Upcoming MDC: 17 July 2010

We start to have Milonga del Corazón because our hearts are truly in tango. We'd like to offer a space where people in Hong Kong can experience the milongas in Buenos Aires - dancing in a cosy place with traditional tango music. We may not be able to offer grand and historical dance hall that like Salon Canning and Niño Bien, but we pay the greatest respect to the classical music like most milongas in Buenos Aires do. We carefully arrange and select the most danceable music in our milonga, as we believe that one of the keys to understand tango is to dance with the most sophisticated music in the tango history. We wish you enjoy dancing in our milonga, and experience the unique sensations that derived from embracing with the tango music from the golden era. 我們開始辨 Milonga del Corazón 是因為我們真的心愛探戈。我們希望在香港提供一個可以體驗布宜諾斯艾利斯milonga的地方﹣在有傳統探戈音樂的舒適氣氛下跳舞。我們或許不能提供像Salon Canning 或 Niño Bien那種有氣派有悠久歷史的舞池,但我們像布宜諾斯艾利斯大部份Milonga一樣十分尊重傳統的探戈音樂。我們精心安排和挑選最適合跳舞的音樂,因為我們深信要了解探戈其中之一的關鍵便是跟探戈歷史中最有深度的音樂跳舞。我們希望你喜歡在我們的Milonga跳舞,並體會到擁抱經典探戈音樂所帶來的奇妙感覺。 Emily and Coleman

Thursday, February 15, 2007

A Beginner's Guide to D'Arienzo By Emily

Juan D’Arienzo is one of the most important names in tango history. His music is highly danceable, and it’s hard to imagine a milonga where it won’t be heard. Since he made around 1,000 recordings in his 50-year career, it is not easy to find a small selection of CDs to represent his music. The four disks selected here, however, all have my seal of approval.
The best jumping off point is D’Arienzo’s music from the late 1930s to early 1940s. His music of this period carries a very distinctive rhythm – its mission: to lure dancers to the floor. The piano has a very important role, particularly when played by Rodolfo Biagi, another famous tango musician, who was D’Arienzo’s pianist until he went off to form his own orchestra in 1938.

“Sus Primeros Exitos Vol.1” in the Tango Argentino Series collects almost all of D’Arienzo’s most classic instrumental works from 1935 to 1939. I remember hearing this CD played repeatedly by a group of street tango performers in a flea market in Buenos Aires for nine hours every Sunday. All the tracks are “super-classics”, but especially strong are “9 De Julio”, “La Cumparsita”, “La Viruta” and the famous milonga “Milonga, Vieja Milonga”. If you only want to own one or two D’Arienzo CDs, this should be one of them.

If you prefer music with singing, try “Sus Primeros Exitos” or “Tango Bravo”, also in the Tango Argentino series. Vocals tend not to play the key role in D’Arienzo’s music (very different from Di Sarli’s lyrical pieces, where the vocals almost always carry the whole melody, dominating the flow of the song). The melody of D’Arienzo’s music typically comes from an interplay of voice, piano and violin, making the singer as just one of a trio of elements embellishing the rhythm.

D’Arienzo worked with several tango singers. Héctor Mauré is certainly one of the most important. Although D’Arienzo and Mauré worked together for less than four years, they together created several of tango’s most classic songs. “Sus Primeros Exitos” features such greats as “Amarras”, “Dime Mi Amor”, “Infamia”, “Uno” and “Tango Brujo”.


“Tango Bravo” collects the classic songs of D’Arienzo with Alberto Echagüe and Armando Laborde – possibly the orchestra leader’s two favourite singers. Both Echagüe and Laborde recorded more than a hundred pieces with D’Arienzo. Since the album collects recordings made from 1938 to 1954, it offers a taste of D’Arienzo’s pieces from a period when his music became more dramatic than in his earlier days. Again, most pieces are extremely popular, but with the standouts (in my view) being “Trago Amargo”, “Corrientes Y Esmeralda”, “Mandria”, “Olvídame” and a vals called “En Tu Corazón”.



For milonga lovers, I recommend “Milongueando Con Juan D'Arienzo 1935/1962” released by Euro Records. Since D’Arienzo music’s style is very rhythmical, his interpretation of milongas tends to up-tempo compared with most other tango orchestras. This album has an excellent selection of 21 pieces recorded between 1935 to 1962. Particularly worth listening to are “La Cicatriz”, “Meta Fierro”, “Milonga Del Recuerdo” and “Silueta Porteña”. This CD is also the perfect option for anyone who simply wants a collection of milongas.


If you are a serious collector or a DJ, then consider the “El Rey Del Compas/70 Años” collection released by Sony BMG. This series, consisting altogether of 15 CDs, collects about 300 of D’Arienzo’s recordings, in chronological order, from 1935 to 1975. You will find many beautiful pieces not released on any of the Tango Argentino or Coleccion 78 RPM series.

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