Tanda of the Week 36/2010 - Francisco Canaro (milonga)

1. Francisco Canaro / Roberto Maida - "Milonga criolla" 1936
2. Francisco Canaro / Roberto Maida - "Silueta porteña" 1936
3. Francisco Canaro / Roberto Maida - "Milonga brava" 1938



I love the milongas from Francisco Canaro and here are some of my favorites. The tanda starts with two midtempo classics and finishes off with a great uptempo milonga. Unfortunately "Milonga Criolla" was not available on Spotify and Deezer so I changed it to "Milonga de mis Amores" for the playlists and the tanda for fine like that too.

A lot of dancers are absolutely crazy about milonga music and the milonga tandas can be their highlight of the night. Since only one out six tandas is milonga, meaning that in a 4 hour set there will be only 3 or 4 milonga tandas, the dj has to be sure that the dancers really get what they crave for.

Milonga tandas are most commonly only three songs and I believe this is the perfect lenght to dance milonga. Milonga is really about dancing the rhythm of the song and playing with it and a fourth song might be too much especially if the songs are uptempo. The dancers usually want to give it their all and even after three songs you can see people sweating and breathing heavy.

The dj has to feel what is the right tempo for a milonga tanda for the moment and the crowd. In some milongas you might find that people don't want fast milongas at all. But in general first milonga tanda of the night should be slower or midtempo and when the dancers are ready for it later in the night you should give them all that you got; Either having the tanda start off midtempo but finishing more uptempo or just going uptempo all the way. Then again... this theory is just one theory and often I find that people are ready for more uptempo milongas from the start and I might save something a bit slower for the late night.

Canaro, Francisco - TOTW - Todo Tango - tango.info - iTunes Store