Modern Tango World #4 (Bucharest, Romania)

At first, tango dancers were reluctant to dance.
They regarded him as a good guitar player, but it
too difficult to dance to, almost impossible. Tudor
used to play a European tango with a Spanish influence.
But because he was always in search of new
things, he picked up new songs and adapted his way
of playing.
Tudor received several original Argentine tango
songs and their scores, from the tango school. This
permitted him to take a fascinating musical trip from
the Spanish influenced European tangos to the
originalcArgentine tango music. His adaptation of
Malena dates from these first encounters with the
dance world. Since then, all of the tango songs that
he plays are adaptations from the original music.
The manner in which kr adapts the original tango
music to play it on a single guitar is quite unique.
Not all the songs can be adapted in this way. It depends
on the range of the melody, the tempo, the
general feeling of the music. When he has listened
to the song long enough to learn it by heart, he is
able to hum it from beginning to end. After determining
the key in which to play, the fun begins, preserving
rhythm and melody so that people are able
to recognize the song, and also comfortably dance.
The original form and structure of the song is clearly
helps people to predict the outcome of the song,
and dance on the musical phrases, using elements
such as doble tiempo, sincopa, corte, etc. This process
may be quite laborious, but the result is amazing.
An illusion is created that there is more than
one person playing a perfect tango — a song for
listening, dancing and improvisation.
The pleasure of playing for someone yo be able to
dance is quite a feat for a musician. Because of his
innovative guitar playing method, he quickly gained
the trust of dancers and he began to play extensively
for tango schools. He remembers the first milonga in
Bucharest where he played live tango music. It was a
happy and fun event, with people who were always
touching the floor while stepping and thus producing
that unique sound which at first seemed quite odd.
In time and a lot of patience and some explanations
from the dance teachers. they got into his music. After
the first milonga, came the second, and the third,
and then his name got in the hearts of every Argentine
tango dancer in Bucharest. And so it happened
that other musicians become interested in Argentine
tango music. He joined with double bass player
Ciprian Parghel and his late mother, Anca Parghel,
a fascinating singer. After a few concerts with them,
he co-founded the first tango orchestra in Romania
with Constantin Stanciu, Mihai Melinescu and
Ciprian Parghel in 2004.
Between 2009 and 2010 he was based in Strasbourg
where his wife is pursuing a PhD. He came in contact
some of the tango schools there, and proposed
thay he play in their milongas. One of the teachers
invited him for an audition. She was very impressed
by the special manner in which Tudor was playing.
He later played with success at the local milongas.
For this first milonga, he needed to add some new
songs to his repertoire, in order to be able to play
for a three to four hours milonga. He played a variety
other types of music, like Latin American music,
jazz standards, etc..All were highly appreciated by
the Tango Nuevo enthusiasts.
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