06/01/2010

A Traditional DJ?

I've got a reputation as a "traditional DJ" and that's how I tend to get introduced at events like Taboe Camp. Of course, each crowd is different so I play differently everywhere I go. This year I felt I really got the measure of the Taboe crowd, and played just right for them - always respecting my won feeling for the music, of course. So how traditional was I? What does traditional mean anyway??

I looked at my playlists and analyzed them according not to how many of the tracks were traditional tangos, but how many were "Argentine" - which ones I could play at a traditional milonga in Argentina. These milongas have sets of old swing music and what they call tropical - normally cumbia, so I included these as well. Here are the results:

  • Summer Taboe Camp 2009: 72% traditional

  • Winter Taboe Camp 2009 Wednesday: 75% traditional

  • Winter Taboe Camp 2009 New Year's Night (1am - 3am): 63% traditional


One track I love to play is Morena Pilar by Las Bordonas. I can't play this in England: it's too wild for London and too hard for the provinces. As a salute to tradition, here are Julio Balmaceda & Corina De La Rosa giving it some to this storming milonga-candombe:






If you want to see what they are dancing, there is another video on youtube from their perforamnce in Lisbon, 2008 which is filmed from above, although without the live band it's not as electrifying.

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