Mandragora Tango Orchestra

An Open Invitation to Mandragora's Inaugural Ball

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:00:00 -0600

Mandrágora Tango is celebrating Barack Obama's Inauguration by throwing an Inagural Ball on the evening of January 20,
the first day of Obama's administrations (and the first day of George Bush's unemployment). We've rented out Patrick's Cabaret (3010 Minnehaha Ave in South Minneapolis) for the evening. This event is not just for Tango dancers: we are inviting everyone who has a reason to celebrate. Doors will open at 7:30 for a free introductory tango lesson. Mandrágora will take the stage at 9 for a joyous evening of dancing. We will play and DJ a wide variety of styles (swing, funk, latin, etc...) to get everyone up and moving, regardless of whether they can dance or not. This will be a night to celebrate. We are asking for a $10 donation at the door. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to John McCain's favorite charity, ACORN*

* I'm being facetious. John McCain hates ACORN. ACORN registers minorities to vote and the McCain campaign claimed that they are "destroying the fabric of democracy", whatever that means.

Mandragora's Christmas Gift to You

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:36:19 -0600

I've made 3 compilations that fit nicely on one CD each. Suffice it to say, very few of these tunes are appropriate for dancing. In actuality, no tango can really melt your face, but these tangos really burn hard and get in your face. The music may defile your soul if you are not careful. I created this mix to show my classical-music-snob friends the depth of tango music as high art. If Jazz is the art music of the United States, Tango is the art music of Argentina. Both have a deep and rich repertory that is often overlooked in academia. Any of these tunes would be at home in a European classical concert hall, but most of them are unknown outside of Argentina. I originally made the "Cougars of Tango" compilation for Rachel Miloy, a flamenco singer friend of our who has a huge voice totally outsized for her small stature. She is starting to sing with us from time to time and really lighting up the stage. In case you didn't know, "Cougar" is American slang for an attractive older woman who prefers the company of younger men; sort of a "trophy wife" in reverse. I'm using this term to refer to the raw sexuality these women put into their singing, regardless of their age. If this term still offends you, please assume that I am referring to the Mercury Cougar of tango and accept our apologies

I've also included some paper cd cases that you can print out on 8.5"x11" paper (US standard) and fold into a neat little envelope that has the tracklist printed on the back. The folding directions are here

The Greatest Piazzolla Compilation of All Time is a collection of my favorite Piazzolla cuts (96M: download origami CD case)
Tangos that will Melt Your Face and Silently Defile Your Soul is a collection of some of the most kick-ass modern acoustic tangos by folks who are not named Piazzolla. (96M: download origami CD case)
Cougars of Tango (85M: download origami CD case)

You can open each compilation in a separate window so you can listen while surfing the web:

Or you can listen to them here:

Mandrágora Tango wishes you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Fine Solstice, Good Festivus and all the best in 2009. We hope to see you then!

-Bob, Mateo, Laura and Rahn

PS: We hope to finish our new CD sometime in 2009, 2010 or 2011. (2013 at the very latest!!!) Meanwhile, here are a 6 tracks (35M) to whet your appetite. You can also listen in a new window or click below:

Cocoa Tango Extravaganza

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:00:00 -0600

As I write this blog post, it is 10 degrees in Minneapolis (-12 Celsius). Therefore, it is with great joy that I am announcing that Mandrágora will be headlining the first annual Cocoa Tango Extravaganza near sunny Cocoa Beach, Florida We're playing concert/milongas on January 23 and 24 at the Cocoa Civic Center, overlooking the beautiful Indian River. According to The Weather Underground, the average temperature in Cocoa Beach that time of year is a balmy 68 degrees (20 Celsius). If you're in the area or you are looking to take a break from the cold weather and you can't afford a trip to Buenos Aires, why not come to the Cocoa Tango Extravaganza. For more information, check out cocoatango.com. The Fawlty Towers Resort is Mandrágora's preferred hotel in Cocoa Beach.

Beginners Guide to the Loring Pasta Bar

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:06:48 -0600

We've been playing every Sunday night at the Loring Pasta Bar since April 2002. It is our tango home and we love having visitors. On a typical evening, we'll have about 50-80 dancers (a little fewer in Summer and on the Sundays that follow the monthly TSoM Milonga) Our LPB gig is a kinda of tango rarity: there are very few cities outside of Argentina that have a weekly milonga with live music. We're pretty sure that we've played more milongas than any band outside of Argentina.

Here are some tips to make Tango Night at the Loring Pasta Bar more enjoyable.

It's pretty easy to get to the LPB. It's at the corner of 14th. Avenue SE and 4th. Street SE in the Dinkytown neighborhood of Minneapolis.

From Minneapolis, take 35W north and take the Univeristy Avenue West exit right after you cross the Mississippi. Make a left on 14th. Ave and go one block. It's on your left.
From St. Paul, take 94 West to Huron Avenue North. Make a left on 4th. Street. It's on your left, on the corner of 14th. Ave.

It's about 4 miles or a $10 cab ride from downtown Minneapolis hotels.

Dinkytown parking can be tricky. On-street parking is free on Sundays, but is pretty sparse. There are 2 lots within easy walking distance. There is a free lot that you enter at the corner of 13th. Ave and 5th. St. There is a pay lot on 5th. St. between 13th and 14th. They sometimes close early and leave passive-aggressive notes on your car reminding you to pay up later.

The waitstaff at the LPB are generally nice people, but have been known to be aloof or squirrelly. If you are nice to them, they'll be nice to you. Sunday night is the only night where they have to serve tables while people dance in the middle of the floor. The waitstaff does a great job of keeping out of the way of dancers, but it's super-important to leave your big, flashy show-tango moves at the dance studio.

There is no cover charge to enter the LPB, but it is considered polite to at least buy a drink. No one will stop you if you don't buy anything, but it doesn't reflect well on the dance community. A venue can only pay a band if they make enough money on dinner and drinks to justify the expense. Uncountably many dance nights have been canceled all over the world due to dancers who only order a glass of tap water.

Dancers generally dress up for tango night. Maybe not as much as BsAs, but definitely more than a Tuesday practica at a strip mall. It can get quite warm in summer, so gentlemen way want to consider a lightweight shirt rather than a suit.

The fact that there are both diners and dancers can be a bit confusing for newcomers. If it's your first time, leaders may not know that you are there for dancing rather than pasta. Also, the Cabeceo is not generally used.

Just like in BsAs, the staff of the LPB have set aside several tables for dancers. If you're having dinner, tell the hostess and she'll give you a table near the action. If you're coming alone, buy yourself a drink at the bar and check out this radically over-simplified map. The tables in red are usually stocked with dancers. Dancers who are not having dinner usually congregate on stage right or by the grand staircase in the back. There is a bench between the 2 arches to the bar where dancers usually change their shoes: no need to use the restroom.

(Random Factiod: in 1959, Bob Dylan lived in an apartment that is now part of the LPB. The door to his apartment was recycled to become the door to the women's room.)

Just like every dance community in the world, there are creepy guys who will prey on new dancers who don't yet know how creepy they are. (Luckily, Minneapolis does not have any know cases of "old guy in black leather pants", which seems to be epidemic on the east coast). You'll notice that the local followers don't dance with them that much. Use your instincts: if you think a guy is creepy, you are probably right. Don't forget that followers can set the "terms of the embrace" with their left arms. Also, followers have the right to refuse 2nd dances by saying something like "I'd like to try dancing with some of the other leaders". There is also the usual ageism: old creepy guys who only want to dance w/ college-age followers and younger leaders who are afraid to dance with a woman of a certain age. Mandrágora try to counter this a bit. We occasionally have a Sadie Hawkins Tanda where followers ask leaders to dance. We also like to promote the mantra of "Have one dance with someone better than you, one dance with someone newer than you, and one dance with someone you've never danced with".

Important Reminder for Leaders Please don't go table-to-table asking random college-age women to tango with you. This creeps them out and give them a bad idea of what tango is about. Eeeeeew!!! Plus, women have complained to the LPB management. This would not be so bad if these proselytizing leaders would dance with women close to their own age, but I've pretty much never seen that happen.

Our milonga at the Loring Pasta Bar is a "studio-free zone". Folks from all dance studios are welcome. All dance instructors can put fliers on stage as long as they stick around to dance a little bit. We also ask that dance instructors not "troll for students", so you should not be put in the situation of dancing with someone who then tries to sell you lessons. We try to have good relations with all the dance instructors in town, but we do not recommend one over the others. They all have different strengths and we love them all in a non-creepy, asexual way.

The dancers at the LPB are generally nice folks. I've heard other dancers describe them as "cliquey". If you say "hi" or introduce yourself as a newcomer, you will be assured of a dance. Mandrágora is always happy to have new dancers at the LPB. If it's your first time, say "hi" to one of us at break. We'd be happy to introduce you to some of the nice folks you might enjoy dancing with (we can also point out the creepy guys that libel laws prevent us from naming on this website!)

We hope to see you soon!

Tango Band Starter Kit

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:12:36 -0600

I'm a big believer that information wants to be free. I also think that there are not enough Tango bands outside of Argentina. Tango dancers generally prefer DJ'd music because there are simply not enough good tango bands out there to show folks how great it is to dance tango to live music. You couldn't have a swing or salsa festival without a live band, but there are plenty of tango festivals that all recorded music. I love the classics as much as the next dancer, but I also think that for Tango to be a living art form, it needs live music.

Tango is classical music you can dance to. The musicians generally play off of arrangements where each note is written down. One thing I hear a lot from fellow tango musicians is the difficulty of finding arrangments suitable for dancing. (I've written about this in an earlier blog post). There is a lot of tango concert music (i.e. Piazzolla) available, but this is not suitable for dancing. For this reason, most beginning Tango dance bands play "A la parrilla", which means they are playing off of lead sheets like jazz musicians. This is good, but it may not be "real tango" (whatever that is). The Argentine composer Martín Kutnowski one told me that if a Tango band is not using arrangements, it is just playing "World Music".

I'd like to share some of Mandrágora's arrangements with whomever wants them. These certainly aren't the best arrangements out there and I'm certainly not in the same class of arrangers as the cats in Buenos Aires, but I want to put my stuff out there in the hopes that other musicians with other charts will do the same (if you want, I can post them to this site and link back to you).

Much, much more after the jump...

MusicArte Festival in Forth Worth, TX

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:44:49 -0600

On October 4th, will be playing deep in the heart of Texas at the MusicArte Festival in downtown Fort Worth. We're playing on the main stage from 5:30 to 7PM and we'll play a milonga in the "Argentine Pavilion" from 9 to 11:30PM. This festival is organized by the Downtown Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as a way of showcasing the music, arts, food, and culture of several Latin American nations, including Argentina. Members of the budding "Fort Worth Tango Society" will do demonstrations dances during our mainstage set. All of them will join us in the Argentina Pavilion for a Milonga from 9-11:30PM. Tell all your Texan friends to come out and dance!

Bob's Thoughts on Playing for Weddings

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:31:10 -0600

First of all, the wedding is about the bride (and, to a lesser extent, the groom). Unless it is 100% financed by Mom and Dad, It should be about the choices of the couple. When I got married, we looked at the reception as the only time we would have all our friends and relatives in the same room. We wanted to have a party that everyone would enjoy. We figured the next time all these people would join together will be when one of us dies, and that party would not be as enjoyable for the surviving spouse.

For most guests, the fun of a wedding comes from 2 things. First of all, watching the 2-minutes of so of the ceremony where the Bride and Groom profess their love and finally kiss. Secondly, folks like to visit with friends and relatives they may not have seen in a long time. Do whatever you can do to facilitate this. Keep the ceremony short (sorry, Catholics!). Make sure the reception is condusive for mingling and having fun. A plated sit-down dinner traps people at a table for a long stretch of time. Folks mingle at a buffet, and small children will get ansy waiting to eat. Have folks give toasts while folks are eating: if the toasts get boring, folks go back to eatting and pretend to listen. This will also prevent toasts and speeches from cutting into mingling time.

One item that Mandragora has always noticed is that open bars are always happier receptions. We're not just saying this because we are borderline alcoholics: an closed bar gives your guests a subtle message against drinking. If this is your attitude, more power to you. But think about this: if the first thing you'd to when a guest came to you home is to offer them a drink, why would you not offer them one at your wedding? Unless you have a lot of really inappropriate friends and relatives, you may want to consider an open or semi-open bar for at least some of the evening. If money is tight, you may want to serve a keg or a large quantity of cheap boxed wine available for free until it runs out. Consider a buffet-style dinner instead of a plated one to save money for the bar. Also, consider putting a bottle of cheap wine or two on each table for the guests to share. There is something absolutely hospitable about sharing a glass of wine and a nice meal with friends and family.

June 2008 US East Coast tour

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:15:35 -0600

We're heading back to the East Coast for our second East Coast tour. Here's where you can hear us live without having to make your way to Minnesota:

June 18, Northampton, MA Sacred Heart Church 101 King St. Sponsored by JackieLing Wong of tangopuse.net
June 19, Woodstock, NY Sponsored by Ilene Marder of Woodstock Tango 8-11PM or so at Mountainview Studio
June 20, Philadelphia, PA A fabulous evening of dancing at Temple University's Conwell Dance Theater Sponsored by our good friend Rob Connaire. and Lesley Mitchell & Kelly Ray of DancePhiladelphia.com
June 21, Bethlehem, PA Private Party
June 22, Allentown, PA 5-8:30PM at the Hamilton room of the Allentown Brewworks Sponsored by Sharon Hillman of Lehigh Valley Tango. With lesson at 4:15 included with admission
June 23, Washington, DC 8-11PM House Milonga at 9124 Vendome Drive, Bethesda, MD sponsored by Jake Spatz of TangoDC.com
June 24, Richmond, VA 7:30-10:30 Milonga at Highlands Golf Club sponsored by Marge Burkell of Richmond Tango

We're also proud to announce we are going to play at the Chicago Tango Festival in late August. Watch this space for more details!

Heartland Tango Festival on Mother's Day Weekend

Fri, 09 May 2008 09:19:46 -0600

The Mandrágora Tango Orchestra will be playing and teaching several times at the Heartland Tango Festival. On Saturday afternoon, bandleader and bandoneonista Bob Barnes will present an entertaining and informative multimedia lecture-recital-powerpoint on the history of tango music. On Saturday evening, Mandragora will perform during the festival's main event: a dinner featuring live music and dance demonstrations by all the festival's teachers witha late-night milonga to follow. On Sunday afternoon, members of Mandrágora will lead an open tango music jam session for musicians of any level. On Sunday evening, the Heartland Tango Festival will move to the Loring Pasta Bar in the historic "Dinkytown" neighborhood of Minneapolis. The Twin Cities' tango community has been enjoying Mandrágora's Sunday night Loring Pasta Bar milonga for over 6 years. We are all looking forward to showing off this unique milonga to new dancers and out-of-town guests

70 of the Most Danced Tangos

Thu, 08 May 2008 11:56:23 -0600

The best way to become familiar with tango music is to listen to it as much as you can. Listen at work. Listen in your car. Listen while working out. The more you hear, the more you internalize the music, and, consequently, the better you dance. One of tango's little secrets is that there are only about 200-300 tangos that get played regularly at the Milongas in BsAs. Old-time tangueros will have at least a fleeting knowledge of most of them.

Think about it this way: a "Classic Rock" radio station in the US may only have 200-300 songs in regular rotation. If you grew up in the States, chances are you have heard all these songs and can sing along to a few. If you grew up in the tango world, you'd know just as many tangos.

The problem is that is can be difficult to find tango music outside of Argentina. Most of what you can buy at a records store is Piazzolla or show tango, which are not the most suitable for social dancing. People often ask me what CDs they should buy to become familiar with tango for dancing. Every dancer or musician has their own opinion. There are some good guides on the Internet. However, each CD only has 2 or 3 "hits" that are commonly played at Milongas. DJs seem to pride themselves in paying $25 for an imported CD just to get a single danceable track!

You can buy good CDs at Zivals.com The store is in Buenos Aires, but they ship all over the world. You can buy most CDs at the Argentine equivalent of U$5. Unfortunatley, shipping for a single CD may be U$8, so a CD from Zivals ends up being about the same cost as a CD from Amazon.com.

One of my favorite sites on the Internet is Tango RBerdi: El diario. This is a blog by an Argentine gentleman who posts 2 or 3 albums worth of MP3s nearly every day. He posts them to rapidshare.com, which is a German file-sharing service. You can download one file an hour for free, or you can buy an "all-you-care-to-download" pass for a few euros. Most of my tango MP3s have come from this site or other sites like it.

Anyway, I wanted to post a very subjective list of 70 of the most played tangos. If you are a dancer, most of these will be somewhat familiar to you. You can download the complete collection in .ZIP or .RAR format (280M). You can also new window. If you want to become more familiar with tango, put this on your iPod or burn it to some CDs and listen, listen, listen.

-Bob
PS: I've also put together big, downloadable collections of the most common Milongas and Vals
You can download the tunes in one big file at milonga.zip / milonga.rar (145M) or vals.zip / vals.rar (175M).

Tango Groove Party

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 12:56:27 -0600

On Saturday, April 26, we are throwing yet another party at Candelabra Studio from 10PM to the wee hours of the morning. 1517 Central Ave in Northeast Minneapolis, on Central Ave, 4 blocks north of Broadway, across from Diamond's Lounge. Candelabra is in a warehouse space and does not have a sign. Look for the Antique Store just north of the railroad tracks. Plenty of free parking in front. $8 wine and munchies available.

You may be wondering what a "Tango Groove Party" is. We pretty much made it up. We want to have a party where we play the music we love to play, which may or may not overlap with the music many dancers prefer for dancing. So we are going to host our own event where we get into a groove and tango our tango to places we usually don't go. Expect slow Piazzolla milongas, Flamenco-tinged tango, groovy bossas and sad Klezmer waltzes. Expect cutting edge recorded Electro Tango and Tango Nuevo straight outta Buenos Aires. Expect a laid-back party atmosphere in an dimly lit warehouse space. Expect a crowded hardwood dance floor.

When I was in Buenos Aries last July, I went to several "Milongas Ocultas" or "Hidden Milongas". The Orquesta Típica Fernandez Fierro has converted an old garage space in Palermo into a giant tango club with a live milonga every Wednesday night. Astillero has a loft space in San Telmo that where they throw a milonga/concert/happening every Thursday. They usually have 2 or 3 bands open for them and they take the stage at 2 AM. These 2 bands pretty much define the avant-guard of acoustic tango music today. We want to mix this up with Candelabra's loft-party vibe and create our own alternative tango venue in Minneapolis.

-Bob

Moon Over Miami

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:57:20 -0600

Here's a Youtube video of my buddy Randall Throckmorton and I playing what very well might be the world's first bandoneon and banjo-ukulele duet. Randall and I have dayjobs at Minnesota Public Radio. Our company has a Christmas party / talent show every year and this was our song this year.

Many years ago, Randall and I were in a band called The Deadly Nightshade Family Singers, where we played an odd mix of styles we called "Modern Parlor Music". We used to play Moon Over Miami from time to time. Randall has an amazing ability to mangle the lyrics to any song and come up with something even better. The bridge to Moon Over Miami has the line "Hark to the sounds of the smiling troubadours/ Hark to the throbbing guitars". On one memorable performance, Randall sang the words "Throbbing troubadours" and the band nearly broke up laughing. We almost called our last album Throbbing Troubadours but we thought better of it.

Lecture on Tango History

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:19:06 -0600

On January 30 at 4PM, Bob Barnes will join U of MN musicology grad student Emily McManus for a lecture on history of tango. Emily will talk about the social history of tango and Bob will play musical examples on the Bandoneon. Room 125 of Nolte Center for Continuing Education on the main campus of the University of Minnesota. Free. Click here for more information.

Here is a player of the musical examples we will be using for the lecture. You can listen to them online by clicking the start button in the player, or you can click here to open the player in a new window. You can also download the MP3s as a 70Mb ZIP or RAR file.

A big, public "Thank You" from Mandragora to the Florencia, Surgit, the tango community and TSoM !

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:03:02 -0600

We would like to thank the Minneapolis tango community for coming out to see our concert on Saturday, Nauary 12 at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. We have always wanted to do a show with the lovely and talented Florenica Taccetti and we finally got our chance. She was fabulous, as usual! We got to know Somer Surgit (of Chicago) much better and were blown away by his graceful leading. He is one of the best leaders I've ever seen north of the Rio de la Plata! It was great to see them dance together. This show was our first "homegrown" tango show in the Twin Cities, and hopefully the first of many to come. About 60 people showed up for Rebbecca and Bruce's introductory lesson before the show. I love it when we can give people their first taste of tango.

Most of all, Mandrágora and I would like to thank all the dancers who came up on stage for our "La Cumparsita" finale. It was great to see how many tangueros came out to see us. On stage, there are bright lights shining on us so we can not see the audience. We had no idea how many people were there until the house lights came up.

PS: We finally found out why the audience laughed after we played Piazzolla's "Oblivion". After the final note and the applause faded away, Steve (who's last name I forgot, but he's usually seen with Sandi Uri) let out an audible sigh that got big laughs.

Max Valentinuzzi Talks History (Personal and Tango)

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:54:59 -0600

Our friend Max Valentinuzzi was in town last month. He is quite a tango character. He was born in Buenos Aries in the 1920s and learned tango piano as a child. In the late 40s and early 50s he played piano in various Buenos Aries tango bands while he was in college. He moved to the US in 1961 to study biomechanical engineering and moved back to Argentina by the late 1970s. His 2 daughters were born in the states. His eldest daughter lives here in Minnesota, along with Max's grandchildren and great-grandson. Max comes to visit them every 2 years or so. This is how we know him.

Max is a professor at the National University of Túcuman, Argentina. He goes to biomedical conferences around the world and presents a powerpoint presentation / concert on tango history, in addition to his scholarly presentations on biomechanics. He gave his tango presentation in Minneapolis in May, 2005 and again October 2007. This year, I was able to get Max into the recording studios of Minnesota Public Radio to record his presentation, as well as him telling his life story. Elmira Cancelada of Tango Tales edited this raw material into a one-hour program about Max's life story and 2 one-hour programs on the history of tango.

Max Tells his life story:

Download part 1, part 2

Max's presentation on the history of tango

Download Hour 1-Part 1, Hour 1-Part 2, Hour 1-Part 3, Hour 2-Part 1, Hour 2-Part 2, Hour 2-Part 3