The Invisibility of DJ-ing, by Claudio Tedesco
QTL DJ, Claudio Tedesco, fresh from his efforts with fellow QTL DJ, Tom Cottle to provide music for us, writes: I always wanted to write this down for the group’s attention, and now, after the last two events, JT meets QT and Night life of QT where we, Tom and I, spent so much time researching in 2020 and now in 2023 (even reading books about Tango Judío in Spanish), I thought this is the right moment to talk about what I call “The Invisibility of DJing”
Sometimes it is very easy to say, “let’s get this music” but, is it available? Like one of the Jewish tango orchestras from the 30’s that I read about it and I was trying to find, just to realize afterwards that they never recorded not even a single tango.
Trying to find stuff can be tricky and it’s time consuming.
Then when you find the tracks and eventually download them, you have to check the sound, trim the silences at the beginning and at the end or, check that the end is not missing (the famous/infamous last beat).
Next step you convert them into the same format, mp3, flac, you name it.
And then, you pair them in tandas by style, orchestra, etc. Sometimes, like this last week [for Jewish Tango meets Queer Tango"] unluckily I ended up with only two Waltzes and two Milongas by Jewish composers and went chasing for the third one…and finally find them…OMG!
Also we are grateful to Charlotte [Davies], who sent Tom and me, different files with tango ladino. I listened what she sent me, track by track and at the end, I decided that they were a bit “undanceable” and prefer to stick to Tango Argentino from the 30’s and 40’s, by Jewish composers and did another 30 minutes of it. Ah, and don’t forget to choose the cortinas…yes.
This is what DJing is about, and listening to people’s comments and constantly adding new tracks or deleting other ones that didn’t work. Keep renovating!
I also wanted to mention the three fabulous composers I discovered (I covered two 30 minutes
of music that I played last Friday) Really interesting and colourful lives.
Miguel Nijensohn
Alberto (Abraham Moisés) Soifer
and Raul (Israel) Kaplún (Kaflún)
Thanks for reading this!
Claudio
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