Being a tango Argentino fan, for me, hosting the best tango orchestras is a dream job. After some amazing days with Orquesta Tipica La Juan D’Arienzo last year, I had the chance to spend some days in Ljubljana-Slovenia with the guys from El Cachivache Quinteto, yet another great tango orchestra. They were coming to play as my guests at my milonga La Milonguita Ljubljana.
The guys from El Cachivache Quinteto play tango with a unique, creative and very danceable style. Up until this time, I have only seen them on stage and enjoyed dancing to their music at different milongas in Europe and Argentina.
This time, I had the opportunity to be with them not only on the stage but also walking around Ljubljana. And I could see that they are not only excellent musicians but also extremely nice guys, despite their “cool” look.
We have spent some great days in Ljubljana together, and I was really impressed by their knowledge of history. I personally don’t care a bit about the politics, I probably don’t know anyone on our political scene of today.
But they know just everything about those days when Slovenia had separated from Yugoslavia: they have been watching a documentary movie and they were just happy to be on the same square in front of the Slovenian Parliament where this all happened years ago. Many photos were taken, many stories were told.
And something extremely interesting happened while we were walking to a restaurant for dinner the night before their concert: in the street, we saw the former Slovenian president Milan Kučan, who was just passing by. And imagine this: they managed to have a photo taken with him!
This easily became the main topic of our dinner conversation. If you come from Argentina, you just cannot imagine that in any country, former presidents can be seen walking around town without any protection. And that they are prepared to take a photo with you… So, this became the most famous moment of our evening.
I always enjoy having a conversation with such excellent musicians about their tango taste. I found out that our taste is probably almost the same.
For instance: Pablo Montanelli – the pianist, has a bracelet which says “play more Troilo”. He loves Troilo and it was no surprise to me that Troilo was the first tanda he played after their concert when we switched the DJ-ing chair. And to him – just like to me, it comes as a surprise that DJs in Europe play a lot less Troilo than in Buenos Aires.
After the concert night, I was exhausted, but they weren’t… They woke up the next morning, hit the road again for Italy where they had some more concerts scheduled. In fact, 8 concerts in the next 10 days. Yes, they have performances almost every night. Must really have a lot of energy to do this…
For me, the best part of organizing such events is the fact that from now on, when I return to Buenos Aires, I have five more great tango friends: Vito, Pablo, Adriano, Pacha, and Nicolas. I do hope to see you guys again in Buenos Aires soon!
Tango DJ Alenka