Latest News and Anouncements
Our 10 Year Anniversary as a Band & Some Sunday Night Changes
Posted on November 29, 2011 by Bob Barnes
It's hard to believe, but it was 10 years ago that Mandragora played our first milonga at Four Season's Dance Studio! We will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary 6-10PM on December 4th at the Loring Pasta Bar. Please join us in celebrating this milestone!
We also want to announce some big changes ahead: We have decided to focus our energies on concerts and touring rather than on our weekly LPB milonga. Starting in December, Mandragora will play one Sunday a month at the Loring Pasta Bar. The rest of the Sundays will feature live music by Mateo's Tango Collective, Bob's Finnish Tango Band (Tango Pojan Tähden), or La Abandonada Tango Orchestra. We are devoted to keeping live tango music at the LPB every Sunday. It's just that the regular Mandragora quartet might not be playing every week. In reality, the complete quartet only plays once a month anyway: on most Sundays, one of us is out of town. Now we're going to make it official and have just one Sunday a month with the complete Mandragora Quartet. From this point on, all "Mandragora Tango" gigs will be the core quartet (Bob, Mateo, Laura and Nick). We will make a much bigger deal about our Sunday evening quartet gigs. We'll be sure to announce them via:
- The Tango Society of Minnesota's calendar
- Twitter (be among the first to follow our new feed at @MandragoraTango)
- Lynne Schulz' Dance News
- Various tango email lists
- The "Upcoming Gigs" section of our website
Mandragora would like to thank everyone for all their support over the years. We could not do what we do without you! Our 10th anniversary milonga will be the last time we play at the Loring for 7 weeks, so come on out and make this a Milonga to remember!
¡Un abrazo tanguero a todos!
-Bob
PS: In March 2012, Mandragora will celebrate 10 years at the Loring Pasta Bar. We will mark the occasion with a great celebration!
Fall 2011 Midwest Mini-Tour
Posted on October 6, 2011 by Bob Barnes
We're making another jaunt around the midwest to play for our old friends in Madison and Chicago and to make soem new friends in central Illinois and NW Ohio/SE Michigan!
- Wed, Oct 19, Chicago: Agape Pappas' Milonga at Barba Yianni Greek Taverna at 4761 N. Lincoln Ave (map)
- Thu, Oct 20, Toledo, OH: Our first appearance in Ohio at the Toledo Party Hall at 4052 Airport Highway (map). Only an hour from Detroit or Ann Arbor!
- Fri, Oct 21, Urbana, ILMilonga at the Channing-Murray UU Chapel at 1209 W. Oregon St. (map) Right off the main Quad at UI. Hosted by Joe Grohens of cu-tango.com
- Sat, Oct 22, Madison:Joe Yang's Milonga at Dobhan Restaurant at 2110 Atwood Ave (map)
Mateo's Mandragora Musings....
Posted on March 2, 2011 by Scott Mateo Davies
Sadly, our bassist of several years, Rahn Yanes, has left Mandragora Tango. He can be heard as principal bassist with the Wayzata Symphony. I love Rahn. We will miss him.
So.......we'll be doing some gigs as a trio. Laura (violin) and Bob (bando) and me slamming heavy-metal tango guitar: not to be missed. As well, we'll be using Matt Miller and Peter Susag and others from time to time, as we look for a permanent replacement.
We are working on a new CD!! It will be Tango Nuevo and all original. This is an extremely exciting project and we're taking the time to do it right. We will be coming out with sound samples as we want your input: you are our listeners, our dancers, our friends.
Isn't the Loring Pasta Bar just about the coolest club you've ever been in? In all my world wanderings, I've never quite seen the like of it. Tango Sundays there are very special to me. Thank you for supporting us.
We are "Minnesota Originals"!
Posted on November 30, 2010 by Bob Barnes
We were recently featured on Twin Cities' Public Television's arts magazine "Minnesota Originals". We were interviewed about our craft and we played 2 songs in studio. "Cafe con limíon" is featured in the clip below:
Here's a clip of us playing "Felicia", one of our favorite traditional tangos (it's also available on our CD):
(If you can't view these clips on our site, you can see them on the Minnesota Originals site.)
Mid-West Tango Weekend: Milwaukee, Madison and Chicago, Nov 12-4
Posted on November 12, 2010 by Bob Barnes
Hey Everybody!
Fresh off of our wildly successful East Coast tour, we're making a 3-day jaunt through the upper mid-west to some of our favorite tango hotspots:
- Fri, Nov 12, Milwaukee: Casa de Danza at 21415 W Greenfield Ave in New Berlin, WI (map)
- Sat, Nov 13, Madison: Dobhan Restaurant at 2110 Atwood Ave (map)
- Sun, Nov 14, Chicago: Barba Yianni Greek Taverna at 4761 N. Lincoln Ave (map)
)
