Tango of the Day IV

A big welcome to Buenos Aires for Gabriel and others today.

Today, we are going back to the "big 4" orchestras with a tango from Anibal Troilo. For a change, I am picking an instrumental tango tonight. "El Tamango" was recorded in 1941 and is typical of Troilo's early staccato style. He is also known for changing his musical style throughout his career. Like Pugliese and Piazzolla, Troilo was constantly innovating. Speaking of Piazzolla, Astor got his first big break with the orchestra of.... that's right, Troilo...

You can find this recording on the IStore by searching for "El Tamango". It's the first one at the top of the search results.

By the way, I am not receiving any sort of compensation for "plugging" the Apple IStore. I just think they have done a great job of beefing up their Argentine Tango collection over the last 3 or so years. I also buy quite a bit of my music from them.

Enjoy!

EL

Tango of the Day III

Hello everyone,

Today I was going to talk about another of the "big 4" orchestras, but I thought better of it... I have had this tango stuck in my head all day and thought I would share it with you. It's for a special someone currently in Bs As... You know who you are...

The tango is "Vendras Alguna Vez" by Enrique Rodriguez with singer Roberto Flores. The title means "You'll Come back Someday". You can get the recording from the IStore (search for "Vendras Algunas Vez", it's the very first one that comes up). Recorded all the way back in 1938, it's a great example of the early Rodriguez sound - a sound that "carries" as I like to say. I generally play this type of music early in a milonga.

This is in contrast with the slower but more well-known tangos Rodriguez later recorded with the famous Alberto Moreno. I prefer to play Rodriguez-Moreno towards the end of a milonga because it's slower and more "calm".

Enjoy.

EL

Tango of the Day II

Here is the tango for today: “Mañana Zarpa un Barco” interpreted by Carlo Di Sarli’s orchestra with the voice of Roberto Rufino in 1942. Di Sarli is the second of the “big 4” of tango (the others are D’Arienzo, Troilo, and Pugliese). One of the major contributions of Di Sarli was to considerably slow down the pace of tangos. This occurred starting in 1942 and “Mañana Zarpa un Barco” is a perfect example of this.

You can find this tango by searching for "Mañana Zarpa un Barco" on the IStore. It's the first tango that shows up in the search results.

Enjoy!

Tango of the Day..

I have some friends currently in Buenos Aires and they like to learn about tango music. So in honour of their pilgrimage, I decided to send them one tango per day for the duration of their trip. I figured others might also be interested... So here we go with the first one: No Mientas, performed  by the orchestra of Juan D’Arienzo. The singer is Alberto Echague and this tango was recorded in 1938. You are likely to hear this tango at one point or another at the milongas. It is very rhythmical. Portenos love this stuff. In traditional milongas in Bs As, you can even expect to hear D'Arienzo's orchestra once per hour!

You can find a recording of this tango on the IStore. Just do a search for "No Mientas" and it's the first one at the top of the search results.

Click on this link (below) to view a video of D’Arienzo and Echague performing another classic (Paciencia) on TV… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXVgQA5_ByE in (1972 or 1973).

As a bonus, here is a very rare video recording of a female singer performing a tango before 1975. The singer is Mercedes Serrano and again, the orchestra is D’Arienzo’s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94kED5QrJ5A

By the way, D’Arienzo was 72 in these videos (1972-1973).

As you will see on the videos, D’Arienzo is definitely an entertainer… He recorded over 1000 singles over a 45+ year recording career. He was extremely popular, and remains popular to this day in Tango circles. He recorded the first Argentinian single to sell over 1 million copies (La Punalada).

D’Arienzo never toured outside South America (he was scared of flying on airplanes), but in the early 1970s, he was invited to perform in Japan (by the Showa Emperor himself). D’Arienzo sent his soloists to tour Japan without him. Many recordings of this tour still exist today.

Notice that his orchestra has 5 bandoneons, 5 violins, 1 piano, and 1 bass. The piano and the bass give the beat, so there is only one of each. The violins and bandoneons give “depth” to the music, so there are more of them.

Tomorrow, we move on to the second of the "big 4" orchestras: Carlos Di Sarli...