The Cabeceo

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Tango By Year, the podcast

Alfredo Gobbi

18 records across 9 episodes (16 play here), plus 2 chapters that mention them, in the order the music happened.

Records played, by recording year

19471955

0 of 18 heard

1947

  1. La Viruta

    Gobbi's very first recording session; chosen as a well-worn old tango to hear in his new, violin-led orchestra.

  2. La Entrerriana

    Carlos Heredia, Hugo Soler

    Picked for the family story: the waltz was written by Gobbi's own father, whom Carlos Gardel visited to rehearse it in 1927.

1948

  1. Remembranza

    Jorge Maciel

    Jorge Maciel's first recording ever, years before he brought this repertoire to Pugliese; played so listeners can compare his voice with the later Pugliese rendition.

  2. Independiente Club

    A super danceable, rhythmic instrumental where the rhythmic pattern changes every eight bars, so dancers have to stay awake.

1949

  1. No la traigas

    Ángel Díaz

    A tango with a prison theme: a man tells someone not to bring their mother to visit him in jail.

  2. Tu amargura

    Ángel Díaz / Jorge Maciel (Carlos Pellegrini)

    A Peruvian waltz sung as a duet; Maciel, later Pugliese's singer, sounds different here.

  3. Instrumental (title unclear)

    Lavocah's first Gobbi instrumental: the ears are satisfied and, if we were dancing, the body would be too.

    Only in the episode

  4. Sombras

    Jorge Maciel

    An ordinary lyric lifted by Maciel's remarkable phrasing and note-bending.

  5. Orlando Goñi

    Gobbi's tribute to his bohemian friend Orlando Goñi, who had drunk himself to death; unusually it has three sections, in the old style.

  6. ChapterGobbi's tribute to a friend who drank himself to death

    A tango for Orlando Goñi.

1950

  1. Estás en mi corazón

    Jorge Maciel

    Dark and emotional Gobbi that Dag says reminds him more of Troilo than Pugliese; Maciel, later Pugliese's singer, sings with exquisite phrasing.

  2. Pelele

    A rarely heard Gobbi instrumental whose long opening 'chicharra' (a sound effect like a cicada) Lavocah calls sexy.

  3. Estás en mi corazón

    José Maciel

    Picked to show Maciel's voice used very differently than it later was with Pugliese, and Gobbi's more milonguero, classically-interesting style.

1951

  1. Estrellita del Sur

    Jorge Maciel, Héctor Corral

    A 'vals peruano' (with a cross-rhythm feel); one of Jorge Maciel's first recordings before he later moved to Pugliese's orchestra.

  2. El Andariego

    A strikingly modern instrumental with constantly shifting colour and flexible tempo, described as sounding like a gentler, rounder cousin of Pugliese's style.

  3. La Catrera

    An old tango also known from D'Arienzo; Gobbi's own violin solos are described as modest compared to Enrique Camerano's showier style.

  4. A record not yet identified

    Jorge Maciel

    An unusually tender lyric, described by the hosts as being about 'empty nest syndrome' in a long marriage.

    Only in the episode

1953

  1. Si sos brujo

    Lavocah on Gobbi: modest violin, tempo that flexes organically, but a milonguero orchestra and still inspiring to sextets today.

1955

  1. Camandulaje

    Gobbi's own composition, called by Lavocah the 'bleeding edge' of 1955 tango; Pugliese liked it enough to record it himself, but not until 1973.

  2. ChapterThe tango that waited eighteen years to be played right

    Alfredo Gobbi wrote a tango so advanced in 1955 that Pugliese didn't dare record his own version for eighteen years.

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