Does tango really have any Russian origins? In addition to the layers of Spanish, Italian, African etc. roots? I gave a talk about it in Russian, but I suspect that the English-speaking tango lovers might be interested too. The following is a brief summary of my presentation in Tyumen, Siberia, on October 19, 2018, followed by a "mini-longa" playlist.
Argentina, the nation of immigrants ... even its signature cultural heritage, the tango, is officially defined as a product of interaction and cross-fertilization of many cultures. Among the Europeans, Spain, Italy and France contributed the most. But "los rusos", the immigrants from the former Russian Empire (primarily Jewish), added quite a bit to the development of tango, too. Primarily through the poetry, through the sound of violin, and through the direct influences of Russian romance music.
The most influential of El Ruso poets was Luis Rubistein, a son of immigrant family from Ekaterinoslav.
Луис Рубистейн
Let's listen to his top songs - a beautifully nostalgic and at the same optimistic "Carnaval de mi barrio", subtitled "A street landscape in the style of tango"; a dark and hopeless tragedy of "Charlemos" where the final line is rumored to have meant "Forgive me for being Jewish" for the poet's circle; and "Samaritana", a vals of heartbreaking pain which finds a secret consolation.
(While we are talking about poetry, may I call your attention to the database of tango translations? )
01. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Lita Morales "Carnaval De Mi Barrio" 1939 2:25
02. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Charlemos" 1941 2:29
03. Los Provincianos (Ciriaco Ortiz) - Alberto Gomez "Samaritana (vals)" 1932 2:58
Raul Kaplun orchestra
The 1940s are the high point of tango's Golden Age. It brought together the crazy rhythmic beat of the "D'Arienzo revolution" and the romantic lyricism of the violins. Especially the Jewish violins. Perhaps the most significant violin virtuoso of this period was Raul Kaplun, a son of immigrants from Kishinev. Together with the leader of their orchestra, Lucio Demare, Raul Kaplun led a veritable anti-D'Arienzo counterrevolution, fighting for the purity and tenderness of feelings of tango music and poetry. And their true manifesto is a beautiful tango composed by Kaplun, entitled exactly like this: "Una emocion", "A feeling".
04. Lucio Demare - Raúl Berón "Una Emocion" 1943 2:41
The historic video is almost 25 years old; the dancer is no one else but Saint Gavito, a tireless tango proselytizer of the 1990s who considered this song to be a symbolic representation of tango at large.
Simon Bajour is another must-mention tango violinist. Growing up in a town near Warsaw, Bajour fell in love with folksy, Balkan and Gypsy sounds of the violin he first heard on radio. After escaping to Argentina, he combined the paths of a classic violinist and a tango musician - and never forgot his folklore roots. Perhaps you were lucky to witness how, in some Hungarian or Serbian tavern, violinists try to outdo one another, and suddenly one of the violins breaks into cow's moo, another one responds by dog's barking, and the third counters with the dawn thrills of a nightingale? There are no nightingales in the Americas, and the Argentines may not even recognize the sound, but in Di Sarli's "El amanecer" ("The sunrise") Bajour's violins sings like a creekside nightingale back home.
05. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "El Amanecer" 1951 2:29
Since we already mentioned the Roma tunes, I have to tell a few more words about the Gypsy romances which influenced Russian music, and, by extension, tango in Argentina. I only mentioned one example in my lecture, and asked the tangueros to recognize more Roma motifs, so familiar to a Russian ear, later during the mini-milonga. The seminal role of the Gypsy choirs, especially the famed Count Orloff choir, in the development of Russian national romance is fairly well known in the old country. But it is a much wider regional phenomenon all across Eastern Europe. The folk music of all the ethnic groups living alongside with the Roma developed under the influence of Gypsy bands. One of my favorite examples is an American immigrant musician, Misha Tsiganoff, who is famous for his original Jewish klezmer compositions. So much so that many people believed that he was Jewish (but you can probably guess from the image his tombstone that it can't be further from the truth). Well, it turned out that Mishka had nearly two dozen artistic names, which all meant about the same "Mike the Gypsy" in various languages he sang in. If he recorded a song in Lithuanian, he used a Lithuanian name; for a Hungarian song, he was a Hungarian; same in Polish, Serbian, Romanian and so on! Another amazing story was a tale of a Maramuresh Roma musician who explained how they'd arrange the same piece differently for different ethnic and social groups, always making the song at home with their listeners. With a wink, he introduced the final arrangement as "a socialist realism creation for the Communist party bosses" :)
The Russian Gypsy romance below is instantly recognized by any Russian. You probably recognize it too...
06. Imperio Argentina "Ojos Negros romanza rusa" 1934 3:39
This recording wasn't issued on a single. It was a kind of Youtube of the 1930s - a short "talkie" movie clip, likely the first one in Spanish, starring this black-curled dark-eyed Argentine beauty. The classic Russian Gypsy romance have been arranged into tango by a Spanish German composer. I described the story of the international migrations of "Ojos Negros" in great detail on this blog. Of course, for us dancers, the most familiar recording is different:
07. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Ojos negros que fascinan" 1935 2:51
"Wilno Carnival" -
a rare edition of Florian Hermann's sheet music,
glorifying his hometown
The "Dark eyes" had a really long history in Russia before the song became tango; it started from Valse Hommage, a popular score by Florian Hermann, a mysterious XIX c. composer. Just a few weeks ago, in the famous Pashkov House in Moscow, in an ornate library hall overlooking the Kremlin, I touched the first music score editions of the 1880s which turned Hermann's waltz into a Gypsy romance. And then in the National Library of Lithuania in Vilnius, I was privileged to see more rare sheet music of Hermann, the now-forgotten native son of Vilnius, and to confirm, for the first time, the span of Hermann's life (1822-1892). Looking for "the real historical Florian Hermann" was quite a quest of mine; you can read more in my blog.
Back to the "Dark Eyes" now ... in the 1930s, the song morphed not only into Argentine tango but also to a top-rated Russian tango song ... with its own distant echo in Argentine, but much later in the 1960s.
08. Frank Fox - Piotr Leschenko "Chernye Glaza (Dark Eyes)" 1933 3:15
Another "migrant tango" even got the title of "Russian Gypsy", "Gitana rusa". It is directly based on a composition with Russian lysrics smuggled into Argentina through the port of Odessa. But why is it subtitled "European tango", rather than "Russian"?
This Russian Gypsy turns out to have a really tragic story. Its creator, Saul Zhadan, a fiddler from Uman, has been murdered along with the rest of town's Jews in mass executions in the fall 1941. Zhadan's son Demetrio emigrated to Argentina (one has to remember that the United States virtually closed its doors to Eastern European immigration after 1923, so refugees from the Soviet Union had to go to South America instead). The father sent his son a wedding present - a tango! Entitled "Your eyes", it was dedicated to the bride, "beautiful Celia". The groom didn't seem to appreciate it at first, especially because the song's travel by steamers was too slow and it arrived late for the wedding. But in 1941, sensing that his father was no longer alive, Demetrio decided to donate his music into the good hands of tango musicians. Only, no one knew what the map of Europe will look like after the war, will there be Russia ever again ... so the song was subtitled generically "European"
10. Ricardo Malerba - Orlando Medina "Gitana rusa" 1942 2:47
... And, at last, the tango of Argentina completes a full circle and returns to Russia to its roots! The year is 1968. We see the only LP of Argentine tango ever recorded in the USSR, titled just that: "Argentine Tango". It is Cuarteto Buenos Aires, directed by Tito Bespros. With the help of late Julio Nudler's excellent book on the Jewish personalities of tango, and interviews of the descendants of Bespros's family, I was able to piece together the story of this amazing fiddler, born to immigrants from Odessa in 1917, who played with OTV, De Caro, Juan Canaro and great many Golden Age orchestras, before convening his own band at the age of 39. Many international gigs and awards followed, until the Argentines managed to secure an invitation to the Old Country. And the quartet's invited vocalist, Siro San Roman, even left an amazing "Easter egg" in their "A media luz", where, from behind the Argentine classic, "Mommy Odessa" herself peeks out with a wink :) The album is available for download courtesy of Andres Wilks)
11. Tito "Tito Bespros - Siro San Roman - Media Luz" 2:32
The singer, age 84, was the only surviving member of the conjunto when Andres made his discovery of the 1968 album. When the word spread, with the help of this blog, Argentine TV journalists found Siro San Roman at a nursing home and brought him to the station for an interview. For a few months then, the old romantic singer shone as the newly discovered celebrity of his retirement community! Alas, Soro San Roman passed away in August 2018, age 85...
... and now on to a mini milonga where many of the songs from this story will sound ... along with a few which were just hinted about ;)
13. Carlos di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Cascabelito" 1941 2:32
14. Carlos di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Patotero sentimental" 1942 2:34
15. Carlos di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Charlemos" 1941 2:30
16. Viktor Tsoy "Red-Yellow Days cortina long 3" 0:33
17. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Ataniche" 1936 2:32
18. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Union Civica" 1938 2:28
19. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Champagne Tango" 1938, 1938 2:25
20. Zhanna Aguzarova "Old Hotel cortina long" 0:38
Can you spot a "Gypsy Romance" tune in the following tanda, too? ;)
21. Los Provincianos (Ciriaco Ortiz) - Alberto Gomez "Samaritana (vals)" 1932 2:58
22. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "En el volga yo te espero" 1943 2:40
23. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales, Romeo Gavioli "La shunca" 1941 2:35
24. Eruption "One way ticket cortina slow" 0:18
25. Lucio Demare - Raúl Berón "Una emocion" 1943 2 :41
26. Lucio Demare - Raúl Berón "Que solo estoy" 1943 3:04
27. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Ortego del Cerro "Una vez" 1943 3:22
28. Viktor Tsoy "Red-Yellow Days cortina long 3" 0:33
And in the next tanda, another Roma motif not mentionedin the lecture....
29. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "El Adios" 1938 3:09
30. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales y Romeo Gavio "Sinfonia de Arrabal" 1940 3:09
31. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Lita Morales "Carnaval De Mi Barrio" 1939 2:23
32. Zhanna Aguzarova "Cats" 1987 0:21
33. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Famá "Milonga Sentimental" 1933 3:10
34. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Famá "Milonga Del 900" 1933 2:54
35. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Milonga criolla" 1936 3:01
36. Viktor Tsoy "Good morning, last Hero cortina long" 1989, 1989 0:35
37. Florindo Sassone - Instrumental "Ojos Negros (Oscar Strok)" 1968 2:28
38. Florindo Sassone - Instrumental "Adios corazon (reverb)" 1968 2:16
39. Florindo Sassone - Instrumental "Bar Exposicion" 1968 3:26
40. Zhanna Aguzarova "Zvezda (The Star)" 1984 0:28
41. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Hasta siempre amor" 1958 2:57
42. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Queriendote" 1955 2:49
43. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Sus Ojos Se Cerraron" 19562:47
44. Vitas "7, the element cortina" 2012 0:23
45. Rodolfo Biagi - Jorge Ortiz "Por Un Beso De Amor" 1940 2:46
46. Rodolfo Biagi - Alberto Amor "Paloma (vals)" 1945 2:28
47. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás "Dejame Amarte Aunque Sea un Dia (vals)" 1939 2:55
48. Boney M "Daddy Cool cortina" 0:21
49. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Ciego" 1935 2:57
50. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Nada Más" 1938 3:02
51. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Ojos negros que fascinan" 1935 2:51
52. Sandro de America "Yo Te Amo cortina" 1968, 1968 0:23
53. Osvaldo Pugliese - Jorge Maciel "Remembranza" 1956 3:41
54. Osvaldo Pugliese - Jorge Maciel "El pañuelito" 1959 2:42
55. Osvaldo Pugliese - Alberto Moran "Pasional" 1951 3:26
56. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental "La cumparsita (Matos Rodriguez)" 1961 3:33
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
Latvian DJ Andres Vilks has a passion for old vinyl disks in need of digitizing. His recent find opened my eyes to an awesome page of history of the Dark Ages of Tango: the one and only Argentine Tango LP recorded in the USSR.
The dateline was 1968. The bandleader, Tito Bespros, and the conjunto name, Cuarteto Buenos Aires. The disk jacket informed us that the band has been formed in 1966, performed across the globe, and won an award at a folk music festival in Miami in 1967. On the Russian tour, it's been joined by a 37 years old vocalist, Siro San Roman (who left an amazing "Easter Egg" near the end of their "Media luz" ... don't miss it, especially if you understand Russian :) ). So who were these guys, whose only recordings survived on a dusty LP in an antique record shop in Riga? Their story wasn't to be found anywhere on the Internet, but with the help of Tito's grand nephew (a computer entrepreneur who named his startup after tango) and snippets from Julio Nudler's great tango history book, we were able to learn quite a few bits and pieces:
Tito Bespros (January 4, 1917 - April 29, 1983) was one of tango's several great "ruso" violinists, children of immigrants from the Russian Empire to Argentina. Tito's real name was Alberto Besprosvan. He was born in Buenos Aires exactly 100 years ago to a Jewish couple from Odessa, and he embarked on a tour to find his own Russian roots when the lights of tango in his hometown dimmed in the 1960s.
Alberto's parents were Jose Besprosvan and Esther Slavner. Alberto's sister remembered that their surname was changed to Besprosvan after immigration. Most likely it used to be Besprozvanny, a relatively well known Jewish surname with a curious meaning, literally "Unnamed", a living testament to Russian Jews' aversion to the government-imposed surname system. Until 1804, our ancestors used no surnames at all, but then the government decreed that family names must be assigned to make tax collection and military drafts easier. Not surprisingly, it took decades to finally ensure that all Jewish families got permanent surnames, consistently used in all documents and not changed on a whim every few years. Not surprisingly also, some of the newfangled surnames read "Neizvestny" (literally Unknown), or "Besprozvanny" (Unnamed), or even Nepomnyaschy (Unable to recall). (The Besprosvan family also remembers that among their original ancestor names was something like Dynin or Dinin, but my hunch is that it was Joseph's mother's name).
In Buenos Aires, Jose Besprosvan made living selling porcelain figurines, like the famous kitty, gato de porcelana, from "A media luz". Once they lived at Calle Ombu upstairs from a band owner; it was with this neighbor's band where little Tito (Alberto), still in his short pants, made his earliest violin gig. Tito's first major tango job has been with Orquesta Tipica Victor, then led by Adolfo Carabelli. Traveling to Chile with the band of Alberto de Caro, Tito Besprosvan met his future wife, a Jewish girl from Vienna who worked at a chocolate shop near the venue where they played. In 1940, he traveled all over South America with Juan Canaro's orchestra, and in 1942, went to Mexico. Tango's golden 1940s and early 1950s brought Alberto Besprosvan so many excellent opportunities with the major tango orchestras that the relatives half-seriously tell that there were no other tango musician whose violin is heard in more recordings than Besprosvan!
But the late 1950s drew the curtain on the exuberance of Tango's Golden Age. That's when Alberto Besprosvan had to strike on his own, convening his first band, a string ensemble, in 1958 to play in clubs such as Tabaris and Abdullah. They have seven or possibly even eight violins. Among the violinists were Julio "Toto" Grana, Simón Broitman, Bernardo Prusak, Francisco Oréfice. Osvaldo Celenza played bass, Osvaldo "Marinero" Montes, bandoneon, and Normando Lazara, piano. For a while, the ensemble secured a profitable venue, El Clubo Automovil, but they lost it after joining a strike. They key 4 players of the conjunto went on playing on a tourist boat based off Porto Alegre in Brasil. That's when Besprosvan, Montes, Lazara, and Celenza got themselves a name, "El Cuarteto Buenos Aires", highlighting their Argentine Tango provenance. They kept the name even when they were joined by the 5th member, Siro San Roman, for the global tours in 1967 and 1968, which brought Alberto Besprosvan back to his parents' old country. Did he get a chance to play in Odessa, I wonder?
Enjoy the tracks from the Soviet Union's one and only Argentine tango album on Google Drive!
