It takes two

"It's just a tango. It is like sex, except with clothes on."

Since 1977, the National Day of Tango on 11th December has been a national holiday in Argentina, and started out partly as a birthday celebration for the "King of Tango" Carlos Gardel. It is also celebrated in all corners of the world.

And we missed it! Let's have a belated celebration, shall we?

Nicola Benedetti - Por Una Cabeza [Gardel]

Gisela Galeassi and Gaspar Godoy dance the Tango "Para Dos"

Fantabulosa!

Dance in bars and restaurants

Thursday marked another important centenary, dear reader - that of the birth of Astor Piazzolla, "the world's foremost composer of Tango music"!

Born to Italian emigrants in Argentina, the family moved to New York, where young Astor developed his fascination for the music of his homeland. He began to learn the bandoneon (a South American variety of accordion) at the age of eight, and composed his first Tango when he was eleven years old.

His prodigious talents did not go unnoticed, and the world-renowned "King of Tango" Carlos Gardel even invited the then-teenager to join his orchestra on tour. It's fortutuous, indeed, that Astor's father forbade him to go as he was too young, for Gardel and his entire orchestra were killed in an air crash while on this very tour. As soon as he was able, however, young Astor moved back to Argentina, where he joined several orchestras before founding his own - and the rest is history!

With his talent for crossing the musical styles of Tango and Jazz with a more traditional classical repertoire, a style that became known as Nuevo Tango, in his seven-decade career he was lauded as the foremost proponent of Argentinian music, composing for several films, and winning numerous awards.

He was still performing in 1990 at the age of 75, before suffering a stroke that left him comatose until his death two years later.

As well as many orchestrated works, he left a cultural legacy in the world of popular music, too - and here are just a couple of examples:

Astor Piazzolla - Libertango

[...a piece that was famously taken to a different level altogether by Miss Grace Jones!]

Astor Piazzolla - Fracanapa

[...which was skilfully used by remixers Javier Garza and Pablo Flores in the dance version of Queen Madge's own paean to Piazzolla's homeland.]

Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (11th March 1921 – 4th July 1992)

El Zorzal - The King of Tango

An "international man of mystery", Carlos Gardel was born on this date in 1890 in Toulouse, France (or 1887 in Tacuarembó, Uruguay - if one were to believe the myths the man himself created around his nationality and age). Who? I hear you say...

Señor Gardel, after settling with his mother first in Uruguay then in Buenos Aires, became well-known as a cabaret/folk singer on the circuit of payadores that were all the rage in South America in the early 20th century, before turning his hand to an even newer (and even more popular) style known as Tango.



Being in the centre of such a "craze" he soon gained international fame, both for his inventiveness in creating vocal versions of popular Uruguayan and Argentine instrumentals and for his matinee idol looks, and especially for his own compositions - such as this one [which was my "new fave thing" back in April]; here with a rather stylish scene from a film I have never seen, Easy Virtue starring Jessica Biel, Colin Firth and Kristen Scott-Thomas:

Carlos Gardel - Por una Cabeza

El Zorzal ("The Song Thrush"), as he was nicknamed, mysterious to the end (he hid his domestic relationships from the public for fear it might affect his adulation amongst his female fans), was on a whirlwind tour of North and South America when, sadly, he and his band died in a plane crash in Medellín, Colombia. He was only in his 40s - and the hysteria was immense.

His funeral was spectacular; his body was taken on a posthumous tour that included New York, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo and Buenos Aires, where he was interred in a grand tomb, complete with statue, that is adorned with flowers by mourners to this day.

Carlos Gardel (born Charles Romuald Gardès, 11th December 1890 – 24th June 1935)

Cabeza

This is currently My. Favourite. Thing.

Nicola Benedetti - Por Una Cabeza

Simply divine.

[Por una Cabeza literally translated means "by a head", and is a horse racing term.]

If "Strictly Come Dancing" were more like this...

...I might watch it!

Boot Camp? It certainly is...

Boot Camp

Yesterday, I made a comment about the "Easy Going" video that it was "possibly one of the gayest things you will experience all week". I think, with this one, I may have to revise that statement.

[Thanks again to Madam Arcati for finding this one!]

Like sex, except with clothes on

"It's just a tango. It is like sex, except with clothes on."

Since 1977, the National Day of Tango on 11th December has been a national holiday in Argentina. It is also celebrated in all corners of the world.

Including ours!

Gisela Galeassi and Gaspar Godoy dance the Tango "para dos"

National Tango Day

El tango te espera

"El tango te espera" [Tango waits for you] - Aníbal Carmelo Troilo

Simply because the ever-wonderful, ever-eclectic BBC Radio 3 played a version of this song this morning (I am at home off work with this bloody frozen shoulder), I felt a little Tango might brighten the mood...

Here's the beautiful Pasión by Rodrigo Leao and Lula Pena:

Rodrigo Leao and Lula Pena - Pasión

Sigh.

I wish I could move like that.

(Or at all, presently, where my arm is concerned.)

A sultry tune might provoke an impromptu turn

Thank heavens for the genius that is Mr JD Doyle, creator and curator of one of the greatest websites in gaydom Queer Music Heritage, and presenter of a radio show in the USA of the same name. His latest show is a comprehensive tribute to a great hero of mine - the AIDS campaigner, singer and actor Mr Michael Callen [Read my previous blog in tribute to this great man].

And merely by examining the playlist I stumbled across this work of wonder, which I have never previously heard. Here is Mr Callen duetting with none other than our very own Tom "Glad to Be Gay" Robinson - and a very apt song for my sister's wedding tomorrow! Madam Arcati and I fully expect to be doing this...

Michael Callen and Tom Robinson - Two Men Dance The Tango

Two Men Dance The Tango
by Tom Judson

You'd hardly think it queer if you saw two men drinking beer
It's rather common and most expected
It's not a sight that shocks, two men trading bonds and stocks
It happens daily; I know, I checked it
If you saw two men cowpokes you would sing `Home on the Range'
And two men fighting fires is anything but strange
Then why should it matter if
What's the commotion if
Who cares if...

Two men dance the tango together in the moonlight
A sultry tune might provoke an impromptu turn
If their duet shows a hint of style
Should they be put on trial?
When does a backward dip give cause for concern?

They know excitement lies in store when they trip the light fantastic
There's nothing drastic in feeling the beat within
You'll find adventure in one, two, three
So just remember, when next you see
Two men dance the tango together
You should join right in!

Two fellows on a date who find that things aren't going great
begin to panic; they've made a blunder
The evening shows no hope, in fact they're running out of rope
Like the Titanic, they're going under
But then the band starts pounding a fiery old tattoo
When Latin beats are sounding what are two boys to do?
They leap up from out their seats
Toward that hypnotic beat
And then those

Two men dance the tango together with abandon
There's nothing planned in the rhythmic relief it brings
What sound in heaven could be more pleasing
Than an accordion's wheezing?
Just hear that violin caressing its strings!

When flavours of the Argentine start to issue from the bandstand
Oh it's a grandstand where romance begins to grow
There is no reason for asking why
Don't lose composure if you should spy
Two men dance the tango together
Maybe you should too!

Oh, ev'ry chance they can go
Men go to a dance and tango
So should you!

Here's the full version

Utter fabulosity!

A gay Tango

A wave of reform seems to be sweeping through Uruguay.

The Congress in this tiniest of South American countries has started to debate the possible legalisation of cannabis, it passed a law to give women the right to opt for an abortion, and now it has allowed gay couples to marry.

Uruguay has become the second country in Latin America, after Argentina, to legalise same-sex marriages.

Read more on the BBC

Facts about Uruguay:

• The name Uruguay means river of the colourful birds.
• Its capital Montevideo is the southernmost capital city in the Americas, and the third most southerly in the world (only Canberra and Wellington are further south).
• During the Napoleonic Wars, Montevideo was occupied by a British force from February to September 1807.
• Uruguay has won the FIFA (Football) World Cup twice - in 1930 and 1950. It is the smallest country (in terms of population) to ever win a World Cup.
• The country is known for its secularism, liberal social laws, and well-developed social security, health, and educational systems. Uruguay is one of the few countries in Latin America and the Caribbean where the entire population has access to clean water.
• One of the best-known tangos in the world, La Cumparsita, was written by Uruguayan composer Gerardo Matos Rodríguez.

And on that note...

La Cumparsita (from Maurice Bejart's Tango-Mozart)

I like Uruguay.

Older, and wiser?

I often "do" famous birthdays here at Dolores Delargo Towers. However, alongside the likes of Norma Shearer, Rosanna Arquette and Ronnie Spector, there is another birthday today - MEEEEEEE!

Oh, and the lovely Antonio Banderas, of course - a good enough prezzie for any gay boy, I'd say! Fancy blowing THAT candle...

Antonio Banderas - Take The Lead - Tango scene

José Antonio Domínguez Banderas (born 10th August 1960)