Milonga Sin Nombre Homenaje a Edgardo Donato

April may be my favorite DJing month because it always gives me an opportunity to play lots of Edgardo Donato recordings. The famously absent-minded violinist with his silly-looking round eyeglasses and convention-bending songs lyrics, Donato was the original, and fierce, equal-opportunity employer, featuring blacks, gays, and, most horrifyingly for the night-club culture of his time, women in the leading roles. A darling of the underclass-y dockside establishment which bore an English name, "Ocean Dancing", Donato stuck around in the early 1930s even as the Great Depression and a neo-colonial trade deal with Britain destroyed the Argentine economy and forced all other famed tango orchestras from the dance halls of Buenos Aires. Defying hardship and naysayers, Edgardo Donato has become of one the forces behind the dramatic comeback of tango later in the 1930s.

The primal quality of Donato's music, bitter and sweet, grounded and flying away, always leaves me enchanted. The opening tanda features just one Donato song, from the Old Guard times when orchestra styles were so fluid and interchangeable that it's often easier to assemble a good tanda out of recordings of several groups:

001. Sexteto Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Belen" 1929 2:44

002. Edgardo Donato - Luis Diaz "Adelina" 1929 2:58

003. Orquesta Tipica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli)  "Coqueta" 1929 2:47

004. Soda Stereo  "Corazon elator"  0:28

Songs of tears and bluster ... a favorite Donato tanda with the voice of Horacio Lagos

005. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Lagrimas" 1939 2:50

006. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Soy Mendigo" 1939 2:32

007. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Me Voy A Baraja" 1936 2:25

008. Kisty Hawkshaw  "It's gonna be a fine night cortina long"  0:34

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

010. Carlos Di Sarli - Alberto Podestá "Entre pitada y pitada" 1942 2:32

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

012. Mammas and the Papas  "California Dreaming cortina long"  0:40

Think ca. 1940 vintage Fresedo - and your mind is enveloped in receding waves of harp and the depth of voice of Ricardo Ruiz. The crowning achievement of this period is Buscandote, "Searching for You", a rare verse libre masterpiece of a tango song, written and composed by Lalo Scalise. As luck may have it, Jose Mario Otero just wrote about Scalise and posted a rare picture of the pianist, composer, and poet together with Osvaldo Fresedo and Ricardo Ruiz. Enjoy!

013. Osvaldo Fresedo - Ricardo Ruiz "Viejo farolito" 1939 2:28

014. Osvaldo Fresedo - Ricardo Ruiz "Y no puede ser" 1939 2:26

015. Osvaldo Fresedo - Ricardo Ruiz "Buscandote" 1941 2:49

016. Endless Boogie  "Trash Dog cortina" 2016 0:21

Donato's El Huracan, "The hurricane" is a ground-breaking, extremely rhythmical tango which planted the seeds of the soon-to-come Rhythmical Revolution of Tango of 1935. This opening song of this tanda features the voice of an Afro-Argentine star Felix Gutierrez ... while the closing songs comes with the voice of Lita Morales, the first ever female voice of the milonga. Do you see her on the right, listed as one of "Donato's boys"?

017. Edgardo Donato - Félix Gutiérrez "El Huracan" 1932 2:56

018. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Se Va La Vida" 1936 2:39

019. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Lita Morales  "Chapaleando barro" 1939 2:21

020. Harry Roy  "South American Joe cortina 3"  0:21

We danced to "Con tu mirar" the previous weekend in Helena. What an underappreciated gem! Can't wait to play it in a tanda of my own design now:

021. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores "Fru Fru" 1939 2:57

022. Enrique Rodriguez - Ricardo Herrera, Fernando Reyes "Mecha" 1946 3:11

023. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Con tu mirar" 1941 2:13

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

The sweeter side of Donato:

025. Edgardo Donato - Lita Morales - Romeo Gavio  "Mi Serenata" 1940 3:02

026. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "El Adios" 1938 3:09

027. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales y Romeo Gavio "Sinfonia de Arrabal" 1940 3:12

028. Viktor Tsoy  "Kukushka cortina long 2"  0:37

029. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás "Queja Indiana" 1939 2:24

030. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás "Son Cosas del Bandoneon " 1939 2:44

031. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás "Cielo!" 1939 2:31

032. Alexey Kudryavtsev  "The heart breaks cortina 2"  0:22

and the first milonga of the Donato tanda features a duet with a feminine voice of "Randona", the one they used before hiring the Goddess Lita. Randona was actually a guy, a violinist of the orchestra named Armando Julio Piovani

033. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y "Randona" "Sacale Punta" 1938 2:15

034. Edgardo Donato - Instrumental "El Torito" 1939 2:12

035. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "De Punta A Punta" 1939 2:20

036. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Miracle Land cortina"  0:31

037. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Solo compasion" 1941 2:58

038. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ahora no me conoces" 1940 2:34

039. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ninguna" 1942 2:57

040. Vitas  "7, the element cortina" 2012 0:23

041. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "La Trilla" 1940 2:21

042. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Nobleza De Arrabal" 1940 2:08

043. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental "Shusheta" 1940 2:22

044.  "Hagedel Sheli"  0:28

Edgardo Donato used to explain that he can't play many valses to the unsophisticated, but trouble-ready, audience of Ocean Dancing. Did he really fear anything with irreverent valses like these three?

045. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Quien Sera" 1941 2:14

046. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Con tus besos" 1938 2:20

047. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales, Romeo Gavioli  "La shunca" 1941 2:35

048. Alexey Kudryavtsev  "Joy in My Sky cortina long"  0:25

049. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama  "Tormenta" 1939 2:38

050. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama  "No me pregunten porque" 1939 2:51

051. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama  "Te quiero todavia" 1939 2:54

052. Leonid Bykov  "Smuglyanka cortina long"  0:33

The next tanda is consecrated to Donato's star feminine voice Lita Morales. The first song is composed specially for Lita by Donato's great female collaborator, "Maruja" Pacheco. The other two, about lovingly trusted one's own heart and faling in and out of love, are vintage Lita story...

053. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales, Romeo Gavioli Various Artists "Triqui trá" 1940 2:34

054. Edgardo Donato - Lita Morales y Ravio Gavioli "Yo Te Amo" 1940 2:50

055. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Lita Morales "Sinsabor" 1939 2:53

056. Stas Borsov  "Anyuta cortina" 2000 0:21

057. Otros Aires  "Los Vino" 2010 2:43

058. Otros Aires  "Perro Viejo" 2016 3:21

059. Otros Aires  "Un Baile De Beneficio" 2010 3:42

060.  "Katyusha"  0:33

When I'm adding a Troilo-Fiorentino tanda, it's almost always their harshly rhythmical - albeit richly layered - hits from about 1941. Let me try tonight, for a change, something more melancholic and mellow...

061. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "Malena" 1942 2:59

062. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "Pa' que seguir" 1942 2:35

063. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "Cada vez que me recuerdes" 1943 2:40

064. Carmen Piculeata  "Minor Blues" 2013 0:23

065. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá "Todo" 1943 2:38

066. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá "Recien" 1943 2:43

067. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá "Garua" 1943 3:11

068. Folk  "Shumel Kamysh "  0:23

069. Anibal Troilo - Alberto Marino y Floreal Ruiz "Palomita Blanca" 1944 3:13

070. Aníbal Troilo - Floreal Ruiz  "Llorarás llorarás" 1945 2:54

071. TAníbal Troilo - Edmundo Rivero y Floreal Ruiz "Lagrimitas De Mi Corazón" 1948 2:57

072. Soda Stereo  "Corazon elator"  0:28

073. Miguel Calo - Raul Beron  "Tristezas de la calle Corrient" 1942 2:46

074. Miguel Calo - Raul Beron  "Que te importa que te llore" 1942 2:44

075. Miguel Calo - Raul Beron  "Jamás Retornarás" 1942 2:28

076. Beatles The Beatles "All you Need is Love cortina" 0:19

077. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Cómo Se Pianta la Vida" 1940 2:23

078. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "Danza maligna" 1940 2:28

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

080. Soda Stereo  "En la ciudad de furia"  0:24

081. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet  "Ella Es Asi (feat. Enrique "El Peru" Chavez)" 2011 2:32

082. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet  "Largas las Penas" 2011 3:02

083. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet  "Negrito" 2011 1:53

084. Russian folk  "Murka"  0:20

085. Lucio Demare - Raul Beron  "Que solo estoy" 1943 3:04

086. Orquesta Típica Víctor - Alberto Carol "Bajo el Cono Azul" 1944 2:43

087. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Ortega Del Cerro "Una Vez" 1943 3:24

088. Russian Folk  "Kalinka-Malinka 2 (cortina)"  0:25

And the final, high-passion Donato tanda of this most excellent night

089. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Romeo Gavioli "Amando en silencio" 1941 2:51

090. Edgardo Donato - Romeo Gavioli "La Melodía Del Corazón" 1940 3:18

091. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Lita Morales "Carnaval De Mi Barrio" 1939 2:25

092. Folk  "Shumel Kamysh "  0:23

093. Hector Varela - Argentino Ledesma "Muchacha" 1956 3:19

094. Hector Varela - Argentino Ledesma "Que tarde que has venido" 1956 2:55

095. Hector Varela - Argentino Ledesma "Fueron tres años" 1956 3:26

096. Zhanna Aguzarova "Old Hotel" 1987 0:22

097. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Hasta siempre amor" 1958 2:57

098. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Sus Ojos Se Cerraron" 1956 2:47

099. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Queriendote" 1955 2:49

100. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Miracle Land cortina"  0:31

101. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumenrtal "Mi dolor" 1957 2:51

102. Alfredo De Angelis - Instrumenrtal  "Pavadita" 1958 2:53

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

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

The final track is added on special request from Jose Luis Bonaldo, the mastermind of a rival tango club who typically insists that the Anglos will never get it ... but who may sometimes trust a Ruso to ply a few crazy tunes :)

105. Mariano Mores  "Tanguera" 1955 2:51

Milonga Nuestra playlist, August 2015

DJing the Nuestra

The "house milonga" of the tango school of the DF Studio makes a roaring comeback after a two-month summer break - wow, what a turnout! The "Nuestra" crowd is as always a mix of the aspiring students and the wider local community - and my concept of a music mix for the night was "no pre-Golden age records, some accessible music, lots of passion and drive, some alternative". (Especially since I hope to land an invite to DJ another part-alternative milonga out of town soon ... gotta work on the sets :) ... I managed to squeeze 4 alt tandas in 3 hours this time). The alternative and the powerful-drive tandas drew dancers on the floor really well, but still left me with a few questions to ponder...
01. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "Champagne tango" 1938 2:30
02. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "El garron" 1938 2:27
03. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "Alma en pena" 1938 2:46
04. "Na Pua O Hawaii - George Ku Trio" 0:22
05. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Cara sucia" 1952 2:20
06. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Don Juan" 1955 2:48
07. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "El pollito" 1951 3:22
08. Carrapicho  "Tic Tic Tac cortina 1" 2007 0:17
09. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Valsecito de Antes" 1937 2:19
10. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echague  "En tu corazon (vals)" 1938 2:46
11. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Corazon de artista (vals)" 1936 2:22
12. "Lady Be Good - Sol Hoopii Trio" 0:23
13. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Adiós, Arrabal" 1941 3:10
14. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Mano Blanca" 1944 2:43
15. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ahora No Me Conocés" 1941 2:35
16. Gypsy Folk  "Autumn Dew"  0:30
17. Rodolfo Biagi - Instrumental "La Maleva" 1939 2:35
18. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás "Cielo!" 1939 2:31
19. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás "La Chacarera" 1940 2:24
20. Alla Pugacheva "Million Scarlet Roses" 1982 0:19
21. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "La Mulateada" 1941 2:22
22. Carlos Di Sarli - Alberto Podestá "Entre Pitada Y Pitada" 1942 2:33
23. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Pena Mulata" 1941 2:27
24. Adriano Celentano "Quel Punto"  0:27
The post-milonga cooldown set is an airy and mysterious alt tanda, a quality which we hardly ever get with the classic tango music.
25. Pentatonix  "Say Something (Christina Aguilera Cover)"  4:39
26. Yann Tiersen "Comptine D'un Autre Ete" 2001 2:21
27. Hindi Zahra  "Beautiful Tango" 2011 3:57

Tangueros fill the floor after just a few opening tandas.
Atakan's photo.

28. "Lady Be Good - Sol Hoopii Trio" 0:23
29. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Jamas Retornaras"  2:31
30. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Lejos de Buenos Aires" 1942 2:54
31. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Que te importa que te llore" 1942 2:44
32. Carrapicho  "Tic Tic Tac cortina 2" 2007 0:18
Spirited valses from the period when Federico Scorticati, an Uruguayan-born virtuoso bandoneonist, led Victor label's house orchestra. Scorticati got his first bando at 8, and soon put it to work at the silent movie theaters of Montevideo. And he kept playing the same instrument, with well-worn keys, well into his 70s on tours across Latin America and Japan! 
All three famous singers in these records started their illustrious tango orchestra recording careers with Scorticati's "OTV". But this date in history is especially linked with the name of Lita Morales. On August 6, 1941, Lita made her last record with Donato's orchestra, and apparently took a maternity leave, from which she never emerged. Exactly a year later, Edgardo Donato fired her and both of his male vocalists over some unspeakable scandal - and then his whole orchestra instantly imploded, with musicians, composers, poets leaving, to never record any more tangos again. You can read a poetic reconstruction attempt of this dark drama on El Espejero's blog.
33. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Lita Morales "Noches de invierno" 1937 2:47
34. Orquesta Típica Víctor - Ángel Vargas "Sin Rumbo Fijo (vals)" 1938 2:18
35. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Mario Pomar  "Temo" 1940 2:55
36. Leonid Utesov  "Road to Berlin (slow)"  0:27
The final piece of this alternative tanda is contagiously rhythmic yet it may actually be the hardest to interpret as tango? If you know me, you may understand how I picked it, in part, for a common theme of "trains going North", but I am not so sure now.... What do you think?
37. Feist and Ben Gibbard  "Train Song"  3:03
38. Waldeck  "Addicted" 2007 3:51
39. Valery Meladze "Vera" 2009 4:06

40. "Palolo - Charlie Wilson" 0:27
41. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Noches Del Colon" 1941 2:36
42. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Recuerdo Malevo" 1941 2:33
43. ARicardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Comparsa Criolla" 1941 2:53
44. Alla Pugacheva "Million Scarlet Roses" 1982 0:19
45. Otros Aires dos  "Los Vino"  2:41
46. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet  "Largas las Penas" 2011 3:02
47. Esteban Morgado  "Morena" 2005 2:27
48. Oleg Gazmanov  "Summer Rains"  0:26

Lucio Demare (Totango photo)

August is the birth month of Lucio Demare ( 8/9/1906 - 3/6/1974 ), a romantic pianist whose talent matured during his decade in Paris in the 1920s and 30s, and who often played solo or accompanied singers. His Golden Era orchestra recorded only 50 or so pieces, and the recordings with the voice of Horacio Quitana are often overshadowed by the stellar pieces with Raúl Berón ("Una emocion!") and Juan Carlos Miranda ("No te apures Carablanca"!), but they are all beautiful.
49. Lucio Demare - Horacio Quintana "Solamente ella" 1944 3:15
50. Lucio Demare - Horacio Quintana "Torrente" 1944 3:10
51. Lucio Demare - Horacio Quintana "Igual que un bandoneon" 1945 3:02
52. "Palolo - Charlie Wilson" 0:27
53. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Germaine" 1941 2:58
54. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Catamarca" 1940 2:23
55. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "La trilla" 1940 2:21
56. Carrapicho  "Tic Tic Tac cortina 2" 2007 0:18
57. Rodolfo Biagi "Lágrimas y Sonrisas (Vals)" 1941 2:40
58. Rodolfo Biagi - Jorge Ortíz "Por Un Beso De Amor (vals)" 1940 2:44
59. Rodolfo Biagi - Alberto Lago "Amor y vals" 1942 2:48
60. Enya & Enigma  "Delerium \ Flowers become screens"  0:27
61. Fool's Garden  "Lemon tree" 1995 3:09
62. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole  "Over The Rainbow" 2001 3:32
63. Souad Massi  "Ghir Enta" 2008 5:06
64. "Lady Be Good - Sol Hoopii Trio" 0:23
65. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Romeo Gavioli, Lita Morales "Sinfonía De Arrabal" 1940 3:07
66. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "El Adios" 1938 3:09
67. Edgardo Donato - Lita Morales, Romeo Gavio  "Mi Serenata" 1940 3:02
68. Alla Pugacheva "Million Scarlet Roses" 1982 0:19
These candombes have an irresistible drive and the floor fills quickly ... but the inexperienced tangueros seem to have a challenging time with their beat. Need to think about "milonga tandas on training wheels" ... could one play a fun set of milongas which are also beginner-friendly? Slower-paced Canaros?
69. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Azabache" 1942 3:05
70. Alberto Castillo y su orquesta "El Gatito en el Tejado" 1957 2:37
71. Romeo Gavioli y su orquesta típica  "Tamboriles" 1956 2:56
72. Oleg Gazmanov  "Summer Rains"  0:26
73. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Sus Ojos Se Cerraron" 1956 2:47
74. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi  "Hasta siempre amor" 1958 2:57
75. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi  "Queriéndote" 1955 2:49
76. "Palolo - Charlie Wilson" 0:27

"Muchacha" has a captivating vocal but may be weaker, overall, than required for the culmination tanda... The real high point here is Remembranza, another tango with a Parisian pedigree, composed in 1934 by bandoneonist Mario Melfi (best known for being a coauthor of Poema). August is Melfi's birth month (in 1905), and he sailed for Paris also in August, just shy of his 18th birthday - to never come back. On the sheet music, even the lyrics are in French!
77. Osvaldo Pugliese - Jorge Maciel  "Esta noche de luna" 1955 3:48
78. Osvaldo Pugliese - Jorge Maciel  "Muchacha" 1956 3:18
79. Osvaldo Pugliese - Jorge Maciel "Remembranza" 1956 3:41
80. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "La cumparsita" 1951 3:49
81. Goran Bregovic  "Maki Maki" 2009 3:33
We're already 15 minutes past the closing time, but the dancers beg for more and are granted two more songs while the cleanup is underway :)
82. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental  "Pavadita" 1958 2:55
83. Alfredo De Angelis - Instrumental  "Felicia" 1969 2:48

Practica Del Centro Playlist, 4/21/2014

Totally squeezed for time, between a major spring cleanup / kids moving in after the semester and a Canada trip. But I still found an hour to try different tunes, measure them up, roll them together, & it was fun!
01. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe  "Nada más" 2:43
02. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe  "No mientas" 1938 2:39
03. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe  "Qué importa" 1939 2:10
I suspect that I played far too little D'Agostino lately :)
04. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "A Quién Le Puede Importar" 3:14
05. Ángel D'Agostino  - Ángel Vargas "El Yacaré" 3:09
06. Ángel D'Agostino  - Ángel Vargas "Adiós Arrabal" 3:10
"Tangon" was supposed to be a new all-rage genre of 1935, when the grand orchestras were locked in fierce competition for novelty, and Sebastian Piana's original reborn slow milonga, then fast milonga, and then milonga candombeanda all already debuted. But the new would-be hit rhythmic trend fizzled with just this one track, and Canaro moved on. "Tangon" remained one of tango's one-of-a-kind, hard-to-match unusuals.
07. Francisco Canaro  - Roberto Maida "Milonga Brava" 2:35
08. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Milonga criolla" 1936 3:05
09. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Tangon" 1935 3:17
Can't have enough Rodriguez!
10. Enrique Rodríguez "Como has cambiado pebeta" 2:37
11. Enrique Rodriguez "En la buena y en la mala" 1940 2:26
12. Enrique Rodriguez "Danza Maligna" 1940 2:27
"Gitana Rusa", a self-described "Tango Europeo" originally composed by Saul Zhadan, a Jewish fiddler in Ukraine just before his death in the Holocaust, is another hard-to-match unique sound of Argentine tango, and I don't think I did good service to it by combining it with two different-quality Malerba records...
13. Ricardo Malerba -"Embrujamiento"  2:52
14. Ricardo Malerba - Antonio Maida "Encuentro" 2:20
15. Ricardo Malerba & Garcia "Gitana Rusa" 2:47
The 2nd of the three D'Arienzo's valses may have been a hasty choice here...
16. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Corazon de artista (2) vals" 1936 2:22
17. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe  "En tu corazon (2) vals" 1938 2:46
18. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Pabellon de las rosas" 1935 2:50
We were talking with a friend in Ukraine about Uruguayan tango music, a topic precipitated by my quest for Lita Morales biography (see below), and I mentioned Nina Miranda (the most famous female voice of Uruguay of her time, who sang with tango orchestras of Racciatti and Pellejero). In fact I just pointed my own attention to Donato Racciatti and Nina Miranda for the first time a couple months ago, when my much-loved teachers from Tokyo, Akiyoshi and Noriko, performed to "Tu corazón" at a festival in Honolulu. Racciatti almost missed the Golden Age of tango; an Italian immigrant to Uruguay, he put together his orchestra in 1948, but didn't really reach fame until the mid-1950s. The success came to Raciatti with the amazing voices of his two female singers, Nina Miranda and later on, Olga Delgrossi.
19. Donato Racciatti - Nina Miranda "Tu corazón" 2:32
20. Donato Racciatti - Nina Miranda "Gloria" 1952 2:47
21. Donato Racciatti - Nina Miranda "Sin estrellas" 1953 2:46
So many amazing records Laurenz records, so little time in the playlist!
22. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podesta  "Todo" 1943 2:37
23. Pedro Láurenz - Instrumental  "Amurado" 1952 2:58
24. Pedro Laurenz - Juan Carlos Casas  "Al Verla Pasar"  3:23
An admission to make: I always think of "Ella Es Asi", "That's the Way She Is", as a song about my beloved dancing half. "A ray of light, a beautiful flower, you're filled with kindness - and candor". But do I have enough Donato materiel to mix this perfect milonga track into a tanda?
25. Edgardo Donato  "Ella Es Asi - milonga" 2:35
26. Edgardo Donato  "La Milonga Que Faltaba" 2:24
27. Edgardo Donato  "El Torito - 1939" 2:19
Could "Así Se Baila El Tango" - sometimes boastful, more often ironic and mildly self-deprecating title meaning "This is how Tango is danced!" -  be a perfect practica track ;) ? Kind of like, "look what I can do ... or can I, really? Let's give it a shot!". 
28. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo  "Así Se Baila El Tango"  2:34
29. Ricardo Tanturi  "Que Nunca Me Falte"  2:42
30. Ricardo Tanturi - Enrique Campos "Oigo Tu Voz" 3:07
Only one Fresedo track for the night? Only three songs of sheer sweetness to accentuate the bitters of tango?
31. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Isla de Capri" 1935 3:16
32. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Canto de amor" 1934 3:25
33. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Vida mia" 1933 3:23
34. Rodolfo Biagi - Alberto Lago  "Amor y vals" 1942 2:48
35. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás "El Ultimo Adios (vals)" 2:08
36. Rodolfo Biagi - Teofilo Ibanez  "Viejo porton (vals)" 1938 2:27
Donato, as I already mentioned, is, in a way, an Urugayan musician, although Argentine-born. He and his band were only invited to play in BsAs after years of increasing success in Montevideo, and many of his later BsAs team members came from Uruguay. But Lita Morales? The most captivating female voice of tango, like, ever? The one whose song lyrics were so often first-person that one just won't dare to separate the singer from the character: "I'm this little girl who kept on repeating how life is like a sea with a bright bue boat", "I love you, my heart, I love you for your gift of passion" ... ?

From RCA poster

 Well, we don't know anything about Lita Morales. Not even when or where she was born, or died. Hardly more than a couple faded pictures exist.
Lita Morales briefly sang for OTV in 1937 and then joined Donato with her husband, Horacio Lagos (Stigliani), forming a wonderful duet. In 1939, an Uruguayan violinist and singer Romeo Gavioli joined the ochestra. People suggest that over time, the vocalist trio may have become a triangle, and finally, late in 1942, Edgardo Donato (famed for his absent-mindedness, as if living on the Moon), decided to terminate them all. Soon, the whole world of what has been Donato's orchestra fell apart. The band itself didn't survive much longer, with his pianist brother Osvaldo leaving first, and most of the rest of the musicians leaving to join Osvaldo soon after. Gavioli returned to Uruguay in 1943 and formed his own orchestra, recording some remarkable candombes. But, overcome with depression, he plunged his car into the sea off Montevideo embankment, killing himself at the age of 44. Maruja Pacheco, who wrote tango lyrics specially for Lita, left tango and embraced religion. But what happened to Lita and Horacio is simply unknown. According to a Todotango commenter, they had a son named Daniel Stigliani, and Lita died in about 1994. Discographies tell that she recorded a handful of tangos with Vieri Findazini more than a decade later, in 1955; the voice in those recordings is considerably more coarse but perhaps recognizable. Tango "is" full of sadness, there is no denying that; but how can we tangueros totally consign to oblivion one of tango's  most inspiring voices? It is depressing. Should we listen to her voice, full of sparkling laughter, and try to forget the injustice? I start from one of the happiest tangos ever, Carnaval de Mi Barrio.
37. Edgardo Donato  "Carnaval De Mi Barrio" 2:25
38. Edgardo Donato  "Yo Te Amo (Lita Morales)" 2:50
39. Edgardo Donato "La Melodía Del Corazón" 1940 3:18
40. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida  "Ciego" 1935 2:57
41. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Solo una novia" 1935 3:23
42. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Condena (S.O.S.)" 1937 2:39
Milongas with abandon!
43. "Orquesta Tipica Victor - Milonga De Los Fortines - Mariano Balcarce" 19372:52
44. Orquesta Tipica Victor  "Cacareando"  2:45
45. "Emilio Pellejero - Mi Vieja Linda - Enalmar De Maria - 1941" 2:26
And finally, for the close, dramatic late De Angelis and of course Pugliese, topped by a couple post-Cumparsita cleanup-and-last-hugs tracks.
46. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental  "Mi dolor" 1957 2:51
47. Alfredo De Angelis  "Felicia 1969" 2:48
48. Alfredo De Angelis  "Pavadita 1958" 2:53
49. Osvaldo Pugliese "La Abandone Y No Sabia" 1944 3:12
50. Osváldo Pugliese "Farol" 1943 3:22
51. Osvaldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel  "Rondando tu esquina" 1945 2:48
52. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "La cumparsita" 1951 3:49
53.  Goan Bregovic & Kayah "Tabakiera"  4:15
54. Carlos Libedinsky  "Otra Luna" 2006 3:43
(54 total)