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This is an acoustic milonga that I composed some years ago.
Recently I was listening to some tangos written by Tobin here in MacJams. While making comments to his songs I started to think about this piece that survived in my memory. Today I started to play it and then I decided to record it just as a draft. But surprisingly it took me only a couple of hours to finish it, so here it is.
The milonga is a very old genre of music, originally from the south of Argentina; one of the influences of tango. The original song was only the guitar part, but I added some other instruments this time. I'm playing my campground proof crappy classical guitar and a recorder. Also the upright jazz bass in GB played with a midi kbd. Other organic noises are from the rest of the family around. I tried to keep the instrumentation as minimal as possible to keep the song open. There are clear Piazzolla influences here (the chromatic bass line for example), but the instrumentation is quite primitive, so it is like closing a cycle here: the latest and the earliest together.
It would have been ideal to have a bandoneon or violin around but none available. So I tried to improvise with the recorder and I liked it. Historically, the flute was used even before the bandoneon to play tango. So the recorder may be even an adequate instrument for the genre (as if anybody would care). Also the wind instruments are used in other parts of Argentina for folk/native music (you must know "El Condor Pasa" for sure, if not please go and google it), so it sounds cool to merge the metropolis and the native influences.
I always remember my first college years when I play this little song because it was more or less by that time that I composed it. So this goes to my beloved friends in Argentina that took care of me during those years: Flaco (the one that gave the name to the song), Cadu, Turco, Martincho y Flavio. Los quiero atorrantes.
Recently I was listening to some tangos written by Tobin here in MacJams. While making comments to his songs I started to think about this piece that survived in my memory. Today I started to play it and then I decided to record it just as a draft. But surprisingly it took me only a couple of hours to finish it, so here it is.
The milonga is a very old genre of music, originally from the south of Argentina; one of the influences of tango. The original song was only the guitar part, but I added some other instruments this time. I'm playing my campground proof crappy classical guitar and a recorder. Also the upright jazz bass in GB played with a midi kbd. Other organic noises are from the rest of the family around. I tried to keep the instrumentation as minimal as possible to keep the song open. There are clear Piazzolla influences here (the chromatic bass line for example), but the instrumentation is quite primitive, so it is like closing a cycle here: the latest and the earliest together.
It would have been ideal to have a bandoneon or violin around but none available. So I tried to improvise with the recorder and I liked it. Historically, the flute was used even before the bandoneon to play tango. So the recorder may be even an adequate instrument for the genre (as if anybody would care). Also the wind instruments are used in other parts of Argentina for folk/native music (you must know "El Condor Pasa" for sure, if not please go and google it), so it sounds cool to merge the metropolis and the native influences.
I always remember my first college years when I play this little song because it was more or less by that time that I composed it. So this goes to my beloved friends in Argentina that took care of me during those years: Flaco (the one that gave the name to the song), Cadu, Turco, Martincho y Flavio. Los quiero atorrantes.
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johnwhitehead
Quite a haunting piece. Like the airy simplicity.
Lovely.