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The Birth and Development Music in the Americas

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At  approximately  the same time, around 1900, two musical art forms were generated in the American continent :   j azz in North America and  t ango in South America. These genres  have come to be  instantly recognisable and internationally acclaimed and are the definitive music of the countries  where they developed . Both forms grew in the poorest areas of the cities :  New Orleans  for jazz and  Buenos Aires and Montevideo  for tango. B oth were initiated by the influx of immigrants.  Immigration into North America was the result of the slave trade which started in 1501 and was only made illegal in 1833 in England and  in  1865 in  the  USA.  Over that period, countries such as  Portugal, Spain and   England  transported an estimated total of  12  million  negroes from all parts of Africa to the Caribbean  and the southern States of America.  They were destined...
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Bob Murray - a short autobiography

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Bob Murray There were no records in my house, as I was growing up through 40s and into 50s, until I purchased Hi-Fi equipment; a Goldring turntable and arm and a Quad valve amplifier. As a family effort we built a folded horn speaker enclosure that used an 8’x4’sheet of 1” chipboard!  The first record I played was my brother’s 10” LP of the 1940 Ellington Orchestra. The sound of the orchestra, driven by Jimmy Blanton’s Bass, was so different from pre-1940. When I came home from school I played it while lighting a fire. Even now when I hear the Da Da Dah of muted trumpets in KoKo I can smell the fire getting hold!  The first record I bought was Fontessa by the Modern Jazz Quartet. All my vinyls are long gone as well as the Quad amplifier (that was a big mistake!) but when i recently streamed (Apple Music) the MJQ, I could remember every track as clearly as yesterday. In the sixth form at school, I earned £1 a week as a laboratory technician and spent it going to the Flamingo Cl...
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Tai Chi and Tango

Tai Chi and Tango by Bob Murray (dr. robert.murray1@gmail.com ) Introduction Tai Chi and Argentine Tango are concerned with movement, balance, posture and control. Both are art forms. Tai Chi has a history going back more than a 1000 years; Tango is about 120 years old. Just on that basis Tango has a lot to learn from Tai Chi. Tai Chi is performed by an individual but, for me, is enhanced with accompanying students. Tango is performed in the embrace of another person and seeks to interpret the music. Both can be performed mindfully. UNESCO (1) defined the Tango that developed in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, around 1900, as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Tango being defined as the dance, the music and the poetry. Despite Uruguay’s contribution, that definition is referring to Argentine Tango.  There is naturally artistic development and Nuevo tango encompasses changes in the music (Astor Piazzolla (2) and many modern orchestras) and changes in the danc...
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