Tango 1934

0:46Hello, everybody, and Michael. How are you? So pleased to be back with you all. Lovely to see you, Dag, and all our lovely guests. It's been a few weeks.

0:56And I remember in an earlier year, in Tango 1936, you said half jokingly that that was the year that connected 1935 with 1937. I was curious, could you say the same about 1934, that it connects 1933 and 1935?

1:14No. And what can you say about 1934?

1:18Well, it's going to be one of those nights. Let's just wind the clock back to 1933. That was about two months ago. I think middle of September we did the 1933 show. And what was the panorama that the year presented us with?

1:34We've had the catastrophe really of the Great Depression, which has wiped out a couple of record labels, and it's wiped out a lot of the very innovative new bands who are making more complex music, the chamber bands, if you like, like Petrucelli and Pulisi and also some bigger names like Carlos Di Sali. So all those innative guys, they've gone. The big four don't exist yet. Di Sali's off in the wilderness and the orchestras of Pulisi and Troilo are just a twinkle in our eyes.

2:15And what about the old guard in 1933?

2:19So there's no big four, but we could say at the late 20s, there was a big three. Canaro, Firpo and Fresedo. And by 33, Canaro had come out well on top. He's wiped out the competition. And 34, as the year opens, it's the same. If anything, it's going deeper in this direction. What do I mean? Juan Maglio dies. So that's like a symbol of the death of the old guard. That's all dying off. But it's not been really replaced by anything yet.

2:54And the really significant event occurs with Pedro Laurenz, who finally separates from Julio De Caro at the beginning of the year and forms his own band, a band we're going to enjoy hugely, but isn't going to make any recordings for three years.

3:13That's a bit of a pity, isn't it?

3:15It really is a huge pity. So in 1933, Vardaro had formed his sextet, but it didn't record. And now Laurenz is forming his band, and that's not recording either. So seeds are being sown, but we're not going to hear those fruits really until 1937. So it's a year dominated by Canaro, and the only light relief on that is provided by bands like Donato and the Typica Victor. They're doing something with a bit more personality.

3:45Yeah, and you said also about 1933 that it was a year for the soloists, that the musicians are more in the background. Is that the same this year?

3:53Well, I guess so, but the soloists are beginning to diminish in importance. Maybe that process doesn't really become complete till we get the dance revolution that's coming over the horizon. As you said in your write-up, nobody knows, but it's coming. Imagine 1934 and you didn't know what was coming.

4:11And Carlos Gardel still a huge star, isn't he? He shot two films in New York in 1934, and he's also in the filming of a third. Looks set for global superstardom, and that didn't work out as we thought either.

4:30Well, we're going to hear some good music. I think as a DJ you don't really listen so much to the non-danceable stuff or less danceable stuff.

4:40Well, maybe not, but I also found in my own research preparation, let's say, for this program that I don't have the stats. I don't know if I can even generate them, but my feeling was this is maybe one of the years that I play the least as a DJ. And I don't really know why, but yeah, we'll hear some less known stuff. So I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised this night.

5:07That's the great opportunity we have with this show in this format. Let's start with the walls that you have heard. I'm pretty sure it's Los Provincianos, the studio recording orchestra for the Victor company, and it's Ciriaco Ortiz who formed it. Isn't it some years back? Yes, but of course Los Provincianos refers to the provinces. It refers to the fact that Ciriaco Ortiz is from the up in the north from Cordoba, so they've got permission to sound a little bit different because they don't sound like the typical Victor. It's a related sound, but you can hear it's got a different personality.

5:43Yeah, and they got nice waltzes. I think we'll listen to a two, Memoria, madresita, very your memory dear mother. Yeah, and I want to play a second song just by the Ciriaco Ortiz Trio, Mano a mano, which is a known song. I didn't play it before, but there are Rivero and Maizani versions from 1953, in addition to the more known Canaro Maeda version from late 30s, 38, I think. The trio version is exquisite.

6:15Yeah. You know this. So should we hear them? Yes, please. Yes.

11:14A lot of feelings, someone wrote in the chat window. It's an introvert playing also. Yes, intimate introvert. You can hear what Troilo took from that, the technique, that wah-wah talking sound that he makes, the special friseo and the feeling. You hear it immediately. It's Ortiz who's playing the bandana. I can listen to that all night. No problem at all. And sweet with the guitars combination. Very sweet.

12:10Since we're on the house orchestras, let's hear the energetic instrumental Jueves, Thursday, by Orquesta Típica Victor. Yeah, now this is really nice, isn't it? Because on the one hand, it's simple dance music, but it's not that simple. The arrangement has got quite a little bit going on. So it's kind of like as complex as they could make it without making it too daring for the purchasing public. They want to sell records. That's what the Typica Victor wants to do.

12:42Yeah, listen closely. There's quite a lot going on. Yeah, and guess if it's on violin. Could it be Elvino Vardaro? Could be. And something to keep in mind, because, you know, we've been talking about how this revolution is coming over the horizon. So Jueves, that's one of the many tracks recorded by D'Arienzo in his first few years. So as well as enjoying this version from the Typica Victor, just remember in your mind how it's going to sound. You'll immediately be able to connect, I hope, to the D'Arienzo version. And if not, you can compare the two of them after the show, and it's such a big change.

15:38I love your energy in that song. A lot of energy and a lot of colour. It kind of changed mood quite a bit through the piece. So after that exquisite counter melody from Vardaro, then we get another passage that's much more rhythmic. So, yeah, really offers a lot. And even when Vardaro is playing the counter melody, and that's what carried us. Very easy to just follow his violin. The main melody, which is being played quietly by the rest of the band, was very clear and easy to hear. And that's not an easy trick either, to present both melodies at the same time without getting confused. It was very clear to us, oh, Vardaro, just follow the violin.

16:27Excellent arrangement. Lovely variation at the end with Scorti Catti and the boys. Starts in the right hand, switches to the left. It's got everything. I wish they'd recorded more in 34. There's not many recordings and quite a few of them are things like Rancheras and Pasadobles. And they almost stopped recording. I don't think there are any recordings by OTV in 35 and there are much less after this period.

16:49Yes, it's dying out. But we have to remember, this is a tango show, but in the public affections, tango is really competing with Foxtrot and North American jazz. So the D'Arienzo revolution isn't just a replacement of this kind of tango with the new beat. It's a replacement of other music with tango music. So yeah, there's less tango music. It's a smaller percentage of what's being put out.

17:18And you talked earlier about some of the bands also play other music than tango. I mean, yeah, Foxtrot's, of course, these kind of things. Yeah, they're all doing it this year. Even Donato's got Rancheras and Pasadobles in 1934.

17:32But the next one I want to play, an orchestra that's not really a typical. It's a so-called Gran Orquesta. And we played this before. And at that time, I can't remember which year it was, maybe 1933 or 1933. I presented this as European because I thought it sounded so European. It had to be recorded in Paris or something. Juan de Dios Filiberto. It's just a bit unusual. It's Argentine, but it's not typical by any stretch of the imagination.

17:59I think I can guess what you're going to play. Castañita. It's a tango milonga. Yeah, with Petrocinio Diaz singing. It creates a completely different sound world. It is. Completely different. It's a bit sad. It's like some of his tangos are a bit funeral like, I think. This is a milongaish, so it's sort of more happy, but it still kind of has this sad song. Wow, it's still got that, yeah, wistful. I wouldn't go as strongly as funeral myself, but let's see what everyone thinks.

18:40Yeah. Yeah, for me, there's a strange kind of melancholy to it. Mm, there is. This Petrocinio Diaz, it's a folk singer who recorded only very few tangos or tangoish songs. It just comes in at the end. And it's marked as a tango milonga. What is it, Michael? Is it just a slow milonga or is it something more to it?

18:59No. So don't get confused by this phrase, which doesn't mean the same now as it did then. In the time of the soloists, on the front of the sheet music, if something was meant to be performed by a soloist, they would write tango canción, and if it was intended for dancing they would write tango milonga. So milonga as an adjective to the tango. Only later did it start to refer to trying to play music in the older way. So now that's just a deception from the sheet music.

19:35But they have, so it has some more habanero rhythm to it then. Well, let's listen and hear what he does. Juan de Dios Filiberto, Castañita.

22:11A lot of instruments there to pick up on. Yeah, I think it's clarinet and flute. It's hard to be really sure, but I think it's clarinet and flute. And then the bowed work, I think it was the double bass. I mean, it could have been a cello. The cello was a very common instrument in tango orchestras, but I think it was the double bass. It went really low, and the thinner texture allowed us to hear it a bit better than we normally do with recordings from this period. But a completely different sound world from the other stuff, and not many recordings from Filiberto. When he gets a chance much later in 59 or something to make a few recordings, he records the same arrangement. No development at all. It's like, you know, the 30s and the 40s never happened for him.

23:18Interesting. Well, it's a different sound, definitely. And someone pointed out it has something of the milonga, but it doesn't really, I mean, it's not really a danceable milonga kind of thing. It's too slow.

23:31All right. Let's go back to some more main territory. One of the big ones, Osvaldo Fresedo. Let's hear Roberto Ray, and I think that's pronounced in the footsteps of pain. Yeah, that's a serious lyric, and it ends like this: vamos apenas vamos, which means come on sorrows, come on, take me in your arms. I want to die. Oh, God, oh, God. We're back to the suffering.

24:05From the King of Romance, but it's an unusually punchy one for him, isn't it? There's just a few from the 30s. Okay, late 20s, that's something else, but in the 30s there's just a couple where you get a bit of punch. Tigre Viejo and this one. Yeah, and I want to play Tigre Viejo also, the second one.

24:25This is the one you said in the introduction that we listened to in 1933, and you talked about it for about half an hour, the version. I think it was your most engaged moment in the whole Tango By Year series. Oh God, I get excited just thinking about it. It's good that these are in two separate programs. I don't think the Fresedo one could really stand up to the Vardaro. Not really, it's very different, not from our 21st century perspective anywhere. Yeah, but let's hear it. It's good in its own way. It is. It is. Fresedo.

30:23This is— It's Sunday afternoon dancing, isn't it? Actually, yes. Gosh, Fresedo.

31:01So let's just say a few things about this mid-30s Fresedo. The use of the piano, first of all, is different to all other orchestras. What do I mean by that? Normally, the piano has got an accompanying function, harmonising function from the late 20s onwards, from Francisco de Caro onwards. And thirdly, it makes solos.

31:20In the Fresedo orchestra, that's pretty much all it does. I mean, the last bit. It makes these little links between the phrases. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. If you try and listen to it the rest of the time, it's not doing very much at all because he doesn't want the strong beat. So the piano's got a different function.

31:40And I want to pick up on a comment that Heike made about the way the violins are doing the marcato. So we all know that tango violin is different to classical violin and it's very difficult often for classical players to convert from classical music to tango music because they have to change their the physical technique they use on their instrument and that's very difficult because of all the training that you've had so on that when you play. I don't have a violin here, I don't play violin, but let's just hold up a, this is my violin. These are the strings on my violin and this pencil is my bow. Now when you mark, when you do the marcato in tango, instead of holding the bow like this, you hold it right up there and, um, the horsehair of the bow binds into the frog, that's the name of the wooden piece with this little metal binding.

32:42Tango players sometimes even play on the metal right up at this end like that. And that's how you get this scratchy, hard marcato sound. And Heike's saying, Fresedo doesn't do that. He just plays in the middle, just like a classical player would. Because Fresedo's got European and especially North American influences, and it is a softer sound. So that's really interesting, another technical difference.

33:10And you can all find out whether that's true or not after the show by looking at the video that we have of Fresedo from 1933, which is really easy to find because he's one of the bands in the first tango sound picture, which is called Tango. D'Arienzo's in it in the Chanticleer and Fresedo is in it. So hopefully when I rush off after the show and look at that video again, I'll be able to see the violins doing the marcato in this fashion. If not, Heike, I'll be contacting you.

33:43Yeah, you can demonstrate for us maybe someday. So this is the smooth sound we get. Even when it's staccato, it's kind of smooth because of this technique.

33:53Yes, he doesn't want it too rough. It's got that North American jazz influence.

33:58Yeah, and you said that I remember in the 33 program that at this time, tango goes a bit more European, I suppose. And you didn't mean it only in a good way.

34:07I mean, it makes it a bit less Milonguero. Yeah. I mean, if we think about Canaro, Canaro goes to Paris in, what is it, end of 25 and 26. And he's there a long time. And he pretty much establishes the pattern for how tango is going to be thought of outside Europe forever.

34:29You mean outside Argentina? Sorry, yes, outside Argentina. So the modern European idea of what tango music is meant to be is kind of set almost a century ago by Canaro and Fresedo is kind of following in the same kind of mould. That's what the D'Arienzo revolution does, maybe, is it makes tango sound more Argentine again. I'm really happy about that, but let's listen to some Canaro anyway because he does have some good stuff at this time.

35:00Got some cracking stuff in this year, particularly the waltzes, a lot to enjoy about them, and even in the tangos there's some very important developments. And I think also for me personally the best year with Ernesto Famá, and let's start with them. I mean, Canaro records about 100 numbers this year, it's about, it's about a third of all recordings we have from 34, so it's ridiculously large. I checked this. Here's the numbers, guys, of the big three.

35:30First, Canaro, then Firpo, Fresedo. Canaro, 111. Firpo, Canaro's great rival, or rather, Firpo didn't have any rivalry, but Canaro did. He wanted to beat him. So, Canaro's 111, plays Firpo, 14. Nearly 10-1! And Fresedo has 19 tracks, his own division, and he has lots of different singers, not just Famá, we'll hear a couple of the others.

35:58But let's start with Famá and El Tigre Millán, and there are two versions of this song from 34. There's one where he sings as estribillista for Canaro, which is the one you can hear at milongas sometimes, but I want to play the other one where he sings as a soloist with Backpacking.

36:16I wasn't expecting to hear this song tonight. I particularly wasn't expecting to hear this version. But of course, it's a very important tango. It's one of the tangos of Canaro that D'Arienzo picks up and is very successful for him in 1940. Yes. So let's hear the more romantic side.

36:36This is kind of interesting, isn't it? Canaro very often records the same song twice or even three times. First of all, there's a dance number with an estribillo, and then for the soloist, and sometimes for another soloist, if Ada Falcón does one and Famá or Charlo does another, and that's where he allows himself to be a bit more romantic. So I'm kind of curious to listen to Famá's interpretation. For me this is his best year with Canaro. Let's hear it.

37:07But since it's his best year, let's hear also a second song where he sings for Canaro, let's say Decime adiós. Canaro with Famá, and Famá with Canaro, the first one.

37:46 · SuenaEl tigre MillánFrancisco Canaro · Ernesto Famá

Played as Famá's rarer solo version rather than the estribillo version familiar at milongas; Lavocah calls this Famá's best year with Canaro.

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♪ Música · 3:45 · La letra, en la página del tango

41:31 · SuenaDecime adiósFrancisco Canaro · Ernesto Famá

A second Famá/Canaro side played back to back with the first, from what both hosts call Famá's strongest year singing for Canaro.

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43:18Like he sings. I want to go back to the first one. It was excellent. This is just before Famá goes solo, huh? That's why he separates from Canaro. I don't think he ever sounded better than this. Wonderful.

43:35Of course, there are these really nice tracks, just a handful that he has with Disali in the late 20s group in the sextet, but he really delivers the lyric. I mean, normally, if I say Tigre Millán, we all think of 1940, upbeat, bang, bang, bang, D'Arienzo, and there's no transmission of the lyric at all. But there, wow. Famá can really do it when he gets the right material. Yeah.

44:04Let's hear some more Canaro. And there's another excellent vocalist, the singer that's backed by Canaro. It's Charlo. And I want to play his own composition. That's Charlo's own composition, Tormento.

44:15Yes, not to be confused with Tormenta. Exactly, yeah, it messed up with my mind for a long time. Yeah, it's a different one, you don't hear it often. Second song, an instrumental, S.O.S., or Condena, conviction, um, and this one is probably just as known from a later version with Maida singing, but this is an instrumental. I like this one, I think it's kind of, yeah, it's more naked and it has a lot of syncopation, I noticed.

44:46And we're talking about this, how Canaro usually is not exactly associated with a lot of syncopations. No, not once Maida comes, which is next year. So we get a more syncopated Canaro this year than we do. And sometimes the Canaro beat is square and hard and a bit martial. But when he manages to bring it off, as he does here in S.O.S., the hard beats really work in this interpretation. It's an excellent, excellent interpretation. It's a good dance track also.

45:20So let's hear him. Charlo, backed by Canaro, singing Tormento. Tormento. And then S.O.S. Don't get confused now, folks.

45:41 · SuenaTormentoFrancisco Canaro · Charlo

Charlo's own composition, backed by Canaro, flagged as not to be confused with the similarly titled 'Tormenta'.

♪ Música · 2:22 · La letra, en la página del tango

50:33Minotto is important. Those really fast runs, really fast runs. I mean, in his periodic absences from the band, Canaro gets Ange Ramos to do it, but you can hear when it's Minotto. And did you, it's interesting listening to this, you know, with real focused attention with all of you. I suddenly noticed it's marcato in tres. That's something not that common in tango really. We associate it more with Di Sali in 43 or something like that.

51:37So it just goes to show, Canaro could do all this stuff, but he didn't want to. You know, he had a very commercial mind, business mind. The Kaiser was one of his nicknames. And before this, he had his Serie Sinfónica, but this is over now at this point. Yeah, the Serie Sinfónica is over. Yeah, sadly. The arranged music.

51:59You mentioned that he has good waltzes at this point. So let's hear a waltz. Exceptional waltzes. What are we going to hear? Let's hear Ronda del querer with Carlos Galán singing.

52:09Who's Galán? He's not a very commonly heard singer, is he? Well, he's not. He's the guy that Canaro gets in when Famá goes off on his solo career. And he's an actor. There were plenty of people who acted and sang, both male and female vocalists.

52:33But Galán's quite a funny surname, because if I'm not mistaken, and I'm sure the Argentines will leap into the chat window and correct me, Galán is, as a noun, as a word, means like a heartthrob, film star kind of thing. So Carlos Galán is just a perfect name. It's probably a stage name then. They're all stage names, aren't they? But this is definitely a stage name, yes. Yeah, same in Portuguese.

53:03So, and after that waltz, let's hear a milonga. Because there aren't much milonga at this point. They started recording them in 1933, but there are, Canaro has two this year, and one of them is Juan te quiero. Oh, God, my name is John, I love you. It's like, hello, baby. Private joke for the English people. If Leslie Phillips had sung tangos, it would have sounded like this.

53:30I didn't get that. No, you won't. I'm sorry about that. I had to say it anyway. Yeah, so it's, and this is really Ernesto Famá singing again. So, yeah. And Juan te quiero, irresistible rhythm. Sensational. Good. Let's hear it. And first, Ronda del querer, a waltz.

53:56 · SuenaRonda del quererFrancisco Canaro · Carlos Galán

One of the Canaro waltzes later chosen for the first 1960s LP reissues, which is why it survives in good quality today.

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♪ Música · 2:34 · La letra, en la página del tango

59:35People seem to be keen on dancing to this milonga, it's very playful, irresistible. Yeah, it's irresistible, irresistible, he's the king of the milonga. Yeah, I like the slow milongas, they're very easy to dance. What's nice about the slow milongas, although not too slow, is that it's easy to switch between single time and double time, and that's where the great pleasure lies, and the pace is just perfect for that.

1:00:08And there was some different opinions on that in the chat window, and some wrote it to that swing, and you said it's also a question of pace, what do you mean for that? So somebody asked and I gave a brief explanation. So European waltz goes very smooth. All three beats almost the same, but just a little bit of emphasis on the one. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, three, one.

1:00:40And the Argentine waltz, which is also called vals cruzado, crossed waltz, and that's a good term to use just now, puts occasional emphasis in other places. So a typical... If we go with one, two, three, one, two, three, one, three, one, two, one, two, one. So it creates more dynamic. That's where the swing comes. Because it's not always one, two, three, one.

1:01:12By putting occasionally the emphasis on the two or the three, the beat crosses over the regular beat. That's how we get this term, vals cruzado. And typically it goes two, two, two, two, and then three at the end of the phrase. And very often at the end of the phrase, you get this yum, bum, bum, bum. Little run, but yeah. Emphasizing beat two and occasionally beat three. And this creates this swing that Teresa and other people have mentioned that takes you away from just one, one, one.

1:01:41And is this typical for Canaro milongas, that they are more of the Viennese style? I'm sorry, but I don't agree this is a Viennese style milonga. I mean the waltz, the sort of Viennese style waltz. The pace is slow, and I think that confuses us a little bit, but Canaro did also record Viennese waltzes. He recorded a number of waltzes of Emil Waldteufel, like the Skater's Waltz, which is called Los Patinadores in Spanish, and Etincelles and a number of others, and you can immediately hear there's a different treatment.

1:02:18The Viennese waltz was very well known in Buenos Aires in the 30s and 40s. It was almost as well known. In the 30s, it was as well known as the vals criollo. At carnival time, there were bands playing Viennese waltzes, advertised as such. Canaro played both. He made a difference. It's 1934. This is not going to sound like a hard D'Arienzo waltz from 37 onwards. It's unfair to expect that, but it's not a European waltz. They do sound different. Just listen to Canaro's European waltzes and the difference is immediately clear.

1:02:59Thanks for that elaboration. Let's move a bit on from Canaro, but not quite, because I want to play a song by La Hermosa on the event photo of Ada Falcón, and she of course recorded almost exclusively with Canaro backing her, for better or worse. Yes, she hitched herself to his wagon. Let's start with a tango called Ya vendrán tiempos mejores.

1:03:22Now this could be, like, in a way it's the song of the year. Yeah, in the sense, I don't mean it's the best song of the year, but the title defines the spirit of the times. Because what does it mean? Ya vendrán, ya. I have to remember that some people are absolutely fluent in Spanish, others speak none at all, and others like me are somewhat individual. So vendrán tiempos mejores means good times are coming, and it's future tense, but ya means already now. So the closest in English would be the song, good times are just around the corner, something like that.

1:04:03And that's kind of the spirit, because we've had the stock market crash and a lot of people have been plunged into poverty, and then in 1933 Canaro recorded the tango Si yo fuero millonaro. If I was a millionaire, which is kind of like offering up an image of hope in a dark time, but of course the only person who's a millionaire is Canaro, who's earning huge amounts of money. And then Ya vendrán tiempos mejores, it's in tune with the spirit of time. Good times are just around the corner. That's what it's holding out to us. And they didn't know it, but thinking about tango, they were really right.

1:04:45Excellent times. You were right. I didn't think of it that way before, Dag, but you're absolutely spot on. And Canaro himself didn't know it. Maybe Ada Falcón knew it because she sings beautifully. Let's hear it.

1:05:03 · SuenaYa vendrán tiempos mejoresFrancisco Canaro · Ada Falcón

Framed as capturing the spirit of 1934 - its sheet music subtitled 'Tango Optimista' - as a follow-up to 1933's 'Si yo fuera millonario'.

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• John Zabala & Paméla Ramos Aracena

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♪ Música · 3:10 · Lo que oyó la transcripción

1:08:13That's Canaro's voice, isn't it? I'll say just one more thing about this tango, which is producing a lot of resonances for people, I notice in the chat window. Let's just not go there. On the cover of the sheet music, sometimes on the cover of the sheet music, they'd give a description. So it wouldn't just say tango, it might say tango romántico, tango bohemio, I don't know, all kinds of different descriptions to give a flavour that this is something a little bit different. And on the cover of Ya vendrán tiempos mejores, good times are just coming, it says, Tango Optimista. Optimistic Tango.

1:09:02Now, I leave it to everyone to decide for themselves, or even not to decide, to decide that you can't decide. Is optimism a good thing compared to realism? Should we just decide, yeah, everything's fine? Because if you listen to Canaro's 40s output, that's actually what he does. This is the beginning of something that's going to become very important for Canaro, the idea that everything's fine, everything's fine. In modern parlance, this is not going to come out at all well on SoundCloud, but it's going to, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Everything's fine. This is the way he sings Tormenta in 1939. This horrible lyrics.

1:09:48But we need optimism. We're caught here. Listening to this, we're caught in this terrible dilemma. What's better, realism or optimism? There's no answer to that. We all make our personal answer. But this is where it starts. You know, after three years after the stock market crash has destroyed the Argentine economy, Canaro brings about the shift to optimistic tango. And he's the person who does that. At the same time as he continues to perform the depressing lyrics, he starts to have this optimistic lyrics and maybe they're a bit unreal.

1:10:32That's the tension, yeah. Yeah, there's a tension. There's no right or wrong answer about that. Let's hear another song backed by Canaro, but this is a special one. And Ada Falcón only sang a very few duets. We talked about that before. And the one and only time, I think, she sang with Ignacio Corsini was this year. And it's the world's Un jardín de ilusión, a garden of excitement.

1:10:59Well, the word ilusión, you can't translate into English, because on the one hand, the first meaning is excitement, but the second meaning is the literal meaning, illusion, illusion. So there's a little lesson to the English speakers like myself from the Spanish speakers that excitement always contains illusion. A bit of a tough message, but it's there in the language, the garden of illusion. And this is one of the tangos that you said earlier is recorded several times, because Ada also recorded it with Famá.

1:11:39Yeah, now, as I recall, this is like four and a half minutes. It's a really long recording. Have I got that right? It is. It's very long. Yeah, so they had to have taken special. Either they use micro grooves or this would have been a 12 inch disc instead of a 10 inch disc. Something very unusual, and it's a slow pace as well, as I recall.

1:12:00And I was thinking that Corsini also sings a bit darker than usually, maybe it's because of the duet, it creates a kind of contrast to Falcón's voice. I don't know why. I mean, in terms of people who know how to sing for dancers, these are the two best singers on the planet. Well, not on the planet, in the Spanish speaking world, the important part of the planet. Yeah, the part of the planet that we're interested in.

1:12:29You know, I mean, Al Bowlly singing in 1934. We're going to be hearing Al Bowlly in the after party, folks. We can't let 1934 go without that. But yeah, Ada Falcón. Yeah, super. So let's hear this. Unusual combination of voices. Very. Let's hear it.

1:12:58 · SuenaUn jardín de ilusiónFrancisco Canaro · Ada Falcón & Ignacio Corsini

A rare Falcón duet, the only time she and Corsini are known to have recorded together, in an unusually long, slow take.

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♪ Música · 4:16 · Lo que oyó la transcripción

1:17:14Felicity, you don't really chat. Michael typed, it's not for dancing people, it's for feeling. Capital letters. I want to speak to that. Something that I really appreciate. We didn't have a plan, Dag, when you contacted me at the beginning. We just started and this project has developed.

1:17:43And I think to say something uncontroversial that everyone can easily agree with, I think for everybody, for all our guests, it's broadening our appreciation of tango music. So that's not a controversial statement. But part of that broadening is recognizing that we don't have to evaluate everything according to the criteria of whether or not we want to dance it personally. Tango music is much bigger than that. And in a way as dancers, if we only look at things through that lens, we're quite impoverished.

1:18:15If you consider tango in the years, you know, 27 to 31, which were huge years for tango, dancing is the least important aspect of the music. The soloists are much, much bigger stars than the dance bands. Now it's about 50-50. Why? When D'Arienzo comes, it's going to go the other way. The dance bands are going to become bigger stars than the soloists. So I've so appreciated the work you've done, Dag, to present us with the other face of tango, which is about the work of the soloists. You know, this is not an online milonga. We've got a unique opportunity here to listen to music. I love that very much. So it doesn't really matter whether or not everything we listen to here is good for dancing or not.

1:19:10Yeah, I completely agree. When I listen to waltz like that, I don't want to dance to it. I don't want to try to dance to it. But there are things that I do want to dance to, like the Ciriaco Ortiz that you played earlier. I want to dance to that.

1:19:26True. I spent a whole evening dancing just to that music, and it's one of the most memorable evenings of my life. Something like what you just played is not for dancing, but it's full of emotion. So we don't need to evaluate it. So there's a lot of chatting going on in the chat window, but I've got absolutely no time to look at it. It doesn't matter if we dance to it or not, you know. We're here together to share our feeling for tango music. This is not an online milonga.

1:19:45Yeah, it's, I totally agree, and we talked about this also, Michael, that even if I played just danceable music, it would almost be frustrating because most of us can't dance. We've gathered through I'm here on my own. I don't attend online milongas. I very much respect the people who are doing online milongas, but it's not for me. I'm on my own. What can I do? I can't dance to anything. Not interested in that. Dancing on my own. No, no, not interested. So let's spend this time getting into the music and appreciating the non-dancing music and to expand the horizon. I'm sure it's going to be very interesting when we get back to the milongas and events to have all this baggage of new impulses in music also for dancing.

1:20:38Yeah, I have to say my own feeling will have changed. I mean, it will have changed for so many reasons, you know, the value of an embrace. I think for so many of us, we just have taken it for granted. We go to a milonga and we can dance with someone, but we're not taking that for granted now. But even leaving that to one side, just from the purely musical aspect, my feeling will have changed by the next time I'm able to go to a normal milonga, whatever that means.

1:21:09Let's dive more into the non-danceable but beautiful music of Ignacio Corsini and listen to a tango called Dulce amargura. Oh, sweet bitterness.

1:21:20Yes, and we know this from Calo later. Yes, Calo does a dance recording in 34. It's in this year, isn't it? It's later. It's in 38. I checked. 38, okay. And it's also Fresedo version, I think, around this time. So there are dance versions, but this is pure for listening and for enjoying and for dreaming. So listen to this. He's backed by guitars. Dulce amargura. Sweet bitterness.

1:24:53Is he? I can't imagine any other way to make music, and it's the same for me with Corsini. When Corsini is making music, I cannot imagine any other way to express emotion. As long as he's doing, I'm hypnotized, enchanted by that pure, natural, soulful, loving human sound.

1:25:19Let's go to a more playful corner of 1934. Yes, please. I listened to Francisco Lomuto and his song Bibelot with Fernando Díaz, and you might recognize this melody from a version sung by David Lee Roth. I remember from the music video, it's the second part, I mean the B part of this. I'm Just a Gigolo, it's that song. Well, well, well. I didn't expect this. I'm very glad we listened to some Lomuto tonight.

1:25:53You know, Lomuto lives in Canaro's shadow, but in these years I think he makes a more Argentine-sounding music than Canaro, despite the fact that he's playing for the ruling class. But I've never made this connection. Yeah, because I was excited to listen to it and I was thinking, I know this tune because I was into the tango universe, I could really figure out right where I got it from. And then I suddenly realized it and I checked it out, and actually this is adapted from a 1928 Austrian hit tango called Schöner Gigolo, Armer Gigolo. Well, I knew about that, but I didn't know about the connection to Bibelot. Yeah. The most famous recording of that song is the one by Louis Prima, which is from the late 50s, mid to late 50s. When he, I can't remember the name of his girlfriend, but he and his girlfriend, they do a medley with Just a Gigolo and I Ain't Got Nobody.

1:26:59So now you're taking us right back to the roots, Dag. And the second Lomuto tango I want to play is also with Fernando Díaz singing. It's called Mi consejo, My Advice. And this one I had to work a bit to get, because I couldn't find an acceptable fidelity version. But I asked our joint friend, Michael, Teresa Faust, DJ from München. And she probably has one of the biggest selections of music in Europe. So thanks a lot, Teresa, for sharing this version. It's from a Japanese edition. So I think the sound quality is acceptable.

1:27:37Yeah, just generally speaking, so everybody, 1934, actually tango's in the doldrums. First of all, the world economy has been crushed by the Great Depression. Record companies have been wiped out. Bands have lost their recording contracts. But tango is not dominant in Argentine culture by any means. Western culture, by which I mean anglophone culture, jazz, foxtrot, that's the dominant music. So what that means is that sales of tango records are low. Most of the bands, with the only exception of Canaro, produce far fewer records than they do normally. And that means far fewer shellac records have survived to the present day. And the records we have, for that reason, are generally in lower quality. It's quite difficult to listen to the music of this year in good fidelity. So thank you for paying some attention to that, Dag.

1:28:41Yeah, let's hear them. So it's Lomuto with jazz singing first. I'm Just a Gigolo, or Bibelot, and then Mi consejo, my advice.

1:29:12 · SuenaBibelotFrancisco Lomuto · Fernando Díaz

Its B-section melody turns out to be the same tune later famous as 'Just a Gigolo'.

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♪ Música · 3:21 · Lo que oyó la transcripción

1:33:52Isn't that fantastic, that variation? It is. So special. What's fantastic about it is the balance between the woodwinds, the clarinets, and the bandoneons, because we can pay attention to both. And that never normally happens. Normally either it's the bandoneons or, actually, for a final variation it's exceptional. It never happens that you get something like that. But as a dancer, there I've got options. I can go crazy with the bandoneons, or I can just follow the lower obligato of the clarinet and do something simpler. So, gosh, Lomuto in 34, he's a killer. And thank you so much, Teresa, for sharing. I didn't have this track. I don't think I've heard it in the milongas, or maybe I have, but forgotten it. So it was really discovering. Happy to be able to share it with the rest of you.

1:34:57Yeah, Lomuto in the mid-30s, he's fantastic. For those of you who have the reach, a number of years ago, CTA in Japan made a boxed LP set called Gran Chronica de Francisco Lomuto. A great chronicle of Francisco Lomuto. I think it was eight LPs. I can't remember exactly. Please don't type in the chat window if it was 10. It doesn't matter.

1:35:27And almost everything in that set has since been re-released by CTA on CD, but that's the best set that we have. There's a lot of tracks of La Mutter from the mid-30s that we don't listen to, not because they're not good enough, but because we don't have them in good fidelity. The classic example, so Dag didn't say this at the beginning, so I'll say it now. Dag and I don't communicate before each program. All I know is that it's 1934.

1:36:01I don't know which tracks, which bands he's going to play, but an interesting track from this year is Churraska. It's a very difficult word to translate, but it's normally applied to a girl and it means she's the complete package. And the best version is Lumutra's, but all the 78 transfers I've ever had are in extremely poor quality. So there's probably someone in the world, I mean, I hope there's someone in the world sitting with a really good Fidelity original and maybe one day we'll all get to hear it in better Fidelity. But for the moment the versions that we have just sound bad. But it's good that things are still happening when it comes to music that's released with the Tango Time Travel project and also, of course, Tango Tunes.

1:36:52Yeah, it's a surprise to me, but I agree with you. It's really good. So let's go on to another one of the wonderful woman singers of Tango, Mercedes Simone. Yes! Yes! Oh, love her voice. And she has a Tango called Dímelo al oído this year. Tell it in my ear.

1:37:13Yes. Very sweet thing. It's one of the songs of the year, definitely. Yeah, there are several versions. Lomuto version also. I think a bit of Lomuto. Who's the composer? Have you got that information to have? I don't think I have it at home. No, sorry. Can I just do that while we're online? I'll tell you about the second one.

1:37:37It's Lomuto. It's himself. As I suspected, it's Lomuto. And the lyricist is also Lomuto. When Lomuto wrote the lyrics for something, he used a pseudonym. It's quite a common trick in the tango universe. And the pseudonym he used was Pancho Laguna. Now, Pancho is one of the abbreviations in the Spanish language for Francisco. But Laguna is his own special twist. So on the record, it will say, music Francisco Lomuto, lyrics Pancho Laguna. So he'll do this to double his incomes, actually. You're right.

1:38:16Second, Simone is a milonga and this is a special one. It's called Negrito with the backing by Alberto Soifer. Awesome. Yeah, it's awesome. It was recorded by Canaro also, but this one is more special. The only thing is that the version I have has a little glitch at the end and I haven't been able to find one that's not without this error, but... Maybe nobody has it. Yeah, maybe.

1:38:47Alberto Soifer is one of these guys who led an orchestra who belongs to the second rank, which is... There's no shame in belonging to the second rank when the first rank has the glamour that it has. But I wanted to mention that for a particular reason. So in 1942, some of you may or may not know or remember that a radio show began called Ronda de Asis, the Round of Aces, where a new composition was given to four bands, typically, and they all had to write a new arrangement and then perform it live for the first time on the radio. And on that particular programme, in the breaks between all that excitement, the house band was the band of Alberto Soifer. So you know, not a nobody, a somebody. So let's enjoy the wonderful voice of Mercedes Simone, Dímelo al oído and then Negrito.

1:44:14Yeah, sound fidelity, not the best. If anyone has the better version, please send it to me. Who cares about the sound fidelity? That's amazing. Just looking at the chat window, I think plenty of people had not heard that Negrito before. Yeah, it's special, isn't it? Isn't it wonderful? And it's no accident, people. It's no accident that Mercedes Simone is making a good Milonga for us there because she is the person that made Milonga Sentimental famous and then brought it to Canaro's attention. Without her, Canaro's first milonga, first milonga sentimentale, wouldn't have happened. We have a lot to thank her for as dancers also. We do. We do. Good.

1:45:27Let's move on to something different. German tango. Yeah, you wasn't expecting that, were you? I wasn't. No. I came across this interesting tango called Zwei Gitarren, two guitars. It's by a German tango orchestra directed by Oscar Joost. Oscar Joost is a huge figure in the 1930s and even the people who have never heard that name will recognise, not the name. This is 1934, we're not going to play it now, but there's a song by Oscar Joost which has two titles. One is Fiesta, Party, and the other is Bianca. I think he didn't record it till 39, which was just a huge, huge hit. And I reckon half the people here will have heard that song. But it doesn't belong to the 1934 program.

1:46:24So what's he got to do with 1934, Dag? Tell me. Yeah, it's Zwei Gitarren. Let's hear it. It's interesting because it has this European beat. But there's a little bit of variation on the rhythm, I think. And there's a nice pizzicato. And there are some sad, I think, some string instrument, either it's violence or it could be, could it be cello maybe, I'm a bit curious what you think. But let's hear it, Oscar Joost, Zwei Gitarren.

1:49:39Wow, a lot of comments there in the chat field about the origins of this. Russian, Jewish, lots of... Hollywood. Yeah. I guess it moved around. Let's hear it again. I guess it moved around, yeah. Yeah, pretty interesting. Yeah, it is, isn't it? It's something different. But the German tango in general is... It's not something we hear a lot of milongas, is it? It's more for this kind of context.

1:50:06No, I mean, let's say that the European tango is not really generative. It's not generating anything, particularly outside the Latin countries. Okay, you know, Gada had a big impact in Spain in particular. Within countries like Germany and Scandinavia and England, tango's role is rather smaller.

1:50:32Let's go to another a bit obscure corner of tango, to a song I suspect most of you haven't heard before because we have a listen to trio argentino before Demari fukusot and the rusta. Yeah, only this is one, I mean, it's labeled as true argentino but it's only demar actually. He's playing the piano but he has an orchestra backing and the song is called Adiós al piano, so goodbye. I don't know this. I don't know it. No, I mean, it's not like I've heard of it but I don't know it. I 100 don't know it. And what's interesting, it's composed by the mother himself, so it's the pianist Demara composing goodbye to the piano, one of the great tango pianists.

1:51:16Adiós al piano, oh my god. Let's see, I mean, I want to know immediately, I want to know everything about the origin of this song and I don't, so I'll just have to listen to it with all the, so listeners, all our guests. I'm in the same boat as you, and Dag has sprung this on us and congratulations for finding this new thing. And the sound fidelity is not the best but it doesn't matter. Try to listen through it and hear the arrangements, it's Demare. Demare is great piano playing. Adiós al piano.

1:54:24You seem to be doing that. What was that? What was that experimental stuff? Extraordinary.

1:54:49Beautiful, isn't it? The piano, and the violin also. I don't know who plays it. Gosh. I mean, Damara's piano, we recognize that sound partly from his orchestra, but more from the solo piano album that he recorded. Was it 56? Maybe even later. No, or in the 60s. Wow. Wow. Damara. Yeah. Damara has some good stuff in the 30s.

1:55:13So let's go on to dance orchestra again. Edgardo Donato. I was waiting to hear from him tonight. He's one of the guys who carries us through this year. He has a lot of energy compared to the other orchestras. We talked about it, it's not really a prototype Darenso, but it's a totally different feel than a lot of the other stuff from this year. He has the Variacion, he has the Syncopa. It's a violin-driven orchestra with lots of violin effects like pizzicato.

1:55:45And I'm just repeating something that we said in the 1933 show, but plenty of guests weren't here for that time. The band d'union was not completely dominant at this time. That was just happening now. And there were other orchestras like the orchestra of Ernesto Bonzio, a huge name in terms of the compositions that he did, but he didn't get recorded in 1933. There was a competition, I think, in Luna Park, this huge outdoor stadium in 1933 for the best tango band. And it's the Ponziah one. He's got no recordings. Number of recordings, zero. Zero. And a similar sound to the Donato Orchestra as far as we know. Violin-driven orchestra. And when I say that, I don't mean a romantic orchestra, because if I say Donato you don't think romantic, but Donato is a violinist, so using violin effects. Yeah.

1:56:50And the singer this year is Antonio Maida. That's a different Maida than the Maida sings for Roberto Maida. Yeah, another guy. Let's hear first the tango Esto es el colmo, which I forgot to look up what it means. Do you know, Michael? Esto es el colmo. I don't, but I'm guessing it means the same as El Sima. It means, you know, that's just the most, I've had enough. It's the max, this is too much. Yeah, too much.

1:57:19And it has, in addition to the violins as you said, it has the cello, and I love this in Donato. It gets submerged in later Donato, but here you can hear it clearly early on. It's one of his brothers, it's a scaño, and it's been in the Donato formation since the beginning. And the second song is the one you know very well from Milongas, I think. It's Corales Viejos, which is a milonga. Yeah, let's enjoy this, this is feel-good music from 34.

1:58:02 · SuenaEsto es el colmoEdgardo Donato · Antonio Maida

A violin- and cello-driven, high-energy Donato side; the cello, played by one of Donato's brothers, is still clearly audible here before it gets buried in his later, more famous sound.

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♪ Música · 1:51 · Lo que oyó la transcripción

2:02:53Donato is fun, isn't he? You can play more. Yeah, well, we won't play more Donato, but we'll play something related. Because in the late 20s and I think mid-30, 1930, I think, he had a band together with Roberto Sirigio, another violin. He did indeed, yes. And Sirigio in 34, he did one record with a tango called Serenata de Amor. And let's listen to it. It's a unique recording. I don't think anyone else recorded this. And the bad thing about this is the sound quality is terrible. So you have to use your imagination, see what it would sound like in a tango tunes edition or something like this.

2:03:51And there are two things, two good things about this. There is a magnificent violin solo at the end. I suppose it's Sirigio himself. Must be Sirigio, yes. And the second one is the singer. And there's someone you know. I won't tell you who it is, but you can try to figure it out. Serenata de Amor. Quiz time. Quiz time. No cheating.

2:07:31I love that violin countermelody at the end. I just wish we had better sound quality and could really hear it. It's not so bad. Okay, it's a bit dull, but it's not distorted. I think it's a fabulous recording. And shall I talk now, or do you want to comment about the singer? Yeah, sure. I mean, people got it in the chat window. It was Fiorentino. Yes. So do you know the backstory of this, that he was singing for Sirigio this year?

2:08:05Well, the thing to say about it is it's not so much that Fiorentino turns in a remarkable performance, which he does, but that Sirigio gives him the opportunity to do so. So in 1934, to produce a dance number, because it's clearly a dance number, isn't it? It's not a soloist. Yeah. This is a dance number, but the singer Fiorentino does the complete first verse and the complete first chorus and then makes a second entry. It's almost like what we think Tanguy music is going to become four years later. So, yeah, this is the pattern which is adopted at the end of 38. It's an energy of this that reminds me of Donato, actually. So I guess you can almost hear that these two work together, or they did work together. Yeah, but it's a bit ahead of its time at the same time.

2:09:01Okay, now it's time for a special treat. And I'm excited because this is a very special song. Preparing for this program, I came across a tango called Venganza, which means revenge. And there is a Canaro version from this year that I'm sure you've heard. It was on a tango tune release a couple of years ago. But this version I'm about to play, I've never heard it before and I'd be surprised if any of you had, or many of you had at least. And I had the opportunity to pre-listen to this on a website I used, this database tangodj.at, which is run by Bernhard Gebaga. And since I couldn't find this anywhere, I asked him if I could have it. I did it a couple times before, as you know, and Bernhard was generous enough to share it with me so I could share it with you. Oh, wow. So it's a super rare track in the Tango Library.

2:09:57And the lyrics of this song is by Louis Rubenstein. It's about the man on his deathbed and he's begging his beloved not to leave him and to forgive him and to hold him and kiss him as he passes away. But what happens in the second verse is that the woman approaches him laughing while hatefully watches him suffering and dying, and she screams to him like a wild beast, after all the pain that you've given me, die like the dog that you are, this is my revenge. And then she walks into the street leaving him without looking back, and then it ends. So it's the harshest lyric I've been, and this is transmitted by no one else but Azucena Maizani.

2:10:38I'm not familiar with the lyric, but my gut reaction, my brain reaction actually, is that this is what happens when the man confuses his wife with his mother. That's a very fun reflection. Okay. Let's listen. I'm very curious now. I mean, thinking about the lyric, I appeal to all the men listening not to treat your mimin so that you end up like this. This is the thing. I mean, in life it's good to learn from our mistakes, but the smart person learns from other people's mistakes. True, yeah, exactly. So let's hear it. Azucena Maizani, singing Venganza. You might need to lie down after hearing this.

2:11:43 · SuenaVenganzaFrancisco Canaro · Azucena Maizani

A rare track Dag sourced from collector Bernhard Gebauer's tangodj.at database; the harshest lyric of the night, a dying man begging forgiveness while his lover mocks him.

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♪ Música · 2:07 · Lo que oyó la transcripción

2:13:50So what do you think? Shit. Oh, wow. Yeah, wow. Now, it's very difficult to respond spontaneously to something like that, but what an astonishing lyric. I mean, the woman slaps the man down in a brutal fashion, but it's not malicious, goodness, no. I'm really quite stunned by that. It's, you know, within the world of the tango universe where the man is normally blaming the women for his misfortune, that's a bit of a surprise. The interpretation also is a surprise. There are a couple of moments in the arrangements where the violin harmony was something that to our normal Western ears would be quite discordant, but it really worked. That's astonishing.

2:14:56Astonishing. And the feeling, the way she delivers the lyrics, it's just, yeah, beautiful. Yeah, and we have to remember that she's, I won't try to find a nice way to say it, she's well past her best, you know, as I said, Maizani's peak year is 27, 28.

2:15:14Wow. Wow.

2:15:16And I have to say so much thanks again to Bernhard Gebaga for sharing this with me so that you could hear it. And I strongly recommend his database. You can pre-listen to like 70,000 tangos if you pay a little yearly subscription to his project, so it's a wonderful resource for tango lovers, DJs and others. Since we're in the low mood end of the register, let's hear Carlos Gardel singing about lowliness, Soledad.

2:15:47Yeah, so Carlos Gardel was in New York. He'd made some films with Paramount in their studios in the outskirts of Paris in 1933, and now they brought him to New York, and he shot two feature films and also scenes for the third film, Broadway Melody. I can't remember the exact title, but a film that came out every year, but with updated artists. So he was about to break out from being a Spanish-speaking artist to be a global artist. He would have been the first global artist, somebody whose art transcended his language.

2:16:30Yeah. And the world robbed us of that in 35, for better or worse. But yeah, the films that he makes are Cuesto Abajo, Downhill. I forget the other one but someone's going to type it in the chat window, and for those of you who forgot, he dies in June the year after, in 35, in an air crash on a field in Medellin in Colombia. Yeah. So these are among some of his latest recordings. So let's hear it, Loneliness, Soledad, with Terig Tucci as backing orchestra.

2:19:50Yeah, he sings, I don't want anyone to imagine how bitter and deep my eternal loneliness is. That's solid odds. You could pick any stanza from this lyric and have your heart ripped open. Tucci is the name of the backing band. Sorry, not Tucci. Yeah. Let's forget him. That's the lyric. I mean, I'll read from the English exactly what you've written here. Your translation, Dag. It's Google Translate, by the way.

2:20:19It's not Google Translate. Yeah, even through Google Translate the feeling comes through. I don't want anyone to tell me you've already ripped me out of your sweet life. My heart asks for a lie so I wait for your impossible call. Oh yeah, jeez, and it's watching the clock and the hours refuse to pass. Time stops and it's just the nightmare of its slow ticking.

2:20:47Honesty and feelings. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah. Um, since we're, uh, go for Gardel to something for us introvert melancholics, Michael, let's listen to Roberto Firpo. Oh well, I mean, I'm hoping this is going to be a bit of light relief, but it depends on which tracks you choose. Yeah, um, we'll hear the Pura cepa, which is with the Carlos Varela singing. Um, and now this is a tango not to be confused with the milonga de Pura cepa. And then, uh, a waltz, because we love, uh, Firpo waltzes, don't we?

2:21:28I was called Mecha, instrumental waltz Mecha, which is, I, I learned just yesterday is short for Mercedes, the name, the girl's name. Yeah. So, and this is one is, what I read about this Mecha, is it composed by Enrique Rodriguez, who recorded it much later with a duet singing. Yeah, he's not interested in being an orchestra typica. He does his own thing. He's an orchestra característica, plays all rhythms, doesn't need to sound like a pure tango orchestra.

2:22:04And he records later, I think. I mean, he starts recording later. Yeah, 37, 38. So this is an instrumental version. Let's hear him, Roberto Firpo, which you referred to earlier, Michael, as the forgotten hero of tango. That's him. 2,800 recordings. Wow. Enjoy.

2:24:29 · SuenaMechaRoberto Firpo

An instrumental waltz composed by Enrique Rodríguez, its title short for the name Mercedes; praised for its unusually strange harmony.

2:28:29Very unusual melody. Really strange harmony. I mean, I can only sing the main melody line, but the way the harmonies are arranged around that, it's really quite bizarre. But people loved it, so I'm so pleased to see that. Yeah. Firpo waltzes. Should be played more. I will, after this. Yes. I mean, I play Firpo waltzes a lot. Good. When I say I play, I should say I played, you know, past tense and future tense you should use also. Well, you know, maybe everyone will be doing it by the time we're all back, so I won't need to do it anymore. You just sit back and, yeah, been there, done that.

2:29:05All right, we have one orchestra left and it's no one less than Pedro Maffio, which is back in the recording studio after, I think, he was out of contract for a couple years, not a couple years, maybe one or two years. Yeah, he's one of these guys who got caught up in the destruction of the recording industry in 1931, 1932. So let's hear a tango first. It's called A través de los años, with the singer Félix Gutiérrez, who also sang with the Nato at this time.

2:29:44Listeners, Dag's being a bit disingenuous when he says, let's listen to a tango first, because how many Maffio recordings are there in 1934, Dag? Probably just two. I mean, you know, the fingers of two hands is more than enough. I can't remember. I think it's like six, you know. I mean, it's more than De Caro. He's got, ooh, count them. Anyway, that's the tango.

2:30:12And then I want to play the second tune, the last one. It's a very special milonga composed by Sebastian de Piana and with lyrics by Omer Amanci. Juan Manuel? Yeah. You know this one. Oh, good one. Félix Gutiérrez also singing here. And there's an introduction to this. Very original, I'd say, introduction. Like this introduction you should just hear for waltzes. Like an introduction that's separate from the song.

2:30:43Indeed, as a milonger, it's quite bizarre. And if I recall correctly, the lyric is one of the ones that's referring back to the 19th century and the time of the Federalist Party of the Rosas. Hence the name, Juan Manuel, Juan Manuel de Rosas. Well, let's hear. Yeah, let's hear them. A través de los años, and then Juan Manuel, Pedro Maffio.

2:36:01Spooky stuff. It is spooky. I'm just looking at the comments scrolling rapidly up through the chat window. Something really rather different.

2:36:26And let's just recall that Maffio's glory days have passed, but as a composer he maintains his place at the very top, but as a performer it's over for him. He's already, when we listen to that, considered a second rate band. I say considered. And by the time that we enter the so-called golden decade of the 40s, he's a third-rate band long into the past, but rich, experimental, interesting when it works, as it does there, just amazing.

2:37:03Yeah, and in the first one the cello, I mean, we heard, we listened to Maffio and the cello before. Yeah, well, lots of bands use the cello and Maffio really championed the cello. We know, we know the name of his cello player, Nerón Ferrazzano, and there's many great Maffio recordings, recordings Dag that we've played and listened to in these shows, such as Inspiracion, the Maffio Inspiracion, where there's a superb cello solo which is what inspires Piazzolla to create that special arrangement for Troilo in 1943. So there isn't a band at this time that uses the cello better than Maffio. He's the number one band for using that instrument.

2:37:52All right, Michael, time passes fast when you're having fun and when you're in the melancholic mood, also because it's already quarter to 11, and no way, time, quarter to 10 I guess at your place, and we're at the end. And yeah, yeah, um, and thank you to everyone and of course to you, Michael, in particular, uh, for sharing, as always, your knowledge and stories about these tango bands and singers, and yeah, enjoyed it so much. Thank you for bringing us together, Dag, which I think is something that we appreciate more and more with each month that goes past.

2:38:34Yeah, people are enjoying it, we were almost 200 today, so that's nice. Thank you to our sponsors, Tango Norfolk, Tango Brazzo and the Marabou club, the building where the Marabou Milonga is, where it takes place. It was built in 1934.

2:38:56Oh, wow. I would have mentioned at the beginning, but inconveniently, the Molonga didn't open until 1935. But nevertheless, there's a connection with this year to that place on Kaji Maipu, just off Corrientes. And yeah, these are more difficult times for some of us than others.

2:39:18And since our sponsors, it's kind of a minimal contribution to the show, and if any of you like me has a steady income, please consider supporting also Michael through Michael's work, through the link that you find in the Tango by Your Group and also in this event, because we want Michael, we want you to keep researching and writing your books and enriching the Tango community for everyone. But it's for free for those who can't, but if you can afford it, please consider contributing.

2:39:47I'm very inspired by the way you asked me to participate in this event, which has its root with including everyone. We'll stay in the tradition and finish, or finish the main event, the main program with the La cumparsita, and there are three recording ones, as I've found from this year. Two of those are European ones, which are both horrible to say, but the third is, I'm glad, a really nice one. There's only one cumparsita to play tonight, Dag. It's with the trio Ciriaco Ortiz again, of course it is, and this means introvert, internal feeling. It goes this way, right? Not just your heart, but somewhere below, really into your gut. And I think it's a great finish of this.

2:40:42I think 34 has been an introvert year, at least the selection now. So it's good to finish with Ortiz and his beloved Bandanon. I think this La cumparsita, he has backing by guitars, but it's all about his Bandanon. It's all about the Bandanon, yeah.

2:41:00And in two weeks, we'll go all the way to 1948, which is one of the few years remaining, which is a great year. Very few recordings, but some excellent stuff by the big four of us. 1948, Negraccia, first of all. And thanks to the work of Jens Ingo and TTT, I think I'm going to be listening to that, and I think you will as well. And maybe there'll be a little more Darianzo than we expect. Could be. I don't mean there's going to be masses, but there's going to be a little more than we know.

2:41:38And there'll be Troilo, wonderful Troilo, De Sali. Troilo and De Sali are huge, although De Sali is coming to the beginning of a pause, so there's not as much as we'd wish for. Anyway, that's for next time, that's in two weeks, so I hope to see you then. But if you hang around after the La cumparsita, there might be some extra tracks by Michael. I wouldn't be surprised. Well, there'll be a bit. It's not going to be a huge variety. I think it could be a bit Canaro heavy.

2:42:08So La cumparsita, it's Ciriaco, backed by guitar. So with that, from me, goodnight, and see you in two weeks.

2:45:38What a variation. Superb. Yummy. Goodness. So, Dag, thank you so much for your selections. I've really enjoyed them a lot. So many surprises. Always many surprises. But particularly tonight, 1934, in terms of the number of recordings, you know, we're kind of in a trough between the peak of the 20 to 31 years and what's going to come at the end of the 30s. And for that reason as well, with fewer recordings, fewer records printed, often not good fidelity, you made beautiful selections for us. Thank you.

2:46:26Thanks. Well, we're 143 participants. That's not bad. Still here. So maybe we want to share some more tango music while we're still here. So I'll play a few more songs. It's going to be a Canaro heavy after party, folks. I like to play something so that you've got a chance to go and grab a glass of water. But, you know, there's no bad music to play.

2:46:53So I can't let 1934 go by without playing something with the voice of Al Bowlly. So in this early to middle part of the 1930s, we're beginning to see the rise of what we now call the crooner, crooning, meaning a new vocal technique that's possible because of this thing here, the microphone. I can whisper into the microphone like I'm whispering into the girl's ear, and all the girls, if I'm the right guy, are just going to melt. That's the crooner.

2:47:35And I mean, who do you think of if I say crooner? Most people would think, I'm not talking about tango, people would think of Bing Crosby. And that's actually not the right person to think about at all. He's quite late on the scene. Now, in the United States, North America, let's say, you should think about Rudy Valli. Rudy Valli, who comes before Bing Crosby. I posted a picture in the Facebook group today from the film Flying Down to Rio, which was shot in 1933. The pre-premier was in New York, 22nd of December 1933, but in any country other than the United States, it was shown in 1934, in this year. It's really a hit from 1934. And Rudy Valli sings one of the title songs. So, a great crooner, someone who relies on the microphone so he doesn't have to shout, but in Europe, it's Al Bowlly, isn't it?

2:48:48Al Bowlly, one of the greatest voices of the 20th century. Sadly, his life cut short. So let's play you something by Al Bowlly, so you all get a little chance to go and get a glass of water or whatever. And I want to play you one of the most beautiful songs of 1934. This is a song I hope you all know, The Very Thought of You by Ray Noble. Ray Noble is the dance orchestra that Al Bowlly sang with for many years. One of the most beautiful songs ever written, in my opinion. Al Bowlly in 1934 with the Ray Noble song, The Very Thought of You, with the improvised piano of Monielita.

2:52:33I think that's the most sincere voice of the 1930s, including all tango voices. Absolutely extraordinary. Goodness. Now, if you like that, Pathé. Pathé was a newsreel television company, and in 1934, British Pathé recorded Al Bowlly playing, I think, four numbers in total in the decade, but one of them is the track you've just heard, just with Moni Alita on piano and Al Bowlly. Please check it out. If you can't find it, send me a message and I'll send you the link, because it's ten times better than the one you just heard, and you understand how the musicians were improvising and not just playing from arrangements, which is what they're doing nowadays. So what else should we listen to today?

2:53:42I want to play you a Mexican tango, except it's not Mexican. We don't really know where it's from. This is a wonderful Mexican singer from the borderlands, the region on the border, because that was a very fluid border for a long time before Trump built his wall. And as you know, the majority language in the states of Texas and New Mexico is Spanish and not English. Anyway, in 1934, an amazing woman singer, a female singer from Mexico called Lydia Mendoza, recorded a tango called Mal Hombre, Bad Man. And as far as I know, it's not a Mexican tango. It's just something that the Mexicans chose to record. Now, it's kind of surprising to me because Mexico is a country where, if you follow the news, you know, a lot of women are murdered, especially to do with the drug trade. And that's something that happens, of course, in all parts of the world, something we know about in Argentina as well as Mexico.

2:54:59So how comes a tango like that gets recorded in Mexico, but not in Argentina? I mean, I really don't know, but possibly it's to do with the places where tango is played and listened to. If you only go to cabarets and cafes, places where men go, then you're going to listen to a certain kind of lyric. But if you go, for example, to circuses and restaurants, then there's different kinds of music going to be played. Anyway, it's kind of speculation on my part, but it is an extraordinary song. Mal Hombre of Lydia Mendoza. As far as we know, the tango is from 27, but really, I couldn't find out. The facts are not clear. But I'll tell you what she sings with a 12-string guitar. Just her and a 12-string guitar. She sings, bad man, your soul is so vile it has no name. You are despicable. You are evil. You are a bad man.

2:59:19How about that? Something really completely different. Okay. A Firpo tango. He has an urgent telegram for us. Let's hear what he says.

3:04:57Well, folks, I think we need to listen to a few more Canaro waltzes. I mean, he recorded over 100 tracks in 1934, so there's got to be a few decent waltzes, haven't there?

3:05:22Ronda del querer is one of the tracks that was reprinted on LP. That's something we need to remember. The songs that we're most familiar with are the ones that were chosen in the early 1960s for the first LP reissues. And if a song wasn't chosen then, then the master was destroyed in 1962 and it was lost. Nothing against Ronda del querer. It's a really fantastic song, but the reason that we know it is because it was chosen for an LP and those LPs were reprinted on CD. But let's listen to a couple of Canaro waltzes that weren't reprinted on LP. Not quite so high quality but nevertheless absolutely excellent.

3:06:07First of all, the waltz Siempre así, always like this. Carlos Galán, so Dag introduced him earlier. Carlos Galán, the singer of Canaro in the second half of the 1930s, I want to play two, I mean the second half of 1934, I'm sorry. I want to play two waltzes by him, Siempre así, which is a really good waltz, a five-star waltz, but then an absolutely epic, not heartbreaking, heart tearing waltz. El amor de los troveros. The love of the troubadours.

3:06:59So the first waltz is merely excellent and the second one is devastating. I really hope you enjoy these waltzes.

3:07:12 · SuenaSiempre asíFrancisco Canaro · Carlos Galán

A 'five-star' but less familiar Canaro waltz, chosen specifically because it wasn't one of the tracks reissued on 1960s LPs.

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♪ Música · 2:57 · Lo que oyó la transcripción

3:10:09Well, I'm so happy that many of you enjoyed that waltz, but the next one is ten times better. Here we go with El amor de los troveros.

3:11:07 · SuenaEl amor de los troverosFrancisco Canaro · Carlos Galán

Billed as 'ten times better' than the previous waltz - an epic, heart-tearing Canaro side.

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♪ Música · 2:22 · Lo que oyó la transcripción

3:13:29Well, 1934 is a year really that's dominated by Canaro, but when it sounds like that, who cares? There's so many good Canaro tangos in this year. Dag couldn't play them all. Let's play a couple of the more sentimental ones. We're not going to play all the really important ones. There isn't time. But let's play a couple of the really sentimental ones.

3:14:16And now with Ernesto Famá. So from the earlier part of the year, beginning with Canto, I sing, and finishing with El pescante. I'll say a bit more about that afterwards. So first Canto and then El pescante.

3:14:52 · SuenaCantoFrancisco Canaro · Ernesto Famá

One of a sentimental pair of Canaro/Famá sides played back to back in the afterparty's closing stretch.

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♪ Música · 5:55 · Lo que oyó la transcripción

3:20:47 · SuenaEl pescanteFrancisco Canaro · Ernesto Famá

The second half of the closing Canaro/Famá pair.

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3:21:02Glad you like that. Beautiful tango. I don't want to play very many more. It's going to be a short after party tonight. I think it's time to play you one of my favourite tangos. There are more songs we could play. Next week it will be, not next week, it's going to be two weeks, we'll have a longer after party. Tonight a shorter party, but I want to play you now one of the songs that touches me the most deeply in all of the music that comes to us from Argentina.

3:21:46Now this is a foxtrot of Canaro, with the voice of Ada Falcón, Suavemente. Suave, suave, if you're an English speaker, but it doesn't mean the same thing. What does suavemente mean? Something like smoothly, gently. I can't translate that word. Goodness, I can remember when I first heard this, more than 10 years ago. Really intimate, tender interpretation of Canaro. Canaro at his very, very best with the voice of Ada Falcón.

3:22:31You may have heard the version of Enrique de Rodriguez from the 40s. Please don't ever listen to that ever again.

3:22:51 · SuenaSuavementeFrancisco Canaro · Ada Falcón

Named one of Lavocah's favourite pieces of Argentine music; explicitly a foxtrot rather than a tango, and he warns listeners off Enrique Rodríguez's later 1940s version in favour of this intimate original.

♪ Música · 7:10 · Lo que oyó la transcripción