Today I have decided to write a post that will be completely different from the others. A few months ago SuperSabino, a great and popular DJ from Italy, came up with a very interesting initiative. He started interviewing tango DJs and the text of the interviews can be found at his blog:
http://supersabinotango.blogspot.hu/
Please visit the blog and read as much as you can. You will really find valuable comments that are interesting not only for tango DJs, but also for all the dancers.
I have been one of the interviewed DJs. If you are interested in reading my interview, you can check the following link:
http://supersabinotango.blogspot.hu/2012/10/konrad-krynski-i-think-that-in-every.html
All the DJs got the same set of questions. Four in particular attracted my attention :
1) Three orchestras that can not miss in one evening?
2) Your three favorite orchestras, which may also be different from the previous ones?
3) What are the three bands or singers you can not stand?
4) What is the band most underrated by the general public and which is the most overrated?
At the moment there are 28 interviews available. The DJs are from
Argentina and Europe (mainly Italy, but many other countries are
represented as well). I thought it could be interesting to put the ideas
of those DJs together and see what is the outcome... So here are the results of my small analysis.
The question 1 and 2 were answered in the following way:
| Question 1 | Question 2 | |
| D'Arienzo | 89% | 57% |
| Di Sarli | 89% | 54% |
| Troilo | 39% | 25% |
| Canaro | 21% | 32% |
| Biagi | 21% | 25% |
| Pugliese | 21% | 50% |
| Fresedo | 18% | 29% |
| Calo | 4% | 11% |
| D'Agostino | 4% | 4% |
| Tanturi | 4% | 7% |
| Laurenz | 4% | 14% |
| Demare | 0% | 4% |
| Lomuto | 0% | 7% |
| Garcia | 0% | 4% |
| OTV | 0% | 4% |
| Varela | 0% | 4% |
| Rodriguez | 0% | 7% |
| Piazzolla | 0% | 4% |
Pretty much all DJs agree that d'Arienzo and di Sarli are by far the
most important orchestras. There are 7 orchestras that clearly come
ahead, when talking about must-have-in-milongas music.
There is quite a big difference between personal preferences of the DJs
(question 2) and what they think should be played in milongas
(question 1). It terms of personal preference, Pugliese is much more
appreciated, whereas d'Arienzo and di Sarli are appreciated a bit less, but they
are still on the top of the ranking.
When asked about orchestras and singers that the DJ's "can't stand" the
first comment in many cases was that "can't stand" is "maybe too much".
But still there were some names given...The "winner" in this category
is.... Alfredo de Angelis - 10 DJs mentioned they don't like him (either
in general or some particular parts of his recordings). I'm not a big
fan of de Angelis myself and actually I have been challenged about it by
some readers of my blog.. It looks like I'm not alone in my preferences:). The second place in "the least appreciated" category went to....
Héctor Varela. His name was mentioned by 7 DJs (surprisingly I´m not a
big fan of Varela either :). The third place went to Enrique Rodriguez
with 2 votes only... Other orchestras mentioned (by 1 DJ each) were
Firpo, Villasboas, Francini-Pontier, Malerba, OTV, Sassone.
Concerning the over and under rated orchestras: There isn't a common
agreement on this topic. Troilo and Pugliese seem to be underrated in the
opinion of DJ 7 and 4 respectively. Overrated orchestras: Varela (no
surprice - 5 DJs) and Canaro (5 DJs). Those were the only frequently
repeating answers. Quite many DJs say that some "older" orchestras
(Canaro, Donato, Orquesta Tipica Victor) are overrated and too
frequently played, in Europe in particular.
I think that if we put the comments of those 28 DJs together we will gain a huge amount of tango knowledge and experience. Those people come from
different countries, are of different age and have different tango
background. However, they have similar preferences and tastes.
I think that the results is an indicator of what is good, valuable tango music and also what is less important and not that good.
This does not absolutely mean that we need to go against our personal
preferences! If one loves and gets inspired by the music of de Angelis
and Varela - that's great! The most important is to enjoy the dance and
feel the music deep inside.
