Ruben Blades takes Salsa to Tango in Buenos Aires

International Salsa music artist and icon Ruben Blades decided to do a cross-over with Tango. His debut in the 2 x 4 rhythm will have the best attendance in a privileged setting, as he will play today - August 30, 2010 – together with “maestro” Leopoldo Federico and his orchestra. This will happen at the closing of the the World Tango Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Blades informed to DPA that he will be presenting Tango versions of Salsa rhythms to prove that “there is a common ground between both genres.” Ruben Blades also reassured this statement that was published yesterday in the newspaper “Clarin” with him saying that both Salsa & Tango has “an urban musical argument which transcends borders and nationalities. He continues, “It is an emotional domain in which all share a feeling that revolves around life, success and failure, hopes and disillusion. They are all expressed in different forms, and Tango is just one of them.

“My lyrics also follow those same reasons. The instrumentation and the emotion of Tango will give more weight to the song texts. That is why I got the idea of choosing themes that I had already developed using Salsa rhythms and taking them to Tango: to prove that this is a universal argument.” the musician insisted.

Blades declared that he was not “trying to imitate no one, as that would be a stupidity”. Maybe someone will think that I am trying to do a bad imitation of Gardel, but that is absolutely not my intention”. He also revealed that he recorded his own version of the sublime Tango “Cambalache” - of Enrique Santos Discépolo - “as if it were a Danzón” in 1982, but never edited the song into a record. “I am absolutely certain that I will not disrespect no one and if it were possible for me to meet mister Discépolo today, we would sit down and talk as old friends.” he affirmed.

Part of his project is to record a song dedicated to Tango, and a segment of it will be recorded in Argentina during the upcoming days. He is also planning to record his first songs under the Fania Record label once more, and he also wants to visit Paco de Lucía to plan a Bolero song together. 

Salsa dancing always followed the development of the music, but this time the dancers beat the musicians. The Bachatango dance became a worldwide hit before the actual mixing of Bachata  & Tango music, and the Salsa dancers have already started to semi standardizing Tango dance styling elements in Salsa. See this example of Alex da Silva and Alien Ramirez.