Tango 1929
Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah · 27 May 2020 · 3:15:22
1929 falls in the era of the tango sextets: Julio De Caro's innovations have already reshaped the music, so what sounds like the old guard to modern dancers was considered advanced at the time. Canaro is at the peak of his career, recording around 300 tracks this year alone and launching his arranged-music label, Series Symphonica Canaro, with Ada Falcón, who has just entered his life and his orchestra. Bandoneonist Pedro Maffio, trained in De Caro's school, forms his own orchestra with top session players (Pugliese on piano, Vardaro on violin, Ferrazzano on cello), while Juan Maglio, past his own technical peak, still shapes the sound D'Arienzo will build his career on. Danced tango is still mostly instrumental, since the era's star singers (Charlo, Ada Falcón, Gardel backed by guitars) are record-only artists rather than touring band members, and women dominate the separate, bigger stream of tango canción. The Depression has barely touched Argentina's export economy yet, but D'Arienzo and Carlos Di Sarli are already recording, and the hosts trace how the coming arrival of sound cinema, not the Depression itself, will soon take away the bands' main venues.
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Tango 1958Episode 9 · 3 Jun 2020 · 3:11:16What this episode gave Tangopedia
Facts said in the episode, each now cited to the minute it is said.
1929 sits in the sextet era, after Julio De Caro's innovations: what dancers today call 'the old guard' was considered new, advanced music at the time, since the real old guard was earlier.
Canaro recorded around 300 tracks in 1929, more than were recorded industry-wide in 1935, and would record six to eight takes in a single studio session.
Dag's 'época de oro' t-shirt marks 1927-1931 as a different, more tender and intimate golden age, distinct from the familiar 1935-1955 one.
Of about 200 recordings Ada Falcón made with Canaro, only five were made for dancing; La Morocha was one of her first with his orchestra, around when their relationship began.
Charlo and Ada Falcón sang for Canaro and Lomuto only on records; since neither was an orchestra member, danced tango in 1929 was still largely an instrumental affair.
The first recording issued under Canaro's new 'Series Symphonica Canaro' arranged-music label, and one of Ada Falcón's first recordings with his orchestra, right as their relationship began.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 1:45 · The lyrics, on the song's page
An instrumental Canaro rarely attempted material this complex for; this arranged recording shifts mood several times across its three and a half minutes.
Only in the episode
From Canaro's most genuine, sincere period with Charlo, one of the era's three or four top tango voices.
♪ Music · 3:59 ·
Watch it danced · 1
Played as a guess-the-singer game; revealed to be a young Fiorentino, at this point still primarily a bandoneón player who only doubled on vocals.
One of 1929's biggest hits, with more than half a dozen good versions; chat listeners rated this Lomuto/Charlo version above D'Arienzo's.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:55 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 16
Gardel's guitar-backed version, very different in feeling from the energetic D'Arienzo/Caceres version played in the 1941 episode.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:37 · The lyrics, on the song's page
A guitar-backed waltz; an audience poll on the night named Corsini listeners' favourite singer of the era, ahead of Gardel.
Only in the episode
Chapter · 37:02
Two Violinists, One Orchestra, No Egos
Usually a pianist or bandoneón player starts a tango orchestra. These two broke the rule.
A dark, unusually sombre number from the co-violinist-led Donato-Zerrillo orchestra, with Brunswick's house vocalist Luis Díaz imposed by the label rather than chosen by the band.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:06 ·
Chapter · 42:38
The Secret Ingredient Was His Wife's Family
How did Juan D'Arienzo land his first record deal, years before he became tango's king of rhythm?
A ranchera from D'Arienzo's little-known 1928-29 Electra-label recordings, years before his famous sound; audio quality is explicitly very poor, and Fiorentino (also a bandoneón player) sings.
Only in the episode
A well-loved tango recorded by many orchestras; this version is from violinist Puglisi's own band, recorded for Victor (he would later become D'Arienzo's lead violinist from 1940).
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:24 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Chapter · 51:00
The Depression Didn't Kill Tango. The Talkies Did.
Everyone blames the Great Depression. The real damage came from Hollywood.
Chapter · 56:16
The Forgotten Tango That Took Ten Years to Land
A song about a soldier's regiment, written off twice, became one of 1929's most beautiful recordings.
A decade-old tango, first titled for a military regiment and forgotten after an unsuccessful 1922 Firpo recording; Maffio revives it, built around cellist Agesilao Ferrazzano's countermelody.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 3:00 · The lyrics, on the song's page
From Petrucelli's own orchestra (he had also directed Victor's house orchestra); the violin countermelody, played by Elvino Vardaro, stands out.
♪ Music · 4:00 ·
Comic title, 'so big and so stupid'; chat listeners likened the busy arrangement, with a true violin countermelody and complex piano chords under the vocal, to jazz.
Only in the episode
An unusual tango lyric for the time, about a man behaving badly, which Lavocah writes about in his book; Merello was valued for her delivery and acting rather than her voice.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 1:46 ·
A guitar-backed waltz from Mercedes Simone, named by many listeners as the best female voice of the era; also the singer Libertad Lamarque publicly deferred to as the real 'queen of tango.'
Only in the episode
Chapter · 1:18:13
The Queen Who Gave Away Her Crown
She'd just been crowned the queen of tango. Then she said the title belonged to someone else.
Chapter · 1:19:03
Why Tango's Dance Floor Went Quiet on Women's Voices
It's not that women stopped singing tango. The dance floor just stopped needing them.
Maglio's own bandoneón technique could no longer keep pace with De Caro-school players, but his band, filled with young recruits, still carried his old-guard beat and hits.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 1:40 ·
A 15-year-old Aníbal Troilo was in Maglio's bandoneón section in 1929; Lavocah thinks the closing bandoneón variation here is more likely fellow bandoneonist Federico Scorticati than Troilo.
Only in the episode
Chapter · 1:31:06
The Beat That Taught D'Arienzo Everything
Before D'Arienzo had 'the beat,' Juan Maglio had it first.
One of two instrumental dance-floor favourites of this orchestra from the year, picked because it was still summer (its pair, Viento Norte, was skipped for being a 'northern wind' song).
♪ Music · 2:00 ·
Watch it danced · 48
One of the records Rodolfo and María Sieri used for their canyengue demonstrations.
Watch it danced · 5
An American jazz violinist's tango take on a genuine global 1929 hit, also known by its German title (Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame) and released in Polish and Danish versions too; Canaro and Petrucelli also made tango versions.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:50 ·
One of roughly 100 Firpo recordings this year; praised for its arrastre-driven beat and an unnamed, excellent cellist.
♪ Music · 2:30 ·
An instrumental version of a song Ada Falcón also recorded with Canaro as a non-dance number, about meeting someone at a milonga and never seeing them again.
Watch it danced · 3
From Di Sarli's early sextet; an instrumental whose title means 'withered flower,' with an intense melancholy Lavocah feels in the music itself.
Only in the episode
Campaniar is lunfardo for keeping watch; the lyric's narrator is really keeping watch for his own lost past love, not a person.
The traditional closing Cumparsita; chosen for its violin solo and bandoneón variation, one of six 1929 recordings of the song.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 5:18 · The lyrics, on the song's page
De Caro's first 1929 recording, on the Brunswick label; chosen for Francisco De Caro's piano work, with Brunswick's house vocalist Luis Díaz singing.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:57 ·
Lavocah's pick as the best version of Felicia ever recorded, a tango now mostly associated with D'Arienzo.
♪ Music · 2:51 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 1
The B-side of La Morocha's original release, chosen for a strong canyengue (syncopated slapped-bass) passage.
♪ Music · 2:30 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 1
About the fear of falling in love; there is a non-dance Ada Falcón/Canaro vocal version, but this danceable Charlo version was played instead.
♪ Music · 1:52 ·
One of Corsini's greatest recordings, about the girl who serves in a pulpería (a village general store that also sold drink).
♪ Music · 1:24 · The lyrics, on the song's page
First of a four-song Firpo run in the afterparty; title means 'shadows of the afternoon.'
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 3:09 ·
Second of the Firpo run; the given translation suggests a title along the lines of 'listen up, bad guy,' using the lunfardo word 'rante.'
Only in the episode
One of two strong 1929 versions of this major hit about a man who goes to church just to see a girl; Firpo's opening bell-chime imitation is subtler than rival versions.
♪ Music · 2:22 ·
Title refers to the payada, a gaucho verse-duel: this milonga is 'eternal' because neither of the two dueling singers in the story ever runs out of verses.
♪ Music · 3:00 ·
An old-guard contemporary of Maglio recording for Victor, able to draw on the label's house musicians (Vardaro on violin, Scorticati on bandoneón) for the session.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 3:00 ·
Lunfardo title meaning 'evil look' ('pinta' is look or appearance).
♪ Music · 2:26 ·
Lavocah guesses, without certainty, that the title refers to standing your ground in a knife-fight stance; praised for its final variación.
♪ Music · 5:30 ·
Chapter · 3:11:42
A Violin Solo So High It Shouldn't Be Possible
One tango recording ends with a trick violinists almost never use.
Closing track of the night; its violinist takes a rare solo using artificial harmonics, which Lavocah says is the only tango he knows with such a solo.
♪ Music · 3:34 ·
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Tango By Year is Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah's, published here with their permission. The audio plays from SoundCloud.