April may be my favorite DJing month because it always gives me an opportunity to play lots of Edgardo Donato recordings. The famously absent-minded violinist with his silly-looking round eyeglasses and convention-bending songs lyrics, Donato was the original, and fierce, equal-opportunity employer, featuring blacks, gays, and, most horrifyingly for the night-club culture of his time, women in the leading roles. A darling of the underclass-y dockside establishment which bore an English name, "Ocean Dancing", Donato stuck around in the early 1930s even as the Great Depression and a neo-colonial trade deal with Britain destroyed the Argentine economy and forced all other famed tango orchestras from the dance halls of Buenos Aires. Defying hardship and naysayers, Edgardo Donato has become of one the forces behind the dramatic comeback of tango later in the 1930s.
The primal quality of Donato's music, bitter and sweet, grounded and flying away, always leaves me enchanted. The opening tanda features just one Donato song, from the Old Guard times when orchestra styles were so fluid and interchangeable that it's often easier to assemble a good tanda out of recordings of several groups:
001. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Belen" 1929 2:44
002. Edgardo Donato - Luis Diaz "Adelina" 1929 2:58
003. Orquesta Tipica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli) "Coqueta" 1929 2:47
004. Soda Stereo "Corazon elator" 0:28
Songs of tears and bluster ... a favorite Donato tanda with the voice of Horacio Lagos
005. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Lagrimas" 1939 2:50
006. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Soy Mendigo" 1939 2:32
007. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Me Voy A Baraja" 1936 2:25
008. Kisty Hawkshaw "It's gonna be a fine night cortina long" 0:34
009. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "La Mulateada" 1941 2:23
010. Carlos Di Sarli - Alberto Podestá "Entre pitada y pitada" 1942 2:32
011. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Yo Soy De San Telmo" 1943 2:20
012. Mammas and the Papas "California Dreaming cortina long" 0:40
Think ca. 1940 vintage Fresedo - and your mind is enveloped in receding waves of harp and the depth of voice of Ricardo Ruiz. The crowning achievement of this period is Buscandote, "Searching for You", a rare verse libre masterpiece of a tango song, written and composed by Lalo Scalise. As luck may have it, Jose Mario Otero just wrote about Scalise and posted a rare picture of the pianist, composer, and poet together with Osvaldo Fresedo and Ricardo Ruiz. Enjoy!
013. Osvaldo Fresedo - Ricardo Ruiz "Viejo farolito" 1939 2:28
014. Osvaldo Fresedo - Ricardo Ruiz "Y no puede ser" 1939 2:26
015. Osvaldo Fresedo - Ricardo Ruiz "Buscandote" 1941 2:49
016. Endless Boogie "Trash Dog cortina" 2016 0:21
Donato's El Huracan, "The hurricane" is a ground-breaking, extremely rhythmical tango which planted the seeds of the soon-to-come Rhythmical Revolution of Tango of 1935. This opening song of this tanda features the voice of an Afro-Argentine star Felix Gutierrez ... while the closing songs comes with the voice of Lita Morales, the first ever female voice of the milonga. Do you see her on the right, listed as one of "Donato's boys"?
017. Edgardo Donato - Félix Gutiérrez "El Huracan" 1932 2:56
018. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Se Va La Vida" 1936 2:39
019. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Lita Morales "Chapaleando barro" 1939 2:21
020. Harry Roy "South American Joe cortina 3" 0:21
We danced to "Con tu mirar" the previous weekend in Helena. What an underappreciated gem! Can't wait to play it in a tanda of my own design now:
021. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores "Fru Fru" 1939 2:57
022. Enrique Rodriguez - Ricardo Herrera, Fernando Reyes "Mecha" 1946 3:11
023. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Con tu mirar" 1941 2:13
024. Sandro de America "Yo Te Amo cortina" 1968, 1968 0:23
The sweeter side of Donato:
025. Edgardo Donato - Lita Morales - Romeo Gavio "Mi Serenata" 1940 3:02
026. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "El Adios" 1938 3:09
027. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales y Romeo Gavio "Sinfonia de Arrabal" 1940 3:12
028. Viktor Tsoy "Kukushka cortina long 2" 0:37
029. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás "Queja Indiana" 1939 2:24
030. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás "Son Cosas del Bandoneon " 1939 2:44
031. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás "Cielo!" 1939 2:31
032. Alexey Kudryavtsev "The heart breaks cortina 2" 0:22
and the first milonga of the Donato tanda features a duet with a feminine voice of "Randona", the one they used before hiring the Goddess Lita. Randona was actually a guy, a violinist of the orchestra named Armando Julio Piovani
033. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y "Randona" "Sacale Punta" 1938 2:15
034. Edgardo Donato - Instrumental "El Torito" 1939 2:12
035. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "De Punta A Punta" 1939 2:20
036. Zhanna Aguzarova "Miracle Land cortina" 0:31
037. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Solo compasion" 1941 2:58
038. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ahora no me conoces" 1940 2:34
039. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ninguna" 1942 2:57
040. Vitas "7, the element cortina" 2012 0:23
041. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "La Trilla" 1940 2:21
042. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Nobleza De Arrabal" 1940 2:08
043. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Shusheta" 1940 2:22
044. "Hagedel Sheli" 0:28
Edgardo Donato used to explain that he can't play many valses to the unsophisticated, but trouble-ready, audience of Ocean Dancing. Did he really fear anything with irreverent valses like these three?
045. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Quien Sera" 1941 2:14
046. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Con tus besos" 1938 2:20
047. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales, Romeo Gavioli "La shunca" 1941 2:35
048. Alexey Kudryavtsev "Joy in My Sky cortina long" 0:25
049. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama "Tormenta" 1939 2:38
050. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama "No me pregunten porque" 1939 2:51
051. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama "Te quiero todavia" 1939 2:54
052. Leonid Bykov "Smuglyanka cortina long" 0:33
The next tanda is consecrated to Donato's star feminine voice Lita Morales. The first song is composed specially for Lita by Donato's great female collaborator, "Maruja" Pacheco. The other two, about lovingly trusted one's own heart and faling in and out of love, are vintage Lita story...
053. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales, Romeo Gavioli Various Artists "Triqui trá" 1940 2:34
054. Edgardo Donato - Lita Morales y Ravio Gavioli "Yo Te Amo" 1940 2:50
055. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Lita Morales "Sinsabor" 1939 2:53
056. Stas Borsov "Anyuta cortina" 2000 0:21
057. Otros Aires "Los Vino" 2010 2:43
058. Otros Aires "Perro Viejo" 2016 3:21
059. Otros Aires "Un Baile De Beneficio" 2010 3:42
060. "Katyusha" 0:33
When I'm adding a Troilo-Fiorentino tanda, it's almost always their harshly rhythmical - albeit richly layered - hits from about 1941. Let me try tonight, for a change, something more melancholic and mellow...
061. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "Malena" 1942 2:59
062. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "Pa' que seguir" 1942 2:35
063. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "Cada vez que me recuerdes" 1943 2:40
064. Carmen Piculeata "Minor Blues" 2013 0:23
065. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá "Todo" 1943 2:38
066. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá "Recien" 1943 2:43
067. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá "Garua" 1943 3:11
068. Folk "Shumel Kamysh " 0:23
069. Anibal Troilo - Alberto Marino y Floreal Ruiz "Palomita Blanca" 1944 3:13
070. Aníbal Troilo - Floreal Ruiz "Llorarás llorarás" 1945 2:54
071. TAníbal Troilo - Edmundo Rivero y Floreal Ruiz "Lagrimitas De Mi Corazón" 1948 2:57
072. Soda Stereo "Corazon elator" 0:28
073. Miguel Calo - Raul Beron "Tristezas de la calle Corrient" 1942 2:46
074. Miguel Calo - Raul Beron "Que te importa que te llore" 1942 2:44
075. Miguel Calo - Raul Beron "Jamás Retornarás" 1942 2:28
076. Beatles The Beatles "All you Need is Love cortina" 0:19
077. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Cómo Se Pianta la Vida" 1940 2:23
078. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Danza maligna" 1940 2:28
079. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Tabernero" 1941 2:33
080. Soda Stereo "En la ciudad de furia" 0:24
081. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet "Ella Es Asi (feat. Enrique "El Peru" Chavez)" 2011 2:32
082. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet "Largas las Penas" 2011 3:02
083. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet "Negrito" 2011 1:53
084. Russian folk "Murka" 0:20
085. Lucio Demare - Raul Beron "Que solo estoy" 1943 3:04
086. Orquesta Típica Víctor - Alberto Carol "Bajo el Cono Azul" 1944 2:43
087. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Ortega Del Cerro "Una Vez" 1943 3:24
088. Russian Folk "Kalinka-Malinka 2 (cortina)" 0:25
And the final, high-passion Donato tanda of this most excellent night
089. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Romeo Gavioli "Amando en silencio" 1941 2:51
090. Edgardo Donato - Romeo Gavioli "La Melodía Del Corazón" 1940 3:18
091. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Lita Morales "Carnaval De Mi Barrio" 1939 2:25
092. Folk "Shumel Kamysh " 0:23
093. Hector Varela - Argentino Ledesma "Muchacha" 1956 3:19
094. Hector Varela - Argentino Ledesma "Que tarde que has venido" 1956 2:55
095. Hector Varela - Argentino Ledesma "Fueron tres años" 1956 3:26
096. Zhanna Aguzarova "Old Hotel" 1987 0:22
097. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Hasta siempre amor" 1958 2:57
098. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Sus Ojos Se Cerraron" 1956 2:47
099. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Queriendote" 1955 2:49
100. Zhanna Aguzarova "Miracle Land cortina" 0:31
101. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumenrtal "Mi dolor" 1957 2:51
102. Alfredo De Angelis - Instrumenrtal "Pavadita" 1958 2:53
103. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental "Felicia" 1969 2:47
104. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "La cumparsita" 1951 3:54
The final track is added on special request from Jose Luis Bonaldo, the mastermind of a rival tango club who typically insists that the Anglos will never get it ... but who may sometimes trust a Ruso to ply a few crazy tunes :)
105. Mariano Mores "Tanguera" 1955 2:51
