This week's tanda is calm, rhythmic tanda by Francisco Canaro with Roberto Maida singing. It starts with the very popular "Invierno." It is such a sweet and smooth song. Click here for a great translation of the lyrics from the Poesía de Gotán blog.

You might notice that there are 5 songs here. No, this is not a 5 song tanda... but rather, I could not decide which song to end the tanda with. I think "Viejo Tiempo" is probably the best fit, but I also love "Paciencia." So, I put both on here so that you could listen and decide. "Viejo Tiempo / Old Time" makes sense because all of these songs have more in common with the "Guardia Viejo / Old Guard" period (1910 to 1925) than the Guardia Nueva or Golden Age period. To give a super brief and over-simplified explanation, the songs of the Guardia Viejo period would have focused more on the underlying rhythm while the music of the Guaria Nueva would have focused more on melody and harmony. Canaro is working with both here.

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Here is one of my favorite all-time favorite performances by Pablo Rodriguez and Noelia Hurtado. It is such a sweet and tender performance. To me, nothing says tango quite like this performance. It also demonstrates the statement that "Tango is a sad thought that can be danced." You might notice how emotional they are after the performance. I do not know the details, but it is my understanding that this was their last performance together after many years of teaching and dancing with one another.

This week's tanda is low key tanda by Rodolfo Biagi with Alberto Amor singing. We usually think of Biagi as being more rhythmic and staccato, but with Alberto Amor his signature sound is more calm. The rhythm is still there, but more subdued. This is a great tanda for the end of the evening. "Seamos Amigos" is another great song that could go in this tanda.

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This week's tanda is an spirited, mixed orchestra milonga set. Mixing orchestras is more common in milonga and vals tandas than it is in tango tandas. For one thing, some orchestras recorded very few milongas and/or valses, so it might be difficult to find 3 or 4 songs that fit cohesively together.

This is a set for the serious milonga dancers. Some dancers might be legitimately challenged by the tempo of these three milongas. I would believe that most dancers should be able to dance well to these if they just do two things, keep it simple and take smaller steps. If you do thse two simple things and the leader and follower are in synch then you should be able to have a nice, unrushed dance.

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This week's tanda is a playful set by the Edgardo Donato with Horacio Lagos and Lita Morales singing.

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This week's tanda is an elegant set by the Carlos di Sarli with Alberto Podestá singing.

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This week's traditional tanda is a beautiful vals set by Miguel Calo with Alberto Podesta singing.

Sometimes I will start this set with "El Vals Sonador" and other times I will end it with "El Vals Sonador."

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This week's traditional tanda is a fun set by Osvaldo Fresedo with Roberto Ray singing.

This is a playful set, which always goes over well. People are always happy after this set.

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This week's traditional tanda is a milonga set by Angel D'Agostino with Angel Vargas singing.

I love all of these milngas, but "El Porteñito" is one of my all time favorites.It was originally written in 1903 by Angel Villoldo.

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This week's traditional tanda is a elegant and romantic set by Miguel Caló with Raúl Iriarte singing.

Caló had created a unique sound around Berón's smooth vocal style, which was unlike the other singers of the time. In 1943, Berón left Caló's orchestra to join Demare's orchestra. Caló briefly worked with Jorge Ortiz and Alberto Podesta during 1943, but ended up with Raúl Iriarte, who had a similarly silky vocal quality to Berón.

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This week's traditional tanda is a rhythmic set by Rodolfo Biagi with Andrés Falgás singing.

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