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Dipi Kvitko, tango guitar concert in Toulouse
The guitar has special status in Argentina, and the standard of playing there continues to impress. Diego "Dipi" Kvitko, who lives and works in Buenos Aires, figures currently as one the most respected guitarists in tango. His knowledge of the repertoire and his musicianship speak for themselves. In late March 2026 he came to Toulouse to play two concerts as part of his famous duo with the singer Walter "Chino" Laborde. The evening before these public events in the town centre he also played a solo house concert for an invited audience where he shared the inventiveness and musical sense which have made his reputation. I was lucky enough to…
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Communicating in a foreign language means constantly inventing
Speaking is a creative process, but language learners sometimes need encouragement to let it happen. Here is the story of 3 lessons which made a curiously quiet class of 17-18 year-olds talkative. This is the last of 6 articles based on learning activities to give confidence when speaking developed in direct response to things people say about what makes speaking so hard.
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Gotan Project featuring Osvaldo Pugliese and … Kruder & Dorfmeister
Osvaldo Pugliese is a tango legend who led the same orchestra for 55 years. So why is he the focus of an article which also mentions two electro DJs from Vienna, downbeat, trip-hop and muzak? The answer is because Gotan Project, the electro tango group, sampled riffs from Pugliese's tangos and specifically named him as one of their influences. Want to know more? Take a look and listen to the multiple music videos in this fourth article in a series of five inspired by the cover version of Chunga's Revenge by Gotan Project.
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John Trudell – a voice to be reckoned with
Today is a good day to read about John Trudell and listen to his work because we celebrate his 80th heavenely birthday. I first noticed John Trudell in 1992, the year he released a CD called AKA Grafitti Man. It was the wind and fury of "Rockin the Res", heard on the radio, that first stopped me in my tracks. His was a voice : almost conversational but somehow assertive. He seemed to be talking about life as he experienced it, but also something wider. And wilder. The tension and poetry made you sit up and listen, and the music made you want to dance even if you didn't know…
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Fractured Soul, a novel by Akira Mizubayashi
The story starts in 1938 when China and Japan are at war. A group of Japanese soldiers burst in during the rehearsal by a string quartet composed of one Japanese and three Chinese musicians. What is the real reason for this so-called rehearsal? A violin is shattered by one of those soldiers then saved by his commanding officer. And this is just the beginning of a surprising musical adventure. But those soldiers could be ICE, and this story of healing and repair is also a tale for today.
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Songsmith Timmy Thomas pleads for peace
Here's a question which never grows old. It came back to me recently. I was watching the news, images of war, theft, violence, bullying and plain old nastiness when I realised that I had had enough. Who wants to see this? I needed a break. I turned on the radio. The intro began and I knew it immediately : "Why can't we live together" by Timmy Thomas. It felt like it was playing right off my inner juke-box. It was an old song suddenly new. The work of a true songsmith.
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Convincing a quiet class to communicate
How do you convince a class of 17-18 year-olds to speak when they prefer to stay quiet? Quite a challenge. A language class feeds on student participation and interaction. Welcome to the engine room of the good ship Teach English in a French secondary school. This is the story of a class of pleasant, intelligent students who are curiously quiet. Is it fear of making mistakes? Or that speaking requires something they can't give? It's up to the teacher to take the first step in trying to understand the situation. Wish me luck. I'll have to come up with something. But that's okay because I know that communication is constant…
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Zappa remixed by Gotan Project
Chunga's Revenge may not be the most well-known track from Gotan Project's debut album, but its sung-spoken lyrics tells us a lot about the mix of influences behind Gotan Project. Chunga's Revenge has its origins a million miles from tango, because it is a cover version of a Frank Zappa jazz-rock tune. What? Zappa in a tango post? Yes, along with dubmasters King Tubby, Lee Scratch Perry and Mad Professor. Want to know more? Step this way.
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David Bowie – Old song, new documentary
Today is David Bowie's birthday, which we still remember although, in a couple of days, it will actually be 10 years since he passed away. David Bowie Back In Berlin is a piece from 2024 about the song "Where are we now?" which I am reposting. this song announced the end of a strange searching period in Bowie's career after the massive success of "Let's Dance" in the mid-1980s. This transition is also the subject of a new documentary called "David Bowie - The Final Act".
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Astor Piazzolla, Anibal Troilo and … Xavier Cugat in a Gotan Project remix
Anibal Troilo, Astor Piazzolla and Xavier Cugat make an unlikely trio. But they all get name-checks as inspirations and influences on Gotan Project in the song "Chunga's Revenge". When this track was released in 2001, tango dancers didn't immediately know what to make of Gotan Project. It was electro tango. But was it tango? This series of posts takes a look at the names behind this eclectic musical mix. What would you say to a little tango?
