A dear old tango friend has been taken away from us. We shared many dances and many laughs, many out-of-town trips and many hikes, and long, long conversations. Jen had an unforgettable personality, so sweet and full of empathy and rich on great friendships, and so impossibly super-shy and super-confident almost at the same time. The saddest thing is that Jen was only 34, and pregnant, when she was killed in a freak trail accident.
Remembering Jen made me write a special tango story of dances separated by sparse lines of narration. The request came from TEDx SLC, one of the many amazing projects Jen supported, volunteered for, and helped organize. Once before, Jen brought our tango club team to "immerse strangers into tango" during a TedX afterparty. This time, her organizer friends asked us to make a short presentation in her memory during the main event.
We've presented many different tango stories before - journeys into tango history, genres and styles, and my favorite travels into tango poetry. This time we needed something radically different - much shorter and strikingly poignant. And I knew right away that it would have to open with Di Sarli's 1955 "Verdemar"
The concept? It can't be a story about tango. Rather, we are taking a travel into the depth of emotions of tango, with three or four recorded pieces expressing the range from grief to joy to the healing warmth of memory. Can't use too many words. For the darkness and grief, nothing can outdo Verdemar. The joyful song can be a vals or a milonga, although I would be afraid to confuse people with an ambiguity of waltz-like forms which aren't strictly tango specific to the uninitiated? For the closure, we would pick something like Donato's "Yo te amo" as a happy gaiety yet nostalgic song, or "Remebranzas" of Pugliese or "Una emocion" for a more contemplative one. No deeply special choreography in the plans; rather, one skilled couple can begin a song, with more dancers joining for the closing stanzas. And of course we'll accompany the story with the images of our dear Jenna.
In a few days, Cassandra, an old dancing friend fo Jen's, took charge of the organizational aspects, modifying the following draft script of mine (I will add the actual TEDx's video in the end, hoping that they won't object to my use of a snippet of their very official recording):
TedX organizers asked our group, the Wasatch Tango Club, to give a presentation of tango dance in memory of our dear departed friend, Jenna Rosenberg. Jen was taken away in a tragic accident in the prime of her life. Both TedX SLC and the dance of Argentine tango have been her longtime passions, and we are so honored to dance in this great hall to remember her. In a series of 3 dances, we are going to explore the emotional range of tango, from inconsolable grief to joy and exuberance to the warm glow of nostalgia and healing memories. Tune your hearts to tango and join us in your feelings. We start with Verdemar, a song which is rarely danced, due to its raw power of grief and sorrow. “She was snatched away from us in the prime of her beautiful life,” cry out the lines.
Our next selection is Ella es asi, a loving hymn to a woman who shone so brightly and who was never afraid to be her true self. The meaning of the title is simply, That's how she is. The musical genre isn't a regular tango, but rather a milonga, tango's irreverent, playful younger sister.
Finally, Yo te amo, a beautiful classic song selected for its joyful mood and it's rare feminine voice. I love you, my heart, for your gift of empathy and affection, go the lyrics...
... and now, the whole story of ours. May Mother Earth be soft for you, Jen!
Many thanks to the amazing Patricia Becker for inviting me to DJ at Practica Tinto Chocolate in San Diego! So great to meet So Ca friends again! It's not even two hours of music, but a wonderful memory...
01. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Lita Morales "Sinsabor" 1939 2:53
02. Edgardo Donato - Lita Morales, Romeo Gavioli "Yo Te Amo" 1940 2:50
03. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales, Romeo Gavioli "Triqui trá" 1940 2:34
04. Gilda "No Me Arrepiento de Éste Amor cortina long" 0:40
05. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "El Internado" 1938 2:31
06. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Ataniche" , 1936 2:32
07. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "El Cencerro" 1937 2:40
08. Tatyana Kabanova "Mama, ya zhulika lyublyu cortina" 0:21
09. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Pena Mulata" 1841 2:27
10. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "La Mulateada" 1941 2:22
Podesta with Alex Krebs orchestra!
September is a month to celebrate one of the most-played tango singers, Alberto Podestá. He was born Alejandro Washington Alé in San Juan on September 22, 1924 and lived to the age of 91 - even touring the US in his late 80s and famously performing with Alex Krebs's tango band in Baltimore! Given that Alberto Podestá started singing on stage at the age of 13, earning himself a nickname "Gardelito", after his father died and his family was left destitute, it means over 75 years on stage! By the age 15, of Alberto Podestá already moved to Buenos Aires to sing there, and at 16, recorded his first ageless hits with Miguel Caló, such as vals "Bajo un cielo de estrellas" (still under a different stage name - it was Carlos Di Sarli who gave him the now-famous scenic name of Alberto Podestá the following year). The milonga "Entre pitada y pitada" ("Between one whiff and another") was their first recording, said to have been commissioned as a jingle for a tobacco company:
11. Carlos Di Sarli - Alberto Podestá "Entre pitada y pitada" 1942 2:32
12. Los Iracundos "Puerto Montt rock" 1971 0:27 I just featured Jorge Ortiz, born on September 18, 1912, in three tandas the night before. There is only time for two tonight, showcasing the singer short but very productive stint with Calo, and long collaboration with Biagi.
13. Miguel Calo - Jorge Ortiz "A las siete en el cafe" 1943 3:07
14. Miguel Calo - Jorge Ortiz "Barrio De Tango" 1943 3:06
15. Miguel Calo - Jorge Ortiz "Pa'que seguir" 1943 2:13
16. Soda Stereo "Corazon elator" 0:28
17. Rodolfo Biagi - Jorge Ortiz "Todo te nombra" 1940 3:33
18. Rodolfo Biagi - Jorge Ortiz "Carrillón De La Merced" 1941 2:31
19. Rodolfo Biagi - Jorge Ortiz "Quiero Verte Una Vez Más" 1940 2:58
20. Gilda "No Me Arrepiento de Éste Amor cortina long" 0:40
OTV in the 1920s
Adolfo Carabelli, an incredibly talented and very underappreciated jazz and tango musician, has been born almost exactly 125 years ago to date; I only had a chance to plane a lone track of his the previous tonight, but will make up for it tonight with two full tandas. Carabelli formally trained as a composer in Europe; having returned home for a summer break in 1914, he ended up stuck in Argentina due to WWI. By the early 1920s, he's built himself a name in jazz - and then Victor Argentina gave him a job of the musical director, which put Carabelli in charge of tango programming and Victor's house bound, the famous OTV, Orquesta Típica Victor. The OTV's talent pool and the zeal to innovate were just amazing; many musicians from Carabelli's jazz band took part, and soon, the band also started recording tangos under the name of Orquesta Típica Carabelli. But then, buoyed by Carabelli's achievements, Victor made a business decision to organize a whole array of house tango orchestras, undercutting the success of its flagship OTV on the radio. Just as importantly, the OTV musicians worked in the studio and slept at night, instead of working the night clubs and the milonga halls. further limiting its appeal to the dancing public. As the D'Arienzo Revolution unfolded in the second half of the 1930s, and as the dance scene of tango exploded again, Carabelli found himself on the sidelines, then lost his orchestra director job just as the Golden Age of Tango of the 1940s came into bloom. He died in oblivion 7 years later.
21. Orquesta Típica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli) - Lita Morales "Noches de invierno" 1937 2:47
22. Orquesta Típica Víctor (dir. A. Carabelli) - Ángel Vargas "Sin Rumbo Fijo" 1938 2:18
23. Orquesta Típica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli) - Mario Pomar "Temo" 1940 2:55
24. Soda Stereo "En la ciudad de furia" 0:24
25. Orquesta Típica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli) "Nino bien" 1928 2:43
26. Orquesta Típica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli) "Che, papusa, oi" 1927 2:37
27. Orquesta Típica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli) "Coqueta" 1929 2:47
28. Eruption "One way ticket cortina long" 0:31 Tango historians argue, without ever agreeing, who created the paradigm of the Singer of the Orchestra which defined the vocal tango of the Golden Age, after the earlier orchestras carefully experimented with adding little vocal snippets into tango for dancing (as opposed to tango for listening, where vocal soloists were the norm ever since Gardel sang "Mi niche triste" in 1918). Both Ángel Vargas, in D'Agostino's orchestra, and Francisco Fiorentino, in Troilo's orchestra, demonstrated this equal partnership between the vocalist and the band by 1941. Tonight, we shall celebrate the great "Fiore", born September 23, 1905.
29. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "Maragata" 1941 2:45
30. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "El Bulín De La Calle Ayacucho" 1941 2:29
31. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "Te aconsejo que me olvides" 1941 2:58
32. Tatyana Kabanova "Mama, ya zhulika lyublyu cortina" 0:21
Alberto Podesta with Laurenz's orchestra at Radio Belgrano from tangosalbardo blog
Alberto Podestá has the fondest memories of the orchestra of Pedro Láurenz, especially remembering their super-fancy, same-style, same tailor shop suits. The night before, I played their dramatic tango classics. Let's turn to a couple of their excellent milongas tonight!
33. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá "Yo soy de San Telmo" 1943 2:31
34. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá "Maldonado" 1943 2:04
35. Pedro Láurenz - Martín Podestá "La Vida Es Una Milonga" 1941 2:25
36. Sandro de America "Yo Te Amo cortina" 1968 0:23 The Uruguayan band of Donato Racciatti is, alas, better known in Japan than in the West. Their pianist - whose name I don't even know, because Uruguayan tango is so much less studied - is totally awesome. But to me, Racciatti greatest strengths are his own compositions (eagerly picked by the leading orchestras of Buenos Aires),and, especially, his stunning female vocals. A signature example is "Hasta siempre amor", recorded in September 1958. Shall we mark the occasion tonight?
37. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Hasta siempre amor" 1958 2:57
38. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Sus Ojos Se Cerraron" 1956 2:47
39. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Queriendote" 1955 2:49
40. Russian Folk "Gypsy Girl (cortina)" 0:22 Jorge Maciel was born on September 17 ,1920. It's impossible to pay tribute to him without playing "Remembranzas", a song which first propelled him to fame when he sang it with Gobbi's orchestra in 1948. Yet later, with Pugliese, Maciel outdid himself!
41. Osvaldo Pugliese - Jorge Maciel "Esta Noche De Luna" 1955 3:45
42. Osvaldo Pugliese - Jorge Maciel "Cascabelito" 1955 2:41
43. Osvaldo Pugliese - Jorge Maciel "Remembranzas" 1956 3:41
44. Los Naufragos "Zapatos Rotos rock" 0:34
Salamanca and his orchestra - Todotango photo
I already featured Salamanca, one of tango's most talented pianists and arrangers, who unfortunately left us too few records because of political blacklisting, in the previous post. Please read it. The guy was really amazing ... directed his first tango band at 14 and continued into his 70s ... 17 years with the King of the Beat, 380 D'Arienzo recordings featuring Salamanco on the piano!... One thing I may have to add is how masterfully Salamanca captured the new technical possibilities of the improving recording technology in the mid-1950s, adding signature flowing, higher-pitch sound of the violin into the arrangement. A truly unique tonal and emotional treasure.
45. Fulvio Salamanca - Armando Guerrico "Adios Corazon" 1957 2:40
46. Fulvio Salamanca - Armando Guerrico "Todo Es Amor" 1958 2:47
47. Fulvio Salamanca - Armando Guerrico "Bombomcito" 1958 3:22
48. Juan D Arienzo "La cumparsita" 1955 4:03
After the August madness of the Mountain Milonga Retreat, it's time to settle back into the normal tango routine. And so I get my first DJing stint after missing the whole previous month. Always love Sage's Wednesday night practicas ... ever since their inception, they draw a great crowd. Just wish we could keep on dancing a bit longer than the allowed two-hours-and-a-change.
We start from the old standby, Francisco Canaro's quintet's instrumentals
01. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "El garron" 1938 2:27
02. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "El choclo" 1937 2:46
03. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "Derecho viejo" 1938 2:28
This month marks the 35th anniversary of my university graduation; there have been virtual reunions and much remembering in the social networks, and one of the things we discussed was the music of the 1970s Moscow. I'll use a selection of disco cortinas from the school crowd faves of the epoch, get ready :)
04. Eruption "One way ticket cortina slow" 0:18
Reynal singing with D'Arienzo orchestra. From tangosalbardo blog.
When The King of the Beat re-assembled this orchestra after the painful split with the pianist Juan Polito and singer Alberto Echagüe, he picked Alberto Reynal as his principal vocalist. The frantic madness, and the rough dictatorial style, of D'Arienzo were literally wearing the musicians off, but it may have been the hardest for the singers. Reynal got sick and quit performing after just over a year, and died a few years later. He was only 38 (2 Sep 1908 - 27 Feb 1947). We are left with too few records to showcase his voice. The more prolific great voices of D'Arienzo's orchestra, Echague and Maure, always get the upper hand. The songs with the voice of Alberto Reynal belong to the transition period, and they are marked by the King's trademark rhythmic exuberance but the plaintive violins already make their strong mark. Since September marks Reynal birthday, I planned to showcase this period in a never-before-tested tanda. The impressions are decidedly mixed. The music seems more complex and varied than what I should have picked for the 2nd tanda of the night? But I think it should work great mid-milonga...
05. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Reynal "Almanaque De Ilusion" 1941 3:00
06. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Reynal "Chirusa" 1940 2:49
07. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Reynal "El Corazon Me Engano" 1940 2:22
08. Boney M "Daddy Cool cortina" 0:21
Singer Jorge Ortiz has been born in September as well (18 Sep 1912 - 18 Feb 1989). I started off by picking 3 very different tandas with his voice, and now I see that I later put all 3 of them back to back: valses and tangos of Biagi and Calo orchestras. Ortiz stayed with Biagi for 3 years and his name became almost synonymous with the greatest times of Biagi's orchestra. The singer's tenure with Calo lasted only his 6 months, and they recorded mere 7 songs, but these are amazing hits, too!
09. Rodolfo Biagi - Instrumental "Lagrimas y sonrisas" 1941 2:41
18. Rodolfo Biagi - Jorge Ortiz "Carrillón De La Merced" 1941 2:31
19. Rodolfo Biagi - Jorge Ortiz "Quiero Verte Una Vez Más" 1940 2:58
20. Tatyana Kabanova "Mama, ya zhulika lyublyu cortina" 0:21
21. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Silueta porteña" 1936 3:01
22. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Tangon" 1935 3:03
23. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Milonga criolla" 1936 3:05
24. Eruption "One way ticket cortina slow" 0:18
25. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá "Recien" 1943 2:43
26. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá "Todo" 1943 2:37
27. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá "Garua" 1943 3:11
28. Boney M "Daddy Cool cortina" 0:21
Fiorentino and Piazzolla, two of the most influential members of Troilo team. From tangosalbardo blog
The great singer Francisco Fiorentino, whose seamless integration into Troilo's orchestra set the high standard for vocal tango, is also a September birth boy. I mark this occasion by playing two Troilo tandas, one more relentlessly rhythmic, another more lyrical and complex. Born on September 23 1905, Fiorentino was already in his 30s when he joined the debut of Troilo's orchestra; his experience included playing bandoneon and singing as an estribillista for many tango bands. But it was his 7 years with Troilo which still fill the tango aficionados with awe.
29. Anibal Troilo & F Fiorentino "El cuarteador" 1941 2:48
30. Anibal Troilo & F Fiorentino "Toda mi vida" 1941 2:56
31. Anibal Troilo & F Fiorentino "Te aconsejo que me olvides" 1941 2:58
32. Russian folk "Murka" 0:20
33. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Mariquita no mires al puerto (vals)" 1945 3:01
35. Enrique Rodriguez - El "Chato" Flores "Salud, Dinero Y Amor (Vals)" 1939 2:39
36. Gypsy folk "Na poslednyuyu pyaterochku (Last 5 rubles)" 0:26
A mixed pre-Golden age tanda of favorites, with its of farm life and rough young years. Many orchestras played the final song, "El carrerito", but I think only Fresedo gave us the authentic voice of a tired cowboy imploring the last few of his stubborn cows to cross a ravine. Tango isn't all about the big city living!
37. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli - Ernesto Fama "La estancia" 1930 3:17
(and the middle song of the tanda celebrates one of my fav early tango bandleaders, Adolfo Carabelli, who was born on September 8, 1893)
38. Adolfo Carabelli - Carlos Lafuente "Pa' Que Lagrimear" 1933 2:37
39. Osvaldo Fresedo - Ernesto Fama "El carrerito" 1928 3:09
40. Desireless "Voyage Voyage cortina" 0:31
41. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Hasta siempre amor" 1958 2:57
42. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Sus Ojos Se Cerraron" 1956 2:47
43. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Queriendote" 1955 2:49
44. Eruption "One way ticket cortina long" 0:31
In the last few days, I couldn't get "Y todavia te quiero" from my head. A superhit of 1956 has been recorded by nearly all major orchestras over the course of just a few months. Pugliese and Di Sarli, De Angelis and Varela, Basso and Federico ... D'Arienzo was one of the last bandleaders to turn to this dramatic song - and it's become one of just two records of his orchestra with an amazing voice of Libertad Lamarque. Tonight I featuring this recording in a tanda of late, dramatic, suspenseful D'Arienzo hits:
45. Juan D'Arienzo - Libertad Lamarque "Y Todavia Te Quiero" 1956 2:57
46. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Zorro gris" 1973 2:03
47. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "El Huracán" 1944 2:23
48. The Blues Brothers "Theme From Rawhide 1" 1980 0:21
49. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "El tucu-tun" 1943 2:34
50. Alberto Castillo "El Gatito en el Tejado" 1957 2:37
51. Romeo Gavioli y su orquesta típica "Tamboriles" 1956 2:56
Jorge Maciel, born September 17 ,1920, came to the tango fame late. He sang for Gobbi's orchestra in the late 1940s and the early 1950s, but it was his work with Pugliese in 1954 - 1967 which gave us some of the most indispensable must-play tangos.
Fulvio Salamanca, born August 19, 1921 in a tiny town in the province of Santa Fe, may formally be the previous month's Birthday Man, but we shall celebrate him - likely the most talented of tango pianists - a couple weeks late. Fulvio convened his first tango orchestra at 14, and soon met Juan D'Arienzo when the King of the Beat was touring a neighboring province. After D'Arienzo's stellar pianists left - first Biagi, then Polito - he offered the job to a 19 years old Fulvio Salamanca. Few musicians survived the extreme pressure of working with D'Arienzo for long, but Salamanca stayed put for 17 years! They recorded 380 compositions together, some arranged by Fulvio himself. The years of Salamanca and D'Arienzo's work together were marked by an introduction of a more romantic style, when the fiery orchestra rhythm and the rule of the piano has become supplemented by the melodic voice of the violins. In those years, Salamanca has been repeatedly jailed for his membership in the Communist Party, but D'Arienzo kept rescuing him from behind the bars.
Fulvio Salamanca knew the whole repertoire of D'Arienzo by memory, never looking into the score during performances. Nobody could imagine that, after so many years with the same orchestra, the pianist is capable of mastering any other style. But Fulvio had different ideas. Together with a bandoneonist Eduardo Corti they "conspired" to form a radio orchestra to play extremely dramatic tango music, to match the hottest trends of the year 1957. They didn't find their own distinctive style right away. A chance helped them. At a party, they overheard Armando Guerrico informally singing a new and totally unknown tango from neighboring Uruguay, titled "Adios, corazon". They decided to join forces and to play it together - and, after seeing Salamanca's arrangement, one of tango's greatest violinists, Elvino Vardaro, also decided to join them! It was a breakthrough. What a constellation of talents! Alas, because of the politics, Salamanca had fewer opportunities to record tangos, even though he continued to play and to lead bands till old age. But there are enough recorded hits for one good dramatic tanda!
