Carlos Di Sarli

Led by Carlos Di Sarli1927–1958[1][2][4][6][20][32][16]

Forms his first orchestra to play in a Bahía Blanca tearoom; Wikipedia names the Café Express and Café Moka.1919[2]

Moves to Buenos Aires with his brother Roque and joins Anselmo Aieta's group.1923[2]

Plays the opening of the Fénix theatre in Flores as pianist with Osvaldo Fresedo's orchestra.1926[3]

Forms his first sextet, with José Pécora and David Abramsky on violin.1927[2]

First recording session for Victor: T.B.C. and La guitarrita.Nov 26, 1928[2]

Leaves his orchestra and moves to Rosario, where he plays with Juan Cambareri.1934[3]

Debuts his rebuilt orchestra on Radio El Mundo.Jan 1939[2]

Back at Victor, records Corazón with Roberto Rufino singing, and Retirao.Dec 11, 1939[2]

Withdraws from tango for commercial reasons.1949[2]

Returns with recordings for the Music Hall label, with Oscar Serpa and Mario Pomar.Nov 1951[2]

Returns to Victor, recording until 1958.1954[2]

Records his last 14 sides for Philips, with Horacio Casares and Jorge Durán.1958[2]

Last performance, at the club Podestá de Lanús, closing with his own Bahía Blanca.Mar 8, 1959[3]

Dies in Olivos.Jan 12, 1960[3]

Di Sarli returned to Buenos Aires in 1938 and started his orchestra, disappearing from view for a while before his first recordings around 21 November 1939; by 1940 his band was arguably more successful than Troilo's and was cutting into D'Arienzo's dominance.[50]

Di Sarli's sound changes the least of the big orchestras: from 1941 to 1958 it stays essentially the same elegant, subtle style built around a smooth violin surface, even as what's underneath grows more complex.[51]

Di Sarli is quoted as saying 'if there is a melody which does not have the qualities I want for my orchestra, don't play it' — read at the time as a criticism of D'Arienzo's less selective repertoire.[51]

In 1947 Di Sarli's only singer was the new bass-baritone Jorge Durán, who sang with him exclusively from 1945 to 1947 after losing Rufino and Podestá the year before.[52]

Di Sarli quit after the Carnival season of 1949 (not 1948, as often misreported) and took a two-year break, living at his house in the leafy Buenos Aires suburb of Olivos, before returning to record in 1951.[53]

During Di Sarli's absence, imitator orchestras in his style sprang up, the best known led by Ricardo Pedevilla, but none could really copy the sound because they lacked Di Sarli's pianist.[53]

Of the 20 tracks on Di Sarli's 1951 comeback, every one was an old song from his existing repertoire with nothing new, and 19 of the 20 were instrumentals.[53]

Di Sarli became 1940's 'orchestra of the year', debuting in July at the Marabú cabaret in Buenos Aires (where Troilo had debuted in 1937) and holding that residency on and off for about four years, unusually long for a cabaret booking.[54]

Di Sarli's sextet recorded for Victor, whose technology in this period was generally not quite as good as Odeon's, but the records still let you hear clearly what the double bass and Di Sarli himself were doing.[55]

Di Sarli switched labels from RCA Victor to Polygram/Philips in 1958 after RCA introduced a new artistic-recording manager who took away bandleaders' control over which takes got released; offended, Di Sarli walked out of the studio with his band and never returned to RCA.[56]

Di Sarli's recording career stayed remarkably consistent and danceable from 1928 to his final 1958 recordings, unlike the other Big Four orchestras, which tended to lose some of their early quality over three decades; Lavocah attributes this to an unwavering internal artistic vision undisturbed by commercial pressure.[56]

As the number of violins in Di Sarli's orchestra grew over the decades while the bass elements (piano, left hand, double bass) stayed singular, the overall balance shifted from weighty to a smoother, more 'watery' sound.[56]

Having lost his Victor recording contract, Di Sarli secretly backed singer Mercedes Carné on the Brunswick label; because his name never appeared on the record, these sessions are missing from his official discography and are identifiable only by his distinctive left-hand piano and rastre.[57]

Nobody writes violin counter-melodies under the singer better than Di Sarli — dancers who tune into them end up following the violins rather than the voice.[58]

Alberto Durán was Di Sarli's only singer in 1946; Michael guesses Di Sarli simply hadn't found a second singer he liked, or vice versa.[59]

Lavocah's own metaphor, from his Di Sarli book, is that a great melodic wash is slowly submerging the staccato, marcato structure of tango in Di Sarli's mid-1950s recordings.[60]

By 1951 Di Sarli had two vocalists, Oscar Serpa and Mario Pomar; of the first 20 tracks recorded for the new Musica label, only one had a vocal, and releasing them as four-track EPs (waiting until the first 20 were ready) confused the recording dates.[61]

1931 is the year Di Sarli loses his recording contract with RCA Victor; he disappears from the scene for years and comes back in 1939 after backing singers.[62]

Lavocah calls 1943 'Di Sarli's best year' for the polyrhythm in the left hand of the piano; the piano was the only instrument allowed to improvise in his orchestra.[63]

Di Sarli's orchestra plays mostly tutti with only short fills; the long piano solo in La cachila (1952) is almost unique in his work.[63]

In 1945 Di Sarli exchanged Alberto Podestá, who was on his second stint with the band, for the baritone Jorge Durán, who then stayed with him to the end.[64]

Di Sarli's milongas are about melody and phrasing, the Argentine 'cadencia', rather than a beat-beat-beat rhythm, so they are danced in a more melodic way than a D'Arienzo or Canaro milonga.[64]

Di Sarli made only two milongas; the other, Pueblera, was covered in the 1947 programme.[64]

By 1945 Di Sarli has removed the idea of solos from every instrument except himself, which makes the violin solo in Tinta verde one of the last such solos.[64]

Di Sarli made no recordings in 1950: he stayed home in Olivos 'in lockdown for a whole year', leaving a space that Ricardo Pedevilla's orchestra moved into.[65]

Di Sarli's marcato is violin-driven: the bandoneons play softly, without arrastre, so the violin dominates the end of each beat, which needs restraint from the bandoneonists; other bands cannot copy it. When he lost his whole orchestra in 1956, he said they still had the pianist, the most important person.[65]

Di Sarli returns to recording in December 1939 after a long break (the early-30s crisis, not contracts), with a new band and the 17-year-old Rufino; Corazón was done in one take.[66]

In these first records Di Sarli already has the walking beat, jazzy piano and an arrastre, but he has not yet forbidden the solo: Corazón has a woody gut-string violin solo by Roberto Guisado, who worked with Di Sarli for decades.[66]

Di Sarli left Music Hall, where he had spent three years after promises of worldwide exposure that never materialised (and trouble with distribution, since few people had players for the new vinyl records), and went back to Victor in 1954. El choclo was recorded twice in 1954, first for Music Hall, then six months later for Victor; Lavocah says the Victor version is the smooth one everyone knows.[67]

Discépolo could not write music down, so Di Sarli often notated his tangos for him; this is why Lavocah is sure Di Sarli was playing Sueño de juventud (c. 1939) long before this recording.[67]

No me pregunten por qué opens with a spoken introduction by Di Sarli himself, which appears on the first record from his return to RCA Victor; it was unknown until the 2001 RCA Victor 100 años CD series.[67]

Di Sarli was an upright, difficult and misunderstood man of few words, who would go quiet for days; his friends said he had gone into his room.[67]

Di Sarli recorded only two tracks in 1948 and dissolved his orchestra not in 1948 but in 1949.[68]

Acuña's Cuando el amor muera is one of the rare Di Sarli vocals without Rufino: when Rufino returned, the stand-in singer was always kept on briefly, but would get fed up and leave.[69]

By 1958, with few dancers left, the surviving bands become more symphonic and operatic in delivery, as heard in Di Sarli's last recordings with Horacio Casares.[69]

Di Sarli's widow died a few days before the programme, aged almost 100, survived by daughters María Cristina and Dora; Di Sarli himself died in 1960. Bandoneonist Raúl Jaurena, who moved to New York, also died that week.[70]

Di Sarli's smooth violins hide polyrhythm already in 1941: in Don Juan the left-hand piano plays three against four. Lavocah suggests DJs should play the 1940s version instead of the 1950s ones.[70]

On Di Sarli's first 1928 recordings the double bass is placed close to the microphone and the piano's left hand reinforces it, a walking beat, while Julio De Caro's double bass on the same label is inaudible; the sextet's thin texture lets you hear the bandoneons clearly.[71]

Di Sarli's music was never about development; it has a timeless quality, so standing still matters less than for D'Arienzo.[72]

Di Sarli came back in 1951 and in 1953 has a stable vocal team of Mario Pomar and Oscar Serpa through the first half of the 1950s.[72]

Di Sarli told his bandoneonists to play like an organ, no flourishes; in Duelo criollo the low solo line is like a funeral oration.[72]

A typical vocal tango has six blocks of music; Di Sarli uses four (instrumental verse and chorus, then singer verse and chorus), so his tangos are short, often about 2 minutes 20, despite his slow tempo.[72]

Di Sarli is very good at cadencia; a D'Arienzo milonga is like a horse, but in Di Sarli's you feel the sentences swing.[72]

Known as «El Señor del Tango»[74]

Real name Cayetano di Sarli[74]

D'Arienzo's climaxes are about excitement and speed — more notes, faster — while Di Sarli's climaxes are emotional, built by the strings adding intensity of feeling.[75]

José Pécora — played in Carlos Di Sarli1927, 1927–1931[2][4]

César Ginzo — played in Carlos Di Sarli1927, 1927–1931[2][4]

Tito Lando — played in Carlos Di Sarli1927, 1927–1931[2][4]

Adolfo Pérez — played in Carlos Di SarliJan 1939[2]

Simón Bajour — played in Carlos Di Sarli1951, 1956[20]

Claudio González — played in Carlos Di Sarli1951[20]

Federico Scorticati — played in Carlos Di Sarli1951[20]

Ángel Ramos — played in Carlos Di Sarli1951[20]

Elvino Vardaro — played in Carlos Di Sarli1956, 1958[20][16]

Antonio Rossi — played in Carlos Di Sarli1956[20]

José Libertella — played in Carlos Di Sarli1956, 1958[20][16]

Julian Plaza — played in Carlos Di Sarli1956, 1958[20][16]

Alfredo Marcucci — played in Carlos Di Sarli1956[20]

Played in Radio El Mundo1938[73]

Played in Radio Cultura1924[73]

Anselmo Aieta — played in Carlos Di Sarli[76]

Juan Carlos Caviello — played in Carlos Di Sarli[77]

Ernesto Famá — sang with Carlos Di Sarli1928–1931[2][4][6][9][78]

Fernando Díaz — sang with Carlos Di SarliNov 26, 1928–Aug 14, 1931, 1928–1931[2][4]

Roberto Deirene — sang with Carlos Di SarliJul 11, 1929[5]

Ignacio Murillo — sang with Carlos Di SarliJan 1939[2]

Roberto Rufino — sang with Carlos Di Sarli1939–1943[2][4][10][11][12][13][14][15][76][80]

Alberto Podestá — sang with Carlos Di Sarli1942–1947[13][6][19][26][27][76][81]

Oscar Serpa — sang with Carlos Di Sarli1948–1955[18][20][22][23][24][25][4][29][30][31][82]

Mario Pomar — sang with Carlos Di Sarli1951–1955[22][23][24][4][28][76][86][87]

Roberto Florio — sang with Carlos Di Sarli1956–1958[20][34][36][37][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][84]

Jorge Durán — sang with Carlos Di Sarli1956–1958[34][38][39][41][43][44][46][16][76][83]

Rodolfo Galé — sang with Carlos Di Sarli1955, 1956[20][88]

Argentino Ledesma — sang with Carlos Di Sarli1956[20][79]

Horacio Casares — sang with Carlos Di Sarli1958, Jul 1, 1958, Nov 1958[46][16][47][48][91]

Antonio Rodríguez Lesende — sang with Carlos Di Sarli1932[76]

Roberto Arrieta — sang with Carlos Di Sarli[85]

Carlos Acuña — sang with Carlos Di SarliAug 2, 1941[89]

Santiago Devincenzi — sang with Carlos Di SarliNov 16, 1929–Mar 17, 1930[90]

Mercedes Carne — sang with Carlos Di Sarli1931–1932[92]

Che bacana · Carlos Di Sarli · 1929 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliOct 28, 1929[5]

Qué reo sos · Carlos Di Sarli · 1929 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliDec 31, 1929[5]

Carnaval de antaño · Carlos Di Sarli · 1929 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliMar 27, 1929[5]

Flor marchita · Carlos Di Sarli · 1929 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliAug 14, 1929[5]

Sos una maquieta · Carlos Di Sarli · 1929 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliNov 16, 1929[5]

No te aguanto más · Carlos Di Sarli · 1929 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliDec 31, 1929[5]

Cuando bronca el temporal · Carlos Di Sarli · 1929 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliMar 1, 1929[5]

Volver a soñar · Carlos Di Sarli · 1940 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliOct 8, 1940[8]

La guitarrita · Carlos Di Sarli · 1928 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliNov 26, 1928[2]

Alma mía · Carlos Di Sarli · 1940 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliFeb 15, 1940[8]

Nobleza de arrabal · Carlos Di Sarli · 1940 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliNov 23, 1940[8]

La trilla · Carlos Di Sarli · 1940 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliFeb 15, 1940[8]

Mi pibe · Carlos Di Sarli · 1929 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliAug 14, 1929[5]

Shusheta · Carlos Di Sarli · 1940 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliOct 8, 1940[8]

Pobre yo · Carlos Di Sarli · 1929 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliOct 9, 1929[5]

Belén · Carlos Di Sarli · 1929 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliOct 9, 1929[5]

Un lamento · Carlos Di Sarli · 1929 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliMar 27, 1929[5]

Buenos Aires yo te canto · Carlos Di Sarli · 1954 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliApr 21, 1954[22]

Un desolado corazón · Carlos Di Sarli · 1954 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliAug 31, 1954[23]

Flor de amigo · Carlos Di Sarli · 1955 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliJul 15, 1955[31]

Juan Porteño · Carlos Di Sarli · 1955 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliJan 21, 1955[31]

Duele más · Carlos Di Sarli · 1956 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliDec 19, 1956[39]

Quien sino tú · Carlos Di Sarli · 1956 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliDec 19, 1956[39]

Por un te quiero · Carlos Di Sarli · 1957 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliOct 4, 1957[44]

Indio manso · Carlos Di Sarli · 1958 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliNov 1958[46]

El abrojo · Carlos Di Sarli · 1958 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliNov 1958[46]

No la maldigas por Dios · Carlos Di Sarli · 1958 — recorded by Carlos Di SarliNov 1958[46]

Tito Lando — left Carlos Di Sarli1930[7]

Ignacio Murillo — left Carlos Di Sarli1939[2]

Oscar Serpa — left Carlos Di Sarli1956[35]

Mario Pomar — left Carlos Di Sarli1956[35]

Premiered at Radio El MundoJan 1939[2]

Roberto Rufino — joined Carlos Di Sarli1939[2]

Ángel Ramos — joined Carlos Di Sarli1946[16]

Leopoldo Federico — joined Carlos Di Sarli1947[16]

Elvino Vardaro — joined Carlos Di Sarli1956[33]

Jorge Durán — joined Carlos Di Sarli1957[20]

Horacio Casares — joined Carlos Di SarliJul 1, 1958[47]

Performed at Radio El MundoJan 1939, Mar 16, 1951[4][21]

Last recorded Una noche de garufa · Carlos Di Sarli · 1931Aug 14, 1931[2][4]

Last recorded 382 recordings from December 1939 through November 1958Nov 1958[16]

First recorded La guitarrita · Carlos Di Sarli · 1928Nov 26, 1928, Nov 26, 1928–Aug 14, 1931[2][4]

Released on RCA Victor1939–1948[17]

Released on Music Hall 84 temasNov 1951–Apr 1953[4]

Released on Music Hall vinyl1951[17]

Released on Music Hall1951[17]

Released on PhilipsNov 1958[16]

tango.info · CayetDisar[49]

Its leader died in Buenos AiresJan 12, 1960[76]

Open from 1938[16]

Open until 1958[16]