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July 09, 2009

Horacio Godoy

Horacio Godoy and Cecilia Garcia

::OPINION::

(Please feel free to leave comments below.)

I'm just back from Chicago Tango Week July 2009, where I was rather impressed by the DJing of Horacio Godoy during the Saturday night milonga.

I have a few observations about him, although I am not 100% sure how reliable my impressions are, since I was dancing, and not really watching what he was doing, or sitting and taking notes. In retrospect I wish I had studied him more attentively.

• During quite a few songs I felt that he was playing with the volume -- for example, bringing it down very low during the quiet parts and really swelling it near the climax. I remember specifically when he did this during a (later period) Pugliese song where he multiplied the effect of the dynamic changes (diminuendo/crescendo) already in the music.

• He appears not to have too many qualms about mixing orchestras in a tanda. I would swear he did this mixed tanda thing several times, not only in milongas and vals tandas, but also, I am pretty sure, in tango tandas. Here I suppose I might have lost track of time and tandas and could be imagining things.

• He sat at his station steadily from the beginning to the end, tweaking the sound on each and every song (and as I already mentioned, manipulating the sound during the course of a song), and constantly watching the dancers. If a dancer liked something he or she could always catch his eye and he would respond. He was involved, and he paid attention. I contrast this with other DJs who let their laptops play their pre-made playlists and go outside to take long cigarette breaks, or who are on the floor dancing most of the time. As far as I could tell this guy never left his post from 9pm - 5 am.

• His selection was pretty traditional, yet it was constantly spiced with unexpected wrinkles -- a straight-ahead D'Arienzo tanda, e.g., but with one song added that I had never heard before. Or throwing a Firpo song into someone else's tanda. That made things interesting. The music supported traditional dancing, but it also had surprises.

The previous night (Friday), Horacio Godoy was part of a floor-show. He danced two exhibition numbers with his partner. During his first dance he kept trying to get the sound people to increase the volume (gesturing with his arms from the floor). Before his second dance he apparently made them reset the sound system before he would continue. There was a long delay in the performance, lots of talking, and people moving back and forth. Then I saw people moving speakers and stands around to different places on the floor. I don't really know what happened or what was said, but I inferred that he had an expectation for what the music should sound like, and he wouldn't continue until it was right.

I believe that this same fussiness about sound quality was evident in his DJing.

I contrast this with DJs who seem content to play an entire milonga with the music sounding like it is underwater and fuzzy and congratulating themselves on what great music selections they make even if the sound quality isn't that great. Or DJs who take long cigarette breaks outside, where they can't even hear the dance, while their laptop does the DJing for them on autopilot, or DJs who spend most of their time on the dance floor.

It has made me realize that I could do better than I often do.

I also posted this report on a DJ forum, and got some comments from people who also attended the Chicago Tango week.

• Several people wrote to say that Horacio plays the music way too loud, in their view.
• Paul from Minnesota (and others who weren't there) said that Horacio probably SHOULD have left the controls and got on the dance floor to see what it sounded like to the dancers. The two PA speakers were in the same line with the DJ controls on one side of a long room, and so he was only hearing reflected sound. Which might be one reason it was too loud. (I myself didn't mind the loudness level, but it was definitely loud.)
• Horacio sometimes added extra songs to a tanda (apparently if the dancers were getting into it, he would extend the set). This was a problem in that the milonga had significantly more women than men, and longer tandas reduced the change of partners.
• I found out that the attendance at this Chicago Tango Week (July 2009) was more than 500 dancers, by the way. A new record for Chicago Tango Week festival.
• Someone who took a workshop with Horacio Godoy told me that Horacio discussed in class the making of tandas from different orchestras but selecting songs from the same year of recording. My friend said that Horacio felt that the year of recording produced more compatibility sometimes than choosing songs by the same orchestra from different years, because of trends in the musical style. For example, the D'Arienzo influenced speed and rhythmic drive of the late 30s and early 40s was imitated by other orchestras, and after '42 they all slowed down, including D'Arienzo.
• Others wrote to say that they would not call Horacio's sound selection "traditional," because he plays a lot of post-golden era tango.

• Update. My friend Beatriz emailed me this comment:
  
  Joe, I read your piece with great interest. The last time I watched Horacio Godoy DJ was at the outdoor milonga on Avenida de Mayo in late December 2008. Until I read your comments, I had taken for granted how DJs work in Buenos Aires. On the occasion of the end of the year celebration, Godoy stood on a platform two feet higher than the street level, I remember climbing and walking towards him to ask him something. He was as attentive to the dance floor (the "street floor") as you describe him. He had a raised platform for the visual advantage, he could not have seen the dancers had he been standing at street level. His sound system was, if my memory is correct, about six feet long.
  Your piece made me think about other milongas. The DJ is typically somewhere above ground level to sense what happens on the floor and regulate his selections. Typically their sound systems are impressive. I have not yet seen computer music playing in Buenos Aires; even regular outdoor milongas (La Glorieta, Plaza Dorrego) use sound systems of some type.
  
  You describe a man (Godoy) who is a connector. DJs, like dancers, can be connected or disconnected from their partners. A DJ's "partner" is the group.
  
  
  - Beatriz
  

Posted by joegrohens at July 9, 2009 01:57 PM

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