Tango: The Art History of Love – Robert Farris Thompson (2005)

"... With the publication of Tango: The Art History of Love last autumn, [Robert Farris] Thompson gave that century-old, planet-wide phenomenon its black spring, detailing roots in Montevideo’s candombe rituals and black gaucho milongas out on the pampas. Kongo precedents prep the dance ground, then a knife pegged in the floorboards serves as razor pylon while 1930’s tanguero Cachafaz bests rival El Negro Santillán. Tango returns the drumless music formulated in South America’s whitest land to the hands of black innovators such as bassist Leopoldo Thompson, who fueled legendary orchestras led by Firpo, Canaro, and de Caro, and Horacio Salgán, whose hot sound spiced with arrastres — slurred low notes that incite the dance — spurred Ella Fitzgerald to initiate Salgán’s 1965 disc, Buenos Aires at 3 a.m. ...”

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