The Cabeceo

We've caught your eye across the milonga. Like any good tango, this starts with consent — nothing optional runs until you say so.Cookies only with your yes. What we store.

Skip to content

Article

Odeon in Argentina

The German Odeon label reached Argentina through Max Glücksmann, whose Buenos Aires plant and long exclusive contracts made it the house of Gardel, Firpo and Canaro, and later of Pugliese, De Angelis and Caló.[1][7]

Odeon was founded in Berlin in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company; it took its name from the Odéon theatre in Paris and pressed records on both sides when most companies still made single-sided discs.[2]

Its agent in Argentina was Max Glücksmann, an immigrant from Czernowitz who had made his name in cinema. Odeon built him a plant in Buenos Aires to process masters and press records, and sent a resident engineer trained in Berlin.[1]

Glücksmann set out to win tango. By 1914 he held nearly the whole Argentine record trade, with Victor his only competitor, by signing the best musicians and, more shrewdly, the best composers to long exclusive contracts. Musicians liked him for it: he is credited with bringing royalties to Argentina, for sheet music and for records.[1] In 1917 he signed Carlos Gardel and José Razzano, and his roster took in Ignacio Corsini, Roberto Firpo and Francisco Canaro.[1]

One company, several labels

The label changed its name with the company: Discos Glücksmann, then Discos Nacional-Glücksmann, then Disco Nacional, and after EMI was formed in 1931, Disco Nacional-Odeon, the standard label of Odeon's company in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.[1] That is why the same records turn up under Disco Nacional, Disco Nacional Odeon and Odeon.

To find new tangos, Glücksmann ran the Concurso del Disco Nacional: seven contests in Buenos Aires between 1924 and 1930, and two in Montevideo, in 1927 and 1928.[1]

Who recorded for Odeon

Roberto Firpo made the oldest recording of La cumparsita for Odeon, as Odeon 483.[3] Osvaldo Fresedo recorded nearly 600 sides for Odeon between 1925 and 1928, left for RCA Victor in the 1930s, and came back to Odeon until almost the end of the 1950s.[4] Enrique Rodríguez signed with Odeon as an exclusive artist in 1937 and stayed 34 years.[5] Lucio Demare began recording for Odeon on 13 June 1938.[6] Alfredo De Angelis recorded for Odeon from 1943 to 1977, one of its most prolific tango artists, as Miguel Caló, Francisco Canaro and Osvaldo Pugliese were.[7]

In our catalogue Odeon's tango recordings run from 1917 to 1986. Canaro leads with more than 1,800, then Firpo, De Angelis, Gardel, Pugliese, Caló and Fresedo.[8]

Gardel's last years brought a dispute: he began recording in the United States for RCA Victor while still under contract to Disco Nacional-Odeon, and the companies settled by sharing those masters in the Argentine market.[1]

Reading an Odeon record

Two numbers identify a 78. The matrix number was given to each side as it was recorded and is stamped into the run-out area between the last groove and the label[9]; the catalogue number is the one the record was sold under. So a matrix dates a recording session, a catalogue number dates an issue, and one matrix can come back years later under a new catalogue number. Tangopedia lists both for every record we hold, with the year it was issued[8].

References

How Tangopedia works

  1. 1.Max Glücksmann · es.wikipedia.org
  2. 2.Odeon Records · en.wikipedia.org
  3. 3.Roberto Firpo · es.wikipedia.org
  4. 4.Osvaldo Fresedo · es.wikipedia.org
  5. 5.Enrique Rodríguez (músico) · es.wikipedia.org
  6. 6.Lucio Demare · es.wikipedia.org
  7. 7.Alfredo De Angelis (músico) · es.wikipedia.org
  8. 8.Odeon on Tangopedia: its recordings by orchestra and year · tangopedia.app
  9. 9.Matrix number · en.wikipedia.org
Data: recordings, facts and sources

Notes19

Victor introduced electrical recording in Argentina on 1 March 1926; Odeon didn't follow until November 1926. Neither label announced it publicly, by a gentleman's agreement, so buyers wouldn't stop purchasing the older acoustic-era stock still on shelves.

Single source

The only way to spot an electrical recording at the time was tiny markings: Odeon restarted its matrix numbering at 1 with a small 'e'; Victor later added 'VE' (Victor Electrical) to its labels, but gave no visible sign when the format first switched.

Single source

Max Glucksmann took sole control of Odeon's Argentine business when World War One cut it off from Berlin, building a multimedia empire of label, radio station and newspapers; his annual tango-writing competitions, partly decided by an audience ballot dropped in a jar, are known to have been rigged.

Single source

Odeon's recordings were better than RCA Victor's, partly because of a different microphone; a soloist such as Marino stands closer to it than he did in Troilo's band.

Single source

After the 1931 financial crisis wiped out every other Argentine record label, only RCA Victor and Odeon remained; Odeon signed new bandleaders to three-year deals with no guarantee of promotion, leaving Caló, Troilo, Tanturi and D'Agostino all unable to record regularly in the late 1930s.

Single source

By 1947 Pedro Laurenz was no longer recording for Odeon itself but for its cheaper second-tier sub-label, Pampa, a sign of how far his commercial standing had fallen once Alberto Podestá left.

Single source

Facing the Depression, Odeon cut 50 cents off most record prices (previously 3.50 pesos, 3.75 for Gardel) and simplified its magazine advertising typography to save on agency fees.

Single source

Victor was never as good as Odeon, partly because Odeon used German Neumann microphones (now worth about 10,000 euros second-hand) while Victor used RCA microphones; tape masters made a big difference.

Single source

Odeon pressings have lower surface noise and a better balance for singers than RCA Victor; Troilo, Pugliese and Di Sarli recorded for Victor, which is part of why their vocals can sound comparatively more buried.

Single source

1952 was the year Odeón introduced tape master recording; several of this episode's Pugliese tracks are re-recordings made that year on the new tape process.

Single source

After the Depression wiped out Brunswick, Columbia and Electra, only Odeon and RCA Victor remained; if you weren't signed to one you couldn't record.

Single source

Odeon signed Troilo, Demare and Tanturi to three-year exclusive deals with no commitment to release much; after one or two records without a hit it stopped, leaving the artist tied for three years, so Demare has a break until 1941.

Single source

Max Glücksmann was appointed Odeon's importing agent in Argentina for its phonographs and records

Single source

Odeon agreed to build a matrix-processing and record-pressing plant in Buenos Aires for Glücksmann, with a Berlin-trained resident engineer

Single source

Disco Nacional-Odeón, the successor of Glücksmann's Discos Nacional, became the standard Odeon label in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay

Single source

Odeon followed Victor into electrical recording in Argentina in November 1926Nov 1926

Single source

In 1927 Odeon began a series called Odeon Tango (OT)1927

Single source

OT discs were pressed in London, the Netherlands and Switzerland and issued on the Parlophone and Odeon labels

Single source

About 191 records were issued in the OT series, and many stayed in the catalogue for years

Single source

Open from1

Open from 1903

Single source

Located in1

Located in Berlin

Single source

Recordings2

Ricardo Malerba — recorded in Odeon1941–1945

Single source

Nelly Omar — recorded in Odeon1946

Single source

Listen

No recordings to play yet.

Ask Tangopedia

Answers only from cited facts, each with its source.