Lomuto: the good, the bad and the unbearable

I drafted this back in at least January 2015 along with other pieces about music I was writing at the time but life took over.  I post it here because I came across it while searching for something else and was reminded of the mention of Lomuto at the Edinburgh International Tango Festival here and here.   I discovered that I have heard before the Violin Gitano mentioned in the EITF post.  In January 2015 I was still going  to the Counting  House in Edinburgh though not for much longer and used to hear this sort of thing often there.  The music and atmosphere drove me out as it has others though the music would have been sufficient reason.  We rarely hear from people who leave the milongas or find out why they stopped going because often we never see them again and it is easy to forget who is not there in the crowd of those who are.  But I think about them - who they were and why they left and whether we will see them again.  Glasgow has the same problem with music.  Pieces of this sort are...

Lomuto's Cicatrices,  Te aconsejo que me olvides (both 1928)  Viejo amigo, Mi pibe (No links besides Amazon links to this).  Both of these including Patadura  are 1929.  The Patadura track is embedded in a tanda of that sort but if you can listen to all of that you have a stronger will than I.  I have heard Soy un arlequín from that tanda enough times in Edinburgh to last several lifetimes.  It was previously mentioned here with reference to the Canaro instrumental though I have heard the Lomuto more often.    Sin clemencia was, when I used to go, another Edinburgh standard as was Como los nardos en flor (both 1930) and, (brace yourelf) Violin Gitano (1938).  I could go on...but listening to some of this is quite unpleasant.  No wonder Lomuto can have such a bad reputation.   I think there are good Lomuto songs, but few and I heard them played only a couple of time while I was in Buenos Aires.  The more traditional places play rather the instrumentals and then sparingly I would say.

There are the Lomutos which I don't mind and would dance but at the moment I think there is something a bit brash and insistent about the instrumental sections of Yo Nací Para Querer.  There is an element of that I find even in good Lomuto, especially the instrumentals - it is the style of those rhythmic pieces.  Yo Nací Para Querer has a very distinctive Lomuto sound and a lovely melody.  I think that is one of the curious things about some good Lomuto tangos - this gorgeous melody and the very strong rhythmic instrumentals.    Callecita de mi novia I rarely hear but quite like though it rather falls apart for me with Omar's entry.   Monte criollo I think I heard DJ Dante play at his Oxford milonga last year.  Rightly popular are the steady tangos like El cornetín del tranvía (1938) and Nostálgias (1936), but I find more pull for dancing in the tangos with both rhythm and strong melody:  Gólgota , Otra vez (both 1938), La gayola  and even the shrill Copa de ajenjo (both 1941). I melt at his lovely and more romantic tango Por la vuelta yet it still has strength which is a hallmark of good Lomuto for me.  Bad Lomuto just plods.

I confess a closet admiration for Lomuto's milongas. Qué tiempo aquel (1938) is justifiably played.  I hear, like and dance Parque Patricios (1941) and Serenata (1944).  There are some jerky sections in that and I think they need to be danced smoothly and with pauses to take care of the partner.   I like his No hay tierra como la mía (1945) though it isn't the Canaro (both 1939).  His Azabache I find strikingly like the more rightly popular Caló version (both 1942).  Though I prefer fast vals I think he is good with vals especially Idolatria 1937 or the delicate and lovely Lo que vieron mis ojos though I can understand these may not be for everyone.  My heart though is with his very individual instrumentals and there is a good tanda here by DJ Jaana Hänninen featuring the great Catamarca and the even better Criolla Linda which I find wholly irresistible.  I might not miss Lomuto in a very good set but I would probably object to a duplicate of some orchestras (though never good D'Arienzo) at the expense of Lomuto.

There is a more unfortunate Lomuto tanda on TOTW here from DJ Patrica Petronio who writes a blog Tango Salon Adelaide.  Back here there was much discussion of one of their milongas. It might have been on this post that I became curious about the music they had played and said in the comments how nice it would be to see the music that had had such an effect.  The comment was not published.  Having seen that tanda I am disappointed they did not publish the music because I think the set would have revealed much though I better understand the reason for that earlier censorship.  Both censorship and not publishing the music are demonstrations of fear of something, which is sadder than it is disappointing.

A DJ's "audience", "Tanda of the Week" and censorship

Martha Graham

Back here I said I wanted to respond to something that came up in a post on Tanda of the Week.  The owner of that tango music blog, DJ Antti Suniala said 

"the music has to be in relation to the audience as well".  I agree with this - with one crucial difference:  I don't think a DJ has an "audience".  A milonga isn't a show though on occasion I have seen DJs act or talk that way, or try to whip up a crowd with stamping, clapping, head-banging, air-punching, all sorts of odd things. That hubris can be fatal, I think.  A DJ plays for, is at the service of, dancers - always.  "Audience" implies something else. 

Unless Antti's idea of the DJ's role is profoundly different to mine, this mention of a DJ's audience I guess is a slip of the pen.  I have never heard Antti DJ, to my knowledge we've never met and we've never corresponded. I've read his blog for somewhere between 6 months and a year which is enough to at least get a feel for how things are there.  To date, he strikes me as one of the good guys.

Tanda of the Week is evidently not merely a personal showcase, not just a DJ setting out his stall for bookings, not least because the site is a mix of tandas put together by Antti and submitted to him by guest DJs.  So I think it's a resource, a tool, something useful, something you can learn from.  This is the main reason I also think it is great when DJs are open and share their sets publicly or privately.  TOTW is also about discussing music and DJing and that is what is great about it, what makes it really alive.  We don't always agree on music but that's kind of the point.  Where is the real interest in discussing things with people who already share your ideas?  The pleasure of discussion is in learning something new, in contrast, in persuasion, in seeing another's point of view, in understanding how they think and what they value, the finding out where you agree and disagree and why.

Tanda of the Week is well known.  In the secret lives of many DJs I suspect it is a well-used resource yet compared to the amount I imagine it is read it is commented upon comparatively little.    Antti posts his own tandas regularly, knowing that they differ in style, one from another, knowing that they could well be and in fact regularly are commented upon and have metaphorical tomatoes thrown at them, knowing his taste will be questioned and the good tandas often ignored -  yet he keeps doing it, cheerfully, with good humour.  The tandas, the cortinas and the comments are resources that can be used by new and existing DJs. I think this blog enriches the musical life of the contemporary tango scene.

I like that Antti uses this own name.  It is a good precedent.  It's less rare, for obvious reasons for a DJ to use a pseudonym online.  But of the few bloggers - and people who comment - who challenge or question, to different degrees, the status quo most seem afraid to speak out under their own name:  TangoCommuter, TangoAirO (defunct and removed), RandomTangoBloke (sadly defunct), and most obviously TangoVoice whose clam-like silence on their identity is proportionate to the degree to which s/he is, is, I think an advocate of the traditional, Buenos Aires way of doing things.  There are excellent reasons for this, not least the risk of ostracism and fear of a backlash in their local communities.  This is not on the same scale as the risks faced by some apostates or critics of religion and yet a social death in their local tango scene is enough to put off many from speaking freely - or at least publicly - especially if they already have roles as DJs, organisers or even teachers. But what actually does it say about these tango "communities" where there is evidently a sense that there can be no diversity in opinion, let alone practice, without repercussion?  Diversity is healthy.  Monopolies are not and breed a herd-like mentality and fear.  How many milongas are there round your way locally? How many compared to the number of teachers?  What kind of music is played?  How many different DJs are there locally? Does one group run all your milongas or is there healthy diversity? How diverse are things, generally, near you? I have found diversity by dancing in five or six different towns and cities within an hour of me but more local diversity is better.  

One of the best things for me about Tanda of the Week, is that it is open, uncensored.  That alone says much.  As far as I know, and as far as I have heard to date unlike many Antti does not censor comments where he does not agree with the view.  That freedom to speak your mind implies a degree of trust that, in a society which values freedom of speech, I have found to be surprisingly (to my mind) rare among bloggers.  It was Martha Graham¹ (pictured) who said "Censorship is the height of vanity" and I agree.  And of fear.  People who censor are essentially fearful, trying to cling on to something - usually their sense of a form of power, status or money.  When challenged on this, moderators or administrators almost universally adopt a libertarian line, saying this forum is a sort of private club where our own rules apply and if you don't like it, you can go elsewhere or we can kick you out. But censorship by definition happens (usually) before people get to see it, before that group  gets to decide collectively on whether something is OK or not.  It prevents discussion about whether it's ok.  I think that's what I object to. Some people are happy to abnegate that responsibility, but I care more about the people who aren't.  Open societies just like open forums discuss together what is acceptable and what is not. That's how we live together.  It's also how we develop diversity and toleration.  The rapper Jay-Z in his book, Decoded said we change people through conversation, not through censorship.

Sometimes censorship is more insidious - an edited history is provided. So things happen, things are said, and then quietly deleted, history is rewritten. It reminds me of China's history books - it happened, but only like this, only as we tell  you, or only as far as you remember and we know how how unreliable memory is.  Except memory can be surprisingly persistent and objectionable when things are suppressed.

TangoAirO sometimes looked at things from a questioning angle.  S/he took his site offline earlier this year - not left for posterity to learn from, and yet if ever a blogger was didactic this one was - but removed so the author could move onto the more important things in life.  I can't help but wonder if that was teaching.  For me discussion about ideas is at the very heart of life.

So while discussion remains not ad hominem but about ideas and opinion then I think no censorship is very valuable.  Actually, even personal attacks, unless severely disruptive, or revealing of privacy, personal or confidential information are worth leaving in place - as indicative of the person that made them.  I understand when comments are moderated maybe to avoid spam or perhaps with the idea that someone should be spared another's vitriol but I do not comment upon blogs like Melina's Two Cents (dormant), and TangoCommuter's that allow comments yet filter them in god-like fashion depending on the degree to which they disagree with the blog owner.  If only part of a comment is published it is for me a form of dishonesty and the kind of manipulation of which the media is often accused.  Mostly this filtering smacks of fear which sits uneasily with someone writing publicly.  It feels like grandstanding yet having hoods at the back to chuck out the dissenters.  Besides, I find the public back-slapping - rife on social media - between people who share uncontroversial ideas uninteresting at best, slightly sinister at worst. 

Someone said to me recently, "We can't rely on what our friends say about us...they love us unconditionally. What our foes say is the more accurate benchmark."  I don't know about accurate, because enemies are also prone to propaganda. But still, I asked,
"So what do your enemies say?"
"I have no enemies, When you expect the best out of people, nine times out of ten that's what you get."

That, I think is what is happening in Tanda of the Week.  Antti expects it to work, for the most part expects healthy debate and ideas (since his "never criticize" comment, this under review) and gets it, I think.

Antti argues, believe me. But he will sometimes be persuaded by or make a concession to a point.  I have found that in life to be a rare trait between individuals, let alone in public.  It suggests honesty, open-mindedness and a willingness to change one's mind.  There is more often strength than weakness in that.

The point about a DJ's "audience" was the first I wanted to respond to.  The other will be next time.

¹Martha Graham "the Picasso of dance" was an influential twentieth century modern dancer and choreographer whose work, rooted in America, crossed artistic boundaries. She said, "A dance reveals the spirit of the country in which it takes root. No sooner does it fail to do this than it loses its integrity and significance".

Photograph by Cris Alexander, courtesy of Martha Graham Dance Company.