Tango 1930
Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah · 5 Aug 2020 · 3:47:59
1930 looks at first glance much like 1929 — another year of new, Julio De Caro-influenced sextets chasing a more sophisticated sound — but cracks are showing: Argentina's economy is starting to feel the Great Depression, the first band loses its recording contract, and a military coup on 6 September is cheered in the streets, the first of six that would follow over the decades. Canaro records an astonishing 330 sides this year, Pedro Maffia and Juan Maglio both have standout years, and several later-famous bandleaders (Carlos Di Sarli, Luis Petrucelli, the bandoneonist Minotto) are just getting started on their own after splitting from bigger orchestras. Two of the night's best stories have nothing to do with the hits: a would-be supergroup, the Vardaro-Pugliese sextet, flops completely and leaves violinist Elvino Vardaro pawning his bow to afford the train fare home, while Julio De Caro makes his only-ever recording of La Cumparsita, a sprawling four-and-a-half-minute arrangement that needed a bigger disc pressed just to fit it.
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Tango 1942Episode 16 · 19 Aug 2020 · 3:51:00What this episode gave Tangopedia
Facts said in the episode, each now cited to the minute it is said.
1930 looks at first glance very similar to 1929 — an era of many new bands, especially Julio De Caro-influenced sextets trying to make more sophisticated music — though the Depression's effects are only just starting to show.
The first clear sign of the coming crisis is that bandleader Cayetano Puglisi — later first violin in D'Arienzo's 1940s orchestra — loses his recording contract in 1930.
On 6 September 1930 the Argentine government is overthrown in a military coup; people cheer the soldiers into town, not realising it is the first of six coups and the start of decades of political instability.
Donato came from a family of musicians: his brother Ascanio played cello and another brother, Osvaldo, played piano in the band.
Most bands at this time don't have their own vocalist; instead each record label supplies a house singer who sings the estribillo for every band on that label. On Brunswick in 1930 that singer is Luis Díaz.
An instrumental tango chosen for its cello line, from the partnership before the two leaders split.
Only in the episode
A joint composition by Donato and his partner, recorded again by Donato alone some years later in a similar arrangement.
Only in the episode
From Donato's second recording session ever as a solo leader, after the split; chosen to show the bouncy house piano style of the year.
Watch it danced · 1
An instrumental Donato solo recording showcasing the same bouncy piano feel, played by his brother Osvaldo.
Known to dancers from D'Arienzo's 1947-ish Echagüe version; chosen to show the label's own house sound.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 0:01 ·
Another Luis Díaz vocal turn, played for laughs: Díaz sings for every band on the label.
Only in the episode
A rare milonga campera, backed only by guitars; chosen to show a genuinely angry, street-attitude side of Gardel.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:31 ·
Marcucci's own composition, played by his own típica after he left Julio De Caro's band; chosen because it's rarely heard in this original version.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:45 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 3
A Filiberto song with a funeral feel, backed by guitars; one of sixteen Corsini recordings this year.
Only in the episode
An early version of a song known from many later bands (including D'Arienzo); part of Canaro's Serie Sinfónica, the first arranged music in tango, with unusually free piano from Luis Riccardi.
Played straight after the Serie Sinfónica track to show the contrast: the waltz puts every musician firmly back in a conventional dance-band role.
♪ Music · 5:53 ·
Watch it danced · 6
At first assumed to be Ada Falcón; it's actually her similar-sounding sister Adelma, backed here by guitars Gardel lent for the session.
Only in the episode
Chapter · 56:16
The sister nobody expected
Everyone assumed it was the famous singer. It was actually her sister — using guitars borrowed from Carlos Gardel.
An instrumental with an irresistible walking beat the hosts call a direct precursor of the D'Arienzo sound.
Played partly as a listening game, to hear whether the singer actually says what the 'seven words' of the title are.
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 8
Played as a quiz — the singer's identity withheld at first; the song is one of the first this year whose lyric names the Depression directly rather than hiding it.
Only in the episode
An instrumental with an English-tinged title, reflecting the era's film-song influence; preferred over Lomuto's vocal sides this year.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 0:01 ·
Another Lomuto instrumental, chosen for its beat and strong violin lines over the vocal tracks this year.
A rare Cuban-singer tango recording, from Fresedo's time working in New York; played partly as a guess-the-orchestra game.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:41 ·
One of around twenty solo sides this year by Tania, already Enrique Santos Discépolo's partner at this point, backed by a respected but non-freelance radio-orchestra leader.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:51 ·
About the old central-plaza meat market, demolished in 1884 — already pure nostalgia by 1930; later transformed almost beyond recognition by Pugliese.
A melancholy Firpo waltz, still danceable despite its sadness — the hosts' favourite kind of Firpo waltz.
A rare Di Sarli sextet side not included on the well-known Tango Tunes sextet reissue.
A favourite of Lavocah's: about scars carried in the soul rather than on the body, later recorded by D'Arienzo with Mauré in 1943.
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 3
Chapter · 1:50:08
The 50-peso tip on the street
A broke singer agreed to record for free. The record sold. His boss paid him anyway — in cash, in the street.
Chapter · 1:52:51
The lift crash that ended a trio
An elevator plunged three floors with a famous tango act inside. One broken leg changed everything.
Demare's own composition, in a much earlier solo-with-piano arrangement than the full-orchestra version known from the 1940s.
Only in the episode
An unusually early chacarera on a tango-adjacent recording — extremely rare for the period.
Only in the episode
An introverted, intimate sextet side from a short-lived band whose contract ended when Brunswick went bust in the Depression.
Only in the episode
A Pedro Maffia composition with lyrics by Brignolo himself, in the same intimate sextet style.
Only in the episode
Minotto's own band, formed after he left Canaro at the end of 1929; hearing it shows how much of the classic Canaro sound was really built around this one bandoneón player.
Only in the episode
Chapter · 2:11:16
The bandoneón player one orchestra was secretly built around
When he left, everyone realised the whole sound depended on one musician.
Chapter · 2:13:03
The tango so famous its own composer didn't know
He wrote the most famous tango in the world, then spent years abroad having no idea.
Chapter · 2:30:24
The sextet that never got a record deal
Tango's best violinist and best pianist formed a band together in 1930 — and it flopped so badly one of them had to pawn his bow.
De Caro's only-ever recording of this tango, a sprawling, nearly-minute-long-introduction arrangement that needed an oversized disc pressed to fit its four and a half minutes.
♪ Music · 4:00 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 7
Played as a quiz about an extra instrument (a bassoon, doubling the hard-to-record double bass) heard in many 1930 Típica Víctor sides.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 3:11 ·
One of the less common Canaro titles from this year, chosen for its unusual flavour out of roughly ninety candidates considered.
♪ Music · 3:00 ·
One of only a handful of recordings where Ada Falcón sings the shorter estribillo part for dancing, rather than as featured soloist.
Only in the episode
One of Stenvoll's all-time favourite Canaro waltzes.
♪ Music · 5:25 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Played briefly (just the opening) to compare against Minotto's own version of the same tango, named for the famous gaucho character.
Minotto's own version of the tango he used to play with Canaro, showing what his bandoneón playing added to the sound.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:10 ·
A rare Maglio track, played in the afterparty because this was one of his strongest years.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:37 ·
A simple, enjoyable title made famous later by D'Arienzo.
Only in the episode
A more complex, less-known Maglio side played right after the simpler Orgullo del Plata.
Only in the episode
An unusual use of the cello in a waltz, with a tempo that speeds up then slows again near the end.
Only in the episode
A vocal follow-up from the same orchestra, chosen to show more of its distinctive cello use.
Only in the episode
A very famous tango in an unusual arrangement, from an all-European, Paris-based orchestra with a double-barrelled bandleader name and two Italian bandoneón players.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:00 ·
The opener of a short closing run of Firpo tracks, since there was so much good Firpo from this year left to play.
♪ Music · 7:40 ·
Watch it danced · 1
A famous tango, though not a famous recording of it, chosen to close the night on something more traditional.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 3:30 ·
Chosen deliberately as the last track, to link forward to the Troilo version played in an earlier episode and to the next show's 1942 theme.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 5:23 ·
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Tango By Year is Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah's, published here with their permission. The audio plays from SoundCloud.