth, $39.95 paper, 176 pp.
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All you tango singers and dancers out there, here’s a book for you.
And for all of you armchair tango aficionados (of which I count myself as one), this, too, is a book for you. In his introduction to “Tango Voices,” compiler/editor Donald Cohen writes that the volume can be a gateway to tango canción (tango song) for those who know little about the music.
In the central section of the book, Cohen has brought together illustrated histories of 26 tango songs, many of them standards like “Caminito,” “A Media Luz” and “La Cumparsita.” A few were written in countries far removed from Argentina and Uruguay, namely Algeria, Russia and Germany.
The vintage tango “Jalousie” has the honor of fitting in both categories. It’s a standard and its composer is Danish, Jacob Gade.
The book’s 12-page introduction serves as a brief popular history of tango’s multicultural roots, and it has sections of key elements in that history.
For example, you will learn about the origins of the bandoneón, nicknamed el fueye (the squeeze box), which is so closely associated with the music; the evolution of the music’s presentation from itinerant musicians to small instrumental groups (conjuntos) to full-blown orchestras; the music’s stars, notably singer Carlos Gardel, who was also a composer; and the special language of tango — it’s called lunfardo, . The language apparently originated as the slang of criminals then “superimposed on the local dialect of the street ...” according to a social historian whom Cohen quotes.
With each profile of the 26 tangos are printed arrangements of the songs for voice and guitar.
There’s more. Some of the concluding pages contain Web sites and publications on tango, tango venues in Buenos Aires and tango museums in that city.
The book has a bonus that should soften the impact of the listed retail price: Attached to the inside back cover is a clear plastic sleeve containing an audio CD with all 26 songs.
P.S. A novel with tango as an element in the story is Lloyd Jones’ “Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance” (Dial Press, $12). The book is due out in a United States edition on Sept. 2.
Another book of interest may be “The Tango Singer,” a novel by Tomás Eloy Martinez that was published in 2004.
-David Steinberg is the Journal Books editor and an Arts writer.
08/24/08 >> go there
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