Andrés Falgás

Andrés Salvio Miguel Falgás, who sometimes used the pseudonym Miguel De Salvio, was born on 15 January 1916 in the Caballito neighborhood of Buenos Aires, at Pedro Goyena 65, the son of a Catalan (or Spanish) father named Andrés Falgás and an Italian mother, Antonia Gaeta. He completed primary and secondary studies there before taking various jobs to help support his family; singing, however, was his vocation.^[1][3]

In 1933 that vocation received public recognition. A singing contest broadcast on LR4 Radio Splendid and sponsored by the cleaning powder Puloil drew roughly two thousand participants. Finalists were accompanied by the Trío Puloil consisting of Miguel Caló, Luis Brighenti and Raúl Kaplún. Hugo Gutiérrez, a violinist in Caló’s orchestra and himself a composer, took first place; Falgás finished second. The prize included a medal, a sum of money and several months of appearances on the station. Female finalists such as Elena Valdéz, Nora Flores and Nelly Aguirre left no lasting mark. During his subsequent radio work he was accompanied by occasional ensembles led by Federico Scorticati and Enrique Rodríguez as well as guitar duos and trios.^[1][2]

On 5 May 1936 he made his recording debut for the Odeon label with the tango Pena de amor by Jorge Argentino Fernández and José María Contursi and the waltz Cofrecito. These sides established him as a recording artist. In 1938 he began an association with Juan Canaro that included performances at various venues and on radio plus five new recordings, among them La brisa and El triunfo de tus ojos.^[1][4]

The following year he replaced Teófilo Ibáñez in Rodolfo Biagi’s orchestra and recorded eleven sides between July 1939 and April 1940. The Biagi period produced several of his best-known interpretations: Cielo (composed by Falgás himself with Mario Landi, recorded 18 September 1939), Son cosas del bandoneón (22 September 1939), Griseta and Queja indiana (26 October 1939), Deja el mundo como está and La chacarera (14 March 1940), Cicatrices and El último adiós (27 March 1940), and A mí no me interesa (12 April 1940), along with Dichas que viví and Déjame amarte aunque sea un día. These recordings, issued on Odeon, showcased Biagi’s characteristic piano style supporting Falgás’s distinctive timbre and phrasing.^[1][5]

Juan Canaro then engaged him for a long tour of the Americas that took the ensemble through Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, nearly all of Central America and finally Mexico. After several months Canaro decided to return home because he missed his family. Bandoneonist Gabriel Clausi hastily formed a new group, Los Reyes del Tango, to fulfill the remaining contracts. Mexico offered Falgás a prolonged stay: he filmed the 1942 picture Dos corazones y un tango opposite María Elena Marqués, in which he sang the tangos Dos Corazones and Andate, and he recorded for the Victor label. Local audiences dubbed him the “Voz Sentimental de Buenos Aires.”^[1][3]

The following years were marked by continuous travel. He returned repeatedly to Chile, Venezuela and Cuba (where he recorded with Joaquín Mora), visited Puerto Rico—birthplace of the melodic singer Elsa Miranda, with whom he maintained a relationship for a number of years—and spent occasional seasons in Buenos Aires. In the capital he appeared with Tití Rossi, with the orchestra of the singer-violinist Raúl Garcés, and, in 1951, with Julio De Caro’s orchestra (without making recordings). He did record accompanied by Roberto Pansera, by Gabriel Clausi, and by the guitars of Aníbal Arias and others. Altogether he left approximately 130 discographic sides.^[1][2]

As a composer Falgás produced a respectable body of work. In addition to Cielo he wrote both music and lyrics for several pieces and collaborated on others with Abel Aznar and especially with José María Contursi, yielding titles such as Buzón de mi vereda, En el olvido, Mañana a las ocho and the waltzes Triste and Tu voz. One of his most emotionally regarded performances is his version of La brisa, which uses a rare and almost unknown lyric by Caruso different from the text recorded by most of his colleagues; the biographer Néstor Pinsón has noted that he continues to be moved by it.^[1]

In 1956 he returned to Colombia and two years later, back in Argentina, acquired a share in the nightclub Le Tucán. At the end of that year he again traveled to Colombia, where he performed with great success and left further phonographic testimony. The pattern of coming and going continued. In 1983 he traveled to the United States and sang at La Casa Gardeliana in New York as well as on other important stages. He continued to perform well past the age of seventy. He died in Buenos Aires on 15 May 1995.^[1][3]

Contemporary opinion ranked him among the preferred artists of the magazine La Canción Moderna alongside Charlo, Tita Merello, Azucena Maizani, Tita Galatro, Amanda Ledesma and Ricardo Ruiz. His voice possessed an unmistakable timbre and phrasing that served him well both in the dance-oriented Biagi recordings of the late 1930s and in the more intimate settings of his later career. Through the Americas he functioned as a traveling ambassador of Argentine tango, carrying the repertoire from the great epoch into new audiences while leaving a recorded legacy that still circulates among collectors and dancers.^[1][2]

Radio beginnings and first recordings

The 1933 second-place finish in the Puloil-sponsored contest on Radio Splendid opened a professional path that led to months on the station and work with Scorticati, Rodríguez and guitar ensembles. The May 1936 Odeon debut with Pena de amor and Cofrecito established the recorded voice that would later be heard with Canaro and Biagi.^[1][2]

Juan Canaro, Rodolfo Biagi and the American tour

Five recordings with Juan Canaro in 1938 were followed by the eleven Biagi sides of 1939–1940 that remain among his most frequently heard performances. The subsequent continental tour, the formation of Los Reyes del Tango under Gabriel Clausi, and the 1942 Mexican film Dos corazones y un tango marked the peak of his international visibility; he was received in Mexico as the sentimental voice of Buenos Aires.^[1][3]

Later career, compositions and legacy

After seasons with De Caro (1951, no recordings), Pansera, Clausi and Arias, and further travels that included successful Colombian engagements and a 1983 appearance at La Casa Gardeliana in New York, Falgás continued singing past seventy. His own compositions, especially those written with Contursi, and his distinctive rendering of La brisa with the rare Caruso lyric, form part of a discography of roughly 130 sides that document both the golden-age orchestral style and the later, more itinerant phase of his career.^[1][2]