Junando Practica playlist, December 2018

It feels so good to see the friends and fool around with the music :)

01. Paco Mendoza & DJ Vadim  "Los Ejes De Mi Carreta" 2013 3:23
D'Arienzo's birthday is December 14, and with his decades at the helm of orchestras, evolving styles, and never-wavering dedication to the rhythm, he's a great guy to celebrate in a playlist! And we start with the formative years of his orchestra, when his fresh, exuberant, youthful music exploded the atmosphere at El Chatecler and before his crazy pianist Rodolfo Biago left to convene his own band. 
02. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "La viruta" 1936 2:20
03. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Champagne tango" 1938 2:26
04.  Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Ataniche" 1936 2:32
05. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Zvezda (The Star)" 1984 0:28
06. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "La Trilla" 1940 2:21
07. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "Shusheta" 1940 2:22
08. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "Nobleza De Arrabal" 1940 2:07
09. Carlitos Rolan  "Cuarteto2"  0:19
Same eye-opener era of D'Arienzo Revolution. Unbelievable valses.
10. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Pasion" 1937 2:37
11. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Corazon De Artista" 1936 2:19
12. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Mentias" 1937 2:19
13. Soda Stereo  "En la ciudad de furia"  0:24

December 11th also marks Carlos Gardel's birthday - and the Day of Tango celebration. Of course Gardel's isn't quite the tango we dance to ... but I am ready to celebrate his with a super-hit which started his tango career in 1917. The song which marked the birth of the genre of tango cancion, of the fusion of poetry and music like never existed in tango before - "Mi noche triste". Let's dance to Canaro's excellent cover!
14. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Mi Noche Triste" 1936 2:44
and the second song of this Canaro-Maida tanda shall be Russian-inspired "Ojos negros", a traveling musical motif to which I devoted too many hours of research :)
15. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Ojos negros que fascinan" 1935 2:51
16. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Condena (S.O.S.)" 1937 2:39
17. Rodrigo  "Cuarteto"  0:29
Rhythmic yet complex, the songs of D'Arienzo's mature period are among my top favorites:
18. Juan D'Arienzo - Hector Maure "Enamorado (Metido)" 1943 2:33
19. Juan D'Arienzo - Hector Maure "Infamia" 1941 3:05
20. Juan D'Arienzo - Hector Maure "El olivo (El olvido)" 1941 2:51
21. Alla Pugacheva  "Etot mir"  0:33
We are only 3 weeks past the 115th anniversary of birth of Sebastian Piana, the composer who stubbornly created the whole genre of milongas for dancing, and who just wouldn't let the society reject the newborn milongas. Let's celebrate with Piana's earliest, slowest milonga compositions!
22. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Famá "Milonga Sentimental" 1933, 1933 3:10
23. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Famá "Milonga Del 900" 1933 2:54
24. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Milonga criolla" 1936 3:00
25. Tatyana Kabanova  "Mama, ya zhulika lyublyu cortina"  0:21
26. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "El Adios" 1938 3:09
27. Edgardo Donato - Romeo Gavioli y Lita Morales "Mi Serenata" 1940 3:02
28. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales y Romeo Gavio "Sinfonia de Arrabal" 1940 3:09
29. Soda Stereo  "En la ciudad de furia"  0:24
I started a tanda of instrumental music of early D'Arienzo and quickly realized that it's a bit out of place for the middle of the evening ... just a tad too straightforward at a time in the energy wave when something more complexly rhythmic would make a better fit. OK, fixing it mid-tanda then.
30. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Joaquina" 1935 3:01
31. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos  "A oscuras" 1941 2:48
32. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos  "Lagrimas" 1939 2:50
33. Carlitos Rolan  "Cuarteto2"  0:19

Get prepared to listen to Troilo's beautiful vals, "Flor de lino", "The flower of flax", often :) The beautiful celestial blue flower has become the mascot of our spring festival of tango. Let's all get excited about SLTF 2019 and welcome old friends of our community, Rod Relucio and Jenny Teters from Chicago, and first-time comers to Salt Lake Valley, Erin Malley and Doruk Golcu!!!
34. Anibal Troilo - Floreal Ruiz "Flor De Lino" 1947 2:49
35. Anibal Troilo - Floreal Ruiz "Romance De Barrio" 1947 2:35
36. Anibal Troilo - Alberto Marino y Floreal Ruiz "Palomita Blanca" 1944 3:20
37. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Zvezda (The Star)" 1984 0:28

Roberto Ray, 1935.
From tangos al bardo blog

On December 21, we celebrate the birthday of Roberto Ray, one of the truly indispensable voices of the formative years of vocal tango. In the 1920s, the dancing public believed that vocal tangos were only good for listening, and that a voice of a singer only distracted the dancers; at most, a few lines of a refrain were permitted to be sung. Then, together with such amazing talents as Francisco Fiorentino and Angel Vargas, Roberto Ray helped transformed the early, mostly instrumental danceable tango songs into a seamless union of the vocalist and the orchestra. Having started with Fresedo's orchestra in 1931, Roberto Ray was the first to blaze this path. The Argentines tend to believe that Ray didn't go far enough, that his singing retained too much of the operatic, Italian kind of a sweet flavor, and that only Fiorentino and Vargas mastered the rougher, more national vibe of singing. Still it was Roberto Ray's work which prepared the fertile ground for their success. Let's not forget that very few Argentine orchestras survived the disruptions of the Great Depression and continued to record through the mid-1930s. And in those trying times, Fresedo's remained the most elegant of the surviving bands!
Ray was born Roberto Raimondo on December 21, 1912, and he already had strong experience as an estribillista (refrain-singer) when he joined Fresedo's orchestra at the age of 19 in 1931. The times were very tough for the tango musicians, but the sweet, European voice of Ray (which never betrayed his barrio roots) helped Fresedo win the gigs with the rich and famous of the day. They stayed together for 8 years straight, and then Roberto Ray returned to Osvaldo Fresedo two more times. For tonight, I'm going to play the hits of the late 1930s, when Fresedo fully mastered inclusion of harp into the orchestra. It's just so breathtakingly beautiful!
38. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Angustia" 1938 2:
39. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "No Quiero Verte Llorar" 1937 2:42
40. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Nieblas del riachuelo" 1937 2:25
41. Aya RL  "Skora"  0:33
Hugo Duval was born on December 13, 1928. This December "birthday kid" was still a little child, indeed, when tango went through the height of its Golden Years. Duval started singing professionally at 17, and at 21, he joined Biagi's orchestra - and stayed with Don Rodolfo until the great pianist's death. Biagi's quarter century at the help of the orchestra had many amazing high points of evolving styles, and Duval's late-1950s hits, tragic and rhythmic at the same time, are definitively among the must-play Biagi recordings.
42. Rodolfo Biagi - Hugo Duval "Solamente dios y yo" 1958 2:33
43. Rodolfo Biagi - Hugo Duval  "Alguien" 1956 3:14
44. Rodolfo Biagi - Hugo Duval  "Esperame en el cielo" 1958 2:52
45. Harry Roy  "South American Joe cortina 1"  0:26
I haven't played candombe milongas for too long! (And thank you Laura for a great tanda!)
46. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Azabache" 1942 3:03
47. Alberto Castillo  "El Gatito en el Tejado" 1957 2:37
48. Romeo Gavioli "Tamboriles" 1956 2:56
49. Adam Aston  "Nikodem"  0:20
50. Francisco Lomuto - Jorge Omar "Madreselva" 1938 2:39
51. Francisco Lomuto - Jorge Omar "Por La Vuelta" 1939 2:34
52. Francisco Lomuto - Jorge Omar "Mano a mano" 1936 3:16
53. Soda Stereo  "En la ciudad de furia"  0:24
54. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Tango argentino" 1942 2:37
55. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "El encopao" 1942 2:34
56. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Danza maligna" 1940 2:25
57. Alla Pugacheva  "Etot mir"  0:33
December is also the birthday month of Manuel Buzón (December 18, 1904 – July 14, 1954). A singer, pianist, and orchestra director, he's been involved with tango professionally since the age of 11, in Argentina and abroad, but his band has left only a handful of quality records, and so it's largely forgotten today. Tonight, I selected just one vals to commemorate this great musician. Let it be a mixed tanda of ever-more-energizing valses! Bailemos?
58. Manuel  Buzón - Osvaldo Moreno  "Pichon enamorado" 1942 2:18
59. Alberto Castillo  "Idilio Trunco" 1946 2:06
60. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales, Romeo Gavioli  "La shunca" 1941 2:35
61. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Zvezda (The Star)" 1984 0:28
And of course Osvaldo Pugliese is also to be celebrated in December! Born December 2, 1905, he grew to symbolize the greatness of tango and the freedom against oppression. One really can't give tribute to Pugliese's genius in one short paragraph! Perhaps you can follow the blog label to read what I have written about Saint Pugliese before ... and of course just one tanda can't do him justice. 
62. Osvaldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel "Rondando Tu Esquina" 1945 2:49
63. Osvaldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel "Corrientes Y Esmeralda" 1944 2:49
64. Osvaldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel "La Abandone Y No Sabia" 1944 3:12
65. Lyube  "Bat'ka Makhno cortina 1"  0:18

Carlos Lazzari leading D'Arienzo memorial orchestra

We are finishing the night with the rhythmic madness and Pugliese-inspired suspense of very late D'Arienzo (and I must admit that I've been fooled by a mistaken annotation of one of the tracks in my collection, and played one recording of a band of D'Arienzo aficionados instead of the original ... although this band was anointed by King of the Beat himself in 1972 ... and its director, bandoneonist Carlos Lazzari, has been born in December too, on Dec. 9 1925, so it's only fair to celebrate him tonight) 
66. Los Solistas de D'Arienzo "El huracan" 1984 2:17
67. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Zorro gris" 1973 2:03
68. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Este Es El Rey" 1971 3:12
69. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "La Cumparsita" 1955 3:44

Junando el Tango practica playlist, Dec 20 2017

Thank you Sage for letting me fool around with the music, and apologies for taking so long with posting the list ... it's the crazy holidays! Happy New Year y Feliz Navidad all!
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 "Loca" 1938 2:57
04. Aya RL  "Skora"  0:33

We've just celebrated D'Arienzo's birthday on December 14th, and it's always great time to play more, different D'Arienzo records, but tonight is an especially good night. I start with some pf D'Arienzo originals, back when Biagi himself was at the piano (and probably defined a lot of the future-and-forever style of the orchestra). 
05. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "El choclo" 1937 2:35
06. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "La viruta" 1936 2:20
07. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Champagne tango" 1938 2:26
08. Harry Roy  "South American Joe cortina 3"  0:21
09. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Mi piba linda" 1943 2:51
10. Enrique Rodriguez - Instrumental  "El morochito" 1941 2:34
11. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Como Se Pianta La Vida" 1940 2:25
12. Zhanna Aguzarova "Old Hotel" 1987 0:22
I don't play valses of D'Arienzo's too often, but they are fantastic
13. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Pasion" 1937 2:37
14. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Corazon De Artista" 1936 2:19
15. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Mentias" 1937 2:19
16. Soda Stereo  "En la ciudad de furia"  0:24
17. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama "Todo te nombra" 1939 3:01
18. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Famá "Abandonada" 1939 2:54
19. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Famá "Te quiero todavia" 1939 2:54
20. Harry Roy  "South American Joe cortina 1"  0:26
21. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino  "Una carta" 1941 2:50
22. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino  "Pa'que bailen los muchachos" 1942 2:49
23. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino  "El bulín de la calle Ayacucho" 1941 2:30
24. ZZ Top  "Sharp Dressed Man cortina"  0:25
And milongas from the formative years of the genre
25. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Milonga Vieja Milonga" 1937 2:37
26. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "De Pura Cepa" 1935 2:41
27. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "El Esquinazo" 1 938 2:32
28. Jestofunk  "The Ghetto cortina"  0:21

Manuel Buzon, a pianist, singer, composer, and bandleader, was born on December 18, 1904. Since his early 20s, he led orchestras, and toured abroad. Returning from Spain in the middle of the Great Depression, he faced a few jobless months, but rebuilt his band even before the year 1930 was over, winning contests, playing on the radio and at carnivals, and touring the provinces. They've only been recording in 1942-1943, and they've been largely absent from the capital city scene during the rest of the golden years. So the music of Buzon's orchestra remains essentially unknown today. I really liked one of their valses (played later in the list), but after trying the following tango tanda, my verdict is "definitive maybe"
29. Manuel Buzón - Amadeo Mandarino "Al Verla Pasar" 1942 3:03
30. Manuel Buzón -  Osvaldo Moreno "Mediodia" 1943  3:05
31. Manuel Buzón - Amadeo Mandarino "Fueye" 1942 2:57
32. Harry Roy  "South American Joe cortina 2"  0:28
A mature period of D'Arienzo's orchestra, with Fulvio Salamanca on piano (and Juan D'Arienzo was blessed with talented and energetic pianists!) and the voice of Hector Maure
33. Juan D'Arienzo - Héctor Mauré "Ya lo ves" 1941 2:39
34. Juan D'Arienzo - Héctor Mauré "Infamia" 1941 3:05
35. Juan D'Arienzo - Héctor Mauré  "El olivo (El olvido)" 1941 2:51
36. Alla Pugacheva "Million Scarlet Roses" 1982 0:19
A mixed tanda born out of a desire to play one of the more memorable recordings of Manuel Buzon, a vals (and they didn't have enough valses recorded to even start building tandas). This set spans a decade of tango history, and culminates in a energetic, Mexican folk-inspired "Shunca", a rare gem of a vals joy.
37. Orquesta Tipica los Provincianos - Alberto Gomez "Samaritana"  2:58
38. Manuel Buzon - Osvaldo Moreno  "Pichon enamorado" 1942 2:18
39. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales, Romeo Gavioli  "La shunca" 1941 2:35

40. Alla Pugacheva  "Etot mir"  0:33
The following tanda is dedicated to our Salt Lake Tango Fest :) (held on Memorial day weekend in May 2018) with its official 2018 wildflower being Utah globemallow, Flor de Malvón de Desierto. Expect me to play an occasional tango about mallows from now on, and please join us at the SLTF!
41. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Moneda de cobre" 1942 2:47
42. Ricardo Tanturi - Enrique Campos "Una Emocion" 1943 2:38
43. Ricardo Tanturi - Enrique Campos  "Malvón" 1943 2:59

44. Carlitos Rolan  "Cuarteto1"  0:28

The end of the tangofox
tanda found me
squarely on the floor :)

45. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "Shusheta" 1940 2:22
46. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "Catamarca" 1940 2:23
47. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "La Trilla" 1940 2:21
48. The Blues Brothers  "Theme From Rawhide 2" 1980 0:18
49. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Por las calles de Estambul" 1944 2:54
50. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Noches de Hungria" 1942 2:57
51. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Contando las estrellas" 1942 2:23
52. Jestofunk  "The Ghetto cortina"  0:21
This week also marks the birthday of one of the sweetest voices of tango, the mellifluous Roberto Ray, who recorded so many excellent hits with Osvaldo Fresedo that it's hard to imagine a milonga without their beautiful, refined tangos. Roberto Raimondo was born on December 12, 1912, and joined Fresedo's orchestra at the age of 18, at the height of the Great Depression which made the musicians' prospects so impossibly hard. Roberto ended staying on for the whole decade from 1931 to1939. The fortunes of the tango vocalists greatly improved by the end of the 1930s, and Roberto Ray started a trend of orchestra singers splitting off and forming their own orchestras; he returned to Fresedo in the late 1940s. 
We're used to the mid-1930s Fresedo-Ray classics. I'm going to celebrate Roberto Ray with something slightly different. Beginning in 1938, Fresedo achieves a more mysterious quality of tango, and experiments a lot  with the sound of harp. This creative period left a handful of recordings with Ray (which I'm happy to play tonight), and more in the same vibe with the voice of Ricardo Ruiz, culminating in stellar "Buscandote" in 1941.
53. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Angustia" 1938 2:39
54. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Ojos Muertos" 1938 2:37
55. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Media Vuelta" 1938 2:09
56. Harry Roy  "South American Joe cortina 1"  0:26
57. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi  "Hasta siempre amor" 1958 2:57
58. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi  "Queriendote" 1955 2:49
59. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Sus Ojos Se Cerraron" 1956 2:47
60. Sandro de America  "Yo Te Amo cortina" 1968 0:23
61. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá "Recien" 1943 2:44
62. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá "Todo" 1943 2:38
63. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá "Alma de bohemio" 1943 2:45
64. Pedro Láurenz - Instrumental  "La cumparsita" 1953 3:17

Dia del Tango 2018

Day of Tango isn't anything like a usual milonga. It's full of specials, and full of spectators, and the audience is more Argentinian than ever - a community that deeply appreciates tango music and vocal, especially dramatic songs of the late classical period, and which often has taste for scenic performances but may be relatively uninterested in social-style dancing. The logistics become complicated, the expenses can be substantial, and yet we strive to provide free admission as a gift of gratitude to the great people of Argentina and to their culture which nurtures our life's passion. It's kind of like celebrating a birthday of a beloved family patriarch ... not exactly a party like I'd throw for ourselves, not without many difficulties, but immensely gratifying in the end. 

We even made it to Telemundo's channel!
And of course we begin in a milonga-like fashion, as the guests gather and the musicians and singers get ready

01. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "El abrojo" 1958 2:48

02. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Champagne tango" 1958 2:47

03. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Germaine" 1955 3:14

We brainstormed holiday-themed cortinas with the Argentine friends and decided that it my be a good idea to play a few cumbia snippets from Gilda, who was the brightest star of the early years of the Argentine cumbia boom in the 1990s, until her tragic death in a road accident at the age of 34. Gilda really is to cumbia what Gardel was to tango. 

04. Gilda  "No Me Arrepiento de Éste Amor cortina long"  0:40

05. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Como Se Pianta La Vida" 1940 2:25

06. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Tabernero" 1941 2:33

07. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "El encopao" 1942 2:34

Many of us know Rodriguez's cool foxtrot remix of Zapatos Rotos. The original is an exciting Argentine rock cortina materiel!

08. Los Naufragos  "Zapatos Rotos rock"  0:34

09. Alfredo de Angelis - Carlos Dante, Julio Martel "Soñar y nada más" 1944 3:08

10. Alfredo de Angelis - Carlos Dante, Julio Martel  A Magaldi" 1947 2:50

11. Alfredo de Angelis - Carlos Dante, Julio Martel "Pobre Flor" 1946 2:40

A monument to the
eponymous song now graces
Puerto Montt waterfront

I haven't heard of Los Iracundos and their signature track until last week. The band may be from Uruguay and the song, named after a Chilean town, but it's one of the best hits of the formative years of Argentine rock! (The name of this seaside town in Chile's lake and fjord country is said to have come into the lyrics as an afterthought ... the original text had a generic "Por tu amor" line instead, but then they decided to replace it with two words which sounded kind of the same :) but better ! )

12. Los Iracundos  "Puerto Montt rock" 1971 0:27

13. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Pobre yo" 1929 2:12

14. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "T.B.C." 1928 3:02

15. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Racing Club" 1930 2:34

Cuarteto is a very Argentine folk genre (and very young one, born in the poor barrios of Cordoba, and first recorded in the 1950s). It suffers from many of the same prejudices which plagued tango, too, during its early decades: that it is a music of the underclass migrants in a big city, that its roots are part-foreign and its lyrics, often racy and lacking decency... Rodrigo may have been the first Cuarteto artist who in the 1990s broke the class and region barriers, and won acceptance in the whole nation. Later on, I will play some of the earlier, distinctly regional Cordobense cuarteto snippets (but carefully clipping away their lyrics, just to stay safe)

16. Rodrigo  "Cuarteto"  0:29

17. Francisco Lomuto - Jorge Omar  "A la gran muñeca" 1936 3:01

18. Francisco Lomuto - Fernando Diaz  "Quiero verte una vez mas" 1940 2:29

19. Francisco Lomuto - Jorge Omar  "Nostalgias" 1936 3:05

20. Gilda  "Noches Vacias cortina"  0:22

21. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Yo Soy De San Telmo" 1943 2:20

22. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Pena Mulata" 1941 2:27

23. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "La Mulateada" 1941 2:22

24. Sandro de America  "Yo te amo cortina long"  0:44

An experimental tanda which required a bit of digital editing. The theme is Canaro's Hawaiian guitar. Argentina was introduced to steel guitar in 1927 by a great Brazilian innovator Gastão Bueno Lobo. A year later, Francisco Canaro, a tireless sound experimenter, picked the trend. And I'm playing this tanda (drumroll, please) ... in anticipation of Salt Lake Tango Fest, with its official 2018 wildflower being Utah globemallow, Flor de Malvón de Desierto. Expect me to play an occasional tango about mallows from now on, and please join us at the SLTF!

25. Francisco Canaro - Instrumental  "Mimosa" 1929 2:54

26. Francisco Canaro - Instrumental  "Malvaloca milonga cut" 1930 3:08
27. Francisco Canaro - Charlo  "Oiga Garcon fast" 1929 2:46

28. Carlitos Rolan  "Cuarteto2"  0:19

And it's time to start our special program with Argentine anthem, welcome speeches, and wonderful vocals of Argentine talents Lucho Fredes and Veronica Banner!

Orquesta Tango West needs a few more minutes to get ready, so I am playing just one modern-yet-classic recording:

29. Romantica Milonguera  "Oigo tu voz" 2017 3:13

30.   "silence30s"  0:31

Three enchanting live music tandas, and it's time to interject with a couple recorded sets before another segment of specials 

31. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Derecho viejo" 1939 2:21

32. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Melodia porteña" 1937 2:48

33. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Qué noche" 1937 2:30

34. Los Iracundos  "Puerto Montt rock" 1971 0:27

35. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda  "Manana zarpa un barco" 1942 3:22

36. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda  "Sorbos amargos" 1942 3:22

37. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda  "No te apures, Carablanca" 1942 3:29

38. Los Naufragos  "Zapatos Rotos rock"  0:34

Birthday vals....

39. Rodolfo Biagi - Alberto Lago  "Amor y vals" 1942 2:48

40.... is followed by 4 tango demo dances (triple cheers to our beloved Argentina, Patricia Becker, who flew in from San Diego just in time for our celebration!), and then a chacarera demo, micro-class, and a practice dance. At last, it's time to bring the floor back into milonga action with a small helping of D'Arienzo - and we keep on rolling until 1 am!

Juan D'Arienzo
14 Dec 1900 - 14 Jan 1976
From Tangology blog

41. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "El Cencerro" 1937 2:40

42. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Ataniche" 1936 2:31

43. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "El flete" 1936 2:58

Come to think of it, "D'Arienzo the rescuer of the milonga" is also the main storyline of the great director's life. Tonight, we celebrate Carlos Gardel and Julio De Caro's birthday, but it is Juan D'Arienzo (whose birthday comes next week) whom we should give credit for saving tango as a dance culture. Gardel cemented the role of poetry and vocal in tango, and De Caro opened the floodgates of its musical complexity. Juan D'Arienzo was in many ways the antithesis of both of these two tango heroes. At first, D'Arienzo's music has been roundly derided as primitive, as retreating to tango's inglorious roots, and the lyrics of many of his songs, as lowly and un-poetic. But tango couldn't have experienced its bloom in the 1940s without the seeds D'Arienzo planted in the second half of the 1930s! By the mid-1930s, the notable tango orchestras all left the dance hall for the theaters and the cabarets, and the record sales sagged too. It was the vigorous, youthful beat of the D'Arienzo's newly assembled band, in 1936, which filled the dance venues again, and brought jobs to countless other tango orchestras who carried on the flame of the milonga. 

44. Los Iracundos  "Puerto Montt rock" 1971 0:27

45. Florindo Sassone - Instrumental "Ojos Negros (Oscar Strok)" 1968 2:28

46. Florindo Sassone - Instrumental "Adios corazon" 1968 2:16

47. Florindo Sassone - Instrumental "Bar Exposicion" 1959 3:26

48. Los Naufragos  "Zapatos Rotos rock"  0:34

49. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Mariano Balcarce  "Milonga De Los Fortines" 1937 2:52

50. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Carlos Lafuente "Cacareando" 1933 2:45

51. Emilio Pellejero - Enalmar De Maria "Mi Vieja Linda" 1941 2:26

52. Gilda  "Noches Vacias cortina"  0:22

53. Lucio Demare - Horacio Quintana  "Torrente" 1944 3:10

54. Lucio Demare - Horacio Quintana "Igual que un bandoneon" 1945 3:02

55. Lucio Demare - Horacio Quintana "Solamente ella" 1944 3:15

56. Sandro de America  "Yo Te Amo cortina" 1968 0:23

57. Héctor Varela - Argentino Ledesma "Fueron tres años" 1956 3:28

58. Héctor Varela - Argentino Ledesma "Muchacha" 1956 3:19

59. Héctor Varela - Argentino Ledesma "Si me hablaras corazon" 1956 3:18

60. Gilda  "No Me Arrepiento de Éste Amor cortina long"  0:40

61. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Quien Sera" 1941 2:15

62. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales y Romeo Gavio "Estrellita Mia" 1940 2:36

63. Edgardo Donato - Félix Gutierrez "La Tapera" 1936 2:54

64. Sandro de America  "Yo te amo cortina long"  0:44

65. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental "Mi dolor" 1957 2:51

66. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental "Pavadita" 1958 2:55

67. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental "Felicia" 1969 2:47

68. Los Naufragos  "Zapatos Rotos rock"  0:34

We may have skipped the name of El Rey del compás, the King of the Beat Juan D'Arienzo in the speeches tonight, but we shall celebrate his birthday in our hearts and with our dancing feet!

69. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "El huracán" 1944 2:21

70. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Este Es El Rey" 1971 3:10

71. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "La cumparsita" 1951 3:54

And we wouldn't have made it without selfless help of Alejandra and the family. Thank you for the abundance of empanadas!! Comida argentina para siempre!

Notes from Hernan Prieto's tango music history lecture

From Hernan's website

Hernan's tango music talk at Valentango 2016 was a lot of fun (and I've hardly ever seen a music lecture so well attended!). He has a great way of talking, very entertaining, very well engaging the listeners - and then the body language is something, even impersonating every tango tune Hernan talks about.

Is it an important subject for the tangueros to know? Not really, says Hernan. But it adds to our appreciation of our favorite pastime

Broad historic categories first: from 1895-1920 Guardia Vieja and then through 1935, Guardia Nueva; he considers 1936-1955 to be the years of the Golden Age, and calls the later years “Vanguardia”. 1895 is sort of arbitrary, a way to call attention to the fact that it was then when Rosendo Mendizabal came up with the first score sheet for a tango, "El Enterriano". But of course tango already existed before. Marching band music may have contributed to its birth, as well as cultural amalgamation of the first major wave of immigration to Argentina, spanning 1878-1895.

We generally play at the milongas the music which has been recorded after 1927/28, and before the late 1950s, which is why we call this general time period Golden. Of course the major orchestras' timelines spanned the boundaries of these time periods. And the orchestras changed with the times and the trends, and indeed set the trends.

Canaro's early orchestra, from Tangology101

Francisco Canaro. Since 1914. Rhythmic. First orchestra had flute, guitar. But no piano. No bass. Of course it isn't an “orchestra tipica” with its sections of bandoneons and violins, a piano, and a bass. Indeed, the whole concept of a “tipica" hasn't been popularized yet, not until the 1920s.

Canaro's output of records is worth a place in the Guinness Book. 8000 records! 700 themes composed by Francisco Canaro himself! (or maybe fewer ...much gossip about that). Created copyrighting system in Argentina. Produced movies, theater plays, became a “star factory” of  the Argentine movie and music industry.

In the peak years, Canaro's orchestra recorded almost a song a day. No time to rehearse. Just keep on recording!

The music was characterized by square beat, constant tempo without acceleration or deceleration (driven by piano and bass), simple harmony. Solos aren't typical until very late. Canaro added lots of instruments and was proud of calling his orchestra “symphonic” - sometimes up to 60-strong bands! Bandoneon section was seated in the second row, behind the violins.

Canaro traveled to Paris in 1925 because the recording equipment there was much better there, says Hernan (New York was the other recording capital). Few recordings survive from the era, though; it was expensive to cut a quality record. (DP – the other explanation for Canaro's trip which I mention on this blog was the tragic demise of Bailes de Internados; there also stories about the much higher pay in France). Travel by sea took 45 days!

On Gardel and classification of vocalists:  ~~ Cantor / Chansonnier / Cantante Carlos Gardel was immensely popular in this period of tango history. Gardel was a “cantor” - a singer supported by accompaniment of a very small team, perhaps just a guitar or two. Maybe lack of Gardel's orchestral records is the biggest reason why his recordings aren't played at the milongas today. "The first video clip of tango" has been filmed with Gardel in New York. Chansonnier / refrain singer - popular in the 1920s. "Cantante", singing perhaps the whole of lyrics, like Gardel, but working with an orchestra. The first great success was Charlo with Canaro (the clip of "Yo también soñé" below is from a 1936 movie)

 To avoid taxes or licensing issues, American orchestras in France had to pose as “folkloric bands”. Everyone wore a faux gaucho outfit! The orchestra called themselves a symphony in French. Success in Paris, success with the Pope himself appreciating the music helped cement acceptance of tango among the rich and the influential back home.

One of the band members was Canaro's brother Rafael, who stayed on in Paris when Francisco returned home. Maybe Rafael fell in love with a French girl. Maybe with more than one, says Hernan. Later, on several occasions, both brothers performed the same score in their two countries.

(Lucio Demare was also producing movies and becoming a "star factory" after Canaro).

Movie stars are being born! New celebrities every few years. A singer cast as the main movie character! All women fall in love with the singer-actor ... not like the guys are immune to it, either. Enter Ada Falcon, the green-eyed diva immortalized in "Yo no sé que me han hecho tus ojos" - she sung it in 1930. Real stardom. She had a Rolls Royce convertible, the first one in Buenos Aires, and a mansion in a neighborhood of embassies. Her habit of performing with a veil covering her eyes - the eyes which were for Canaro alone. An anectode how she blurted, "Canaro will buy me another one", after Canaro's wife whacked her convertible with a broom in a fit of rage. Disappeared after Canaro cheated on her with her own sister; not discovered until 1999 in a provincial convent. This plot needs a good movie.

Osvaldo Fresedo - first recorded in New York rather than in Paris, before Argentina got its own recording studios. Piano and bandoneon are his rhythm-marking instruments. Loved violins. Lots of violins! And cellos... The "strings master". Violins are seated in the first row of the orchestra. Melodies are front and center. "Niebla de riachuelo".

Fresedo's orchestra played in Cabaret Rendez-Vous for the high-class clientele. Never in the basic venues like the sports clubs with their popular dance floors. They performed at the embassy functions, entertained the rich, and this partly explains the detached feeling some Argentines still have towards Fresedo. Fresedo's stylistic influences won the hearts of the tangueros later, with Di Sarli's music.

By 1935, tango was almost dead, persisting only as a complex, rich-folks music. De Caro wasn't really for dancing. For the dancers, the void was filled by fox and jazz, rumba and swing.

Interior of El Chatecler (from jantango's blog)
note lots of tables, not too big a dance floor,
it was meant to be a place of socializing
and entertainment first, and a dance venue
perhaps a distant second

Now introducing Juan D'Arienzo at a newly open cabaret, "El Chantecler". The orchestras performed from the balcony - some tango, some jazz, some Latin; some stand-up comedy, some cabaret girls shows. Certain services were being offered by the dames present there - as Hernan explained, the "working ladies" danced with one another during an opening song, to let the prospective customers know what's going on, which girls were the guests and which one were on a job.

D'Arienzo hired young musicians. The idea was simple, just to excite the crowd into dancing. Bandoneons became "the engine" and were seated in the front row. Bass was used for pizzicato. Everything added together to staccato-ize the music.
Violins? They better don't play too much. Maybe not at all :)
Piano plays separate rhythmic moments. Extra piano notes at the end of the phrases were the invention of Biagi (frenzied, easily bored, "addict").

Hernan shows another picture of Chantecler: no tables anymore, it's overcrowded with the dancers, the owners had to add an outdoor patio with the music delivered by speakers. The success was taxing on the musicians, they played live 7 nights a week, plus on the radio, plus in the recording studio. In 1942 all the musicians left, lead by Polito, the pianist, citing too much work, too little fame. With the replacement hires, D'Arienzo's orchestra changed, mellowing a bit. ( The "King of the Beat" used his connections to deny Polito's crew access to recordings and best venues, so they never grew into a real competition).

Silences and pauses came from D'Arienzo's work, too. Layers of the music weren't complex, in fact one should be able to recognize the whole tango from any of the instruments' parties. The society was split about D'Arienzo's music. Many dancers loved it, but musicians were often bored and dissatisfied. "It's all fast, all simple, and the guy keeps yelling at you, "Faster, faster!"". Pedro Maffia even quit tango in disgust. Hector Maure later said that singing for D'Arienzo was great for the money but very bad for his voice, that the orchestra didn't even reduce the volume when it was his turn to sing, that the speed was destructive...

But the acceleration and "rhythmization" trend ends in 1942. It wasn't totally sudden, but the new trends were felt across the field.

The recording companies, which once used to equate slower beats with the failing pre-1935 tango styles, gradually opened to experimentation with romantic and lyrical styles. Importantly, until 1942 the lyrics of tango were typically based on lunfardo slang. The topics were heavy on loyalty and betrayal, crime and poverty; the women were often described in derogatory ways. But starting from 1943, the government banned lunfardo and "low morality" themes from the airwaves. So romantic tangos became very important.

(Hernan gives this example: so a tango sang how a girl looked so beautiful and graceful, but perhaps it was just an illusion of a guy who drank too much? Not anymore. "Tal vez sera un alcohol", "Maybe it was alcohol", became "Tal vez sera tu voz", "Perhaps it was your voice", under censorship).

Carlos Di Sarli. Famous sunglasses, hiding an eye injured in a gun shop accident, or, some claim, a failed suicide attempt. In 1938-1941 Di Sarli's newly convened orchestra is getting into strongly rhythmical music, likely under pressure from the recording companies too eager to replicate D'Arienzo's success.

1939 - hired Roberto Rufino, age 16, when his dad still doesn't allow the kid to wear grownups' long pants. Rufino had to be at the microphone in shorts. The voice isn't youthful at all, it's deep ... "probably due to too much smoking and booze tried in his first 15 years of life", jokes Hernan. "Corazón" was Rufino's first recording with Di Sarli

1942 - hired Alberto Podesta, age 17. He sang "No esta" on their first day of recording. Rufino and Podesta were both too young to get into the night clubs, not yet 21, so a cabaret owner would signal the orchestra if an undercover cop was in the building - in which case the singers didn't come out from behind the curtains, and the music remained instrumental.

Rufino and Podesta were one of the very few tango examples of what the Argentines call "rubro", a "category" of musicians who fill the same role in the same orchestra, but who don't perform together in a duet.

The change to more melodic and graceful music began with "Cuando el amor muere", August 1941, sung by Carlos Acuña in his only recording with Di Sarli's orchestra. Longer violin melodies, solos characterize Di Sarli's music, while the role of the bandoneons tends to be minor, secondary. Thus, Di Sarli developed Fresedo's stylistic line to perfection.

Hernan's Tango Onthology diagram from the lecture
(I wouldn't put Donato "downstream" of D'Arienzo, though...)

Eduardo Lazarowski tango orchestras seminar, July 2015

Alicia and Eduardo in NC

Eduardo Lazarowski grew up and studied in Buenos Aires before moving to North Carolina's famous Research Triangle, and rediscovering tango as a dance form. His multimedia presentation on the Golden Era orchestras of tango has become the highlight of my trip to the beautiful Casa Tango - and stay tuned for Eduardo's upcoming book!!

Before I turn to my seminar notes, let me add a few words about the Casa Tango experience, which in many ways defeated my expectations. The dance hall was full of light and paintings; the food was nothing short of remarkable (ahh Michele's fruit tarts!); the vibe really friendly. On the other hand I was surprised how socially awkward would be the arrangement of the men seated together at one side of the hall - for, as it turns out, our tango men aren't too skilled in maintaining conversations with each other in the absence of the ladies (but luckily, an escape to the kitchen and the lounge always offered co-ed socialization and saved the nights ... and it was clear that many invitations to dances happened in the lounge and the hallway rather than just across the dance floor). Speaking of the latter, I thought my long-distance cabeceo skills were reasonable, but I didn't realize that when the opposite sexes are seated tightly on narrow chairs, and the heads of the two leaders or two followers aren't separated by more than a few inches, then a cabeceo needs a true laser precision ... otherwise, be ready to confusions between one's cabeceo's intended and unintended targets. Ouch.

The dogs were the happiest away from tango :)

And lastly, I really looked forward to gain some insight from the classes - improving the milonguero technique could be a true mind-altering experience - but the classes were generally too full to get enough personal attention and physical touch from the instructors, so the verbal instruction with its New Age rhetoric predominated (this verbiage may work nicely for the mood-setting but is too nebulous for the technical instruction, and simply makes me tune out if used in too large doses). In this delicate craft of the milonguero technique, I guess I'd rather stick with the private lessons! (Of course my own mood-setting may have been hampered by my own hobo circumstances ... a sleeping bag with two dogs curled up inside, under the random pines on the outskirts, for the living quarters, and skinnydipping under the highway bridge for the morning shower, ya know :) )

Eduardo Lazarowski's lecture

Once he wanted to go to history, but chose biochemistry... now exploring the history in depth again. Originally a seminar was the on whole history of tango since 1850. Today - just the orchestras.
1930s-50s. Beautiful multimedia. Animation, sound, just superb.
Starts from Gardel - melodic, singable, How to make it danceable?
The opposite extreme end of the spectrum ... Astor Piazzolla ... rhythmic yet irregular

Who were the guys who made it danceable like we like it? Canaro, Firpo, De Caro, Fresedo trailblazing between 1920-1930

Rosendo Mendizabal

Then come 4 masters D'Arienzo, Di Sarli, Troilo, Pugliese

A flashback to 1890-1910 - fluid, improvising bands. Rosendo Mendizábal - a middle class black pianist - records possibly the first tango sheet music. 1895
Villoldo many famous compositions like "El choclo"
Vicente Greco - first Orquesta Tipica 1912 (Eduardo plays their "Hotel Victoria"). Canaro debuted with Greco - he was a same-block neighor.
Genaro Esposito - 1913 Entrerriano. Bandoneon! "El Tano" Genaro hired Firpo who introduced piano into the orchestra.

Francisco Canaro 1920 - listen - all the instruments playing more or less together all the time. Now compare with Firpo - 1928 "El Amanecer" - layering of instruments, melodic layers.  Start of "evolutionists" as opposed to trad school like Canaro, or Anselmo Aieta who had debuts with him of D'Arienzo, Lomuto, and D'Agostino. But it was solely the rhythm which was danced then - the melodic layers just assisted with the mood.

Sexteto De Caro

In 1925, the things begins to change. Julio De Caro sextet of 1925. Pedro Maffia, Pedro Laurenz. Harmony, phrasing, rubato, staccato, syncopation, arpeggio etc etc.  Pizzicato. soloists, counter-cantos. Thoroughly educated musicians. Listen to the 1926 "Recuerdo".

Layoffs and poor pay of the Great Depresson disrupted the orchestras. De Caro transitioned away from the dancers. Fresedo remained the sole evolution-school force. He ruled at the cabaret. Soft, melodic dancing for the remaining rich. Roberto Ray sounded like a Spanish import to the porteños! Too perfectly speaking, too perfectly accompanying the music. In the same era Canaro ruled the Music Hall,  with the musical comedies, kind of symphonic in sound and theatrical in scope, his 1932 invention and also a rich-folk entertainment. Not many regular people dance by the mid-30s....

1936-1937 - Big Change (but also economy improved and politics turned a bit less oppressive, so the mood brightened overall). Juan D'Arienzo! Staccato and contrasting pauses. Young, unruly people are hooked. Jobs for musicians appear again!! And the orchestras come back: Troilo 1937, Di Sarli 1938, Pugliese 1939. And then a whole wave.

Alberto Echagüe - a real porteño voice, and he sings the rhythm, not the melody like it used to be. Compare with the later D'Arienzo vocalists like Jorge Valdez - 1958 "Hasta siempre, amor" - still a rhythmic voice, but overwhelmingly shifted into melody.

Francisco Fiorentino

Troilo is the master of phrasing. Reinvented the singer role as a rhythm-marking "instrument" in such a way that dancers can follow it with Fiorentino - that started even before Echagüe. (DP note - I would think that the rhythmic, irreverent appeal of the music and poetry and the rough syllable-cutting vocal quality were carried through the Decada Infamia by Edgardo Donato's orhestra and singers such as Felix Gutierrez - for example, of the 1932 "El huracan" - but perhaps the local lore wouldn't give enough credit to the Uruguayan and Afro tango musicians?)

Di Sarli composed "Bahia Blanca" as a remembrance of his childhood when he knew he will die soon (he had pancreatic cancer and died in his 50s). Di Sarli could be very rhythmic but "in decent clothes" unlike D'Arienzo. Legendary left hand piano - "el bordoneo" style - kind of following the milonga-campera strumming of the gaucho guitar, affectionately known as "la bordona". Also arrastres (drumroll-like all-strings on a guitar originally), adopted for bandoneons. "A la gran muñeca" is a great example of both techniques. Great singers worked him - Rufino started as a teenager, before he was "a grownup in long pants" - it was Di Sarli who bought the first "leones" (pantaloons) for him. Podesta, Duran. The best time for the danceable-music singers was in the 40s. In the 1950s Di Sarli rearranged a lot of ancient compositions, in a romantic way with incredible virtuosity, but the instrumentals of this later era stand out in particular.

And finally to Pugliese. Really expanded the horizons. Started with rescuing De Caro's concepts, and famously invented "la yumba" - the new kind of arrastre. "Urban arrastre". "Was so good that even his political enemies let his music slip through".

What made the music of the 40s great? Outstanding level of the musicians. Resurgence of the vocal tango. Great lyricists. "Una emocion" sings of the union of tunes and words.

"Natu" teaching tango history (to be reviewed soon!)

Finally a plug for Osvaldo Natucci, "the first modern DJ in Argentina" (who burst into the BsA milonga scene only in teh mid-1990s, but revolutionized teaching and conceptualizing of the tango DJing), and his music collection which is so heavy on the 40s. Di Sarli, Troilo, Pugliese, D'Arienzo top his list by #s of tango titles - here is another way to define the "Most Important Orchestras".

And an introduction of Eduardo's own, "90% ready" tango history book!

(Speaking of history, I promise to return to the oldest and most famous Argentine DJs - Osvaldo Natucci, Felix Picherna, Horacio Godoy - and to explore where and when we got our DJing concepts of tandas, cortinas, structures, and flows - soon!)

The Big 5 Orchestras: a statistician's quest

Which tango orchestras are the most important?

Nobody would disagree that the recordings of Carlos Di Sarli and Juan D'Arienzo, the musical antipodes of their glory days, are the backbone of the XXI century milonga playlists. (Interestingly, there is a persistent but unproven rumor that the two grandest orchestra leaders played together for a short period of time in 1934, when Di Sarli bounced between a succession of temporary jobs, with Cambareri in Rosario, with his former Sextet musicians at confitería "Novelty", with Juan Canaro, at Radio El Mundo, and maybe even with D'Arienzo?)

Ron Weigel with his wife Susana and the statue immortalizing
them in Urbana IL, where they have taught Argentine tango
since 1999. The 11-foot sculpture by Larry Young has been
installed in Urbana's Wandell Sculpture Garden in 2001

But the tango music aficionados always prefer to speak of "the Big 4" or "the Big 5", and they make a lot of fuss about who the "next 2 or 3" orchestras might be, once we place Di Sarli and D'Arienzo at the top of the list. "How did you dare to rank Troilo below his due 3rd position??" - "How could you even consider Donato among the big-five??".  In this post, we shall consider the orchestra rankings and preferences through the prism of surveys and statistics.

Enter Ron Weigel, likely the only statistician ever to have a tango monument erected in his honor. Dr. Weigel teaches biostatistics in Urbana-Champaign. During one of his visits to BsAs, in summer 2008, he decided to tally all tandas at all the milongas they attended, trying to get an authoritative answer about the Most Important Orchestras. Ron notes that the surveyed milongas were all in the downtown, all popular with the experienced milongueros, so the results ought to be biased in favor of the subjective tastes there (and indeed, Biagi ranked high in all genre categories, which is exactly what people remember about the Central BsAs milongueros). Still, Ron writes, his subjective experience in other BsAs venues is that they play broadly similar selections. We shall review the data shortly, but first let me set the mood by playing a video from Club Gricel, the home of 2 out of the 14 surveyed milongas:

An average milonga from Ron Weigel's dataset had 13 tango tandas, including approximaely two each of D'Arienzo and Di Sarli, and one of Troilo. None of the other orchestras ranked as a must-play:

As a fellow statistician, I must warn against literal acceptance of these rankings. There clearly is a good deal of variation in milonga setlists, and if one keep observing milongas, then this variability must result in slightly fluctuating tallies each time. In fact we can use the toolkit of statistics to check if the differences between, say, 11 Puglieses vs. 13 Tanturi in this dataset are "statistically significant" (as opposed to falling within the expected range of the random fluctuation).

One-tailed Fisher's test performed on Ron's tallies confirms that Troilo was not significantly preferred over Biagi or Tanturi ( p-value = 0.423086) or Pugliese or D'Agostino ( p-value = 0.273212) or Calo or even Rodriguez ( p-value = 0.147721). Only Di Sarli and D'Arienzo were significantly favored over the runners-up.

So after all the data-collection and analysis, we are left exactly where we started: the study confirmed that Di Sarli and D'Arienzo are The Big Two, but couldn't tell with statistical confidence who the "other 2 or 3" core orchestras ought to be. It doesn't mean that there is no objective orchestra ranking - it just means that it will take many more observations before one can confidently rank them.

And even then we'd be left with selection biases to ponder. Like, are salon milongas different? Are differences cropping up from year to year, both because the availability of the recordings changes and because the fashions and trends shift? Could there be differences between earlier-evening and late-night milonga styles? Between the more youthful and more old-dancer communities? Even between the steamy BsAs summer and its gloomy winter?

There turns out to be a much bigger survey which attempts to parse out some of these influences. But before we move on to it, let me mention some of the other results of Ron Weigel's study.

1. Milongas. There were, on average, 2.6 milonga tandas per event (fewer then expected 3.2 tandas if TTVTTM tanda flow was the rule). Almost all milonga tandas were of Canaro, D'Arienzo, Di Sarli, and Donato, (plus a sole Biagi tanda and a sole Tanturi tanda), with 25% milonga tandas being mixed ( which also included Caceres (Tango negro), Calo, Color Tango (La luciernaga), Laurenz, Tanturi, Troilo, and Villasboas). The numbers are too small for meaningful statistical comparisons, but mixed milonga tandas seem to be a widely accepted norm

2. Valses. There were, on average, 2.7 vals tandas per milonga, again fewer than expected under the TTVTTM rule. Fully one third vals tandas were D'Arienzo's (!), and nearly as many tandas were mixed (including Biagi, Calo, De Angelis, Demare, Di Sarli, Firpo (tipica), Laurenz, Tanturi, and Troilo). Biagi and Troilo were distant 2nd and 3rd behind D'Arienzo's, and all other orchestras were represented by just a tanda or two ( De Angelis, Calo, Quinteto Pirincho, D’agostino, Donato, and Tanturi).

Felipe Martinez DJing in Canada

3. Other genres. An average milonga had 2 to 4 tandas of non-tango music ( Chacarera, Cumbia, Merengue, Jazz, Pasodoble, Rock & Roll, Salsa), which may partly explain why there were fewer than expected milonga and vals sets.

While we were discussing Ron Weigel's survey (and its limitations) on facebook, Felipe Martinez pointed my attention to a much bigger annual Tango Tecnia survey which tried to measure not what DJs played, but what the dancers liked. The 2014 report is the latest one available. I took the 2015 survey to familiarize myself with its methodology, and I have to assume that it didn't change much year to year.

Tango Tecnia doesn't probe the opinions of the English-speaking tangosphere well (its North American respondents are overwhelmingly from Mexico, and its European respondents are mostly from Spain, although France and Italy contribute too), and the majority of the survey-takers are young (in their 20s and 30s) .... but it still cut impressively across the cultural and age divides with nearly 1300 responses. D'Arienzo and Di Sarli came on top here, too, with nearly 80% "approval rating":

It may be impossible to evaluate statistical significance from the 2014 survey results, because almost 30% of the respondents skipped the question about orchestras ... and it's impossible to tell if this fraction differed from Europe to the Americas. Those who did like some orchestras liked, on average, 10 of them .... but many must have picked just one or two, otherwise how could one explain the observation that nearly 1 in 5 survey-takers didn't like D'Arienzo or Di Sarli? 

xkcd: "Significant!" :)
Once one splits already-thin data multiple ways,
then all sorts of improbable spurious
"associations" can be "found" there
("More study recommended", deadpans
xkcd's famous mouseover)

Biases of selection and recall ought to be a huge problem, too - people may not remember unfamiliar or rare titles, and may remember better the music they heard from CDs or online videos than the tandas they loved at the actual milongas. The contemporary and the undanceable definitely gets a very strong favorable bias in the survey data, with Color Tango outpolling Laurenz and OTV, Piazzolla beating Lomuto and Malerba, and even Ojos de Tango getting 10 times the votes of Garcia, Firpo, or Carabelli. 

Popularity breakdown by region and by age looks intuitively right, although it may be impossible to tell apart significant differences from the flukes. Say, Sexteto Milonguero rules in South America and with the under-30 crowd, while Enrique Rodriguez and OTV seem to have more fans in Europe.

Of the specific record titles, the highest ranking is (yes) Poema with 18% approval rating. Many Pugliese records, Bajofondo and Otros Aires, Esteban Morgado, Caceres and Salgan complete the top-20 list of the most poplar record titles, Regional and age differences look mind-boggling sometimes - like, apparently Otros's "Lo Vino" is especially loved ... in Mexico, and Hotel Victoria is preferred by the 60+ age group? - but one can't tell if it is a mere fluke. 

Sometimes it's just so disappointing to look at the world through the statistician's eyes :) :) ... a picture which sort of made good intuitive sense no longer looks trustworthy once you go into the gory details, and start seeing meaningless coincidences and confounds where you used to see patterns.

UPDATE: analysis of SuperSabino's DJ survey (October 2015)