Breakdown Tango

This work (called “darkly dramatic” by the New York Times, and “an appealing, and at times wonderfully trashy piece” by The Clarinet Magazine), has a virtuosic beginning and ending, with a peculiar tango sandwiched in the middle. It’s a bit more jagged than my earlier pieces. The choreography, by Robert Battle (now Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater), is really, really fantastically odd.

There is now a commercially-available recording of the work available on the Innova label. Gramophone Magazine described the work by saying, “Certainly one would be hard pressed to find a better piece than John Mackey’s Breakdown Tango…”

This work was the source of material for Redline Tango.