Latest News and Anouncements
July 1, 2009: New CD to be released any day now!
Mandragora tango has just finished their newest CD: “Siete Tandas”. Tango dancers group their dances into little sets called “tandas”. The idea is that you dance with the same partner for the whole tanda, then move on. It becomes a miniature love affair, where you get to know your partner, start to grove together, and have a sorrowful separation, all in the course of 12 minutes of music. Mandragora has created an album of 7 of these affairs with the super-original title Siete Tandas (Seven Tandas in Spanish).
Siete Tandas is meant first and foremost for dancing. It is an interpretation of an idealized evening of tango dancing. It starts early (11PM or so) with tandas of traditional, highly rhythmic Argentine tangos and gets more and more lush and passionate as the night progresses. To keep things from getting too hot, it breaks up the evening with a tanda of “Vals” (Argentine Waltzes) and “Milongas” (an Argentine 2-step). But as the night goes on, the temperature continues to rise and Mandragora takes the dancers into more and more sensual and exotic soundscapes. In the small hours of the morning, Mandragora plays a tanda of heart-achingly beautiful slow dances by Astor Piazzolla. The dancers who are left on the nearly empty floor can enjoy an almost erotic interplay of sound and motion before they go their separate ways. Or not.
At any rate, our CD is the result of a lot of hard work and was made possible by the tango community of Minnesota, for whom we play every Sunday for the past 8 years. We believe that we have played for more “Milongas” (Tango dance parties) than any other band in the US. And, as dancers ourselves, we understand the difference between playing concert music and playing for social dance. However, in creating “Siete Tandas”, we never chose dancibility over musicality (or vice-versa). You don’t need to dance to appreciate this album. You just have to have a little darkness in your soul.
From the Tango Los Mareados (Track 11):
Hoy vas a entrar en el pasado de mi vida...
Tres cosas lleva mi alma herida: ¡Amor… Pesar… Dolor…!
Today you are going to enter the past of my life…
Three things are carried by my wounded heart: Love… Despair… Pain!
As of this writing, Siete Tandas is still at the printers. Well let you know when they are available for purchase. They should be at CDBaby by August.
May 2, 2009: Pre-CD-Release Milonga
We are so grateful to all the tangueros and aficionados who support our work. You come out to hear us on Sundays and at TSOM milongas; you dance to our music; your input is important to us. You are our greatest strength and, because of your support, we are pushing to become a world-class tango band. We are approaching this recording project with a serious focus and a resolve to receive airplay in Buenos Aires and throughout the world. We want to put Minneapolis on the map as thriving center for tango in the United States..
A large part of this mission is to release a fresh, new recording that accurately reflects who we are and where we are going. A unique feature of this album is that it is for dancers and it will be structured in 7 tandas. We have 7 3-song tandas of Troilo, DiSarli, Pugliese, Guardia Vieja, Vals, Milongas and, yes, even some Piazzolla. 
Image from Giefferre's Flickr Photostream
We are holding a milonga on Saturday, May 2 from 9PM to 2AM at Zorongo Flamenco (3012 Minnehaha Ave in Minneapolis: (Map)) Our Milonga will feature a mix of live tango and DJ’d selections by Paul Lohman. Mateo will make his famous sangria and Bob will make pretzels. A pleasant time is guaranteed for all!
Our recording is more than half finished. You can help us complete the project by attending this milonga ($10 suggested donation) or pre-purchasing the CD ($20). We are also selling “Super-fun-pak” tickets that get you into the pre-release milonga and the CD release party as well as get you a signed copy of the CD ($40). You can also help us by “buying” a tanda or becoming a sponsor. Talk to a band member for details or email info@mandragoratango.com.
-Bob, Laura, Mateo and Rahn
PS: You can listen to some of the songs in the following posting: "A Sneak Peek at our New CD"
February 25, 2009: A sneak peek at our new album
People often ask us why we haven't released a CD in the past 4 years. Are we lazy? Perfectionistic? Too busy? Yes, yes, and yes! However, we want our next CD to really reflect our current sound and to capture the energy and excitement of one of our live performances. One of the advantages of playing 65 milongas a year is that we get to know the material very, very well. Every so often, we play one of our songs so well that we permanently raise the bar for ourselves. We we get to the studio, we are never satisfied until we have recaptured the energy of the best live performance we've ever done. There's also a subtle trade-off that we don't want to make: sometimes the performances with the best energy have one or two (or twenty!) notes that are a bit off-pitch. We are opting to re-record rather than to overdub that track. We want to produce a world-class album that wold not be out-of-place in Buenos Aires.
At any rate, we recently went to Wild Sound in Minneapolis and recorded 79 takes of 21 songs over 2 days. From those tracks, we have found 12 that we like. We're going to re-record 9 tunes and hopefully have an album by April or May. Here are 6 tracks from our recent session that you might pique your interest. They are neither mixed nor mastered and may not be milonga-ready quite yet, but rest assured, you will love the final results!
FYI: We are recording this album in 3-song Tandas for dancers. We have 4 tandas of tango, 1 vals and 1 milonga. We also have a stunningly beautiful "tanda for listening" of selections from the opera "Maria de Buenos Aires" by Astor Piazzolla. It's gonna be great!
-BB
January 20, 2009: An Open Invitation to Mandragora's Inaugural Ball
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.
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