Topic
A listening route through Troilo
Michael Lavocah selected ten tangos as stepping stones through the changing style of Troilo’s orchestra, whose catalogue he counted at 485 recordings across more than thirty years. [1]
Lavocah presented the route as a way to hear the orchestra’s development through changes of musicians, singers and style. He said the selection was not a list of personal favourites: most entries represented stages in that development, while two deliberately showed other aspects of Troilo’s art. [1][2]
The route began with Comme il faut in 1938 and ended with Nocturno a mi barrio in 1968. Its sequence gave listeners a manageable path through the catalogue without treating any one period as the whole story. [3][1]
The ten stepping stones
Lavocah’s sequence paired several titles with a named singer, making those changes part of the route. The years below are the years printed in his list; the chapter did not identify them as premiere dates. [3][4]
- 1938: Comme il faut opened the route. [3]
- 1941: Yo soy el tango featured Fiorentino. [3]
- 1942: Malena again featured Fiorentino. [3]
- 1943: Farolito de papel featured Marino. [3]
- 1946: Recuerdos de bohemia marked the route’s midpoint. [4]
- 1948: Sur featured Rivero. [4]
- 1951: Responso followed. [4]
- 1954: La cantina featured Casal. [5]
- 1956: La última curda featured Rivero. [5]
- 1968: Nocturno a mi barrio closed the route, with Troilo named in parentheses. [5]
Listening across the sequence
The first four selections moved from Comme il faut to two Fiorentino entries and then a Marino entry. The middle stretch placed Recuerdos de bohemia before Sur and Responso; the final stretch moved through Casal, Rivero and Troilo. Heard in order, the ten selections followed the development that Lavocah intended the list to illustrate. [3][4][5][1]
Lavocah singled out Recuerdos de bohemia and Nocturno a mi barrio as atypical choices. Their place in the route was deliberate: he included them to reveal another aspect of Troilo’s art, rather than to make every selection representative of its period. [2]
References
- Michael Lavocah, Tango Masters: Aníbal Troilo, p. 186 (ISBN 978-1-9997551-5-7) · milongapress.comSource page“With 485 recordings spanning more than 30 years”
- Michael Lavocah, Tango Masters: Aníbal Troilo, p. 186 (ISBN 978-1-9997551-5-7) · milongapress.comSource page“This is not a list of my favourite Troilo tangos; it is more like a set of stepping stones.”
- Michael Lavocah, Tango Masters: Aníbal Troilo, p. 186 (ISBN 978-1-9997551-5-7) · milongapress.comSource page“1938: Comme il faut • 1941: Yo soy el tango (Fiorentino) • 1942: Malena (Fiorentino) • 1943: Farolito de papel (Marino)”
- Michael Lavocah, Tango Masters: Aníbal Troilo, p. 186 (ISBN 978-1-9997551-5-7) · milongapress.comSource page“1946: Recuerdos de bohemia 1948: Sur (Rivero) • 1951: Responso”
- Michael Lavocah, Tango Masters: Aníbal Troilo, p. 186 (ISBN 978-1-9997551-5-7) · milongapress.comSource page“1954: La cantina (Casal) • 1956: La última curda (Rivero) • 1968: Nocturno a mi barrio (Troilo)”
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