Montana Tango Festival - Under the Big Sky, September 2023

Montana Tango Festival 2023 has become my best tango adventure in years, with its emphasis on communion with Nature, its trails and its hot springs liberally scheduled around the milongas and classes. And the tango yurt pre-party set the right mood from the day 1. Oh the smell of pines! Oh the billion stars of Montana's Big Night Sky! We spent five nights in Missoula and in the end, it was too little. Looking forward to coming to dance and explore Montana again!

 

So many tangueros asked me about specific tandas or said nice things about the music I played for the Opening Milonga, and I kept answering that I will post the whole list soon. Apologies for making you wait almost two weeks. The list, with comments, follows. I used to share entire setlists every time I DJ'd, but haven't posted complete annotated setlists for a while. This time, I want to focus my tanda comments on the special things I see in many of these tandas, on what I hope the dancers can sense in them, and on what I feel in my own heart.

One of Canaro's famous quintets, the late 1930s "Don Pancho" (named after one of Francisco's nicknames), has a surprisingly modern sound:
001. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "El garron" 1938 2:27
002. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "Alma en pena" 1938 2:46
003. Quinteto Don Pancho - Instrumental "Champagne tango" 1938 2:30
004. Gilda  "No Me Arrepiento de Éste Amor cortina"  
005. Enrique Rodríguez - Armando Moreno "Cómo Has Cambiado Pebeta" 1942 2:37
006. Enrique Rodríguez - Armando Moreno  "El encopao" 1942 2:34
007. Enrique Rodríguez - Armando Morena  "Cómo Se Pianta la Vida" 1940 2:23
008. Los Naufragos  "Zapatos Rotos rock cortina"  0:34
First time I played this tanda of valses, united by their unusual musical texture:
009. Francisco Lomuto - Jorge Omar  "Damisela encantadora" 1936 2:58
010. Juan de Dios Filiberto - Instrumental  "Pensando En Ti" 1935 2:50
011. Alfredo De Angelis - Juan Carlos Godoy "Angélica" 1961 2:43
012. Los Iracundos  "Puerto Montt rock cortina" 1971"
Recuerdos de Paris" has a special meaning to my heart, with its tale of regaining lost faith and love in a strange place, really a metaphor of my own path into the strange world of tango
013. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Recuerdos De París" 1937 3:12
014. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Ciego" 1935 2:57
015. Francisco Canaro - Roberto Maida "Nada Más" 1938 3:02
016. Viktor Tsoy  "Kukushka rock cortina"
The voice of Lita, the singer consigned to oblivion by the tango society of her cruel age!
017. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Lita Morales "Sinsabor" 1939 2:53
018. Edgardo Donato - Lita Morales y Romeo Gavioli "Yo Te Amo" 1940 2:50
019. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales, Romeo Gavioli "Triqui trá" 1940 2:34
020. Boney M  "Daddy Cool cortina" 
Di Sarli's milongas wonderfully combine contratiempo with musical suspenses
021. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Zorzal" 1941 2:40
022. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "Pena Mulata" 1941 2:27
023. Carlos Di Sarli - Roberto Rufino "La Mulateada" 1941 2:22
024. Sandro de America  "Yo te amo cortina"  
025. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Jamás Retornarás" 1942 2:28
026. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón "Cuatro compases" 1942 2:43
027. Miguel Caló - Raúl Berón  "Que te importa que te llore" 1942 2:44
028. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Miracle Land cortina"
When Di Sarli's elegance met the choppiness of "D'Arienzo revolution", it yielded intensely rhythmic but complex instrumentals:
029. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "La Trilla" 1940 2:21
030. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "Shusheta" 1940 2:22
031. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "Nobleza De Arrabal" 1940 2:07
032. Desireless  "Voyage Voyage cortina"
033. Aníbal Troilo - Edmundo Rivero y Floreal Ruiz  "Lagrimitas De Mi Corazón" 1948 3:00
034. Aníbal Troilo - Floreal Ruiz "Romance De Barrio" 1947 2:37
035. Anibal Troilo - Edmundo Rivero y Aldo Calderón "A unos ojos" 1949 3:10
036. Alla Pugacheva  "Etot mir cortina" 
037. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama  "Tormenta" 1939 2:38
038. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama  "No me pregunten porque" 1939 2:51
039. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama  "Te quiero todavia" 1939 2:54
040. Eruption  "One way ticket cortina" 

And now a break for a story and performances. The storyteller is Teague Goodvoice, a musician and dancer from the Blackfeet People. The Grass Song Dance reminds us about the age when the bison roamed and the Native Americans followed their herds, moving their teepees from one traditional site to another. The teepee sites were used generation after generation, and the "tipi rings" of stones for holding down the edges of the teepees also remained in use for generations. Even now there are over 200 tipi rings on Blackfeet Reservation. 

Coming to an overgrown tipi ring which hasn't been used for a long time, a traveling band would send its boys to stomp down the grass and to reveal the stones. That's what the Grass Song and jumping-and-stomping dance are about.
After Teague's amazing, haunting flute music, time comes for two more traditional tango pieces for the performance of Lindsey and Ricardo: Pugliese's "Farol", and a great 2018 cover of milonga "El puntazo" by Tango Bardo.
And then, as always, it's up to D'Arienzo to return the dancers to the floor!
041. Juan D'Arienzo - Héctor Mauré "Infamia" 1941 3:07
042. Juan D'Arienzo - Héctor Mauré "El olivo (El olvido)" 1941 2:51
043. Juan D'Arienzo - Héctor Mauré "Enamorado (Metido)" 1943 2:33
044. ZZ Top  "Sharp Dressed Man cortina"
"El Rey del Fox" is how Enrique Rodriguez was feted in Buenos Aires:
045. Enrique Rodriquez - Armando Moreno  "Se ve el tren" 1942 3:11
046. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "No Te Apures Por Dios Postillón" 1945 2:59
047. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "Maruska" 1943 2:07
048. Viktor Tsoy  "Good morning, last Hero cortina" 1989
049. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ahora No Me Conocés" 1940 2:35
050. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Solo compasión" 1941 2:58
051. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ninguna" 1942 2:59
052. Los Naufragos  "Zapatos Rotos rock"
a seldom played set of Biagi, tragic, powerful, with Rodolfo's beautiful piano taking second roles 
053. Rodolfo Biagi - Hugo Duval  "Alguien" 1956 3:14
054. Rodolfo Biagi - Hugo Duval  "Esperame en el cielo" 1958 2:52
055. Rodolfo Biagi - Hugo Duval "Solamente dios y yo" 1958 2:33
056. Carlitos Rolan  "Cuarteto1" 
057. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Lita Morales "Noches de invierno" 1937 2:47
058. Orquesta Típica Víctor - Angel Vargas "Sin Rumbo Fijo" 1938 2:18
059. Orquesta Típica Victor - Mario Pomar  "Temo" 1940 2:55
060. Victor Tsoy  "Gruppa Krovi (cortina)" 
Although Racciatti made a living playing D'Arienzo hits live, it is his own compositions and his two feminine vocals which make my heart skip a beat. Racciatti's piano player remains in a full D'Arienzo mode in these more melodic songs - what a powerful contrast!
061. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi  "Hasta siempre amor" 1958 2:57
062. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi  "Queriendote" 1955 2:49
063. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Sus Ojos Se Cerraron" 1956 2:47
064. Los Iracundos  "Puerto Montt rock" 1971
A more rhythmic tanda ought to lead the way to the milongas. Many orchestras had to adopt fiercely rhythmic styles in the years immediately after "D'Arienzo revolution", and Láurenz's response for this challenge was unique and beautiful, contrasting the sadness of his bandoneon with the crazy a-la D'Arienzo vibe.
065. Pedro Láurenz - Juan Carlos Casas "Vieja Amiga" 1938 3:11
066. Pedro Láurenz - Martin Podesta  "Al verla pasar" 1942 3:23
067. Pedro Láurenz - Juan Carlos Casas  "No me extraña" 1940 2:44
068. Boney M  "Daddy Cool cortina"
Alex Krebs explains that in the XXI century, it became utterly impossible to make money selling tango records, and he doesn't record anymore. The more grateful I am to him for the albums they released!
069. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet  "Ella Es Asi (feat. Enrique "El Peru" Chavez)" 2011 2:32
070. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet  "Largas las Penas" 2011 3:02
071. The Alex Krebs Tango Sextet  "Negrito" 2011 1:53
072. Carlitos Rolan  "Cuarteto1" 
The Malerba tanda culminates with a composition from Ukraine, whose author, a violin teacher from Uman called Savely (Shevel) Zhadan, was killed in the Holocaust months before his son, a bright Argentine journalist Demetrio Zadan, introduced its score to the tango community there. I continue to research the history of this amazing song and people who made it possible, and feel privileged to play this tango, rescued from the jaws of death.
073. Ricardo Malerba - Orlando Medina "Embrujamiento" 1943 2:52
074. Ricardo Malerba - Antonio Maida "Encuentro" 1944 2:20
075. Ricardo Malerba - Orlando Medina "Gitana Rusa" 1942 2:47
076. Alla Pugacheva  "Million Scarlet Roses (cortina)"  
D'Arienzo outdoes himself for the crazy final minutes of the night
077. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "La torcacita" 1971 2:31
078. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Zorro gris" 1973 2:03
079. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Este Es El Rey" 1971 3:10
080. Zhanna Aguzarova  "Old Hotel cortina " 
The Donato vals tands is built to lead to its final, deranged piece (inspired by the accordion rhythms of the Volga Germans who found safety in Argentina)
081. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Quien Sera" 1941 2:14
082. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales, Romeo Gavioli "La shunca" 1941 2:35
083. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales, Romeo Gavioli "Noches Correntinas" 1939 2:23
084. AR Rahman  "Ringa Ringa cortina" 
This tanda owes its power to the first song, a cover of an antebellum tango from Riga, Latvia, composed by their "King of Tango" Oscar (Osher) Strok after a lurid escape to the 1920s Paris.
085. Florindo Sassone - Instrumental  "Ojos Negros (Oscar Strok)" 1968 2:28
086. Florindo Sassone - Instrumental  "Adios corazon" 1968 2:16
087. Florindo Sassone - Instrumental "Bar Exposicion" 1959 3:26
088. Viktor Tsoy  "Kukushka cortina 2"
It starts extremely grounded ... and then the extremes rise to new highs:
089. Orquesta Típica Fervor de Buenos Aires - Instrumental "Quien Sos" 2007 3:08
090. Orquesta Típica Fervor de Buenos Aires - Instrumental "E.G.B." 2007 2:26
091. Analíá Goldberg y Sexteto Ojos De Tango - Instrumental "El Adios" 2011  3:13
092. Gilda  "No Me Arrepiento de Éste Amor cortina"  0:40I
love valses of de Angelis, but remain skeptical about much of his tango output. But de Angelis's powerful late instrumentals are to die for!
093. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental "Pavadita" 1958  2:53
094. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental "Felicia" 1969  2:48
095. Alfredo de Angelis - Instrumental "El Tango Club" 1957 2:40
096. Queen  "The show must go on cortina" 
Fulvio Salamanca was "the" piano sound of Juan D'Arienzo for decades, but for his own orchestra, he found an amazing, and decidedly non-D'Arienzo vibe, perhaps in a string of beautiful coincidences. Salamanca overheard Guerrico singing his own composition in Uruguay and hired him on the spot. Salamanca's arrangement of the song caught the attention of tango's greatest violinist, Elvino Vardaro. And just then, the quality of records improved and allowed recording haunting high-pitch violin solos. Stunning!
097. Fulvio Salamanca - Armando Guerrico "Adiós Corazón" 1957 2:40
098. Fulvio Salamanca - Armando Guerrico "Todo Es Amor" 1958 2:47
099. Fulvio Salamanca - Armando Guerrico "Bomboncito" 1958 3:22
the one Cumparsita which comes with amazing pizzicato:
100. Enrique Rodríguez - Instrumental "La cumparsita" 1953 2:43
101.  "silence30s"  0:31
And after silence, come a few more minutes of post-Cumparsita alternative tango / final hugs music, which I would describe as "anti-grounded" for sending our energy up to the sky rather than down into the floor:
102. Jason Mraz  "I'm Yours" 2008 4:20
103. Damour Vocal Band  "Sway - danceable cortina cut"  1:39

Tango at a factory where my grandfather made WWII submachine guns...

I don't know anymore if I will ever return to my hometown in Russia, but I used to visit often when my Dad was alive. And I hardly ever missed the vibrant tango scene there, and its cornerstone, the Planetango Club at a converted industrial space in my old neighborhood. Back when we lived there in a dreary shared flat off Spartacus Street, two of our roommates, a hard-drinking, hard-working childless couple, worked at this sprawling factory compound a block away, making some radioelectronics components for the military. It never even registered with me, what factory it was. The city was full of such nearly-nameless defence contractors. In the decades that followed, its core business collapsed, and new tenants moved into its giant compound, with a section of bldg. #59 becoming Moscow's most prominent tango club.

Imagine my surprise when, going through my grandfather's papers, I saw the familiar street names and realized that he worked at this very factory - and loved telling about this page of his amazing life, how he was making WWII's ikonic PPSh submachine guns even as the city's defenses crumbled and Germans advanced on Moscow's outskirts.

My gramps Karl Pruss wasn't even supposed to be in Russia. He was born in Bern, Switzerland, on May 1 1911. His parents fled political persecution in Russia, but they didn't teach Karl any Russian. He grew up fluent in German and French (after the family moved to Geneva, Karl became Charles Prousse; that's how my grandma called him, "Charles" pronounced the French way). He was about to start his senior year in College Calvin when his mom Genya, against better judgement, decided to spend a year in the old country. Karl's father Wulf Pruss, a watchmaker and a teacher, has already been in Russia, after 20 years of absence, on a temporary job with a crazy American NGO, teaching institutionalized Russian street children how to make watches. After months of separation, Genya was restless and simply didn't think about the risks of getting stuck in Russia... As I am told, Karl would have become eligible for Swiss citizenship after graduation, in a year's time, but an extended stay away from Switzerland could jeopardize it. The school's headmaster loved his talented student and begged Genya to let Karl stay at his place, to continue the studies, and to apply for citizenship, but she wouldn't budge. Well, in Russia, their "Nansen passports" of noncitizens were confiscated, and they never left the USSR again.

There were many bright and funny episodes but even more horrible pages of Karl's 50 years in the USSR. He didn't like to talk about his father's and brother's deaths in Stalin's terror, and even less so, about his own stint in the Gulag, expulsions from schools and jobs... But a story of being a young translator to a group of Francophone foreign Communist cadres, apparently including Comrade Ho Chi Minh, and going with them on a Volga river cruise, with all the funny mishaps, was a favorite. 

The story about submachine gun production in besieged Moscow was told as a funny vignette, "just imagine, a precision mechanical engineer jerry-rigging production lines to churn out these crudely stamped sheet metal monstrosities!". But even as a kid, I understood that it was not so funny, that everyone believed that the city was destined to fall and its Jewish residents would all be dead. That my dad, just shy of two years old then, has been displaced to the hinterland of Russia and nobody expected the toddler to ever see his father again. I know a lot more poignant and scary context now.

Karl Pruss graduated from the "Moscow Tech", the prestigious Bauman University, from the Precision Mechanics Department organized a decade earlier by his own father. Before his execution, Wolf Pruss managed to build Russia's first watchmaking factories, to hire foreign specialists and to train their domestic replacements. The whole family worked across the giant country at these fledgling plants, which quickly turned into "watchmaking in the name only". The USSR was rapidly militarizing, and almost all the industries were dual-purpose civilian and military production centers. Time fuses, aviation instruments etc. were becoming the main output of the watchmaking factories, and Wolf Pruss's Precision Mechanics Trust was folded into the munitions administration of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industries. Everything was now defense and classified. Karl's Master's Thesis was on a new design of a recording chronograph, and he seemed destined for military-industrial work. 

But the calculus changed when, at 26, he suddenly became a son and a brother of the condemned enemies of the people. With the top-clearance jobs now out of reach, Karl settled for a far less glorious engineering position at SAM, a factory manufacturing mechanical calculators and typewriters. When the Wehrmacht invaded Russia, he was on a launch team of a mechanical cash register production. These decidedly civilian products were being hurriedly replaced by war materiel, and by August 1941, less than two months after the invasion started, SAM started making submachine guns on a trial basis. By then the Germans had already advanced over 300 miles. Karl's aunts and cousins in Belarus were trapped behind the German lines; none will survive the war. Hundreds thousand draft-ineligible men from Moscow were sent to People's Militia divisions to man an additional line of defense around Moscow, just in case the Germans break through. Karl was ordered to keep his job, now deemed too important for the defense effort. 

The German breakthrough came in late September. By October 7, both Red Army's forces of the main defense line and the poorly equipped Militia at the 2nd line were encircled. Moscow was just over 100 miles away, with hardly any Red troops left to stop the onslaught. A motley collection of cadets and police forces tried their best to slow down the German war machine, but on October 15 Stalin made a decision to prepare Moscow to surrender. The government, the factories, the research centers were ordered to be relocated East the following day, October 16th, known as Moscow's Black Day. Only Stalin himself and his closest minions, as well as production factories of immediate relevance to the front, were to stay. On the morning of the 16th, the city was in chaos, enveloped by smoke and soot of the burning archives. The subway and the street cars didn't run. People lined up at the factory offices to receive their last pay. Looting started, and the leaflets calling for a pogrom appeared. 

Karl's wife, then a grad student, received an order to relocate with her school. By the end of the day, she was with her 1 year old son, my father, in a cattle car of a freight train slowly going East. Karl's SAM factory also received an order to relocate. But not him. The troops on the outskirts of Moscow needed every gun they could get right now, and wouldn't allow the production to be shut even for a few weeks for relocation. The submachine guns were being sent to the front literally as they were being assembled. The logic of the moment was that even if the production line and its workers become a total less with the expected fall of the city in two or three weeks, the guns they produce in the meantime would justify the loss. 

Then, a miracle happened. Two days after the Black Day, the fall season arrived in force with torrential rains, turning Russian roads into rivers of mud. By the time the mud froze in two more weeks, the Russians brought in enough reinforcements to save their capital city. And SAM's production, now called Factory #828 of People's Commissariat of Mortar Munitions, started expanding, gradually filling the other buildings left behind by the relocated factory, and then into the buildings of adjacent factories. It was manned by 14, 15 years old boys and by women. The PPSh was a cutting-edge model, just commissioned a year earlier, and the whole 1941 production at all sites amounted to 90 thousand guns. But with the scale-up, they soon made more of these guns in one months. The old SAM remained a bit player. At the height of the production, the 828th was churning out 5,000 guns a month. 

But Karl Pruss was stuck at the 828th for 3 more years, all this time resenting the fact that his unique watchmaking engineering skills were being squandered for something as technologically primitive as the PPSh guns. Only in 1944 the factory finally allowed him a job transfer to the National Time Synchronization Service.

And the factory? It shifted into digital calculators, and eventually, into all sorts of military electronic equipment. But it kept on shrinking in the post-Soviet times, and its best buildings are occupied by restaurants and boutiques now. And one venerable tango venue, too.

It may be hard to even conceptualize the role of tango in today's Russia, amidst all the mushrooming hate and the unending war. It is first and foremost an escape, an illusory world away from the daily horrors, a way to keep on pretending that life is whole, unbroken. I needed its embraces for this escape and this illusion, for my sanity. It's a good, positive role in many ways. But it isn't guilt-free, not at all. The government also wants its sheeple to be contented in the same illusion of unbroken life. There are endless celebrations, festivals and talent shows in town, a veritable Feast in the Times of Plague. And tango, perhaps unwittingly, plays along. Perhaps a milonga is more of a simple act of spiritual healing, but what about the performances and the festivals which still go on? Almost all of the showcased talents are local now, but occasional Argentines, like Alejandra Mantignan, come to teach and perform, too, and I find it extremely objectionable. And then, there is no escape from the horrors of the outside world even in the cloistered space of a milonga. People aren't always silent. And they don't always limit their talk to the music and the steps. I haven't heard anything full-bore militantly patriotic; it looks like almost everyone fears the war or hates it. But it isn't so simple. There is a lot of xenophobia directed at the Ukrainians and the West in general, a lot of regime-fanned grievances. They did this to us, they did that to us, we didn't deserve any of it kind of stuff. There is a widespread belief that the Russian forces behave impeccably, never target any civilians, that all the war crimes are either fakes or false-flag operations by the Ukrainians themselves. Occasionally people open out and whisper how they hate Putin, but even then, it's all someone else's fault, not Russia's. I mean, in America we sort of tiptoe around conspiracies and crazy beliefs, be it about politics, vaccines, or some other health and wellness issue. It's happening outside of the ronda, especially in the social networks, and it slowly poisons our pure world of dance and music from the outside, but sometimes it invades the milonga halls too. It's something similar in Russia, but more crude, more powerful, and more dangerous there. A simple careless word gives you years in prison, and if it is found to indirectly contribute to Western sanctions, then it's life in prison. How much worse is it going to get before it gets better?

Mixed vals tandas

I played several experimental mixed-orchestra sets in recent weeks, and people asked about them. It may be a good reason to bring this blog back from its slumber...

A fiery tanda with Castillo's voice but without the nearly-obligatory Violetas:

1. Orquesta Tipica los Provincianos (Ciriaco Ortiz) - Alberto Gomez "Samaritana" 1932 2:58

2. Alberto Castillo  "Idilio Trunco" 1946 2:08

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

An instrumental and surprisingly modern-sounding tanda:

1. Juan De Dios Filiberto - Instrumental "Tus Ojos Me Embelesan" 1935 2:34

2. Cuarteto Roberto Firpo - Instrumental "Para Las Chicas" 1942 2:11

3. Cuarteto Tipico Los Ases (Juan Carlos Cambon) - Instrumental "Invernal" 1941 2:42

Excellent songs joined together:

1. Francisco Lomuto - Fernando Diaz  "Cuando estaba enamorado" 1940 2:19

2. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores  "Salud Dinero Y Amor" 1939 2:39

3. Orquesta Típica Víctor - Ángel Vargas "Sin Rumbo Fijo" 1938 2:18

Rich, complex, breathtaking:

1. Alfredo de Angelis - Juan Carlos Godoy  "Angélica" 1961 2:41

2. Héctor Varela - Argentino Ledesma y Rodolfo Lesica "Igual Que Dos Palomas" 1953 2:36

3. Enrique Rodriguez - El "Chato" Flores "Las Espigadoras" 1938 2:47

Joaquina Carreras - the first female tango estribillista?

Joaquina Carreras sings. A frame of Ariel's audiovisual recording

A discussion at the T.I.A. (Tango Investigation Agency group) led me to a discovery of the voice of Joaquina Carreras, who sang with the tango orchestra of "El lecherito" Guido in the late 1920s. The quality of Argentine domestic audio recordings was still quite haphazard then, and as a result, we hear only a few songs of this Old Guard period at our milongas today. But still, it stunned me that I've never come across this awesome voice in my decade of researching tango music and DJing. It stunned me even more that I couldn't find a word about her at Todotango website. Not a year of birth. Not a picture. Not even a mention of her name in the articles about Guido's orchestra.

The parallels with the suppressed story of Lita Morales were uncanny, and left no doubt that, like Lita, Joaquina Carreras must have quit the world of tango, and possibly with bad blood. So at a first spare moment, I went searching for "the real Joaquina" - but unlike the mystery case of Lita Morales, the life path of Joaquina Carreras came to light relatively quickly. She turned out to be a bit of a transient, only coming to BsAs in the second half of the 1920s, and leaving when the Great Depression decimated the artistic world of Argentina. I still don't know what pushed the Argentine tango world to forget her, but possibly it was just the fact that she was a foreign interloper - and a woman in the genre of tango-for-dancing which continued to adamantly reject women for another decade... Of many feminine voices in tango then, all without an exception sang "tango for listening", for the radio and the concert, for the daylight hours. No decent women were yet allowed at night in the sacred and obscene universe of the milongas. So let's pay tribute to the female trailblazer, Joaquina Carreras Torres!



Joaquina was born in 1892 in Seville in the family of a well-known actor Emilio Carreras López. Her father died when she was 23, and in the early news clips about Joaquina, she is invariably called "a beautiful daughter of her untimely departed father". Like her father, Joaquina Carreras acted in comedies,in the theater plays and in the movies, but she's become best known for her soprano voice and her love of folk songs.

Her first known foreign tour was to Cuba in 1921 in a large artistic troupe with her new husband Jose Encinas and their just-born first baby Joaquina Jr. The 21 Sep 1921 New York arrival record of S.S. "Buenos Aires" from Barcelona (in transit for Havana) lists Joaquina as a 20 years old resident of Madrid with blue eyes, 4 ft 11" (some later accounts describe her as a psychologically towering presence, no doubt with an element of a pun). Of course her real age was closer to 29 then, but since her actor husband was several years younger, she must have preferred a little adjustment of age. Joaquina's husband tragically died in 1923, but in the 1924 and 1925 we find her in the entertainment sections of Spanish newspapers as an actress and singer based in Madrid.



In 1929 she records 3 valses and 2 tangos with Guido, in her trademark folk-song style especially evident in their "Valsecito del Antes". The most surprising thing about these records is that she sings estribillo solamente, only the bridge, without the stanzas. This approach was introduced specifically for the dancers by the ever-experimenting Francisco Canaro only a few years earlier, in 1924 (until then, tangos for dancing were strictly instrumental, while vocal tangos for listening, initially also known as tango milongas, always used the complete text with all the stanzas). Estribillista singing is stricktly para bailar, yet no women were allowed to sing for the dancers ever before or for many years after! In the same year Joaquina Carreras takes part in an experimental audiovisual recording of the Ariel studio. Then she records a few pasodobles and fado with Carabellli. And in 1932 she participates in the first experimental TV broadcast in South America!

By 1934, Joaquina Carreras is back in Madrid, singing with the studio sextet of the Union Radio La Palabra and performing in comedies I couldn't resist adding one of the radio program clippings here, because there, in May 1936, she sings "Ojos negros - cancion popular rusa". Of course it must be the tango remix of the famous "Dark Eyes" premiered a year earlier by the spectacular Imperio Argentina (see an earlier story on this blog) As the nation is ravaged by the Civil War and Madrid is besieged, Joaquina briefly disappears from sight again, but beginning in 1940, she's back again, acting in Spanish movie comedies. She died on Nov 20, 1954 in Madrid. Interestingly, her daughter Joaquina "Jr." Encines Carreras moved to Buenos Aires after her mother's death!

The Melodists: the family at the roots of Polish jazz and tango

As you may know, I am very fond of the twisted, tragic, and largely forgotten stories of the pre-WWII tango in Eastern Europe. And one of my favorite heroes of this amazing and lost era is Jerzy Petersburski, the musical soul of the boisterous cabaret culture of Warsaw, and the composer of such global tango hits as"Donna Clara" (originally "Tango Milonga", 1928) and "Ostatnia niedziela" ("Last Sunday", 1936, which took Russia by storm under a Russian title, "The tired Sun"), as well as Poland and Russia's most beloved waltz,"Blekitna Chusteczka" ("Blue Handkerchief"), a song which came to epitomize the heartbreak of the War. Unlike many of his colleagues, Jerzy was spared of both Nazi death camps and Stalin's Gulag. After the fall of Poland he joined the Belorussian State Jazz, an amazing project worth its own story, and eventually escaped the Soviet Union with the  Polish Corps of General Anders, playing for the military audiences in Persia, Palestine and Egypt, and rebuilding a new musical career for himself in faraway Buenos Aires
I knew that Jerzy Petersburski belonged to the storied clan of Jewish musicians whose surname, the Melodists, speaks for itself. I also understood that the famous Gold-Petersburski band included Jerzy's brother and several cousins, and somehow I assumed that Petersburski was just a scenic name, a capital-city calling card adopted for publicity (just like another trailblazer of Polish jazz and tango was a Warszawski after Poland's illustrious capital). But a chance conversation about (extremely rare) Jewish surnames derived from the cities in Russia's hinterland - such as St. Petersburg - made me revisit the family story of the Peterburskis and the Melodists, and discover the pivotal role the family ties played in birth of Polish jazz and tango. Oh, and yes, the surname "Petersburski" turned out to be a real family name, not a marketing invention at all!

Jakub-Lejzer Melodysta's
forgotten, broken
gravestone in Warsaw

OK, maybe "just a little bit of a marketing invention", and the one made by Jerzy's father Jakub, a jeweler who probably wanted his original family name, "Peterburg" (which stands for St. Petersburg, but in Russian) to sound more authentically Polish.

Eleonora Melodist, a
Soviet opera star, was the
most famous of
Jakub-Lejzer's children

Jakub Petersburski married Paulina (Pesse) Melodysta, a piano player from the branch of the Melodist musician dynasty which stayed in their ancestral town of Radom. It probably wasn't an old-time dynasty as the Jews of Poland only started taking government-mandated surnames in the 1820s, after the Napoleonic wars. The first Melodist on record was Paulina grandfather Chaskiel, a fiddler born in 1802.
Three of Paulina's brothers were musicians in Radom, but for our story it's more important to know that Paulina's uncle, Jakub-Lejzer Melodysta, a violinist, moved to Warsaw. Later on, Paulina's husband bought a bronze wares factory in Warsaw and moved there too. So the Petersburski kids became closely associated with Jakub-Lejzer's musician children and grandchildren in Warsaw.And what a constellation of talents it was! Jakub's sons Panfyl played alt in the Philharmonic and Ignacy lead bands, and daughters Maria and Eleonora starred in the opera. And Jakub's son-in-law Michel Gold played flute in the Warsaw Opera.

The 1922 ads for Danzig's Ermitage restaurant featured "first class jazzband trio of Karasinski"
in German, or "Karasinski-Melodyst-Petersburski trio" in Polish

Fred Melodyst (banjo) with his 1927 jazz band at a
Polish mountain resort of Zakopane

Jerzy Petersburski was the 5th child on his family, born Israel Petersburski in 1895. By the time Jerzy graduated from Warsaw Conservatory, the city has been overrun by the advancing German troops. As the young pianist continued his studies in Vienna, The WWI ended with the surrender of Germany and Austro-Hungary, Poland has won independence, and the Austrian Empire shattered. Jerzy went home, and his first gig in Poland was with his 2nd cousin, cellist Alfred Melodist (Panfyl's son), and an even younger and crazier violinist Zygmunt Karasiński who has just returned to Poland from Berlin where he played in a real American-inspired jazz band. The Jazz trio of Karasiński - Melodysta - Petersburski debuted in 1922 in the Free City of Danzig (Gdansk). The jazz craze didn't quite take over the Free City, but within a year, our jazz trailblazers made it to Warsaw where the cabaret and jazz scene really took off. Karasiński will later, after the dismemberment of Poland in 1939, invite his old pals to join the Belorussian State Jazz in Belostok; he ended up in Warsaw Ghetto during the war, but the music fans helped him escaped and hide in Lwow. Fred Melodist escaped both the Nazis and Soviets together with Jerzy Petersburski; they played together with their cousin Henryk Gold in Palestine and Egypt before Fred settled in liberated France and, eventually, in Israel.
OK, now it's time to tell more about the Golds (sons of Helena (Chaske) Melodysta and Michel Gold).

Henryk Gold was the mastermind and his brother Artur Gold (violin) and Jerzy Petersburski, the top talents of the Gold-Petersburski band which recorded so many tango hits; Stanislaw Petersburski (piano) played there as well. Their names were so synonymous with the music of the Warsaw nightlife that they even had a special song recorded about them:

Gdy Petersburski razem z Goldem gra Muzyka: Artur Gold Slowa: Andrzej Włast 1926 Strajkuje ten i ów Podskoczył dolar znów A pan Zdziechowski miał w komisji Kilka nowych mów Nie przejmuj tem się nic Uważaj to za witz I słuchaj sobie w „Qui Pro Quo” Z pogodą lic Jak Petersburski razem z Goldem gra Z jazzbandu te Ajaksy dwa Sam pan Świejkowski W humor wpada boski I przy małżonce swej Szalejmy, krzyknie, hej Gdy Petersburski razem z Goldem gra Nie zaśniesz w nocy, aż do dnia I podczas tańca będziesz myślał Że minęła chwila zła Gdy Petersburski z Goldem gra Mąż pewien w nocy raz Do sal Oazy wlazł A widząc żonę z gachem Krzykną: Ach! Złapałem was! Rewolwer wyjął i Ponuro zmarszczył brwi Lecz nagle zaczął śmiać się Mówiąc: przebacz mi

Where Petersburski and Gold play together Music by Artur Gold Lyrics by Andrzej Włast (Gustaw Baumritter) 1926 Strikes here and there, The dollar jumped again, And the Treasury Secretary Zdziechowski Said so many new words about it Don't you worry about anything Take it all as a joke And enjoy listening at "Qui Pro Quo" With the most serene faces How Petersburski plays with Gold, The jazzband's two Ajaxes. Even Mr. Świejkowski the mortician Falls into a  jolly mood And in the presence of his wife Yells "Hey!" like a madman When Petersburski plays with Gold You won't fall asleep at night until daylight And while you are dancing you will think That the evil moments have passed When Petersburski and Gold play One night, a certain husband Entered the halls of the Oasis And, seeing his wife with a lover. Shouted: "Aha! Gotcha!" He pulled out a handgun and Frowned dejectedly, But suddenly burst into laughing Saying: forgive me

Eddie Rosner with the State Jazz of Belorussia, 1941

The two Ajaxes of Homer's "Iliad" met their tragic ends but our two cousins, Jerzy Petersburski and Henryk Gold, lived to their old age despite the annihilation of the war. They fled Warsaw under the German bombs and made as far East as Białystok, which was soon occupied by the Red Army and annexed to Belarus. There, Zygmunt Karasiński hatched a brilliant and crazy idea, to rebrand the Warsaw Jazz as the First State Jazz Ensemble of Belorussia. Soon, jazz trombonist Eddie Rosner, "the Armstrong of Eastern Europe", took it over. Born in Berlin, he cut his "Jazz teeth" there, before fleeing the Nazis. As a stateless Jew stripped of his German citizenship by the Reich, Eddie Rosner wasn't allowed to join the Polish Liberation Army together with his fellow Warsaw jazzmen, and ended up marooned in Russia. My most beloved Russian tango, "Zachem", belongs to Rosner's wartime band. But after the war he ended up in the Gulag labor camps, and, upon return, suffered from blacklisting. Only right before Eddie's death, the Soviet government finally allowed him to leave to join his family in Western Berlin...Of the Melodist jazz clan, Henryk Gold's brother Artur remained in the Warsaw Ghetto, and was killed in Treblinka death camp (but not before being forced to entertain the Nazi camp command while dressed as a clown!). Jerzy Petersburski's brother Stanislaw settled in New York City.

A concert program in the Polish Library of Buenos Aires
featured the compositions of Jorge Petersburski...

While traveling across the Middle East with the Polish Corps, Jerzy got himself a Palestinian passport in Tel Aviv and a Brazilian entry visa in Cairo. And in March 1947 he disembarked in Rio de Janeiro and took a job at Boite Picadilli. A stint at Radio El Mundo in Buenos Aires followed (Jerzy composed a jingle for this station!) and then directing the orchestra of Teatro Nacional. But no tango anymore. 20 years later, after his wife was killed in a catastrophic Argentinian earthquake of 1967, Petersburski decided to return home to Warsaw. He was 74 when he met a 40 years old opera singer Sylwia Klejdysz (in the clip below, Sylwia sings the Blue Handkerchief, the most famous hit from her husband's stint at the Belorussian State Jazz). Their only son, Jerzy Jr., also a pianist and a composer whose Masters Thesis was on his father's life and music, is maintaining a virtual museum of the Petersburskis now. We got in touch when I was just starting to figure out how all the Melodists were related to one another.

Black and White Ball of 1966, the high mark of New York
opulence (from the Plaza hotel website)

The Golds' US immigration record

After their travels across the Middle East, Henryk Gold remained in Palestine after the war, and composed a few Hebrew hits, then tried his luck in Brazil and in France, but in 1953 he moved to America as well, winning a bandleader job in New York's iconic Plaza Hotel, then the site of the legendary Black and White Ball (and now most often remembered as the obscenely posh hotel in Home Alone 2 with a 10-second appearance of the hotel's then-owner Donald Trump, who bankrupted the property almost as soon as he bought it)

But the most improbable escape from the claws of death was pulled by the family of another Polish jazz and tango pioneer Henryk Wars (Warszawski), the creator of a 1928 hit, "Zatańczmy tango" ("Let's Dance Tango!"). Henryk was called up to the Polish Army at the start of WWII, and taken prisoner by the Nazis, but escaped and reached Russian-controlled areas. But his wife and two kids remained trapped in Warsaw ghetto. Luckily, Henryk Wars was based in Lwow early in his jazz career, and composed some of the city most beloved songs, including its unofficial anthem, "Tylko we Lwowie" ("Only in Lvov").

Henry Wars's marching band in Tehran (from USC archive)

So instead of joining the Belarussian State Jazz like most of the Warsowians, he managed to create a band of his own in Lvov, and to remix his hits in Russian! His outfit was called the Lvov Tea-Jazz, with "Tea" standing for "Theater" rather than for a drink :)  Having thus become a respected Soviet manager, Henryk Wars  succeeded in getting an official request from the Soviet Government to have his family released from the Ghetto! They arrived to Lwow just days before the hostilities broke up between the erstwhile allies, the Reich and the USSR. Henryk was out of town, but his wife and kids managed to escape the Nazi advance by the breadth of a hair. They toured the USSR for several more moths, before leaving to the Middle East (and famously entertaining the Shah of Persia) and Italy with the Polish Liberation Army. 

Diana Mitchell and Robert Vars talk about the life of their father at a
memorial concert featuring his music at the LAMOTH in 2017

Henry Warszawski arrived to New York from Naples in February 1947, penniless and stateless, on a transit visa to San Domingo with a ticket paid by the Jewish refugee agency HIAS. But only a few months later, the Warszawskis were processed for permanent residence in Los Angeles, and a long Hollywood streak of Wars's career got underway, under a changed name of Henry Vars. He ascended through the Hollywood ranks, from being an anonymous arranger to, most famously, the fully credited soundtrack of the "Flipper". His Polish waltz famously made it to the soundtrack of Schindler's List!
In the late 1960s Vars returned to Poland, almost at the same time as Jerzy Petersburski. But it was more like a celebrity tour, recording and conducting before coming back to Hollywood. Henry Vars's children Diana (Danuta) Mitchell and Robert Vars and grandson Dennis Mitchell are still in Los Angeles, and keep Henry's memory alive (although the family business is law rather than the music now). They are even working on getting Henry's unknown symphonic compositions to the public!

Still, nothing of their bygone epoch captures contemporary Poland's imagination better than Gold-Petersburski tangos, and especially "The last Sunday" wits its incredible variety of modern covers in all genres from hard rock to techno :) The spirit of the Melodists lives on!

The inherent contradictions of following...

Another pearl of wisdom from Igor Zabuta's blog - but this one is penned by his partner, Emma Kologrivova. She writes about all the cool things which draw women into tango, including "a desire to be lead, to relax, to immerse into the dance, the body and the music" ... and then continues (translation is mine):

Maybe for my lack of imagination, I reused an image
from my other "translated wisdom" blog post about
the art of active following.

Truth be said, with the experience comes an understanding that following is a complicated skill. It requires a sense of one's own axis and boundaries. An ability to let the partner's energy in - but not to dissolve in it. An ability to follow the suggestions - but not to guess, hurriedly. To listen to the leader - but also to sense one's own desires. To be whole, letting every signal to pass through the body, but also to have an inspiration to add your own personality to the moves. To be lead, but never to be forced.

Unusual and experimental tandas

Back in January, I wrote that I have already introduced all the important musicians in tango's history in the comments to my playlists on this blog, and it's a good enough reason to stop publishing playlists altogether (not to mention the obvious fact that most of the new tandas look very familiar after so many years of DJing :) ) Still, occasionally I find a thread of history worth writing about, or try a new orchestra or an unusual era of a better-known orchestra, or start "reinventing the bicycle" of the tandas which feel far too familiar. Here I'm going through the 10 playlists I added since the decision to stop set-blogging, to pick the few tandas worth writing about.

Julio Sosa with his DKW-Sissore, a German-designed
sports car with an Italian body manufactured at a
short-lived small car factory in the Argentinian province
of Santa Fe in the 1960s. The singer didn't survive a
crash of this beauty. He was 38. 

For Julio Sosas's February birthday, I went through tons of his recording and ended up building just one mixed tanda with a lone Sosa track for the Junando practica. We don't hear much Julio Sosa at our milongas, obviously, but it could have been very different, had El Varon del Tango not died so early, at 38! Julio Sosa was born on February 2, 1926, in the poverty-stricken outskirts of Montevideo in Uruguay. One of his many early jobs was with a provincial orchestras there, but it paid too little to make ends meet, and at 23, Julio quit it to sing in the cafes of BsAs. Soon, he was noticed, and got a succession of jobs with the 2nd tier tango bands, and finally, in 1960, convened his own orchestra. By all accounts, it was a wrong time to start a tango band. The government support for the national music of tango disappeared with the violent overthrow of Peron's populist regime, and the new happy-and-patronizing music of La Nueva Ola was all the rage. Even the master records of the Golden Age tango orchestras ended up destroyed to make room for more Nueva Ola studios! I wrote about the Dark Ages of Tango on this blog before, but I failed to mention that for a while, Julio Sosa held the lines against the onslaught of the new commercial music. Tall, masculine, young and charismatic, Sosa continued to attract the youth to tango - and not just to listen, but also to dance like himself. His disc sales rivaled those of La Nueva Ola! It all ended on November 26, 1964, when Julio crashed his Argentine-built sports car into a traffic light, the third speed car he totaled in quick succession, only this time it was fatal. With the death of its last iconic singer, tango never stood a chance...
The verdict: it is a passable vals tanda, good for a charged crowd later at night. But only Angelica really stands out...
Francini-Pontier - Alberto Podestá y Julio Sosa "El Hijo Triste" 1949 3:49
Alfredo de Angelis - Juan Carlos Godoy  "Angélica" 1961 2:41
Héctor Varela - Argentino Ledesma y Rodolfo Lesica "Igual Que Dos Palomas" 1953 2:36

The most legendary tango dancer of the pre-Golden Age fame, Ovidio José "Benito" Bianquet, better known as El Cachafaz ("The Troublesome" / "The Outrageous" as the lunfardo word may be translated) was born Feb 14, 1885). El Cachafaz is celebrated in the lyrics of "Adiós, Arrabal", and that's why I decided to play the following relatively standard D'Agostino tanda during the same practica. Follow El Cachafaz label to read more about this awesome dancer who conquered the affections of the Parisians and triumphantly returned hone, only to lose it all in the post-Great Depression chaos. Who then rebuilt a show dancer's career from scratch when tango started to return to life, but died at 56 without witnessing the full bloom of tango's Golden Age.

Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ahora No Me Conocés" 1940 2:35
Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Adios Arrabal" 1941 3:08
Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ninguna" 1942 2:59

In March, I tried a really experimental - and not really recommended - tanda of super-late Calo instrumentals which are all the rage in Europe (it went OK really late at night though):
Miguel Caló - Instrumental  "Luna del viejo castillo" 1964 2:37
Miguel Caló - Instrumental  "Elegante papirusa" 1966
Miguel Caló - Instrumental  "Para Osmar Maderna" 1963


You may know that I am not a big Troilo fan, and I usually stick to the few most reliable tracks of his, but in April I wasin the mood to experiment:
Anibal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino  "Pa Que Bailen Los Muchachos" 1942 2:49
Anibal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino  "No Le Digas Que La Quiero" 1941 2:51
Anibal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino  "Una Carta" 1941 2:48

The month of May is always a good reason to play more, and more varied, Fresedo than usual, since Osvaldo Fresedo was born on May 5, 1887. A son of a wealthy family, Fresedo created elegant music for the upper crust throughout his 60+ years-long tango career. In 1920, Fresedo has become the first tango bandoneonist ever to record in the United States when RCA Victor sent him to New York (they didn't yet have an up-to-date recording studio in South America then; the US-made record's, in Victor's typical anonymous house band fashion, went for sale in Latin America as "Orquesta Tipica Select"). Before the Great Depression, Fresedo's success was so great that he simultaneously maintained 5 "Fresedo orchestras" in Buenos Aires! One of these bands was directed by 24 years old Carlos Di Sarli, an admitted disciple of Osvaldo Fresedo who, in time, far surpassed his teacher. The economic collapse in Argentina put a stop to this exuberance, but Fresedo kept on playing, largely for the upper-class functions. He wouldn't play live for the dancers again, missing the tango dancing boom of the Golden Era, and he remains kind of shunned by the BsAs tangueros for this reason, although he recorded tangos through the 1980s. But nothing could be more mellifluous than Fresedo's 1930s and the early 1940s! This May, one of my Fresedo tandas was with the voice of Ruiz rather than with the "usual" Roberto Ray
Osvaldo Fresedo - Ricardo Ruiz  "Y no puede ser" 1939 2:26
Osvaldo Fresedo - Ricardo Ruiz  "Plegaria" 1940 2:24
Osvaldo Fresedo - Ricardo Ruiz  "Buscándote" 1941 2:49

In June at Junando practica, it was time to return to De Angelis's Angelica which I already mentioned on this page:
Rodolfo Biagi - Hugo Duval y Carlos Heredia "Adoracion" 1951 2:52
Francisco Rotundo - Enrique Campos y Floreal Ruiz "El viejo vals" 1951 2:56
Alfredo De Angelis - Juan Carlos Godoy "Angélica (Vals)" 1961 2:43


There, I also put to test a fiery vals tanda with the voice of Alberto Castillo:
1. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "La Serenata (Mi Amor)" 1941 2:29
2. Alberto Castillo  "Idilio Trunco" 1946 2:08
3. Alberto Castillo  "Violetas" 1948 2:38
(3 total)

To start the playlists of September, I tried a more or less regular tanda but in an unusual place - as an opening tanda of Milonga sin nombre:
1. Orquesta Tipica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli) - Alberto Gomez "Ventarron" 1933 3:03
2. Orquesta Tipica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli) - Instrumental  "Nino bien" 1928 2:43
3. Orquesta Tipica Victor (dir. A. Carabelli) - Instrumental "El chamuyo" 1930 2:46

September is a good time to remember the great singer Alberto Podesta (b. Sep. 22, 1924), who contributed so much to the success of the orchestras of Di Sarli, Calo, and Laurenz. And what would be a better fit to the themes of Podesta and September than his "Roses of Autumn"? Alas, I always had a hard time building a good tanda of Di Sarli's valses with this great hit. Trying to fix it now with a mixed-ochestra set:
1. Angel D'Agostino - Angel Vargas "Que Me Pasara" 1941 2:30
2. Manuel Buzon - Osvaldo Moreno "Pichon enamorado" 1942 2:18
3. Carlos Di Sarli - Alberto Podesta "Rosas De Otono" 1942 2:17


I also returned to the valses with the vocals of Castillo, then an ObGyn by day but a veritable mob lord voice by night.
1. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Marisabel" 1942 2:23
2. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Recuerdo" 1942 2:22
3. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo "Mi Romance" 1941 2:16

Racciatti's tracks with the voice of Nina Miranda are a kind of a flashback to me. I first danced to Racciatti's when a Japanese DJ played a tanda with Nina Miranda's vocals, fell in love with her "Gloria" and "Tu corazon", and played them myself - good 5 years ago. But the quality of these 1952-1953 records in my hands then was substandard, and I started playing later-years Racciatti's tango with the voice of Olga Delgrossi instead. With a better recordings now, I return to Nina Miranda's hits. And what a pianist they had, by the way!
1. Donato Racciatti - Nina Miranda "Tu corazón" 1953 2:32
2. Donato Racciatti - Nina Miranda "Vencida" 1953 2:47
3. Donato Racciatti - Nina Miranda "No quiero ni acordarme" 1953 2:25


Then at Mestizos I returned to the valses of D'Agostino - one of which I tried a few days earlier in a mixed tanda above - and also to mid-paced Canaro's.
1. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama "El Vals Del Estudiante"1939  3:01
2. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama y Mirna Mores "Tormenta En El Alma" 1940 2:33
3. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Fama "Noche De Estrellas" 1939 2:29

1. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Que Me Pasara" 1941 2:30
2. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas  "Tristeza criolla" 1945 2:27
3. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas  "El Espejo De Tus Ojos" 1944 2:49

And lastly, at Two Flames practica, I asked tangueros for suggestions, and one of them was for the OTV valses. The challenge is that only want to play the same three beloved valses of Victor (Noches de invierno, Sin rumbo fijo, and Temo) and I already played it a bit too often :) So I set out to build mixed-orchestra tandas with OTV - and ended up playing not just one tanda but two:
1. Francisco Lomuto - Fernando Diaz  "Cuando estaba enamorado" 1940 2:19
2. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores  "Salud, Dinero Y Amor" 1939 2:39
3. Orquesta Típica Víctor - Ángel Vargas "Sin Rumbo Fijo" 1938 2:18

1. Cuarteto Roberto Firpo - Instrumental "El Aeroplano" 1936 2:14
2. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "En el Volga yo te espero" 1943 2:40
3. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Mario Pomar  "Temo" 1940 2:55