Rodolfo Biagi · Tango By Year

1926

ChapterThe Night They Almost Caught a Young Biagi Red-Handed
For five minutes they thought they'd found a secret young Biagi recording. Then the dates ruled it out.

Cruz Diablo
A one-off two-sided Victor record by the pianist (not yet a bandleader) that Lavocah calls the spookiest thing ever recorded in tango.

Golgotha
Teófilo Ibáñez
Biagi's first recording with his own band (his own tune, words by Francisco Gorindo): an intense lyric about Calvary, far from his later happy sound.
Only in the episode
El trece
An instrumental from a few months later that shows the 'surprise' of the Biagi orchestra better than Golgotha. Start time approximate.
Lejos de ti
Teófilo Ibáñez
One of Biagi's few waltzes, taken at a fast pace; short and irresistible.

Pura clase
An instrumental of 'pure class', famous for a video that synchronises Laurel and Hardy's dance with it.
Dichas que viví
Andrés Falgás
A killer, super-fast waltz in which Falgás is a seven-out-of-ten match for Biagi, with a variation so fast the band almost can't keep up.
ChapterLaurel and Hardy dance to Biagi
A 1936 Laurel and Hardy dance lines up perfectly with a 1939 tango.
Cielo
Andrés Falgás
A Biagi composition; Lavocah says the singer is not integrated with the orchestra, unlike the Troilo-Fiorentino model.
Campo afuera
Teófilo Ibáñez
One of the few Biagi milongas (six or seven in all), with Homero Manzi's sad lyrics, and a final-ten-seconds acceleration.
Pura Clase
An instrumental chosen to show Biagi building his signature off-beat piano feel into the whole orchestra after leaving D'Arienzo.

Toda Te Nombra
Jorge Ortiz
Biagi's first recording with new singer Jorge Ortiz, called 'a hand in a glove' fit for the band.
Only in the episode
La Marca del Fuego
An older Juan Maglio tango reworked by Biagi; praised for combining lyricism with his trademark 'machine gun' bandoneón variations.
Only in the episode
El Último Adiós
Carlos Falgá
Chosen to show an early Biagi waltz alongside his better-known tangos.
Todo te nombra
Jorge Ortiz
An unusual tango with a nature lyric where all the sounds of nature name the woman he loves; written by a lesser-known lyricist.

El entrerriano
An instrumental chosen to show Biagi's super-sharp, surprising marcato, with the piano filling in everywhere without dominating.
Humillación
Jorge Ortiz
A Biagi composition sung by Jorge Ortiz, played to show the bandoneón's low tremolo under the vocal and Biagi's trick false ending.
Didí
An old instrumental of Firpo (c. 1917) known from Di Sarli; Biagi pushes the off-beat all the time, a possibility already in Firpo's version.
A record not yet identified
Called one of Troilo's party pieces, with a quintessential bandoneón variation that Biagi plays on the piano instead.
Only in the episode
Ya no me conoces
Jorge Ortiz
Chosen for what Biagi does with the bandoneons: a single bandoneón plays very quietly with a lot of tremolo low in the left hand, adding a spooky atmosphere to the lyric.
Only in the episode
La marcha nupcial
Jorge Ortiz
Based on Mendelssohn's wedding march, associated with weddings and rarely played at milongas.
ChapterThe wedding march that is a tango
Biagi turned Mendelssohn into a tango.
Lágrimas y sonrisas
A beautiful, danceable Creole waltz with a successful variation played over an almost silent marcato, and changes between minor and major key. Requested by a viewer.

Bélgica
An older, WWI-era tango about Belgium that resonated again with Belgium's WWII invasion.
Lágrimas y sonrisas
Alberto Amor
Introduced as a waltz for 'all those waltz lovers'; discussed afterward by its piano variación.
La cumparsita
Jorge Ortiz
Biagi/Ortiz version with a spoken glosa partway through, tied to the song's lyric lawsuit.

Lisón
Alberto Amor
Played right after D'Arienzo's El Huracán to compare Biagi's more romantic piano playing with Salamanca's.
Sueño de juventud
Carlos Acuña
A very slow waltz mostly known from Di Sarli, played here in Biagi's version with a famously odd ending.

Flor de Montserrat
Alberto Amor
Dag's pick as the best milonga ever recorded; Lavocah says the music rises out of the floor like thundering hooves in a cowboy film.
Only in the episode
Equipaje
Afterparty: the tango with 'the most demonic ending in the history of the universe', which Lavocah says is too vicious even for dancers who were warned.
Flor de Montserrat
Picked as one of the best milongas ever, unusually danceable both to its melody and its rhythm.
Only in the episode

Marol
Alberto Amor
Praised for the bandoneón's very slow, stretched-out notes behind the singer's voice.
Mientras Duerme la Ciudad
Alberto Amor
Discussed as a sign of the times: more space given to the singer's voice than early Biagi.
Aroma de amor
Alberto Amor
A Biagi waltz that had everyone dancing in their windows.

Milonga por la huella
A milonga with the beat accent put on the off-beat before the one, creating an up feeling that dancers can swap between rhythm and melody; Canaro recorded another version the same year.
Only in the episode

Matala
Carlos Heredia
A tango whose title means 'kill her': the narrator is urged in dreams to kill his lost love but blames himself instead.
Serenata campera
Hugo Duval
Hugo Duval's first recording with Biagi, a country waltz with galloping horses and chirping birds, with less reverb than later Columbia sides.

A record not yet identified
Hugo Duval
Duval joined Biagi in 1950 and stayed until the band dissolved; this early-50s recording lacks the heavy reverb added to Biagi/Duval's later (post-1956) releases.
Only in the episode
Caricias
Carlos Heredia
Chosen for its unusual opening: heavy vibrato in the bandoneon's left hand like a low moan, very expressive for Biagi.

Cielito lindo
One of only four Biagi recordings of the year; sharp and accentuated like his early 1940s sound. A Mexican song that Fresedo first turned into a tango.
Only in the episode

A record not yet identified
Hugo Duval
One of only four Biagi recordings this year, chosen partly to demonstrate the added studio reverberation that was becoming fashionable, and that Lavocah says tires the ear over time.
Only in the episode