José Fernando Villada Alzate, founder of the Tiempo de Tango bar from Calle del Tango in Manizales, spoke this Thursday with LA PATRIA Radio about his career in the city’s musical and cultural offering and his intention to promote tango to all generations. This he said:
How was Tiempo de Tango born?
Tiempo de Tango has been in existence for 16 years, but it really comes from years ago.
It emerged with a radio program that was initially called Tiempos de Tango, a little over 20 years ago. Now we are doing the program on memoria radio, a virtual station, which is a station here in the city focused on the music of yesterday. Tango, Cuban son, salsa, ballad.
Tango Time is a cultural center. Our idea is to achieve the dissemination of tango and also give space to other artists with different musical genres.
We are on Tango Street and I think that in culture, art and especially in music everyone has a participation.
We seek conservation and that this tradition remains in our city.
At what point did you become interested in this music?
That has a lot to do with my family, especially an uncle. A very studious guy, who really liked music, he was a very music lover.
I listened to tangos from a very young age and about 33 years ago they invited me to a class and I spent about 20 days in that class. I left because I was too lazy, but I came back and stayed.
And then I got more and more involved and ended up doing other things, dancing a little ballet, but then I focused on tango.
I started to collect music, to learn a little about the orchestras, their stories, and with the program I have learned a lot about the history of tango, about its orchestras, its composers, the lyrics. That’s where that desire for tango comes from.
I am from tango, but only from the tango of 1930 or 1925, I am also from new tango, from Piazzolla, from Florín de Osazone, from all the great orchestras that were innovative.
What do you think is the relevance of promoting the conservation of tango and the dissemination of this type of music in Manizales?
We have to talk more or less about the year 1925, the boom time of our region. Since that time, tango has been heard here.
I think we have to keep listening because Tango is a musical, poetic, dance genre, of the people and for the people, it is of the people, so it is ours..
Tango is not ours because we have created it here because we know it is from the Río de la Plata, but we have a lot to do with that conservation and those roots that we have because we are mountaineers, we are all mountaineers.
We must preserve it, not only for the lyrics, for its music and for the dance, but for the youth. We have to leave something to the boys and we can continue preserving this, but one cannot do that alone.
Listen to the full interview here:
