Top milonga choices

Milonga! (Painting by Renata Domagalska)

A quick statistical snapshot, inspired by a conversation with a fellow playlist blogger, Felicity. It occurred to me that I may have been habitually recycling the safest, sure-fire milonga tracks despite my deep affection to unusual and quirky milongas. It's possible that I actually love milonga tandas more than tango tandas ... well it's hard to gauge, but I do know that many dancers specifically ask me to spare a milonga tanda for them, and (shhh!) nobody asks specifically for a tango tanda :) But the flip side is the huge disappointment of getting an indigestible milonga tanda to dance ... and there're so many milonga records unsuitable for dancing in the first place, and then quite a few records which may delight a true aficionado but won't work for most of the rest of the dancers. And so few milonga tandas in a night of dancing!

So what are *my* top choices? I asked Google. The stats are a little padded because Google slightly exaggerates the hit tallies, and because the same playlist may be spotted at different blog pages, and because I occasionally discuss specific titles outside of playlist posts. But it's gotta be close. Here's my top 20 temas to date, with asterisks marking titles for which I played 2 different orchestras:

1 Pena mulata 47
2 La Mulateada 41
3 Zorzal 33
4 Yo Soy De San Telmo (*) 29
No surprises so far. Top-rated Di Sarli's milongas are my absolute favorites, with a perfect combination of beat, grounded feeling, and stretchy melodic inclusions. With 59 playlists analyzed, it looks like I played some combination of these tracks almost every time!
5 Milonga del 900 29
"Milonga of the 1900s" is my absolute favorite of Sebastian Piana's earliest, slower-paced and therefore "accessible" milongas. And "Milonga sentimental", Piana's original composition, is a close runner-up, just two lines below. 

Sebastian Piana. Todotango photo
(the site even features his
very interesting interview)

Traditional milonga songs of the countryside payadores may have been one of the musical sources of the earliest tangos, but by the beginning of the XX c. the old folk milonga has already fallen into obsolescence, with its unsophisticated repetitive music and endless lyrics, improvised for any convenient occasion.  An operetta classic even featured two "old ladies" of the bygone days - an ailing old boring milonga and a grandmother cifra. We owe the vibrant milongas of  today's tango nights to one visionary, Sebastian Piana (1903-1994). November 26th marks Sebastian Piana's birthday and gives us a great occasion to celebrate the Father of the Milonga, who was one of the less appreciated leaders of the tango music revolution of the 1930s, setting stage for tango's Golden Age. Piana's first award-winning tango compositions were performed beginning in 1922, but it was the birth of "Milonga sentimental", first recorded in 1932, which turned into a truly seminal moment.
Piana was asked to compose a special, unusual milonga, a milonga with high-quality lyrics, and my guess is that he was inspired by the change brought by Gardel's "Mi noche triste" into the world of tango a decade earlier. "Mi noche triste" didn't just introduce set lyrics into tango - it also introduced sadness and contemplation and sentimental feeling. Can a milonga be made sentimental, too? Alas, Sebastian Piana's first customer totally rejected his work! Luckily, Piana's brother-in-law, Pedro Maffia, another of the unsung leaders of the musical revolution of Julio De Caro, loved Sebastian's new score, and played it often. Eventually it made its way to the radio waves ... and soon, the revived milonga genre has become all the rage, and tangueros started to dance to it!
Still, for a while the "new" milonga kept an unmistakable retro feeling, and many of Piana's best milongas paint historical snapshots of Argentina's past: Milonga del 900 - about the aftermath of the failed 1890 Park Revolution; Pena Mulata (the #1 on my list) - about the nation's bygone Afro-Argentine past; or Milonga de los Fortines, #14 on this list - about the Indian wars of the mid-XIX century.
6 Azabache  27
Azabache wouldn't be a top milonga choice, but it wins by being the best bet in its subcategory of candombe milongas. And another top-rated candombe, Tamboriles, is just a few lines below. Which means that although I don't play milonga candombe too often, I must be selecting these tracks very often when I do it.
The success of Piana's milonga porteña in the 1930s paved way to more fast-beat experimentation in the 1940s, both Uruguayan-influenced candombes, returning tango beats to their Afro roots, and Nothern Highlands beats such as Demare's Carnavalito. Miguel Caló recorded his signature Azabache, "Black Amber", in September 1942.

7 Milonga Sentimental  (*) 27
8 Ella Es Asi 24
"Ella es asi" is a very special song in my tango path, the hymn for the true love which started my work on tango translations.
9 Los Vino 24
"Los Vino", a 2010 recording, also wins by being absolutely the best in its subcategory of contemporary milongas. 

10 Milonga Triste  (*) 22
And Milonga Triste, another of Sebastian Piana's trend-setting compositions, gets on the list by being the best in the difficult subcategory of slow, dreamy milonga sureña  It marks the return of the countryside milongas into the urban tango salon. Different people use different terms for the regional milonga style of the Argentine hinterland - milonga campera, milona pampera, milonga surera... It was great Atahualpa Yupanqui, who once performed Los ejes de mi carreta with Canaro's orchestra, who insisted on the term "Southern" for the slowest and saddest milongas from the pampas...

11 Mi Vieja Linda 22
12 Tamboriles 21
Tamboriles isn't just an Uruguayan-influenced tune - this candombe comes straight from Uruguay, the top hit of the short-lived orchestra of Romeo Gavioli, from the days after he was expelled from Edgardo Donato's imploding orchestra and returned to his native country, and before he took his own life.

13 Cacareando 21
14 Milonga De Los Fortines 21
15 El Esquinazo  (*) 20
16 Milonga criolla 20
17 Sácale punta 19
18 Largas las penas (*) 19
19 Entre Pitada Y Pitada 19
20 Rotos en el Raval 17

Milonga Sin Nombre "Homenaje a Miguel Caló y Donato Racciatti" playlist

It's great to be back home & to host another milonga in the beautiful Old North Church! 

This time, the special empanada flavor was banana - Maui lilikoi, and the special cortina flavor, the Hawaiian steel guitar of the late 20s - early 30s.

For bios of Miguel Caló y Donato Racciatti and my thoughts about their role in tango's history, please check the milonga flyer. And now, to the playlist:

01. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Marejada" 1941 2:32

02. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Don Juan" 1941 2:34

03. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "El recodo" 1941 2:20

04. "Na Pua O Hawaii - George Ku Trio" 0:22

05. Juan D'Arienzo - Héctor Mauré "Dime mi amor" 1941 2:40

06. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe  "Qué importa" 1939 2:10

07. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe  "Nada más" 1938 2:43

08. "Palolo - Charlie Wilson" 0:27

I love Biagi's valses, but among them ""Dejame Amarte Aunque Sea un Dia" holds a special place in my memory, reminding me of a rainy evening in Prague and a milonga in a beautiful Art Nouveau pavillion perched high on a hillside overlooking the city, amid vineyards

09. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás  "El ultimo adios (vals)" 1940 2:09

10. Rodolfo Biagi - Alberto Amor  "Paloma (vals)" 1945 2:29

11. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás "Dejame Amarte Aunque Sea un Dia (vals)" 1939 2:55

12. "Lady Be Good - Sol Hoopii Trio" 0:23

Many orchestras played "Ninguna", but D'Agostino's is the dearest for me. There is strange personal touch there - as a genetic genealogist, I've got to know Ninguna's magnolia-skinned girl's real-life parallel. She was in her 70s then, and her birth name, 木蘭, a Chinese voice-over of Russian Юля (Yulya ~~ Julia), meant "magnolia flower", the name which also denoted the color of her skin she inherited from her mother. She was looking, in vain, for her untold past, for the families of the parents from the faraway Harbin she never knew after having been adopted by American missionaries, and I wondered if this song of the lady whose skin was like magnolia lit by moonlight, and of the gentle rain of tears of the eternity crying for the past which has gone forever, might give her any consolation.

13. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas"No Vendrá" 1945 2:30

14. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas  "A quién le puede importar?" 1945 3:11

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

16. "Na Pua O Hawaii - George Ku Trio" 0:22

Beautifully archaic sound of di Sarli's sextet!

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

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

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

20. "Palolo - Charlie Wilson" 0:27

I picked this set of classic instrumental milongas for the first of my three Racciatti tandas for the night, to try to cover all genres. But in the end, after dancing to it, I wasn't super impressed. Better to rely on Racciatti's vocal recordings, especially the tangos he composed himself!

21. Donato Racciatti  "La Puñalada" 1:45

22. Donato Racciatti  "Silueta Porteña" 1:35

23. Donato Racciatti  "El Porteñito" 2:47

24."Lady Be Good - Sol Hoopii Trio" 0:23

Can there be a night of tango without Caló with the voice of Raúl Berón?

25. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Al Compas Del Corazon" 1942 2:48

26. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Que te importa que te llore" 1942 2:44

27. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Jamas Retornaras" 1942 2:31

28. "Na Pua O Hawaii - George Ku Trio" 0:22

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

30. Enrique Rodríguez - Armando Moreno "Como has cambiado pebeta" 1942 2:37

31. Enrique Rodríguez - Armando Moreno "Yo no se porque razon" 1942 2:43

32. "Palolo - Charlie Wilson" 0:27

Vals super-hits:

33. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "El vals soñador" 1942 3:32

34. Miguel Caló - Alberto Podestá  "Bajo un cielo de estrellas (vals)" 1941 2:37

35. Miguel Caló - Alberto Podestá  "Pedacito de cielo (vals)" 1942 2:21

36. "Lady Be Good - Sol Hoopii Trio" 0:23

"Hasta siempre amor" is definitely the highlight of this vintage Uruguayan tanda, but I really love all three:

37. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Queriéndote" 1955 2:49

38. Donato Racciatti - Felix Romero "Te burlas tristeza"  2:46

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

40. "Na Pua O Hawaii - George Ku Trio" 0:22

This tanda of Caló's classics tangos includes one great track of his "reborn" Orchestra of Stars in the 1960s:

41. Miguel Caló - Alberto Podestá  "Yo soy el tango" 1941 2:46

42. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "La abandone y no sabia" 1944 2:50

43. Miguel Caló - Alberto Podestá  "Que falta que me haces" 1963 3:16

44. "Palolo - Charlie Wilson" 0:27

Aces of Candombe tanda v.2! (compare with the version from May) - here we have Caló's only milonga for the night, and to cap the tanda, another unsurpassed Uruguayan piece, Gavioli's "Tamboriles". I already mentioned Romeo Gavioli's short and tragic life on this blog when writing about an "erased page of tango history", the untold tale of Lita Morales. Romeo Gavioli is best remembered for his singing, alongside with Lita Morales and Horacio Lagos, for Edgardo Donato's orchestra. But Gavioli was also a talented violinist and composer. After Edgardo Donato's orchestra (which drew many talents from Uruguay to Buenos Aires) fell apart, Gavioli returned to Montevideo and, in 1943, organized his own orchestra, renowned for its candombes, full of Uruguayan spirit. 

45. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "El tucu-tun" 1943 2:34

46. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Azabache" 1942 3:05

47. Romeo Gavioli "Tamboriles" 1956 2:56

48. "Lady Be Good - Sol Hoopii Trio" 0:23

Nina Miranda was the legendary voice which first launched Donato Racciatti's orchestra into fame. I recently wrote about her amazing life story here.

49. Donato Racciatti - Instrumental "La Viruta" 1972 2:30

50. Donato Racciatti - Nina Miranda "Tu corazón" 1960 2:32

51. Donato Racciatti - Nina Miranda "Gloria" 1952 2:47

52. "Na Pua O Hawaii - George Ku Trio" 0:22

Biagi's rhythmic goodness distilled.

53. Rodolfo Biagi - Jorge Ortiz "Humillación" 1941 2:42

54. Rodolfo Biagi - Teófilo Ibáñez "Gólgota" 1938 2:32

55. Rodolfo Biagi - Andrés Falgás "La chacarera" 1940 2:24

56. "Palolo - Charlie Wilson" 0:27

The name of Orquesta Típica Los Provincianos sounds like a snide kind of a reference to the world of Buenos Aires tango orchestras, in a classic Argentine divide between the provincials and the capital-city dwellers, the Provincianos vs. Porteños. Orquesta Típica Los Provincianos in the early 1930s was christened, and led, by Ciriaco Ortiz, a bandoneonist genius from the city of Córdoba, also famous for his sense of humor. The Provincianos left few records, but their valses are quite remarkable.

Orquesta Tipica Los Provincianos

57. Los Provincianos, Luis Diaz  "A Tu Memoria, Madrecita" 1934 2:45

58. Los Provincianos, Carlos Lafuente  "Un Placer (vals)" 1933 2:34

59. Los Provincianos, Alberto Gomez  "Samaritana (vals)" 1932 2:58

60."Lady Be Good - Sol Hoopii Trio" 0:23

61. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Siempre es carnaval" 1937 3:27

62. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "En la huella del dolor" 1934 2:48

63. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Vida mia" 1933 3:23

64. "Na Pua O Hawaii - George Ku Trio" 0:22

Less frequently played Caló favorites:

65. Miguel Caló - Jorge Ortiz  "Pa'que seguir" 1943 2:13

66. Miguel Caló - Jorge Ortiz  "De barro" 1943 3:10

67. Miguel Calo - Jorge Ortiz  "A las siete en el cafe" 1943 3:03

68. "Palolo - Charlie Wilson" 0:27

All-time fav milongas:

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

70. Carlos Di Sarli - Alberto Podestá "Entre Pitada Y Pitada" 1942 2:33

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

72. "Lady Be Good - Sol Hoopii Trio" 0:23

73. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "En la buena y en la mala" 1940 2:26

74. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Danza Maligna" 1940 2:37

75. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Llorar por una mujer" 1941 2:47

76. "Na Pua O Hawaii - George Ku Trio" 0:22

and we are getting into a dramatic homestretch of the final 3 crescendo tandas...

77. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá "Todo" 1943 2:37

78. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá "Garua" 1943 3:09

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

80. "Na Pua O Hawaii - George Ku Trio" 0:22

The final track of the penultimate tanda was my recent surprise discovery. I already wrote about "Dark Eyes", the classic Russian Gypsy romance, and its influences in Russian and Argentine tango, and a little bit about composer Oscar Strok, the "King of Russian Tango", and Petr Leschenko, his most famous vocalist. Well, it turns that Strok-Leschenko's "Dark Eyes" actually made it all the way to Buenos Aires, where the orchestra of Florindo Sassone recorded a stunning interpretation of this 1920's Russian tango classic:

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

82. Alfredo De Angelis - Instrumental "Felicia 1969" 2:48

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

84. "Lady Be Good - Sol Hoopii Trio" 0:23

85. Osváldo Pugliese - Jorge Maciel "Remembranzas" 1956 3:41

86. Osváldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel "Rondando Tu Esquina" 1945 2:48

87. Osváldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel  "Farol" 1943 3:22

88. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "La cumparsita" 1951 3:49

89. Damour Vocal Band  "Sway"  3:49

(89 total)