the hum / By Bob Doran

Godzilla Plays the Tango

Yo Tango! battling bands and lots of jazz

(April 17, 2008)  The note from Lisa B was straight to the point: “Performing at Jambalaya in Arcata on Thursday, April 17, is Yo Tango!, Humboldt’s new Tango band, from 7-9 p.m. $5 cover. Come dance the Tango or just enjoy the music.”

Being a tango fan, I was intrigued. I actually learned to tango, a little bit, when I took social dance in college long ago. Discovering Argentine master Astor Piazzolla and his oft-times brutal tango nuevo revived my interest as a listener. What cemented my love for the dance was a summer eve in Paris, when my wife and I came across a small group of tango dancers doing dips and turns to music from a boom-box in a small amphitheater along the Seine.

Tango in Paris by the Seine. Photo by Bob Doran

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I knew there was a Humboldt tango scene, but not that a local band playing the form. I wrote back to Lisa asking for details.

What I got was a long letter from Bruce Marrs, the Dellartisan maskmaker who served as a movement consultant when they remade Godzilla 10 years back. (He even played one of the frightening baby Zillas.) It seems Marrs has been teaching acro-tango (acrobatic tango) at Dell’Arte for 15 years.

“We basically bastardize the style to turn it into a dramatic physical narrative style,” he explained, adding, “It became evident that I would need to become a better tango dancer. About the time of that realization, an Argentine tango band from San Francisco came up to play: Tango No. 9. We were all knocked out.”

I saw the band play too, and was equally impressed by the dancers who showed up and showed off. Marrs went on with a history of the local tango world: visits from Argentine experts, Stephan and Becky Fisher teaching classes, all leading to formation of the Humboldt Tango Club. (Bruce gives a shout-out to Lee and Jackie Turner for club work.) Meanwhile Marrs and dance partner Leslie Odleberg were choreographing tangos and performing here and there (at the Arcata Playhouse, for example). At this point Leslie and her husband, Allen, are teaching beginning and intermediate tango in Arcata on Fridays; The Humboldt Tango Club teaches three levels in Eureka on Sundays.

“At one of Humboldt Tango Club’s milongas[dances], a local accordion player, Guy Smith, and a violinist, Sara Borok, played a few tangos,” said Bruce. “My wife, Anna Marrs, is a violinist and asked Guy if she could get together with him to work on a few tangos. Sara, Guy and Anna met at our house and tried to rope me into playing piano with them as they worked on songs to play at a club dance. All my life I have had a choice between dance and music, and have chosen dance. At this time of my life, late 50s, it seemed fun to go with the music. There was no piano at the place we would be playing, so I grabbed a guitar.” Guy’s Mostly Tango Band was born, later to change names when Guy left the band for family reasons. Lorna Brown(aka Madame de Squeeze) stepped in and Yo Tango!was born. Their repertoire ranges from old traditional tangos to nuevo,whatever has the proper beat. Marrs quotes the Argentine Patron Saint of Tango, Carlos Gardel, who said, “Tango is sad music you can dance to.” The club’s goal is to get non-dancers to come out, “and to not be put off by the very good dancers in the community, but to get up, let their bodies listen to the music and move with the feel of it. Or, if they just want to come, have a beverage, make goo-goo eyes, sigh romantically and just listen, we will play for you, just you.” And they’ll be playing those tangos for you at the Jambalaya the third Thursday in each month, starting this Thursday, April 17.

Later that night, same club, it’s the KRFH Battle of the Bands 2008, with battlers including comedic rockers Anslinger, melodic pop band Dreamgoats, country/surf band Svelte Velvet (all from Arcata), Shay’s Rebellion from McKinleyville and Sour Cream, the Eureka kids you hear every Arts Alive! playing Cream, Hendrix and Doors songs in the alley behind Bon Boniere. As noted last week, winners get cash money ($300 for 1st, $200 for 2nd) and get a slot at SLAM-fest, on April 27, at HSU. The bummer about Thursday’s show is that many (if not most) KRFH staffers are under 21, and thus will not be able to attend.

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