tango and marching

When I was 8 and a half years old (back in 1958) my father taught me to play an althorn and for the next almost ten years I played in the marching-symphonic band in my hometown, Dubrovnik. I loved it. I loved playing marching music while marching along the old city cobblestone streets (really setts)-- especially the old "Stradun" (by the way, we used to play a march which if our marching speed was just right, we'd start at one end of Stradun and finish at the other exactly - it was fun doing it that way).

Well, anyway. A few years later I was "promoted" to play the baritone horn, which gave me the chance to be a soloist during our sit-down concerts. But, it was marching while playing that got deeply embedded into me.

My father told me the stories of Italian "bersaglieri" and their marching bands, which used to come visit to Dubrovnik in the 20s and the 30s, and how he and his friends marveled at the skill of those players to play so well while kind of jogging down the street with the resulting overall adrenalin-pumping, uplifting feeling.

Now, as a consummate tango dancer, I can not help but re-live that same exquisite marching-to-the-music feeling, especially when a Donato or Biagi happy sounding tangos are played. Take "Lonjazos," for example. Can't you just see the bersaglieri band marching/jogging down the street? I can and feel. And it makes me sigh with a happy feeling.