Dia del Tango playlist 2015

A grand celebration commemorating Gardel's birthday - how else to begin it but with Gardel's famous song which injected set-verse poetry into tango for the first time in 1917, and ushered in the new, beautiful era of nostalgic and sad tango songs? Here's how Gardel sung it to the accompaniment of guitars a decade later:
001. Carlos Gardél  "Mi Noche Triste" 1930 3:20
002. Francisco Canaro - Instrumental "El cabure" 1936 2:37
003. Francisco Canaro - Instrumental "El Chamuyo" 1933 3:09
004. Francisco Canaro - Instrumental "Inspiración" 1951 3:33
A new set of Russian-themed cortinas is actually heavily Caribbean-flavored, while the music borrows from old Turkish folk:
005. Boney M  "Rasputin cortina 1 " 0:22
006. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Yapeyu" 1951 2:26
007. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "El irresistible (clean)" 1954 2:31
008. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "El Internado" 1954 2:34
009. The Beatles  "Obladi-Oblada cortina1" 0:19

Playing from foobar, planning ahead in MediaPlayer,
& feeling stressed in a dark corner behind the coat rack

DJing a holiday night with its lots of assorted specials and a heavy turnout of the inexperienced dancers always promises to be messy. But tonight it will morph into my hardest-ever DJing assignment, because nothing is following the schedule. Which called for a block of back-to-back perfomances punctuated by single tandas of recorded music - which would have to be all-tango, high-drive, high-accessibility sets. But nobody is ready to perform on time, so need to keep adding vals and milonga genres and more lyrical moods and juggling the performers' requests on the fly.
010. Aníbal Troilo - Instrumental "Un Placer (Vals)" 1942 2:19
011. Aníbal Troilo - Floreal Ruiz "Flor de Lino" 1947 2:51
012. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "Tu Diagnóstico" 1941 2:09
One of my most Argentine cortinas, a beautiful intro from a super-hit of the inaugural decade of "Rock en Castellano" (and thank you Lucia for your help!!)
013. Sandro de America  "Yo Te Amo cortina" 1968 0:23
014.  Announcements break 0:31
015. Orquesta Típica Víctor - Angel Vargas "Adios Buenos Aires"  2:36
016. Orquesta Típica Víctor - Alberto Gomez "Carillon de La Merced" 1931  3:16
017. Orquesta Típica Víctor - Ortega del Cerro "Una Vez" 1943 3:22
018. Sandro de America  "Yo Te Amo cortina" 1968 0:23
019. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "Shusheta" 1940 2:24
020. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "Catamarca" 1940 2:24
021. Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental "La Trilla" 1940 2:19
022. The Beatles  "Obladi-Oblada cortina1" 0:19
023. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Sacale punta" 1938 2:16
024. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "De Punta A Punta" 1939 2:20
025. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Ella Es Asi" 1938 2:35
026. Sandro de America  "Yo Te Amo cortina" 1968 0:23
027. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Que Dios Te Ayude" 1939 2:21
028. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Que Importa" 1939 2:08
029. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe "Ansíedád" 1938 2:32
030. Alla Pugacheva "Million Scarlet Roses" 1982 0:19
031.  silence 0:31 Finally Florencia and Rodolfo and the bombo drummers are ready for the chacarera!

032. "Chacarera del violin"  2:12

033.  silence  0:06 Call for everyone to join the next chacarera!

034. "Chacarera del Rancho"  2:21
035.   silence  0:06 And to the sound of the drums adding their voice to the recorded music, our wonderful folk dancers come to the floor again - followed by more bombo.
036. "Escondido"  3:44

037.  silence  0:06
038. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Adiós Arrabal" 1941 3:10
039. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas  "Mano Blanca" 1944 2:42
040. Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas "Ninguna" 1942 2:59
041. The Beatles  "Obladi-Oblada cortina1"  0:19
042.  silence  0:31 Call for a birthday vals for the lucky man who happened to be born on the same December day as Gardel and Julio de Caro - and by the way, speaking of birthdays: the tango cake is ready :)

043. Miguel Caló - Raul Berón "El Vals Soñador" 1942 3:28

Alberto Podestá performing at 82
(totango website)

044.  silence 0:06 Now it's time for everyone to join for the remainder of the vals tanda - and it also marks the first of many times the voice of Alberto Podestá will sound tonight! I already wrote about his 7+ decades of singing tango. The great vocalist passed away at the age of 91 two days earlier, on December 9, 2015. May his voice energize the nights of tango forever!
045. Miguel Caló - Alberto Podestá  "Bajo un cielo de estrellas (vals)" 1941 2:37
046. Miguel Caló - Alberto Podestá  "Pedacito de cielo (vals)" 1942 2:21
047. Sandro de America  "Yo Te Amo cortina" 1968 0:23
048. silence  0:31 Great Daniel Diaz, who played bandoneon in theaters and cafes of Argentina since childhood, makes a multimedia presentation about tango and its history!
049. Boney M  "Rasputin cortina 1 " 0:22
050. Ricardo Tanturi - Instrumental "Una Noche de Garufa" 1941 2:31
051. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo  "Pocas Palabras" 1941 2:21
052. Ricardo Tanturi - Instrumental  "Comparsa Criolla" 1941 2:53
053. Sandro de America  "Yo Te Amo cortina" 1968 0:23
2nd Podesta tanda
054. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá  "Que nunca me falte" 1943 2:49
055. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá  "Nunca tuvo novio" 1943 3:14
056. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá "Alma de bohemio" 1943 2:43
057. Beatles The Beatles "All you Need is Love cortina"  0:19

058.  silence 0:06 Tango demos time! Nicholas and Emily perform to Donato, and Yves and Barbara, to D'Arienzo's Cumparsita (the first of this night's three (!) Cumparsitas! )
059. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos y Lita Morales "Sinsabor" 1939 2:53
060. Juan D Arienzo - Instrumental "La cumparsita" 1955 4:03
061. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "El Adiós" 1938 3:09
062. Edgardo Donato - Romeo Gavioli "Sinfonía De Arrabal" 1940 3:07
063. Edgardo Donato - Lita Morales - Romeo Gavio  "Mi Serenata" 1940 3:02
064. The Beatles  "Obladi-Oblada cortina1" 0:19
065. Orquesta Típica Víctor - Ángel Vargas "Sin Rumbo Fijo (vals)" 1938 2:18
066. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Lita Morales "Noches de invierno" 1937 2:47
067. Orquesta Tipica Victor - Mario Pomar  "Temo" 1940 2:55
068. Sandro de America  "Yo Te Amo cortina" 1968 0:23
069.  silence30 0:31 And it's time for the final - and the greatest  - of the night's specials, live music by Daniel Diaz (bandoneon) and Brian Salisbury (violin) and vocal by Lucho!
070. Boney M  "Rasputin cortina 2" 0:16
071. Anibal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "El Bulin de La Calle Ayacucho" 1941 2:29
072. Anibal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino "En Esta Tarde Gris (Fiorentino)" 1941 3:14
073. Aníbal Troilo - Francisco Fiorentino  "Te aconsejo que me olvides" 1941 3:00
074. Boney M  "Rasputin cortina 3" 0:17
This Podestá milonga tanda combined two orchestras and I loved all of these tracks, but after playing the set I got a feeling that Laurenz's pieces lose in comparison?
075. Carlos Di Sarli - Alberto Podestá "Entre Pitada Y Pitada" 1942 2:33
076. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá "Maldonado" 1943 2:07
077. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá "Yo Soy De San Telmo" 1943 2:32
078. Sandro de America  "Yo Te Amo cortina" 1968 0:23
079. Carlos Di Sarli - Oscar Serpa "Verdemar" 1955 3:02
080. Carlos Di Sarli - Mario Pomar "Duelo Criollo" 1952 2:30
081. Carlos Di Sarli - Argentino Ledesma "Fumando Espero" 1956 4:04
082. Boney M  "Rasputin cortina 4" 0:22
083. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "La torcacita" 1971 2:31
084. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Zorro gris" 1973 2:03
085. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "Este Es El Rey" 1971 3:12
086. The Beatles  "Obladi-Oblada cortina1"  0:19
087. Rodolfo Biagi - Instrumental "Lágrimas y sonrisas" 1941 2:41
088. Rodolfo Biagi - Alberto Amor "Manana por la manana (vals)" 1946 2:28
089. Rodolfo Biagi - Alberto Amor "Paloma" 1945 2:28
090. The Beatles "All you Need is Love cortina" 0:19
091. Carlos Di Sarli - Alberto Podestá "La Capilla Blanca" 1944 2:55
092. Carlos Di Sarli - Alberto Podestá "Junto a tu corazón (Hoy como ayer)" 1942 3:00
093. Carlos Di Sarli - Alberto Podestá "Tú, el cielo y tú" 1942 2:59
094. Boney M  "Rasputin cortina 4" 0:22

A special request to play a tribute song to BsAs, a Gardel's composition originally. But I'm not familiar with Galan's vocal tangos and have to figure out how to continue this tanda even as the first song plays..
095. Francisco Canaro - Carlos Galán  "Mi Buenos Aires querido" 1934 3:20
096. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Famá  "No me pregunten porque" 1939 2:51
097. Francisco Canaro - Ernesto Famá  "Te quiero todavia" 1939 2:54
098. Russian folk  "Murka"  0:20
099. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi  "Hasta siempre amor" 1958 2:57
100. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi "Sus Ojos Se Cerraron" 1956 2:47
101. Donato Racciatti - Olga Delgrossi  "Queriéndote" 1955 2:49
102. Boney M  "Rasputin cortina 3" 0:17
103. Osváldo Pugliese "Recuerdo" 1944 2:39
104. Osváldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel "Farol" 1943 3:22
105. Osváldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel "Rondando Tu Esquina" 1945 2:49
106. Zhanna Aguzarova "Old Hotel" 1987 0:22
The closing tanda is the 5th set of Alberto Podestá...
107. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá  "Todo" 1943 2:37
108. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá "Como el hornero" 1944 2:47
109. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podestá  "Recien" 1943 2:43
110. Carlos Di Sarli "La Cumparsita" 1955 3:18

Stanley Black

After a Cumparsita to weep, here comes another one to revel and to smile tonight. A rumba remix of La Cumparsita by Harry Roy Orchestra (best known for their 1931 hit, "My girl's pussy"). Harry Roy, nee Lipman, a British clarinetist and a bandleader, had an unusual journey into the Argentine music. He happened to record Latin-style dance tunes for a 1935 Hollywood comedy, "In Caliente", which soon took Latin America by storm. So in 1937 Harry Roy scored an invite for a South American gig, and his new lead pianist and arranger, 24 years old Stanley Black, fell in love with the Argentine rhythms. Soon, Stanley created jazz arrangements of tangos, first recorded in London by Parlophone label, and reissued by Argentina's Odeon. Stanley Black (whose birth name was Solomon Schwartz) would go on to remix great many tangos, but most of his later work lacks the exuberant naivete of the Roy's Cumparsita. 
111. Harry Roy "La cumparsita [rumba] Odeon 194888" 1938 2:58

and what a better way to bookend the night's list if not by playing Otros's "Percanta" which mixes in the same Gardel's song which opened the night?
112. Otros Aires  "Percanta" 2005 5:01
113. Leonard Cohen  "Dance Me To The End Of Love (Live)" 2002 6:06
(113 total)

Empanadas Rusas from the Halloween Milonga

Brian Salibury, Daniel Diaz, and David Peterson trio!

By special request from Daniel Diaz, the bandoneon king of our Intermountain West: Version 2 recipes of the "Classic Argentine Empanadas Rusas" :)

Relleno de pollo

Whenever I tried to prepare trad relleno de carne, the results always came short of expectations.  I reasoned that it's hard to get Argentine-good results with American ground beef. You'd face the twin problems of grease and loss of tenderness if you keep the ground beef on the skillet longer to drain fat more successfully. The v.2 solution is to get rid of beef, or of anything ground - let's go with pre-fried chicken meat instead! Yes, the minced chicken turned out to be tender and juicy just like I wanted, and peas are a nice texture contrast to the meat!

24 oz boneless skinless chicken thighs

2 medium onions, chopped

8 oz frozen green peas

1 cup pre-cooked basmati rice

2 teaspoons ground cumin-coriander mix

Two dozen green olives.

Salt, black pepper, olive oil.

Remove fatty portions from chicken meat, season (using some cumin-coriander and leaving the rest for mixing in later) & pan-fry using small amount of olive oil, on high, them medium-high heat, until they thickest parts aren't pink on the inside anymore. Set aside, let cool until meat can be comfortably handled, and mince. Sautee onions on high heat till lightly golden brown. Mix meat, sauteed onions, dd remaining spices, rice, and peas (no need to cook them, they'll thaw in the remaining heat of the frying pan and that's all you need to do with them). The olives (small whole or halved) are added to individual empanadas during wrapping. Makes 30 small empanadas. 

Relleno de bananas

If you frequented Milonga Sin Nombre, then you may have witnessed the evolution of our banana empanadas. I started with oatmeal-thickened peach-banana "porridge" fillings, then learned to evaporate the juices & to thicken the fruit  on a large non-stick frypan, and then substituted passion fruit juice instead of lime juice. The latest iteration is an apple-banana-tropical empanada

4 apples, chopped in fine pieces no more than 1/4"

4 bananas, cut in circles

1 tablespoon of water

2 tablespoons of passion fruit juice

2 tablespoonful of sugar

A dash of olive oil

Steam chopped apples in a covered pan with oil and water for 10 minutes, add sliced bananas and sugar, open the lid and simmer down and until the juices evaporate. Add passion fruit juice. Makes 2 dozen banana empanadas

Relleno de espinaca

Taiwanese spinach works!

Makes 30 small spinach empanadas. Like the earlier version, this recipe doesn't actually contain any spinach. It isn't exactly the classic Argentine empanadas de espinaca, but we may consider it a spicier version. Regular spinach is substituted by amaranth (Taiwanese spinach) because it settles down less when it wilts in the heat. You'd need a much taller pile of fresh spinach to get the same end volume, and it may be too hard for me to stir enough of it to fill so many pastries!

Thumb-size chunk of ginger root

1 medium onion, chopped

24 oz Taiwanese spinach (amaranth, Amaranthus gangeticus), carefully washed and cut into half-inch pieces, stems and leaves but of course no roots. 

1/2 pack firm tofu, cubed (1/4-1/2 in pieces) (9 oz)

2 tablespoonfuls of extra light olive oil

two fits-sized spools of sweet potato thread noodles

sauces per description

Finely chop ginger, sauté until very lightly browned, add onions and sauté until golden brown, mix in tofu and amaranth, add soy sauce, and your fav flavorings such as oyster sauce, a couple drops of sesame oil, a few drops of Sriracha, and stir-fry for a couple more minutes until wilted. In the meantime, cover sweet potato thread "glass" noodle spools with boiling water in a pot, briefly bring to boil, drain, and chop with scissors. Mix undercooked chopped noodles to the spinach stir-fry and set aside for a few minutes. The noodles will soak all the remaining juices. A possible suggestion for the future is to add pine nuts to the recipe?

The secret of the dough

Like a properly lazy tanguero, I don't make dough from scratch. Yes, I buy frozen jumbo white rolls dough in a store. My fav brand is local, Terrel's Country Bakery. Set them on flour-dusted trays in a reasonably warm place, under cover such us cut-up plastic bags (to prevent the doughsurface from drying), for 2+ hours. Once they thaw and rise some, divide each roll into 4 parts for a small empanada (that's 3/4 of an ounce per pastry), or 3 parts for a biggie (an ounce per pastry)

Shape each piece into a ball and let them rise, on flour-dusted trays under plastic cover, for another half an hour. Now it's time to roll (palm size for smallies, two palms for biggies) and fill. Rope-pinch the edges and place on buttered baking trays with the rope-pinch edge facing up. For the bright golden color of the crust, brush them with egg yolk before baking (a yolk of just one egg, combined with two teaspoons of water and whipped in a cup with a fork, may be enough to "paint" up to 4 dozens pastries). Bake at 350 F. For a pliable crust, smear the empanadas with a softened stick of butter immediately after baking right on the tray, then transfer the still-hot pastries into bowls lined, and covered, by towels. The best way to reheat the pastries, if needed, is a few minutes in an oven (generally meat empanadas are the best when warm, but it may not be important for the dessert ones)