San Diego Decir Tango playlist, September 2018

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

Mestizos Practica Playlist,Nov 5, 2017

My first turn DJing a popular Sunday matinee practica at Mestizos Coffeehouse, an oasis of community and alt-culture on the struggling West Side. Many locals are gone for the weekend to a workshop in Boise, and it's my turn to fill in. I show up at un-tango-ishly early 10:45 am, fearing that with so many absentees, we may never get traction. But just a couple tandas later, the floor starts to come alive...
01. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "El garron" 1938 2:27
02. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "Alma en pena" 1938 2:46
03. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "Champagne tango" 1938 2:30
04. Maya Kristalinskaya  "A za oknom"  0:16
05. Osvaldo Fresedo - Instrumental  "Pimienta" 1939 2:52
06. Osvaldo Fresedo - Instrumental  "Derecho viejo" 1941 2:31
07. Osvaldo Fresedo - Instrumental  "Arrabalero" 1939 2:32
08. Soda Stereo  "En la ciudad de furia"  0:24
Adolfo Carabelli is one of my favorite "tango underdogs", underappreciated yet truly wonderful orchestra leaders - except he lead not just one orchestra but two, at essentially the same time. A classical and jazz pianist and composer with extensive European education, Carabelli ended up stuck in his birth country, Argentina, when WWI broke out. At the age of 32, the jazz musician was thrust into the world of tango almost by chance. An ascendant recording label, Victor, hired Carabelli as an artistic director in 1925, with an assignment to best the rival networks' house-brand orchestras in jazz - and also in tango. And Adolfo Carabelli achieved a truly spectacular success with Orquesta Tipica Victor (OTV), attracting top talent to the label - and to his own jazz band, which also started recording excellent tangos from 1931 on (for the tango records, they would call themselves an Orquesta Tipica rather than a Jazz Band, just like many other Argentine orchestras did in the hardscrabble post-Great Depression years). 

Adolfo Carabelli
September 8, 1893 - January 25, 1947

A great innovator and bandleader of the difficult years which preceded Tango's Golden Age, Carabelli ended up excluded from the world of tango music just as it took off again. Carabelli's own success at Victor was partly to blame, as the label sought to replicate his success and formed many additional house bands in the 1930s, undercutting its flagship OTV. Intrigue and romantic suffering took its toll on the musician. In 1936, Carabelli lost the helm of OTV to his star bandoneonist,  Federico Scorticati. Later on, as the best musicians found a real explosion of opportunities in the newly-formed tango orchestras of the late 1930s, and Carabelli's depression deepened, his own orchestra folded too, recording its last piece in 1940. Carabelli died in 1947 in complete obscurity. 
09. Adolfo Carabelli - Alberto Gómez "Alma" 1932 2:56
10. Adolfo Carabelli - Alberto Gómez "Inspiración" 1932 3:23
11. Orquesta Tipica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli) - Luis Diaz "Secreto" 1932 2:45
12.  "Hagedel Sheli"  0:28
It's just a few weeks past Pedro Laurenz's 115th anniversary, and I'm going to celebrate it by generously sprinkling tandas of the great bandoneonist and bandleader. First, the intensely rhythmic tangos of Laurenz's eary orchestra period:
13. Pedro Laurenz - Juan Carlos Casas "Vieja amiga" 1938 3:13
14. Pedro Laurenz - Juan Carlos Casas "Desconsuelo" 1940 2:29
15. Pedro Laurenz - Juan Carlos Casas "No me extrana" 1940 2:44
16. Marek Jackowski   "Oprócz blekitnego nieba"  0:23
17. Haris Alexiou  "To Tango Tis Nefelis" 1998 4:07
18. Jem  "Come On Closer"  2004 3:47
19. Fool's Garden "Lemon Tree" 1999 3:09
20. Lyube  "Bat'ka Makhno cortina 1"  0:18
Miguel Caló's 110th anniversary was also just a few days ago, on October 28th. Let me start celebrating Calo with a milonga tanda I seldom play:
21. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Milonga que peina canas" 1942 2:20
22. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Milonga Antigua" 1942 2:25
23. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Azabache" 1942 3:03
A cortina which begs dancing to? I need to take a closer look at Viktor Tsoy's dark classic ... it's nearly 7 minutes long, but perhaps a reasonable-length track can be cut?

24. Viktor Tsoy  "Kukushka cortina long 2"  0:37
As tango grows more melodic and dramatic in the 1940s, Laurenz records these timeless masterpieces:
25. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podesta "Alma de bohemio" 1943 2:43
26. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podesta "Todo" 1943 2:37
27. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podesta "Recien" 1943 2:43
28. Viktor Tsoy  "Konchitsya leto (summers end) cortina long 2"  0:40
Recently, we were excited to redicsover the only LP of Argentine tango ever recorded in Russia, by Cuarteto Buenos Aires of Alberto Besprosvan a.k.a. Tito Bespros. Someone already dared to play a selection from the album at a milonga. I couldn't resist too. I think it may actually work sometimes; my biggest gripe is that the volume of the music gets impossibly law when the vocalist sings...
29. Tito Bespros - Siro San Roman "Media Luz" 1968 2:32
30. Tito Bespros - Siro San Roman "Al Compas Del Corazon" 1968 2:40
31. Tito Bespros - Siro San Roman "El Choclo" 1968 2:17
Calo's classic valses:
32. Miguel Caló - Raul Berón "El Vals Soñador" 1942 3:29
33. Miguel Caló - Alberto Podestá  "Bajo un cielo de estrellas (vals)" 1941 2:37
34. Miguel Caló - Alberto Podestá  "Pedacito de cielo (vals)" 1942 2:21
35. Vitas  "7, the element cortina" 2012, 2012 0:23
36. Damour Vocal Band  "Sway"  3:49
37. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole  "Over The Rainbow" 2001 3:32
38. Souad Massi  "Ghir Enta" 2008 5:06
39. Pink Floyd  "Goodbye Blue Sky cortina long 2"  0:29
Some of my favorite and oft-played tangos of Calo's - but I will play his unusuals later, too.
41. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Corazón no le hagas caso" 1942 3:00
42. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Jamás retornarás" 1942 2:28
43. Miguel Calo - Raul Beron  "Tristezas de la calle Corrientes" 1942 2:46
44. Endless Boogie  "High Drag cortina" 2016 0:22
I was exploring D'Arienzo's tangos with the voice of Hector Maure recently, enjoying their bitter tinge. These are the most brooding pieces of D'Arienzo than I ever played. Beautiful and sad. Especially the opening track... 
45. Juan D'Arienzo - Héctor Mauré "Uno" 1943 3:17
46. Juan D'Arienzo - Héctor Mauré "Enamorado (Metido)" 1943 2:33
47. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "No Nos Veremos Nunca" 1944 3:33
48. Johnny Cash  "I walk the line cortina long" 2000 0:40
People sometimes complain that Laurenz's trio of valses, Mendocina / Mascarita / Paisaje, is overplayed?
49. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá  "Paisaje" 1943 2:51
50. Pedro Láurenz - Carlos Bermudez y Jorge Linares "Mendocina" 1944 2:35
51. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Corazon De Artista" 1936 2:18
52. Stas Borsov  "Anyuta cortina" 2000 0:21
Turn for interesting Calo records which I haven't played before ... and I was so excited about the closing track that I didn't realize that I played the same theme by a different orchestra in the beginning of the practica...
53. Miguel Calo - Instrumental "La guinada" 1948 2:47
54. Miguel Calo - Instrumental "Saludos" 1944 2:23
55. Miguel Calo - Instrumental "Inspiracion" 1943 2:47
56. Leonid Bykov  "Smuglyanka cortina long"  0:33
57. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Decile Que Vuelva" 1942 2:33
58. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo  "Así Se Baila El Tango" 1942 2:36
59. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo  "La vida es corta" 1941 2:25
60. Alexey Kudryavtsev  "The heart breaks cortina 1"  0:22
Less than a week from now, we are going to accompany Tango West Orchestra on stage, and I get a request to play some of the temas of the planned performance (Silueta porteña, Desde el alma, Romance the barrio) for the practice. And since the remaining vals and milonga tandas were planned as non-traditional, I am incorporating non-traditional versions of these venerable titles into the list:
61. Trio Garufa  "Silueta Porteña (Electro Milonga)" 2008 2:35
62. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet  "Negrito" 2011 1:53
63. Otros Aires  "Perro Viejo" 2016 3:21
64. Alla Pugacheva  "Million Scarlet Roses (cortina long)"  0:39
65. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ahora No Me Conocés" 1941 2:35
66. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Solo compasion" 1941 2:58
67. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ninguna" 1942 2:59
68. Sandro de America  "Yo te amo cortina long"  0:44
69. Miguel Calo - Raul Iriarte  "La vi llegar" 1944 3:24
70. Miguel Calo - Raul Iriarte  "Lluvia de abril" 1945 2:42
71. Miguel Calo - Raul Iriarte  "Cada dia te extrano mas" 1943 2:35
72. Jennifer Gasoi  "Happy happy me (cortina 1)" 2012, 2012 0:21
73. Los Cosos De Al Lao  "Romance De Barrio" 2003 2:48
74. Los Tubatango  "Francia (Vals)" 1994 3:03
75. Osvaldo Pugliese - Instrumental "Desde El Alma" 2:58
76. Beatles The Beatles "All you Need is Love cortina" 2006, 2006 0:19
77. Lhasa De Sela Blue Suenos "La Cara de la Pared" 2005 4:23
78. Carlos Libedinsky  "Vi Luz y Subí" 2005 3:18
79. Cirque du Soleil Cirque Du Soleil "Querer" 1994 4:34
and finally a gulp of drama with the parting tanda of Calo...
80. Miguel Calo - Lucho Gatica  "Percal" 1965 2:58
81. Miguel Calo - Lucho Gatica  "Cada dia te extrano mas" 1965 2:32
82. Miguel Calo - Lucho Gatica  "La copa del olvido" 1965 2:47

Milonga Del Centro playlist, September 6 2014

Great turnout on a beautiful fall Moon night, thank you again for this amazing venue, Julianne, and thanks to all for coming!
01. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Germaine" 1955 3:14
02. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "El abrojo" 1958 2:48
03. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Champagne tango" 1958 2:47
All of the cortinas were selected to conjure up the rain & to herald the arrival of the fall :)
04. Oleg Gazmanov  "Summer Rains"  0:26
05. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo  "Recuerdo Malevo" 1941 2:33
06. Ricardo Tanturi - Enrique Campos  "Que Nunca Me Falte" 1943 2:42
07. Ricardo Tanturi - Enrique Campos  "Oigo tu voz" 1943 3:07
08. Sofia Rotaru  "Autumn Melody"  0:30
And some seasonal poetry themes too :) with the flowers dropping last petals ("A Magaldi") and withering from the frost ("Pobre Flor")
09. Alfredo de Angelis - Carlos Dante, Julio Martel  "Soñar y nada más" 1944-08-29 3:08
10. Alfredo de Angelis - Carlos Dante "A Magaldi" 1947 2:50
11. "Alfredo De Angelis - Carlos Dante - Julio Martel / Pobre Flor" 1946 2:40
12. Sofia Rotaru  "Autumn Melody"  0:30
I couldn't have enough listening to the best of the Old Guard in recent weeks, & dared to play not just one but two Guardia Vieja tandas tonight. These 1928-1930 Di Sarli's are to die for:
13. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli "Pobre yo" 1929 2:12
14. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli "T.B.C." 1928 3:02
15. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli  "Racing Club" 1930 2:34
16. Oleg Gazmanov  "Summer Rains"  0:26
It looks like Jacob has figured out Rodriguez's trick with the infamous final dropped note. Yes! BTW I posted lots more annotated music samples of Enrique Roriguez back when we celebrated his birthday at Sin Nombre.
17. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "Que lo sepa el mundo entero" 1943 3:32
18. Enrique Rodríguez - Armando Moreno "Como has cambiado pebeta" 1942 2:37
19. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "El encopao" 1942 2:34
20. Sofia Rotaru  "Autumn Melody"  0:30
I'm left guessing which is Mack's fav Donato milonga :) No "Ella es Asi"? Really?
21. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Sácale punta" 1938 2:18
22. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Ella Es Asi - milonga" 1938 2:35
23. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos  "De punta a punta (milonga)" 1939 2:21
24. Alexander Dolsky  "At last, rainy September! (cortina 1)" 1979 0:15
25. Lomuto, Francisco - Jorge Omar  "A la gran muñeca" 1936 3:01
26. Lomuto, Francisco - Fernando Diaz  "Quiero verte una vez mas" 1940 2:29
27. Lomuto, Francisco - Jorge Omar  "Nostalgias" 1936 3:05
28. Oleg Gazmanov  "Summer Rains"  0:26
I must have been thinking about a "perfect tanda" with Pa'que Lagrimear at least since June. Here is my current best shot combining three orchestras (but two of them lead by the same director), vocals and an instrumental, but united by the mood and the sound of the epoch. Long live the Old Guard!
29. Sexteto Carlos Di Sarli - Ernesto Famá "Chau Pinela" 1930 2:36
30. Orquesta Tipica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli )  "Che, papusa, oi" 1927 2:37
31. Adolfo Carabelli -Carlos Lafuente "Pa'que lagrimear-1933"  2:39
32. Sofia Rotaru  "Autumn Melody"  0:30
The energy keeps building up!!
33. Rodolfo Biagi - Teofilo Ibanez  "Viejo porton (vals)" 1938 2:27
34. Rodolfo Biagi - Andres Falgas  "El ultimo adios (vals)" 1940 2:09
35. Rodolfo Biagi - Teofilo Ibanez  "La loca de amor (vals)" 1938 2:13
36. Anzhelika Varum  "Autumn Jazz"  0:20
37. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "A Quién Le Puede Importar" 1945 3:14
38. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas  "Ninguna" 1942 2:57
39. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ahora No Me Conocés" 1941 2:35
40. Oleg Gazmanov  "Summer Rains"  0:26
41. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podest  "Todo" 1943 2:37
42. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podest  "Recien" 1943 2:43
43. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podest  "Garua" 1943 3:09
44. Sofia Rotaru  "Autumn Melody"  0:30
45. Carlos Di Sarli Roberto Rufino "Yo Soy De San Telmo" 1943 2:20
46. Carlos Di Sarli Roberto Rufino "Pena Mulata" 1941 2:27
47. Carlos Di Sarli Roberto Rufino "La Mulateada" 1941 2:22
48. Alexander Dolsky  "At last, rainy September! (cortina 1)" 1979, 1979 0:15
49. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Jamás retornarás" 1942 2:31
50. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Corazón no le hagas caso" 1942 3:00
51. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Tristezas de la calle Corrientes" 1942 2:46
52. Oleg Gazmanov  "Summer Rains"  0:26

I already mentioned Donato Racciatti, "the" Uruguayan tango orchestra, in April - and the fact that we might not have remembered the superb sound of his orchestra without the amazing voice of Nina Miranda. Nina's birth name was Nelly Hunter. At the age of 13, after seeing "Puerta Cerrada", a movie where Libertad Lamarque played the role of Nina Miranda, a tango singer in love against odds, the teenager pledged to become a tango singer and to adopt the name of Nina Miranda. Three years later, she made good on her pledge and joined an all-female tango band, Las Golondrinas, touring at home and in Brazil. Performing with Donato Racciatti marked the the high point of "new Nina's" tango career. It was soon cut short by marriage; her husband wouldn't allow Nelly to perform. Only at the age of 60, widowed, she burst into the music scene again! Racciatti has few records available to us to mix; here's my next shot at a tanda with Nina Miranda's unsurpassed "Gloria". 
53. Donato Racciatti - Instrumental "La Viruta" 1972 2:30
54. Donato Racciatti - Nina Miranda "Gloria" 1952 2:47
55. Donato Racciatti - Nina Miranda  "Tu corazón" 2:32
56. Anzhelika Varum  "Autumn Jazz"  0:20
57. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "En el volga yo te espero" 1943 2:40
58. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "Uno que ha sido marino! (vals)" 1944 2:57
59. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores  "Los Piconeros (vals)"  2:47
60. Sofia Rotaru  "Autumn Melody"  0:30
61. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos / Lita Morales  "Chapaleando barro" 1939 2:21
62. Edgardo Donato - Romeo Gavioli / Lita Morales "Yo Te Amo" 1940 2:50
63. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos / Lita Morales "Carnaval De Mi Barrio" 1939 2:25
64. Anzhelika Varum  "Autumn Jazz"  0:20
I wasn't 100% sure about the dance floor apeal these really late, dramatic D'Arienzos ... but it looks like when the energy is high and el gente is high on music, then it can fly!
65. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Bar Exposición" 1973 2:33
66. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "La torcacita" 1971 2:31
67. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Este Es El Rey" 1971 3:10
68. Sofia Rotaru  "Autumn Melody"  0:30
Slick, polished milongas from Canaro's fav quintet. Might have traded for something more grounded / more challenging in the final tandas of the milonga?
69. Quinteto Pirincho - Instrumental  "Se dice de mi" 1954 2:52
70. Quinteto Pirincho - Instrumental "El firulete" 1958 2:29
71. Quinteto Pirincho - Instrumental "La cara de la luna" 1959 2:29
72. Alexander Dolsky  "At last, rainy September! (cortina 1)" 1979, 1979 0:15
73. Alfredo De Angelis  "Felicia 1969" 1999 2:48
74. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumen  "Mi dolor" 1957 2:51
75. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental  "Pavadita" 1958-06-25 2:55
76. Anzhelika Varum  "Autumn Jazz"  0:20
(Added Canaro's at the spur of a moment to stretch the music a bit beyond the announced closing time)
77. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida  "Ciego" 1935 2:57
78. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Condena (S.O.S.)" 1937 2:39
79. Osvaldo Pugliese - Instrumental  "Recuerdo" 2:54
80. Lidiya Ruslanova  "Valenki 1 (cortina)"  0:24
81. Osvaldo Pugliese "Corrientes Y Esmeralda" 1944 2:49
82. Pugliese, Osvaldo "Rondando Tu Esquina" 1945 2:49
83. Osváldo Pugliese  "Farol" 1943 3:22
84. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental  "La cumparsita" 1961 3:33
85. Goran Bregovic - Iggy Pop "In the Deathcar" 1999 5:13
Just a closing vignette; we'll have to play Pedro Maffia, and to talk about his role in tango history, in making bandoneon the voice of tango, in spurring Decaroist revolution and ushering the era of musical complexity of tango, and in turning milonga into a danceable genre of music, another time.
86. Pedro Maffia"Palomita loca" 1930 3:25

Orchestra Pedro Maffia (recently digitized by Beba Pugliese)

Practilonga del Centro playlist, June 8 2014

What a treat of a party! What a turnout! Thank you so much, Utah tangueros!
The practica started out as an impromptu follower technique / walk basics class (Julianne, you are amazing!)
So for the first half an hour, I kept adding sets of the more accessible, classic instrumental "tangos for walking". 
01. Osvaldo Fresedo - Instrumental  "Derecho viejo" 1941 2:31
02. Osvaldo Fresedo - Instrumental  "Poliya" 1939 2:31
03. Osvaldo Fresedo - Instrumental  "Tigre viejo" 1934 3:01
04. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "El ingeniero" 1952 3:25
05. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Milonguero viejo" 1940 2:21
06. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "El once (a divertirse)" 1946 2:41
07. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Bahía Blanca" 1958 2:49
08. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Nueve puntos" 1956 3:25
09. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Don Juan" 1941 2:34
10. Francisco Canaro - Instrumenta  "Pampa" 1938 2:50
11. Francisco Canaro - Instrumental  "El chamuyo" 1927 2:57
12. Francisco Canaro - Instrumental "Lorenzo" 1938 2:34
13. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "El amanecer" 1951 2:30
14. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Indio manso" 1958 2:53
15. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "A la gran muñeca" 1954 2:43
At last, more practilonga-goers trickle in, and it's time to diversify the music, staring from the dynamic Donato's from the heydays of the Horacio Lagos - Lita Morales - Romeo Gavioli singer trio. "Soy mendigo" ("I am a beggar") in particular floated to to the focus of my attention last week, because of a poetic association with Veronica Toumanova's newly published essay which insisted that tangueros must never "beg for love", that it only brings worse suffering. "Soy mendigo" is, in my eyes, a cool counterpoint - a confident, optimistic tango story of begging for affection. With some luck, I may write a bit more about it later :)
16. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos  "Lagrimas" 1939 2:50
17. Edgardo Donato  "Yo Te Amo (Lita Morales, Romeo Gavio)" 1940 2:50
18. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos  "Soy mendigo" 1939 2:34
19. Rodolfo Biag - Jorge Ortíz "Lagrimas Y Sonrisas (vals)" 1940 2:41
20. Rodolfo Biagi - Jorge Ortíz "Por Un Beso De Amor (vals)" 1940 2:44
21. Rodolfo Biagi - Teofilo Ibanez  "Viejo porton (vals)" 1938 2:27
22. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá  "Recien" 1943 2:43
23. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá  "Garua" 1943 3:09
24. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá  "Todo" 1943 2:37
25. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "Tango argentino" 1942 2:37
26. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Marinero"  1943 3:10
27. Enrique Rodriguez - Fernando Reyes "Alma en pena" 1946 3:05
28. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama "Milonga sentimental" 1933 3:10
29. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama "Milonga del 900" 1933 2:55
30. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Milonga criolla" 1936 3:05
31. Ricardo Tanturi - Enrique Campos  "Oigo Tu Voz" 1943 3:07
32. RicardoTanturi - Alberto Castillo "Madame Ivonne" 1942 2:18
33. Ricardo Tanturi - Enrique Campos "Que Nunca Me Falte" 1943 2:42
34. Carlos di Sarli - Alberto Podestá  "Lloran las campanas" 1944 2:58
35. Carlos Di Sarli - Alberto Podestá  "La Capilla Blanca" 1944 2:55
36. Carlos Di Sarli - Alberto Podestá  "Junto a tu corazon" 1942 3:00
And now for a series of special waltzes, for my own birthday & for Lis and Regina's going-away dances, followed by the 4th track "for everybody to dance". 

The light-hearted "Cuando estaba enamorado" holds a special place in my personal shrine of tango music ... you may say that my path there started from Homer and Christina's dancing to Canaro's rendition of this vals in Portland in 2010.
37. Francisco Lomuto - Fernando Diaz  "Cuando estaba enamorado" 1940 2:19
A Berliner band with several tango-danceable, ethnically inspired tunes remixed and dramatically accelerated a very classic, originally very sorrowful Russian waltz which mourned the war dead of the 1905 Battle of Mukden.
38. 17 Hippies  "Time Has Left Me Ma Belle (Vals) aka Manchurian Hills" 2004 3:56
Eugen Doga's most famous movie soundtrack hit is a faux-XIXth century waltz from the "Tender and Affectionate Beast", but milonga-wise, I prefer a different waltz from a virtually unknown flick, composed nearly 15 years later:
39. Eugen Doga "Gramophone" 1992 2:28
The closing track for this special tanda of love and farewell is from the Klezmatics. "Di Goldene Pave", the Golden Peahen, is a fairy-tale flying messenger, and a metaphor for the separation from the loved ones in Yiddish poetry - truly, a metaphor for poetry itself. Chava Alberstein composed the music to a 1920s poem by Anna Margolis, then a recent immigrant from Russia to New York. 
40. The Klezmatics & Chava Albertstein "Di Goldene Pave" 2003 4:01
41. Edgardo Donato - Romeo Gavio, Lita Morales "Mi Serenata" 1940 3:02
42. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales, Romeo Gavio "Sinfonia de Arrabal" 1940 3:07
43. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "El adios" 1938 3:19
"Pa'que lagrimear" is another recording which I couldn't get out of my head in recent days. The oldtime insistence of the beat, the stretchy sound of bandoneon, the voice of the estrebillista singing only refrains but not the verses of tango lyrics, in a way which has just been recently pioneered by Canaro (Traditionally, danceable tangos didn't have any vocal at all, to keep it easy for the dancers; while tango cancion had all the verses sung. Canaro realized that if a singer stops being a featured soloist, and becomes one of the instruments of a tango orchestra, subservient to the beat like the rest of them, then the dancers might actually like it ... in small quantities. And they did, more and more so with the passage of time, but to this day almost no tango lyrics are sung in their entirety, beginning to end, in the tangos "para bailar". They do sing some verses, but skip others)
44. Adolfo Carabelli - Carlos Lafuente "Pa'que lagrimear" 1933" 2:39
45. Adolfo Carabelli - Alberto Gómez "El 13" 1932 2:37
46. Adolfo Carabelli - Carlos Lafuente  "El pensamiento" 1932 2:39
Some of the best contemporary milongas. The first one is truly outstanding.
47. Otros Aires "Los Vino"  2:41
48. Otros Aires "Un Baile De Beneficio" 2010 3:42
49. Otros Aires "Rotos en el Raval" 2005 3:53
50. Osvaldo Fresedo Roberto Ray "No quiero verte llorar" 1937 2:42
51. Osvaldo Fresedo Roberto Ray "Vida mia" 1933 3:23
52. Osvaldo Fresedo Roberto Ray "Isla de Capri" 1935 3:16
(The dance floor is absolutely full of people now but I'm reluctantly deleting lots from the draft list from this point on, in order to wrap it up no more than half an hour later than the practica's official end. Milongas, another vocal Fresedo tanda, and an occasional third-tune-in-a-set get the cut)
53. Anibal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "El Bulín De La Calle Ayacucho" 1941 2:31
54. Anibal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "Tabernero" 1941 3:20
55. Anibal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "Toda Mi Vida" 1941 2:58
56. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "Con tu mirar" 1941 2:13
57. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "Llora corazon" 1945 2:51
58. Enrique Rodriguez - Ricardo Herrera, Fernando Reyes  "Mecha" 1946 3:11
59. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Tristezas De La Calle Corrientes" 1942 2:46
60. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Al Compas Del Corazon" 1942 2:48
61. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Jamas Retornaras" 1942 2:31
62. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Recuerdos De Paris" 1937 3:12
63. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Condena (S.O.S.)" 1937 2:39
64. Alfredo De Angelis "Mi dolor" 1957 2:51
65. Alfredo De Angelis  "Pavadita 1958" 2:53
66. Alfredo De Angelis  "Felicia 1969" 2:48
67. Osváldo Pugliese "Farol" 1943 3:22
68. Osváldo Pugliese "Remembranzas" 1943 3:41
69. Osváldo Pugliese "La mariposa" 1966 3:32
70. Angel D'Agostino - Angel Vargas "La Cumparsita" 1946 3:00
Both post-Cumparsita tracks sound pretty good, but their youtube videos are even better IMO. The first one is, of course, a spoofy remix of Sholom Secunda's 1932 Yiddish operetta hit, "Bei Mir Bistu Schein", which took the world by storm and must have been performed in dozens languages (there is an Argentine version too, "Para mi eres divina" by Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno)
71. Cream Margot  "Poka igraet dzhaz"  3:16

72. Damour Vocal Band "Sway"  3:49