La 2×4 Rosarina Orquesta. Part 1

«We play tango which we want to dance ourselves»

Версия на русском 

The Tango Orchestra 2×4 Rosarina (Rosario, Argentina) came to Moscow during the World Championship and surprised Moscow tangeros. Such events in the city street happen rarey here. The musicians told TangoMoscow for whom they play, how they create their own music and how they see their future.

Orchestra members:
Martín Piñol — the voice of the orchestra and the founder of the collective
Gustavo Sordelli — bandoneon
Isidro Colombi — bandoneon
Michele Bandó — violin
Sofia Acedo — violin
Pablo Sodo — piano, keyboard
Sebastián Aparicio — double bass

Tell us, what are you doing in Moscow, where are you playing now?

Martin: We work at the House of Argentina in Russia (Espacio Argentino en Rusia, opened at the time of the FIFA Footbal World Championship — Ed.). We arrived at the invitation of the organizers of the House, we perform here at special events, and we also play outside in the center of Moscow, at Kuznetsky Most. But the music, that we are playing, is created and arranged specially for milongueros. We are used to playing on milongas. In Buenos Aires we play at the milongas La Viruţa, Salon Caning, Parakultural*. We were generally created as an orchestra for milongas. And of course, we want to play here for dancers, no matter, on big milongas or small ones. We have everything for this, keyboard, piano, double bass, violins, two bandoneons, voice. The whole our repertoire was created for this.

* La Viruta, Salón Canning, Parakultural — the famous milongas of Buenos Aires.

On the video: an orchestra in Moscow, on the Kuznetsky Most street.
Every day until July 14, from 18:00 to 20:00.

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On most of your videos in Youtube you are playing on milongas. Is this your choice not to play in theaters, concerts?

Martin: In Argentina we play sometimes on stage, in theaters. But we identify ourselves as an orchestra for milongas. In Buenos Aires there is a clear division into orchestras for dancing and listening, of course, in Europe and Russia it is not so strict. There are a lot of people here who are ready to listen to us. But again, our music is usually for those who want to dance.

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Tell us how have you been formed and founded, how have you started playing together?

Martin: We met in 2012 in the city of Rosario, in October. First we were an octet and we had two voices, then we became a sextet, but sometimes we play in an expanded composition.

«We identify ourselves as an orchestra for milongas»

Gustavo: The founder of the orchestra was Martin, and when we gathered, we came to a thought that Rosario did not have enough of such orchestras. Of course, there are many of them in Buenos Aires. But in Rosario  you can meet live tango music not so often. Nevertheless, there are at least two or three milongas a day in this city (as in Moscow — Ed.). And the public needed such a team. In Rosario, the orchestra for milongueros was needed. This is the second city after Buenos Aires, carried away by the milongas, and we became such an orchestra of «our barrio». We decided to play classics, focusing on music recorded in the 30s, 40s. Listened to a lot of music by Di Sarli, D’Arienzo, Pugliese, we were looking for our sound.

In tango now there is a lot of commerce, competition. What is it like to be an orchestra of the «old tango», when there are so many orchestras with a concert repertoire?

Martin: Well, tango is a multi-valued genre. Like rock music. There is heavy rock, there is dance, different kinds. And tango is the same, there is electronic tango, there is fusion, there are such orchestras where musicians are nothing more than an accompaniment for a singer and there is tango for dancing. It’s hard to say which is more popular. Tango for milongas is already spread around the world. Both in Europe, and in all the Americas, and in Asia, it is everywhere.

Judging by your video, you prefer melodious tangos, there is no rhythm like that of D’Arienzo, but a lot of romantic tangos.

Pablo: That does not mean that we do not play, lets say, D’Arienzo or Pugliese. We also have things with a strong rhythm (bien marcado).

Gustavo: Much depends on the audience and the hall. But mostly we perform melodious tangos, we are inspired by Di Sarli, Florindo Sassone…

Martin: Yes, that’s right. This is because I myself am milonguero and we play for milongueros. I see the milonga as a dancer. And we play tango, which we want to dance ourselves. For example, I really like tangos Bomboncito, Buscandote, Invierno, Bailemos. I’m a romantic, I like romantic themes.

Which one of you decides what next tango to arrange?

Martin: I do not really decide, because this is the zone of music and musicians. I just watch that the arrangement coincides with the identity of the orchestra, with our style. The arrangement must be done with respect to the dancers. It does not matter, if the tango is rhythmic or romantic. And also I’m working on the fact that this year we have to finish work on our first CD. We have to prepare sufficient amount of tango for our album and then present it to the organizers of milongas, festivals, theaters.

«The arrangement must be done with respect to the dancers»

Gustavo: We work a lot on each theme. Discuss how to play, try a melody. In a hall, music should sound clean, as a result, dancability of the arrangements is the crucial point. New arrangements do not appear quickly, we should try the sound in the hall, on the streets, discuss ideas.

And our traditional question. How do you see the future of tango?

Martin: The future of tango is in trustworthy hands! (laughs) I see that tango culture is growing, tango is listened to in all parts of the world. Of course, there will be more and more music, many new things will appear, but old music will also be played more and more.