The Cabeceo

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Tango By Year, the podcast

Alberto Castillo

6 records across 5 episodes (2 play here), plus 5 chapters that mention them, in the order the music happened.

Records played, by recording year

19431959

0 of 6 heard

1939

  1. ChapterFirst singer to go solo

    Castillo wasn't the first orchestra singer to go solo.

1943

  1. Title unclear (candombe lyric)

    Alberto Castillo

    From Castillo's first solo recordings after he left Tanturi; the lyric speaks of a tambourine and black communities.

    Only in the episode

1945

  1. ChapterCastillo and the handkerchief

    Why does Castillo's voice drift in and out?

1946

  1. ChapterThe soloist who broke tango's rules

    Before Alberto Castillo, singers needed an orchestra to be famous.

1947

  1. Baile de los Morenos

    Alberto Castillo

    A milonga candombe, part of the Afro-Argentine-styled stage repertoire Castillo built after his bitter 1943 split from Tanturi.

    Only in the episode

1948

  1. ChapterTroilo: 'Not in my orchestra'

    Troilo said he never heard Castillo sing a wrong note. And still said no.

1949

  1. Alma de bohemia

    Alberto Castillo

    Castillo's outstanding take on a Filipo song, with an arrangement by Eduardo Rovira, later a jazz-leaning vanguard musician, and a cello in the introduction.

    Only in the episode

1953

  1. A media luz

    Alberto Castillo

    Castillo's version of the Donato classic about a bachelor flat at Corrientes 348; Dag points to how Castillo phrases 'Corrientes'.

  2. Amigos y mujeres

    Alberto Castillo

    A bitter vals about friends and women paying back with treason; Lavocah suspects irony. A listener hears Peruvian rhythm in it.

1955

  1. ChapterThe one time Alberto Castillo sang La Cumparsita

    There's only one known recording of Alberto Castillo singing La Cumparsita -- and it's not the lyric you know.

1959

  1. Una carta

    Alberto Castillo

    A tango known from Troilo and Fiorentino: a prisoner asks his mother if his woman has put their son in an orphanage. Stenvoll asked the owner of tangodj.at for the recording.

    Only in the episode

Tango By Year is Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah's, published here with their permission. The audio plays from SoundCloud.