Friday, May 9, 2008

Links to YouTube videos: malambo from Argentina

In the early 80s I made friends with a group of Argentinians. Back then the Argentinian community in Philadelphia was very active, holding social events and featuring performances from local or visiting artists. I attended one event featuring a performer from New York named Juan Carlos Salazar, "El Super Gaucho," who dazzled the audience with his dancing, playing of the bombo and mastery of the boleadoras, which he banged on the stage in perfect rhythm. The audience, myself included, exploded in applause.

The Argentinian malambo can refer either to a guitar rhythm or to a dance of the gauchos. The dance is not accompanied by song lyrics and is primarily composed of the rhythm of the footwork or zapateo, though it sometimes is accompanied by a guitar or the bombo (drum). The feet
rarely touch the ground and feature lively movements and elaborate tapping with the soles, the heels, and other parts of the boot.

A brief description of the malambo dance:
http://www.travelsur.net/argentinamusic/malambo.html

A demonstration of the malambo rhythm on guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKXe8Vw-5EY

The malambo as a solo dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzNUImwU1-k

A modernized version of the malambo that adds the boleadoras or
lariats for stage performances:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYuCURAXTII

An article in Wikipedia regarding the bolas or boleadoras, as used by
the gauchos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolas

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello,nice post thanks for sharing?. I just joined and I am going to catch up by reading for a while. I hope I can join in soon.