Tango 1939
Dag Stenvoll y Michael Lavocah · 2020-09-30 · 3:55:18
Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah treat 1939, the month the war began in Europe, as a surprisingly narrow year in Buenos Aires: D'Arienzo's triumph is almost complete, while Troilo, Tanturi, Demare, Caló and Laurenz make no records, Pugliese and Gobbi are not yet in the picture, and the age of the soloists has faded since Gardel's death in 1935. What remains is D'Arienzo at the height of intensity with Echagüe and Polito (the show's pick for his best year, ending with the last session of that band, whose titles read like a premonition of its mass walkout), the first records of Di Sarli's new band with a 17-year-old Rufino, Biagi's new band, Canaro's hardening with Famá and the arrival of Mariano Mores, Fresedo, Firpo, Lomuto, Donato, Rodríguez and De Caro. Dag adds Soviet tangos and a Berlin La cumparsita, and Lavocah's afterparty explores the musical connection between Europe and Buenos Aires and Poland's mostly Jewish tango world that was about to be extinguished.
Lo que este episodio dio a Tangopedia
Datos dichos en el episodio, cada uno citado al minuto en que se dice.
1939 is a narrow year: D'Arienzo's triumph is almost complete, with lots of good tangos but few different styles and not many bands to choose from.
The age of the soloist has come to an end, beginning with Gardel's death in 1935, so there are few records by solo singers in 1939.
Tanturi, Demare and Troilo (signed to Odeon), Caló and Laurenz make no records in 1939; Gobbi has no band, Pugliese is just starting and Troilo is unrecorded, so the De Caro followers are absent.
1939 is the only year when De Caro and D'Arienzo record the same song (Ay, Aurora).
Canaro's music hardens in 1939 with Famá: he has his finger on the pulse of the hardening times, and the fit makes the music make more sense to Lavocah though it isn't his favourite.
Discos que suenan · 50
Transcripción
Transcripción automática del audio, luego puntuada; puede haber nombres mal oídos. Toque una línea para escucharla. El episodio es en inglés, y su transcripción también.
And they swim and they slam all over the dam. This song may sound very odd to you but there's the reason we'll explain to you. You've heard big latin. Welcome to Tangaboy here. A bit of fishy start there, but Michael, there's nothing fishy about 1939, is it? Not even a little bit. Not even a little bit. It's a special year. I mean, in September 1939, 80 years, 81 years ago, the world was really derailing, invasion of Poland, declarations of war, and there were really dark times ahead.
But Buenos Aires, the world of tango, was producing some great stuff still. Although very much cognizant of what's going on in Europe, it was a little bit surprising for me when I had a look at the year just from the point of view of 1939 only. So the things that aren't a surprise, D'Arienzo is riding high. We know that in 37 he'd really broken into the big time and now he's on top. And the other thing that we know is, what's the quality of the music that he's making? It's intense, not intense in an emotional way, but in a hard way. It's strong, it's almost angry, there's a kind of anger to the D'Arienzo's 39 recordings. So that we all know, but then we take a look around at the panoply of music in 1939, and what do we see? We see that in a way D'Arienzo's triumph is almost complete. It's not a diverse year at all, not at all. Not many bands to choose from, lots of good tangos to choose from, but not many different styles. What's happened there?
“It's not a diverse year at all. Not many bands to choose from. Lots of good tangos to choose from, but not many different styles.”
So Dag, you love to play us recordings by the female vocalists, but you're going to be hard pushed to find many of those in 1939, because the age of the soloist is kind of come to an end, beginning with Gardel in 1935. So these people are still around, the soloists, male and female, but they're not making many recordings. What about the other bands that have started up, like Tanturi or De Mare or Troilo, and they've been signed up by Odeon? They're not making any records in 1939. Miguel Caló, who's been recording since 1932, he's not making any records in 1939. Even our, well, my favorite, Pedro Laurenz, not making any records. Who's left? Julio De Caro. I mean, the post-De Caroians are nowhere, you know. Gobbi doesn't have a band, Pugliese is just getting started and it's probably not very interesting, and Thriller's not recorded. So the whole De Caro thing is kind of not happening, apart from De Caro himself, who's kind of losing the plot.
1939 is the only year I think where De Caro and D'Arienzo record the same song in the year. So that gives you a taste of what's going on. And one more thing, who haven't I mentioned yet? Canaro. Now if you know me, you know that the hard Canaro that starts kicking off in 39, because we've had minor for the previous 3-4 years, if you know me, you know, it's not my favorite. But when I reviewed the year, I understood it a lot better. Canaro has got his finger on the pulse and he feels the hardening of the times. And he responds to that with his music with Ernesto Famá. So actually, it really fits.
It's a good point. And I'm thinking, even without all those fabulous bands you mentioned, there was no problem finding enough song for the playlist for tonight. I'm very pleased to hear it. Yeah. But one band you didn't mention was Di Sarli, and he started recording again this year after a long break. He was also in this crisis earlier, not because of all the on contracts, but more that the companies went bust or they stopped recording bands that went commercial in the early 30s. We talked about that in the earlier programs. Absolutely. And he himself went walkabout, and he just sneaks in at the end of the year, doesn't he, Dag?
Capítulo · 5:00
A 17-year-old and a one-take tango
Di Sarli's comeback was recorded in one take, with a boy singing.
And since we ended our 33 program with a fabulous, or the regular program with this fabulous recording of Edwino Valvaro's Sextet, I wanted to start the 39 program with an equally strong song. So let's hear Corazón with this album from December 1939, which is just a fabulous song. First recording of the new band, dynamite, Rufino on vocals, and they did it in one take. And Rufino was 17 years old when he was singing this song. That's something to think about. Let's think about that. And on the B side of that same record was the instrumental tango, El retirao, The Pensioner.
And according to your Di Sarli book, Michael, this was written by the Afro-Argentine musician Carlos Posadas. Yes, and very early, maybe like 1913 or something like that, and it has a very strong arrastre and this kind of room sound, right, and lots of jazzy playing from the Di Sarli's piano. A lot of the Di Sarli sound is already here, the walking beat. When you play Corazón, if you can, try to listen to the beat underneath Rufino's voice as he enters and you'll hear a fabulous walking beat. The instrumental is more playful, lots of jazzy touches, the pace is accelerated, it has to be, it's 1939, and because Di Sarli's just starting out with the orchestra, he hasn't quite yet forbidden the solo. So at the end of Corazón, in the break in the vocal part, we do get a beautiful woody violin solo from Roberto Cuisado, who collaborates with Di Sarli over many decades. Lovely woody tone, clearly still playing on gut strings, and it makes a very special quality. Looking forward to that. We should enjoy these early solos that are so rare in Di Sarli. So let's hear them.
The first recording of Di Sarli's new band, with 17-year-old Rufino, done in one take, with a walking beat and a rare woody violin solo by Roberto Guisado.
Lo bailan · 4 de 129
♪ Música · 3:10 · La letra, en la página del tango
The B side: a playful, jazzy instrumental by Afro-Argentine composer Carlos Posadas (c.1913), with a strong arrastre and Di Sarli's piano.
That's class, just class, isn't it? Exudes class. Yeah, sophistication, and nice violin solo by Cuisado also on El retirao. Yes. Shorter one. It's easy to miss, but it has a lovely tone. But again, it keeps it simple. It's not about virtuoso playing. Just Di Sarli gets to show off a little bit on the piano. Charles and Kate describes that Fresedo meets Biagi. It's an interesting observation. Yeah. We're glad Di Sarli is back. I mean, and 1940, we talked about that before. It's going to be his, it's going to be his big year. It's a breakthrough. Yeah.
Yeah, add some breadth to the scene, which otherwise is lacking a bit of breadth with the De Caro's followers, like Troilo, Pugliese and Laurenz. They're not anywhere to be heard, unfortunately for us. So yeah, Di Sarli's there. Yeah, when you hear a new band like that and it's so good, you think, gosh, I wonder what the rest of the repertoire was like. I think they've recorded their best two songs there, exemplifying the new style they're developing. So it's not such an awful loss, but it would have been really good. A lot of great music lost in 1938 and 39. A lot. Yes. What was Troilo doing? What was Laurenz doing? Goodness. Terrible. But we got to play what we have.
So let's continue this light beat feeling and listen to a waltz by Orquesta Típica Victor. It's called Anita. It's short, fast and really lovely, I think. The Típica Victor is one of the standout bands from 1939. So good news, good news for the Típica Victor fans listening. They really produce some nice music. They're still not playing for dancing. They play under the name Típica Victor only in the recording studio. Federico Scorticati is leading them at this time. They do sometimes play in a cafe under his name, but just in a cafe. I remember you mentioning his name earlier. Who was he playing for earlier?
Well, Federico Scorticati is one of the great bandoneón players in tango, and he crops up playing for all kinds of people. Later on, he plays for Di Sarli, very versatile musician. And he lived to a ripe old age, and there's a lovely video of him playing bandoneón solos as an old man, and he hasn't lost any of his ability and speed and talent. Nice. So let's hear OTV's Anita waltz with Mario Corrales singing. Somebody that we're going to recognize a bit later on as... Who? Let's listen to the record.
A short, fast waltz from one of the standout bands of 1939, led in the studio by bandoneonist Federico Scorticati.
Fabulous energy. And what speed. Yeah. It's almost as fast as the Rodríguez waltzes, I think, from this time. Almost, but it doesn't have the same intensity, does it? That's what it's like. Someone's commented in the chat window, feels much like Rodríguez. I can see where that comment is coming from, and I see the commonality, but then waltz always makes everything sound a little bit more the same because of the fixed nature of the beat. There's much less possibility to play with your beats in waltz compared to tango. I think Rodríguez still sounds more different. This sounds more tanguero to my ear and a little bit more sophisticated. In fact, quite a bit more sophisticated. But yes, playful, light.
And speaking of sophistication, we're now going to go to a more sophisticated band. We're going to go to Canaro, because you mentioned him also in your introduction. Yes. This is a year of change for him. But he has some nice milongas and waltzes, I think, especially. And the loss of Maida, the tangos are suffering from the loss, especially, I think, from the loss of Maida and the change in style. Yeah, that creates a huge change in style with the return of Famá. Famá has some lighter songs and some heavier songs. Probably the lighter ones are the ones I prefer. But the heavier ones do capture something of the zeitgeist. Well, let's listen to a not heavy one, a milonga with Famá. The Milonga de Buenos Aires. Nothing less than Milonga de Buenos Aires. Well, this is a fast one as well, isn't it? Yeah, it is.
But before that, let's hear a special tango, an instrumental tango. And I guess that's, it comes in the category of tango sinfónica. It's called El rey del bosque. King of the Forest. The King of the Forest. This is from one of Canaro's stage shows. So it's from the theater and you can really hear the theatrical element in this. So different from the other stuff. And in Norway, the king of the forest, that means a moose, you know, the big animal with his horns. I don't know what it is in Argentina, but does anyone know? I think it's a kind of bird, possibly. Oh, yeah. All right. Canaro, Francisco Canaro with El rey del bosque, it's an instrumental. And after that, La Milonga de Buenos Aires with Ernesto Famá singing.
An instrumental from a Canaro stage show labelled tango sinfónica, theatrical and hard to dance.
A fast, happy milonga with Famá, who is back with Canaro after Maida left.
Impossible not to get happy from that, Milonga. Yeah, I think that's fair enough.
And especially with the first one, actually, you can hear that there's another change, and that was an instrumental. Okay, we've got to change a vocalist, but what's behind musically speaking, what's behind the change of Canaro style? There's a different pianist arranger for a long, long time. Luis Riccardi has been the pianist and arranger in Canaro's orchestra. Remember, Canaro is a second-rate musician, a great band leader, but a poor violinist and without the musical skills to arrange. So he's dependent on the band to do that. And in the Canaro band, it's the pianist, Luis Ricciardi. And in 1939, a second pianist comes along, the young Mariano Mores, who we'll certainly hear something else of later on in the show, either from Dag or from myself. And the idea was that they're going to have two pianists in the band to share the work because they've got another one of these stage shows coming that sometimes runs for 500 performances. But Riccardi's been working hard for a long time, and his doctor says to him, you know, you need to quit, you need to retire. So that's what he does. Mores takes over as arranger as well as pianist, and he introduces all these decorations into the music that we didn't hear in the Maeda era. So it's the appointment of Mores to this role that transforms the sound of the orchestra.
Mores, that's the guy behind this known 1950s special tango. What's his name? Well, Taquito Militar. Yeah, that's one. But La Tanguera. I was thinking of La Tanguera. Tanguera, El Firulete. He makes very symphonic work, and you can already hear the roots of that here. But he's also a great composer. Some of Troilo's hits from 41 are with music from Mariano Mores, for example. And this El rey del bosque tango, it's questionable whether it is actually a tango. It's marked in my database as a tango symphonica.
That's what it says on the label. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of, it's not hard, not easy to dance. Someone wrote that they were trapped on the dance floor in the middle of a tanda when this one came on. That's evil from the DJ's part, I think, to put this on the middle of a tanda. Yeah, that's mean, that's mean. Yeah.
All right, yeah, you mentioned, or someone mentioned, Rodríguez earlier, and we listened to a waltz. He's a pop orchestra, isn't he? So, yes, music. Yeah, nothing wrong with that. He recorded lots of stuff in these years that bands that in my view are much better didn't get to record, probably because he was so popular. Rodríguez sold a lot of records outside Buenos Aires. So it's still the same thing today, isn't it? You get a different atmosphere in the capital city of the country compared to outside in the provinces. Outside Buenos Aires, D'Arienzo sold the most records, and the person who sold the second most records was Rodríguez.
That's amazing. He was huge. Feliciano Brunelli also sold a great deal of records in the provinces, but at a certain point Rodríguez became the number two orchestra, which is not in the city, in the province of Buenos Aires and the provinces, which is amazing to us today. But he made very simple and happy music.
Yeah, and we listened to one of his waltzes. I think it's his own composition. It's the waltz called Tengo mil novias, I have a thousand girlfriends. Oh, yes, irony, with the band making fun of what the singer is saying. Yeah, yeah, it's funny. And, yeah, let's listen to it, and I'll post the lyrics you can have a look at. It's as you said, it's kind of usual with this, isn't it? With so explicitly ironic lyrics. Yeah, because sometimes it's not really clear how we should take a lyric, especially we might take it one way today in 2021. But back in 1939, you might have taken it differently. So, for example, Dag, you opened with Corazón. And the last thing that Rufino sings in Corazón is, I know she's going to come back on her knees one day and beg my forgiveness. Now, I mean, now I have to just take that as ironic. Yeah, and that's how I relate to that now, but how did people take it in 1939? I don't think we can assume it was ironic, really. That's our modern values being projected onto the past. But here it clearly is ironic, and that's something nice as well in the Argentine sense of humor. You get an irony that you don't get in Spain, for example, does it? So, yeah, it has affected the whole language. Yeah, the chorus in the song is mocking the singer and laughing, making ha-ha sounds, so it's very clear they are. And even the lyrics themselves, you know, it's, um, oh, there was one girl, when her dad found out, he wanted to wipe me off the map. Del mapa me quiso borrar. Let's hear it.
An ironic waltz with a band mocking the singer; Rodríguez was the second-biggest seller after D'Arienzo outside Buenos Aires.
I have a thousand girlfriends. In your imagination, Dag. Exactly. And it's Roberto Flores singing.
Oh, it's good with some mockery, oh, guys, you think they're God's gift to women. I think it's good for the tango environment to have a little bit of that. Stop us guys getting our egos overinflated. And it suits Rodríguez too. I mean, Rodríguez is a lot of fun to dance to, I think, especially the waltzes. I think he must have been a great guy to have known. And Flores suits him really well. And the only reason that Flores doesn't continue is because he's the first orchestra singer, really, to go solo. And he gets an offer from the record company. So normally we say, oh, Alberto Castillo was the first singer to go solo in 43 when he leaves Tanturi. But actually, Rodríguez does it a few years before with Roberto Flores.
Capítulo · 36:14
First singer to go solo
Castillo wasn't the first orchestra singer to go solo.
Okay, let's move on to Roberto Firpo. This is an old timer we've discovered and rediscovered during our Tango by Year programs. Lots of good stuff, especially in the years around 1930, in my view. But I think there are also really remarkable recordings from this year, from the late 30s. Well, when you look at Firpo in 1939, so Firpo, let's just remind ourselves, the second most recorded tango orchestra of all time. Canaro's in first place, almost 4,000 recordings, but Firpo has 2,800. And, you know, D'Arienzo himself records less than a thousand. So Firpo records more than the big four put together, but he's beginning to run out of steam. And like you, I'm sure you reviewed the Firpo 1939 discography, and there's a very small number of recordings with his orchestra, and most of them are with his old-time quintet. Of course, it's called a quartet, but it's actually a quintet that he started in 1936. So I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and guess that you're going to play Fantasma.
I am. Yay! Give me my prize! But before that, I'm going to play an instrumental called Curda completa. And Teresa, you not to go, you posted this earlier today or yesterday, was it? You guessed it. It's a really nice instrumental, a special one. I think it means total binge, and it's exactly some composition. Yes, it's not hard to guess the songs because, as I was trying to point out with the orchestra, there's not so many. You can hear the influence from the other bands, so the pace has really picked up. The piano style has changed. It doesn't sound like Firpo on piano. It hasn't been Firpo on piano for many, many years. He's been conducting, but the pianist continued in the Firpo style. Not now. Now you're getting a very decorated piano, and you start to hear the octave solos. So if you don't know what that sounds like, I mean, I think it makes sense what it is. I play the same thing in the two hands exactly one octave apart, something D'Arienzo does a bit in a less sophisticated way in El puntazo, for example. But it's a fashion that starts around this time. Lots of different people claim that they were responsible, but you can hear it very clearly. There's something very particular about the sound of the piano interventions, and that's a new style that's breaking into tango music around this time. Maybe it's Lalo Scilise, Frasero's pianist, who's the first guy to do it, but we'll never know, really.
And these are two tracks from the same record recorded on December 28th, so just before the turn of the decade. And this Fantasma, it means ghost, and it's super energetic, and it reminds me of Donato's El Huracán, parts of it. It's slightly crazy. And I like it because on the one hand, you can hear that Firpo's clearly been influenced by what's going on around him. But he kind of mixes that. He blends these influences with his own qualities to get something very special, something unique. Let's hear him, Curda completa and Fantasma, Roberto Firpo.
A Firpo quintet instrumental with a decorated piano and octave solos; it and Fantasma were recorded on the same day.
♪ Música · 3:05 ·
A super-energetic tango that reminds Dag of Donato's El huracán, mixing Firpo's style with what was going on around him.
High octane Firpo, very different from the stuff we heard 10 years earlier, almost unrecognizable. Yeah, it is. Yeah, he's going to bow out gracefully, unlike Canaro, who's going to keep going till they carry him out in a box.
Okay, since we're at high energy, let's continue with some recordings by Rodolfo Biagi, who started his own band just a year before after leaving the piano of D'Arienzo's orchestra, or getting fired, I should say. I guess I think it was kind of mutual, you know, but yeah, he was fired. How's he doing in 39? He's awesome. It's so good. He's immediately established his own personality with the orchestra, which is not constructed around his piano. Of course, he has to play the piano a little bit. You know, he wants to. The audience expect that. But what the Biagi Orchestra does is it takes the surprise offbeat element that he gave to D'Arienzo and transplants it not to his own piano, but to the whole band. That's what his band is about. And of course the sharpest beat ever recorded in tango, the beat of the Biagi Orchestra, is like a paper cut. The shortest, sharpest beat ever. Don't cut yourself.
“The sharpest beat ever recorded in tango, the beat of the Biagi orchestra is like a paper cut. The shortest, sharpest beat ever.”
Let's listen to two songs from the same record recorded on July 13th. Incidentally, that's less than a week before my mother was born. The same year. Well, and the instrumental tango on one side is Pura clase, pure class. Wonderful. Joyful opening. It is. And the waltz, Dichas que viví, say that I lived. Super fast and very danceable. Well, let's just mention the lyricist, not the lyricist, the singer on that waltz. Falgás. Andrés Falgás. So Andrés Falgás is with Biagi just a short time. So I won't say anything now, but once we've heard it, so the Pura clase, which Lug's going to play first, is an instrumental. Then comes this beautiful up-tempo waltz. It's a killer waltz. It sucks you onto the floor. But listen to the singer, everyone, and see how you feel and think about him, whether you like it in the first place, but to what extent you feel he matches the orchestra.
An instrumental of 'pure class', famous for a video that synchronises Laurel and Hardy's dance with it.
Lo bailan · 5 de 72
♪ Música · 3:25 ·
A killer, super-fast waltz in which Falgás is a seven-out-of-ten match for Biagi, with a variation so fast the band almost can't keep up.
Lo bailan · 5 de 533
I love that variation. They go so fast that the band almost cannot keep up with the tempo. Yeah, but once again, it's just one guy playing the solo. So, you know, the Biagi band is not constructed around the bandoneon section, so he doesn't have a really top flat bandoneon section, so there's probably only one guy in the section who can play that fast. Let's hear some more Biagi, the tango of Cielo, that's also with the Falgás singing, and it's composed by him also. I want to say just one thing about Pura clase before we go on. So some of you will know, but some of you will not know, so I'll repeat something that the wonderful Dutch tanguero and DJ Oa Akkerman, he's an important guy at the moment because he's one of the people who did a lot of research on the keys that used in tango music and what was the tuning of the original recordings. Anyway, a couple of years ago, was it a couple of years ago, three years ago now, Oa had the most genius idea, and he synchronized Laurel and Hardy dancing in the film Trail of the Lonesome Pine to Rodolfo Biagi's Pura clase. And I'm just going to post the link to everybody. Don't watch it now because we've got an important show to listen to, but you can cut and paste it and watch it after the show, and it's absolutely perfect. So the beats are exactly on the beats, but also the choreography of the whole piece, as they dance up the stairs and go into the saloon bar and the shutter doors close behind them, right with the music. So that's a little, as they say in Holland, in Nederland, for you to enjoy after the show. Now let's get back to, um, where are we? We're with the vocal numbers and Andrés Falgás.
Capítulo · 52:50
Laurel and Hardy dance to Biagi
A 1936 Laurel and Hardy dance lines up perfectly with a 1939 tango.
What did you think of Andrés Falgás, people? What did you think? No comments. I would say Andrés Falgás suits Biagi 7 out of 10. He's not suiting Biagi quite as well as Jorge Omar will in 1940, but he suits, yeah.
Yeah. The voice is, well, actually, we'll see. So the question is, now, Cielo, very, very nice tango. How well integrated is the voice with the orchestra? That's something to keep in mind as we listen to the next number, which is a very nice and quite an unusual tango.
And I can read from that comment of yours that probably it isn't so well synchronized. No, I don't feel that it is. Not integrated, which is the direction that tango music is taking at this time, isn't it? The Fiorentino, the Troilo Fiorentino model, like this, the singer as an instrument within the orchestra. Andrés Falgás is not really like that.
Let's listen to that when we hear Cielo. And after that, I'll play a milonga, Campo afuera. That's with another singer, Teófilo Ibáñez singing. He's an old timer. We heard him from the early 30s and even late 20s, I think. Sang a lot with Firpo.
Yeah. I feel it's a bit more muscular as a voice and I feel it suits Biagi a bit better. And it's one of the few Biagi milongas. Why do you think he recorded so few Biagi milongas? I think it's six or seven milongas in all his career. Overall, he doesn't record nearly as much as D'Arienzo does. Even so, yes, I don't know, but possibly just lack of recording opportunities.
And this is the Biagi composition and Romero Manzi wrote the lyrics, and I wrote the lyrics, they're a bit interesting because they're sad, and usually, I think milongas are usually happy lyrics, aren't they? Usually, yes. Manzi always is an exception, Milonga triste. Of course. Alright, Cielo and Campo afuera. Rodolfo Biagi.
A Biagi composition; Lavocah says the singer is not integrated with the orchestra, unlike the Troilo-Fiorentino model.
Lo bailan · 5 de 12
♪ Música · 2:50 · La letra, en la página del tango
One of the few Biagi milongas (six or seven in all), with Homero Manzi's sad lyrics, and a final-ten-seconds acceleration.
Lo bailan · 5 de 229
Good comment from Florian there about the off-beats, even in milongas, makes it really hard to dance to. You have to really be awake. And did you notice at the ending, it's like the last 10 seconds, suddenly they change gear and the piece just accelerates. And it goes up like five beats per minute or something like that.
It's an orchestra of extremes, isn't it, Biagi? There's a big contrast between this very slow legato playing that we sometimes get in the band d'union section in particular and this very choppy playing in the backbeat, but not much in between, so it goes from this to this. Makes good contrast for dancing, I think. Strong contrast, yes. Not color but contrast.
And the sad lyrics like this one phrase he sings, I reaped pains by plowing your loneliness. I love that one. It's harsh. Yeah. And the first one, yeah, I know what you mean, but the lyrics kind of floating a bit above the melody or the beats. Yeah, I would have been interested to hear Falgás singing with Fresedo's orchestra, actually.
Yeah, because yeah, the Fresedo orchestra, it's another style, another relationship to the vocalist. Quite proper as well, isn't it? A bit buttoned up. So, yeah, maybe Falgás would have suited there better. He went solo and I think he went to live in another South American country. So we'll hear some Fresedo later, but now we're moving on to Francisco Lomuto.
And it's somewhat a surprise. He has two women singers this year, because you said in the beginning, you're right, there were not many, many women singers this year. But there is actually a solo recording by a young 19-year-old Carmen del Moral singing Tango amigo. And she's backed by the Lomuto band. So we'll hear that one. Yeah. Very nice.
And there is another woman singer that actually sings for Lomuto. It's a cantora de orchestra, I think we call her, called Como las aves, Like the Birds. Her name is María Teresa Greco. Yes, María Teresa Greco. This is a one-off. I'd like to know more about her, but I don't know anything about her. I guess my guess would be because this is 1939 and Lomuto has been copying Canaro's trick of doing stage shows. So my guess would be that María Teresa Greco was in one of these stage shows with the Lomuto Orchestra and they recorded this particular number. But that's just a guess, I don't know that for sure.
And the first song with Carmen del Moral, Tango amigo. We know this from, I think it's from D'Arienzo, isn't it, early 40s, I think? Is it Tango amigo? I can't remember. It's this, 41 or something. You can look it up during the... yeah. And it's a canción, so she sings the whole lyric, which is kind of interesting. So let's hear those two.
It's Carmen del Moral, backed by Lomuto singing Tango amigo, and then Como las aves, which is Lomuto. Yeah, it's Canaro, the other version. Is it Canaro? Yeah, there is a D'Arienzo one, but it's from 1974. So I don't think that's what you meant. Oh, okay. No, I mean I'm mixing up. All right, let's hear it. Hit it.
A solo recording by a 19-year-old woman, backed by Lomuto, who sings the whole lyric.
A one-off woman singer, perhaps from a Lomuto stage show; Lavocah doesn't know who she is.
Some of freedom there from María Teresa. Two very nice songs. I think a lot of us were surprised by Carmencita, Carmen del Moral. And yeah, we have to remember that's not a Lomuto track. That's her and Lomuto's just doing the backing thing. What a pity that the standards of the time didn't allow her to really perform as an estrategista with the orchestra. It could have been interesting. That's true. Yeah. María Teresa Greco as well. Very nice.
Interesting theory from Teresa. Once or twice, singers sang with a different name because of contractual reasons. So if you're contracted to one company, then you change your name just to do something with the other. But it didn't sound dark enough to me to be Mercedes Simone. So Greco will maintain her mystery for a bit longer, just as her namesake did.
Because Juliette Greco, the great French chanteur, she died last week, of course. Of the best versions ever of Sous le ciel de Paris from Juliette Greco, the muse of the left bank in Paris. So yeah, that's her namesake. So let's hear two more Lomuto tracks, a waltz and a milonga.
And Salud, dinero y amor was a hit in 39. And the most known versions, I think, are by Rodríguez, is Canaro and Lomuto. And Omar, Jorge Omar sings only the chorus, which is about taking care of love, health, and money that you have. And I read the full original lyrics. In the final verse, it ends, not surprisingly, with the protagonist wasting all three of these and asking the listener to learn from his mistakes.
And I don't know if it's just within the tango environment, but whenever I've been to Argentina, the order of these three qualities is extremely important, because to me it would be more natural to say saludos mori dinero, health, love and money. But whenever I've said this in Argentina, I've had my wrist slapped and we told, no, no, no, the order that you need these three things for to have happiness in your life is health, money and love. So let's reflect on the Argentine wisdom there as we listen to this beautiful waltz with the heavy elephant beats of Lomuto. From a Norwegian perspective, I think it would be a more...
And the second, the milonga I'm going to play is No hay tierra como la mía. There's, oh, this is great, like mine. Yeah, and I really enjoy this version more than the very famous version of Francisco Canaro. There's no land like my land. And then they give a list of all the things that are better about Argentina than in other places.
And the brunettes are more tempting, apparently. Morrochas tentadores. It ends that he's never seen anyone as seductive as Argentine women. So, yeah. So, Salud, dinero y amor. Health, money, and love, and love. Yeah. And no hay tierra como la mía. Francisco Lomuto.
A hit of 1939 where Omar sings only the chorus; the order of the three goods (health, money, love) matters in Argentina.
A patriotic milonga listing why Argentina and its women beat anywhere else; Dag prefers this version to Canaro's famous one.
Oh, damn! Isn't it great? I like it. And the Lomuto Parque Patricios, which we can't play tonight, I think is also as strong or possibly even stronger than the Canaro version because it's got a bit more heft, got a bit more weight to it. Yeah. And you have the modulation that you often hear in Lomuto. It gives it an extra excitement towards the end. Seems to be a feature of the year, doesn't it? We keep on hearing it. Yeah.
So before we go on to more dance tango, let's have an interlude with a very top soloist, Ignacio Corsini. And this year he recorded a beautiful song, Cuartito azul. I didn't know if you were going to play this or not. Yeah, it's beautiful, isn't it? Cuartito azul. It's the tango of the year. It's the most important recording of the year. And it means the little blue room.
Now, Mariano Mores wrote the music and the lyrics are written. Dag, just remind me, please. Is it Cadícamo? Who wrote the lyrics to? I'm not sure, actually. I don't think I know it. Sorry, I have to know. I have to know. This is an important question. We'll find out. We will find out. This is what happens on live radio. Mario Batiste.
The way, I'll tell you how this song got its name. So at this time, Mariano Mores, okay, he's about to start work with Canaro, but he's a poor guy. And he has a little boulin. He has a flat where he meets with his friends and he wants to paint it because when he rents it, it's in a terrible condition, but he's so poor that he can't afford proper paint. So there are these dishwasher tablets you can get, which are pale blue in color. It's obviously, when I say dishwasher, not for a machine like now, but for cleaning, and they give a special bluey whiteness, so he buys some of these, dissolves it in water and he paints the room with this color, and that's why we have this title, the little blue room.
Capítulo · 1:19:55
The bluest room in Buenos Aires
A famous tango is named after cheap blue paint.
Cuartito azul. There are many good recordings, but the version of Ignacio Corsini is absolutely perfect. Corsini with his voice like the birds of the countryside. Here gives a deeply melancholic interpretation because the lyric itself talks about this room as being of a joyful place that's now in the past, are no longer something they can experience. Wonderful guitar accompaniment. It's the best track of 1939. Yeah, great. Let's hear it. Ignacio Corsini, Cuartito azul.
“Corsini with his voice like the birds of the countryside.”
Played as 'the best track of 1939': a deeply melancholic version with guitar backing of a Mariano Mores tango.
♪ Música · 3:07 ·
It's a very nice atmosphere, doesn't it? Let's just all feel that. Hasn't that song brought an atmosphere that we haven't experienced tonight? Yeah. Beautiful. Very beautiful.
You know, the lyricism of the later 40s tango is not here yet, but it's there in that song. And it's not something you're going to hear if you go and now listen to the Canaro interpretation, maybe not even with the Fresedo interpretation. But let's listen to some other Fresedo. It's a nice transition to him because it's quite romantic also and at this period a bit different from the other orchestras of 39. And I want to play one with this new singer Ricardo Ruiz called Y no pudo ser.
Just to point something out to people, so I guess most of you will know now about Gristel, the famous tango of Trolla from 1942 with lyrics from Contorsi being about a real woman, a real life woman Susana Viganò who lived in a small village in a Cordoba at this time. But they'd already met, I think they met for the first time in 36, and this is one of the first songs that really is in this cycle. So means it could not be so, this is Contursi beginning to write lyrics about his love for this woman because he's already married when he meets her and falls in love with her. And he's decided that he will not, like his father, be a bad husband and father and he will not leave his wife, so he's entering into this terrible moral tension that's going to generate all these great lyrics like Grisel and many others. Um, we can only imagine that Troiler was definitely performing this in 1939 and we'll just have to wonder what that must have sounded like, but at least we've got this version because Troiler wrote the music, didn't he? Yeah.
And after that, let's hear a bit unusual Fresedo song, Poglia, an instrumental tango. It's a bit different. I think it's nice. Yeah, the Fresedo instrumentals are interesting in these years. Let's go. Fresedo.
A new singer with Fresedo; Lavocah links the lyric to Contursi's cycle on a real woman, music by Troilo.
♪ Música · 3:20 ·
A sweet, playful, slightly odd instrumental showing the piano as decoration, like a harp.
All right, Polyja there. Nice and sweet and playful. Lots of comments in the chat window. And I want to pick up on just one. I can't pick up on all the comments. So Mats Roo, I think we saw each other the last time in Lofoten, said, oh, in the second one, the piano is more... So if I would just turn that around, the piano in the first one had a different function to the piano in every other band.
So the piano has the greatest range of notes, and generally speaking it's the spine, the axis, the backbone of an orchestra. It organizes and joins all the instruments together, and the other instruments which have only certain parts of the range hang off this axis. But not in the Fresedo orchestra. The piano does not have this central function and it's there just to decorate. It's like the harp. The way Fresedo writes for the piano is like the way he writes for the harp, and that was really clear in the first track, still a bit like that in the second one as well.
Let's hear one more last Fresedo song, and this is one of my favorites. It's the last with Roberto Ray singing and it's from January 3rd 1939. I'm kind of sad he goes. I mean, I like Ruiz with Fresedo, but I like Ray Moore and I think we all do. Yeah, and the song, the tango is well, well verse, oh this is absolutely top. It's got a great riff. Um, yeah, you'll just hear there's a riff, you know, in guitar music we talk about riffs and tango music sometimes has riffs. And the uh ultimate example of that is the band you're going to end with tonight, I'm guessing, Dag, Juan D'Arienzo. But sometimes Fresedo has riffs as well. Small phrases, if I say classically motif, but motif can be something a bit longer. You'll hear it when you play it. Excellent, excellent track. It's a track that even people who don't love Fresedo will love. Let's see what the comments are. Fresedo, Vuelves, Roberto Ray.
Ray's last recording with Fresedo, with a great riff; a track even non-Fresedo fans love.
♪ Música · 2:21 ·
Imagine dancing to this on a Sunday afternoon after a whole weekend of tango. Oh man, you're killing me. Yeah. Very beautiful and yeah. Harp like piano. Yeah, true, wonderful.
Let's go to Edgardo Donato, and we listen to a lot of Donato, especially from the early years and the tango by ear, and there are some stunning songs to hear. But in terms of dance music, I think this might be one of Donato's best years. He has a lot of really good numbers. Yeah. And Lita Morales is a woman singer, comes on board and starts recording. And she must be the most, I think, most Play That Milongas woman singer, because she really sings for dancers. It's a dance singer.
That's right. I mean, there were other female singers singing with orchestras típicas in the late 1930s, 30s, but they didn't get to make records. So she's one of the only examples that we have on disc to imagine the breadth of the scene at this time. And this year she sings with her husband, Horacio Lagos. And also she sings with another man. Yeah. Yeah. The first one she has a duo with, not duo, but she sings with Horacio Lagos, Sombra gaucha. And the second song I want to play with her is Carnaval de mi barrio. And they both have this beautiful violin played counter melody, if you listen for it. And in the second one, Carnaval de mi barrio, I think also the third vocalist of Donato, Romo Gavioli, comes in on the refrain and choruses together with Horacio.
And we know the story. We can learn the story. The wheels are going to come off. Yeah, but here the wagon is going at full speed. So let's listen to Donato, Sombra gaucha and Carnaval de mi barrio.
With Lita Morales; Donato's violin counter-melody, played for his best dance year.
Lo bailan · 2 de 3
♪ Música · 2:55 ·
With Horacio Lagos and Romo Gavioli joining the chorus.
Lo bailan · 5 de 76
Easy to get happy from listening to Donato. We could easily listen to a lot more and I think we probably all could. Yeah. Joyful. Let's hear a couple more.
It's interesting, what we're listening to here is a trend in the music that's about to die out. So folks, all of you here, 121 of you listening to us, um, we think of Donato as a band that's different and unique and special and not like any of the other bands, but that's not true because we're just thinking about what's recorded. There were other bands that sounded a lot like Donato, driven by pizzicato and manned violin players, like Ernesto Ponzi's band, which was very big in 1933, but didn't have a recording contract. And this tendency is now coming to an end. It's about to die out as it's replaced by two new tendencies, the hard music of D'Arienzo and then the post-Icarian music spearheaded by Troilo integrating the lyric. But while it lasts, it's wonderful. Yeah.
And Donato has, I think, both nice waltzes and nice milongas. And we'll hear one of his milongas, De punta a punta. It's with Horacio Lagos singing. That's it. Yeah? Or do you want to say something about it? Oh, hit it. Yeah. The kind of medium speed is Donato milongas. Very nice for dancing, I think. He has a lot of variety in the speeds. I mean, he has some very slow milongas, like his version of El Torrito, which is a very early recording, very early composition of Viloldo from the 1900s, from the first decade, from the noughties. And then he has super fast ones as well. So he's not afraid to invent. This is about medium speed, I think. And as far as I know, it's the only recording of this milonga. De punta a punta.
A medium-speed Donato milonga, probably the only recording of it, with a bubbly piano.
Lo bailan · 5 de 29
♪ Música · 1:47 · La letra, en la página del tango
Yeah, horse, horse milonga, it's like riding. It is, but lots of milongas are like that, aren't they? Yeah, and uh, the piano is a bit bubbly at times. It reminds me of early Biagi also. I hear what you mean. It's not so aggressive, is it? But I hear what you mean. And this is still his brother Osvaldo on piano.
Okay, it's time for the king of the beat. Juan D'Arienzo. And it's not going to be the last orchestra night. I kept some for you after. Oh, I'm really curious how you're going to finish. Where you can go after D'Arienzo. I'm curious. But Michael, is this the best D'Arienzo year ever?
Oh god, yes. The bold statement, but I was thinking it. I'm thinking maybe it is. I maybe it is, and D'Arienzo has different qualities in different years. If I want a playful year for D'Arienzo, I choose 1936. If I want um an explosive, refreshing year, I choose 1951. But for sheer intensity, 1939 can't be beaten. And most of us here tonight don't know it as well as we think we do, because for a long time you couldn't get all the tracks, you could just get a certain selection. So we know a certain selection very well, but there isn't a bad track from the D'Arienzo orchestra in the 1930s. 35 to 39, it's 116 tracks, right? They're all good, but we knew roughly half of those because of what was reissued and was easy for us to get.
He's awesome, and another reason that this is his best year is that this is the year where he is leading the musical development of the nation. Troilo is not, he's going to be doing that in a few years' time, but right now D'Arienzo is showing the way and he has to shoggle on board. Still, he's got his best singer, the singer that most suits the orchestra and in his best era. Echagüe, if I can just say what I really think. Okay, so Echagüe has three periods with the orchestra. There's this period now in the 30s, which reaches its peak in the recordings we're going to hear tonight. Then the second period is at the end of the 40s, where it's a more romantic and more lyrical Echagüe and a more lyrical D'Arienzo. And then there's the third period that comes much later. Now that third period is rubbish. Sorry. But it's nonsense because it's just a pastiche of what went before with Echagüe and Laborde and all the singers singing with a really deep and excessive vibrato to hide the fact that their voice is going. But that's not true here. This is awesome. This is pure force and it's setting an example for the rest of the nation to follow.
“I think Echagüe never sang better than he did in 1939. The D'Arienzo beat is never stronger and harder than it was in 1939.”
I think Echagüe never sang better than he did in 1939. The D'Arienzo beat is never stronger and harder than it was in 1939. The keys were never banged harder on the piano than they were by Juan Polito in 1939, although he does have a good go when he comes back in the 50s and 60s. Yeah. And we still have Matzeo on first violin. And that's another reason why this is the, maybe the best year for D'Arienzo, which is something I never thought about before you said it now, Dag, but I'm a believer.
D'Arienzo's best year. Why didn't you put that on the photograph on the Facebook event? Let's start with the waltz with Echagüe singing. Recuerdos de la Pampa. Awesome. I won't say anything in case I make a mistake, but I will just go and check.
Well, I can tell you that because I read about this in your D'Arienzo book that you write about this piece, that there's an interesting story behind it. So this is Duclos? It is. The bass player. Yes. The bass player who's about to meet his maker, who's about to get sacked. But, oh gosh, he writes it when he's with Francisco Canaro back in 1930 or something. Yeah, even earlier. But it's recorded by Francisco Canaro in 1931, you write in your book. Yeah.
And not a song we can hear tonight, but a very interesting song. Do compare this one, folks, if you have the opportunity with the much earlier recording of Francisco Canaro. And this is one of the only pieces composed by Duclos, who's gone down in history as a second-rate bass player. But boy, what a composition. He really pulls out all the stops here and he's on fire. Let's hear it.
A waltz composed by the bassist Duclos, first recorded by Canaro in 1931; D'Arienzo's version is on fire.
Lo bailan · 5 de 222
♪ Música · 1:23 ·
Oh, fantastic, Wolves. Bam! Burn, baby, burn! What's next? What's next? Come on, give me another. We need, we need more. Yeah, yeah.
Let's listen to both sides of a record recorded on the 17th of July. On the A side, the instrumental. Oh, right there's a magnificent interaction between the piano and runs and the double bass. And on the B side, you remember, Michael? No, you don't. Milonga del recuerdo. Milonga memories. Yeah. What a record. Imagine coming home from the record store. And even though the list price was two pesos, you probably had to pay two pesos 50 to be allowed to take one home.
Nice that you mentioned the double bass player of the double bass. This is one of the changes that's happened with the orchestra. When Juan Polito came on board, one of his first actions was to recruit a stronger double bass player. And he recruited Pedro Caracciolo to double the base of Duclos. Who is Pedro Caracciolo? He's the double base player that we heard at the end of last week's program playing double base on Derecho viejo. So one of the top double base players in Buenos Aires at this time. I know that Anse has two double base players. He does, but you can only hear one on the records because one of them is so much more strong and vigorous than the other. It's time for Derecho viejo and Milonga del recuerdo.
Instrumental with a magnificent interaction between piano runs and the double bass.
Lo bailan · 5 de 26
Lavocah notes the 'cadencia' that violinist Matzeo gives the milonga phrasing.
Lo bailan · 5 de 566
Best year, best year ever of the Ransom. Something I really appreciated, maybe for the first time, or consciously for the first time, was the cadenzia in that milonga. Cadencia is one of these mysterious words. What it means is the swing that takes you through the frets. Because sometimes D'Arienzo milongas just feel like bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. But not here. There is a sense of phrasing. It's not really contained in the melody, but Matseo's contribution on violin really gives you the feeling for how to construct your phrases. So it's, D'Arienzo are sometimes good by accident. And Matzeo's contribution here may be something that D'Arienzo himself doesn't appreciate, is to give some sense of phrasing in the milonga. Hmm. Yeah.
We've got to listen to some more D'Arienzo. And his final record this year is from December 22nd, and there are two tangos on it. It's the last one with the D'Arienzo Polito Orchestra also.
And sometimes there are stories that are true, but they're not true. So, you know, the word myth, the word myth can be interpreted in many different ways. Today, the word myth is almost a pejorative, seen as a negative thing. But that's not true. In the past, the myth was the highest truth there was, higher than truth itself. And the best definition of myth I ever heard, I can't remember who said this, I think it was Joseph Campbell's son actually, anyway, the definition goes: a myth is a story that's false on the outside but true on the inside.
Capítulo · 2:03:44
A record that predicted a walkout
The titles of D'Arienzo's last Polito session were a premonition.
“A myth is a story that's false on the outside but true on the inside.”
Now these two recordings that Dag is going to play for us now are the final recordings of the orchestra that made D'Arienzo famous, because the whole band, every man jack, including the singer, is going to quit. And it's possible to read a message to posterity from the titles. Because what are the titles? The band quits, D'Arienzo can't understand why, because he thinks, you know, it's great for them to be with me, they're earning lots of money and being famous. The titles are Por qué razón, which means for what reason, why, and Trago amargo. Trago means a draft, a drink, amargo, bitter, bitter draft, more commonly to say today a bitter pill.
So we can read this final record, D'Arienzo are choosing the titles from their vast repertoire as a commentary on the situation. What a bitter pill to swallow. Why are they leaving? But it turns out it's rubbish, because the band don't resign until February, more than two months after these titles are recorded. But nevertheless, somehow it's like a premonition that the titles convey a message about what's about to happen. And they are awesome recordings. Um, now let me get this right. Uh, help me out here, man. Which one's the instrumental and which one's the vocal?
Por qué razón is instrumental. So I played that last, and Trago amargo with Echagüe singing. So D'Arienzo never sounded better, in my opinion, than he did on this record. But in the final one, the instrumental one, there are so many phases to the song. So often with an instrumental song, two and a half minutes and it's done because you've run out of things to say. Not here. They manage to keep generating novelty. And to do that, at a certain point, they have to bring the music back in before they explode again, which is something D'Arienzo forgets to do in the 1950s. Another reason why it's his best year, there's modulation of power. There's still some sense of restraint.
Fantastic. And this Por qué razón is more than three minutes long. Exactly. It's unusual for D'Arienzo this time. Exactly. Not two and a half minutes, but nearly three and a half minutes. Yeah, I remember the first time I heard this, because it's not on any of the Argentine CDs, so it took a while before I got to hear this. I was just blown away, and if you've never heard this, you're going to be blown away. Imagine dancing to this in 1939. Europe is at war, Europe is at war. You are second generation European, your parents are emigrants from Spain or Italy or Poland or the Ukraine. The front page of the newspaper every day and most of the pages inside are telling you about how your family is dying at home. And this is the sound that's coming into your ears. Tarantso, wartangos.
From the last session of the Polito-era band, whose titles read like a premonition ('bitter pill').
Lo bailan · 5 de 117
♪ Música · 2:00 ·
More than three minutes of instrumental, unusually long for D'Arienzo, with a modulation of power; not on the Argentine CDs.
Lo bailan · 5 de 82
What a final act from that first D'Arienzo band. Tonight, it's the best D'Arienzo song ever. I didn't think that before, but now I do. I have not been listening to much D'Arienzo during the pandemic for lots of reasons. I mean, it's not gentle music, and we're not living in a moment where we feel at our greatest strength. We all feel a bit vulnerable right now. So different people react to that differently. But for me, my reaction is if I come to tango music cold, this is just a bit too strong for me. But after two hours of being with all of you and listening together to music, I'm ready to listen to it again. And I feel the gravity of this music pulling me.
And it's a slightly difficult feeling to feel, to experience, because there are no milongas in the UK at the moment. And I don't expect there to be for at least six months and maybe a bit longer. So it's a difficult feeling to feel. But God, the energy and intensity. I just want to pick up on the chat window. It's not like Biagi in my opinion. I don't think the piano sound is like Biagi. It has elements of Biagi in that it's surprising, but the way that Polito hits the keys is immediately different to the way that Biagi hits the keys. It's about power and not about when you hit, that's a Biagi sound, he does not do that.
Goodness gosh, it's this 1939. It's going to be difficult to come down after this year. Very difficult, man. Oh man, I thought maybe after this injection of pure adrenaline in, we could need something to cool down a little bit before the end. And I want to play a couple of tangos from the old world. And we've had this in our previous programs. We've had some, listened to some tangos from other parts of the world and Argentina, Uruguay. We went to Poland, we went to Germany, to France, United States, Japan, Turkey, Mexico. And to Russia? Yeah, at the after party. And tonight's also I've come to Russia in the main part. And you played, because you played Alexander Vertinsky, I think, in 1933 after party. Yes. Yeah.
And but there are some really nice tangos from, well, not really Russian, I mean, to be historically precise you should say from the Soviet Union, because this is 1939. And I have two Soviet tangos for you. The first one is called Осень, which means autumn, and it was recommended to me by two Russian savvy tango friend Sasha Franklin, I think she lives in London, and Merk Merkulova. Yes, the DJ from St. Petersburg. Sasha's with us tonight listening to the program. Hi Sasha, nice. And who's performing this tango?
This is Vadim Kozin. He wrote four of these, he wrote it himself, and he wrote four of these because it's inspired by Vivaldi's Four Seasons, violin concerts. 20 years before Piazzolla's Four Seasons. And as Sasha wrote in her comment to me about this, I noticed the slow abonero milongo rhythm in this first tango, and the lyrics are metaphoric about life's seasons. A man's facing life's autumn and he's singing of his summer love, and to his beloved this as, don't leave, when you are here it's like spring. Oh! Beautiful, it's romantic and sad and it's very, I'm just thinking about this, was recorded in Russia in 1939.
Yeah, well, I mean, what we can say about tango in Europe, maybe this was something to say in the introduction, but it's better now, so the epicenter of tango in Europe in 1939 is Poland, absolutely, and not Paris, where they have a very particular feeling for tango, but nevertheless, it's the most creative part. The cabaret scene, cabaret is an outlet where you can express emotions and thoughts, which you can't express in wider society. Not in Argentina, but in Europe, the Weimar cabaret and the Polish cabaret are fulfilling this function. I've lost my thread now. I really can't remember what I was going to say. Thank you, bye. We can hear it and we can talk about that for everyone. So, awesome. Awesome. Autumn by Vadim Kozin.
Capítulo · 2:17:21
The tango world of Poland
In 1939 the centre of tango in Europe was Poland, and then it vanished.
A Soviet tango inspired by Vivaldi's four seasons, with a slow habanera-milonga rhythm; recommended by two Russian tango friends.
♪ Música · 3:03 ·
Beautiful, different, and intense. It takes a moment to tune in to a very different sensibility, but then, yeah, it's killer. Thank you, Sasha, for the translation to English also. Yes, thank you. And I want to play one more also suggested by Sasha, by Grigory Vinogradov. I return your portrait. And the story is that there's a tradition of a lover giving her portrait to her man. And this song is about him returning the portrait because she's left him.
Yeah, so it's, uh, well, this was the case two generations ago in all our countries, you know, perhaps not for those of you who are in your 20s listening to us tonight, but those of you who are my age or Dag's age, maybe your parents had portraits of their partners, maybe you can remember that. And quiz time. No, not quiz time. I'll just tell you. So this is also present in Argentine tango. What's the second? That was the first line. The second line, I just ask for my portrait. So you would give your portrait to your lover. But then if you broke up, in this particular case, they asked for it back.
So this is a universal thing in the world at that time where you don't have a mobile phone with a picture on it. The only picture you have is a printed picture from a camera that's been sent to you. So to ask for it back is a very strong gesture. It is. Because after that, you don't have any image of that person. Something that's almost impossible for us to imagine now where the image is ubiquitous. But that's how it was. So we'll listen to this one, another sad tango, before we end on a bit more jolly tone after.
A Soviet tango, 'I return your portrait', about a man handing back the lover's picture; Lavocah praises the quiet, unangry lyric.
♪ Música · 1:48 ·
Wow, what Vinagradov does with his voice there at the end. It's just fabulous.
Vadim Kozin I knew, but this artist I never heard of. I've never listened to this tango. I don't know this tango at all. The lyric is, yeah, oh, it's when someone speaks to you without anger and just tells the truth, that can be the most devastating thing there is. Like if you've upset somebody and they're angry with you, that's more bearable than when they're not angry with you. And this tango, like that, the other person isn't angry, they just tell the truth. Uh, it's going to take me a bit of time to digest that, and um, I shall be listening to this again after the program. It's a killer.
And I'm imagining this, uh, this tango and the singer with a more, she was a sophisticated orchestra, because the music gear is very pedestrian. I think you can say it's very standard and just a bit more sensitive music.
Yes, it is.
But then don't we see similar traces, for example, in Canaro and the Orquesta Típica Victor? Keep the rhythmic bass very simple so that the dancers can concentrate on the melodic line. That's what this music is about. It's about allowing you to appreciate the melody, not about rhythmic variation, which is perhaps too African for the European audience. And Russian tango continued.
But so my reflections before you played these numbers, Dag, were, of course, Poland was the epicenter of tango music in Europe in the late 1930s, and 90% of those musicians were Jewish. So um come well September so where we are right now, this whole musical world is extinguished and it never comes back. Yeah, yeah, yes.
“Poland was the epicenter of tango music in Europe in the late 1930s, and 90% of those musicians were Jewish.”
So uh thanks again Sasha for uh sending me those uh those names of the songs, and uh she says she's going to send you more stuff on Vinogrado, Michael. So that's good.
I look forward to that. I always like to hear new things and make broader connections with our music.
Let's finish with some more optimistic tone with Julio De Caro of all people. I've been waiting for Julio De Caro, and I, once we got to D'Arienzo, I wasn't sure if we'd hear him tonight. We'll hear him now. But it's very interesting, Julio De Caro, in this year. At the same time, confused and disoriented by D'Arienzo, but also following his own line, both things at once. He's almost like a split personality.
Tell us what you've chosen for us.
I want to play Ay, Aurora, with Héctor Farrel singing. Which is also recorded by D'Arienzo in this year.
Yeah, yeah. And this is the B-side of a record recorded on May 23rd. And on the A-side, which I played last, it's a very interesting instrumental tango, El monito. And this is a De Caro composition. And so lots of musical things going on. I find it impossible not to smile when I hear this tango. It's extremely inventive. De Caro, 39, 40, 41, these years is nothing if not inventive. Feel good, De Caro, folks. Enjoy.
The B side of a record also covered by D'Arienzo the same year; De Caro is inventive but confused by D'Arienzo's success.
♪ Música · 1:25 ·
A De Caro composition, with whistling, that Dag describes as a young person with too many ideas.
Isn't that fun? With the whistling and everything going on. It's a bit like, not a teenager, but a young person who's got too many ideas. It's so creative. It's so creative, but too many ideas to make it truly coherent. But fantastic. Fantastic. I love it.
It's not very commercial, it's almost surprising that De Caro got to record his stuff in 39. He must have had a big name.
Well, I mean, De Caro was god in the late 20s, but you're absolutely right to say that um he's not very commercial. De Caro disappears entirely in, is it, 44, for about five years, and the reason is because he lends his name to a musician strike, and his strike is not very successful. So he's just rubbed out. But he doesn't care by this point.
Capítulo · 2:35:17
A De Caro without the lawyer's recommendation
Without this man there's no Pugliese, no Troilo, no Laurenz.
De Caro is a very difficult figure to understand, really. Not to understand, to comprehend. Because he embarked on an extremely difficult life path. He chose for Tango, which meant that he was kicked out of his house by his father. And then he really created a musical vocabulary that was used by so many other musicians, but they made better music than he did in a way, you know, they took his vocabulary and built on it. And it's only, yeah, it was only, well, not outgrown, but he did the work without which tango couldn't have happened, and then only at the end of his life. I think you have to look at De Caro's life in its entirety, at the whole arc of his career, to really understand what he did. Let's put it this way. You just listen to that. Maybe you liked it. Maybe you didn't. But without what you just heard, there's no Pugliese. There's no Troilo. There's no Laurence. That's the way to think about it.
“Without what you just heard, there's no Pugliese. There's no Troilo. There's no Laurenz.”
Yeah, we should thank him for many things. We should, and he suffered a lot. He didn't speak to his father for 20 years.
Yeah, it's getting late, so uh we should round off, and as we always do we'll play a composita, but before that I should say thank you to everyone, and to you, Michael, especially. Always a pleasure.
I want to say thank you to you, Dag, but also to all the people who join us. I can't imagine these times without us gathering together to share the joy of listening to music. It sustains me, you know. I'm the person who's trying to give you notes about the songs, but our meeting together like this really is uh something that supports me so much in my life at the moment. So I'm very, very grateful for these meetings.
So, composita, before we get too sentimental, Michael. And what's the composita for tonight?
As far as I know, there are four versions from this year. There's a Japanese one. We won't hear that because we've heard a Japanese one before. There's one by Charlo, which could be nice, but I played a Charlo version in 1951, and also I didn't actually find a recording of this one, just heard a preview. But I want to play one by Eduardo Bianco recorded in Berlin in 1939. So this is European tango. But I think there's something more to this composita. I find it really intriguing and I'm curious what you think. It's a slow burner. It's a long one and it gets better and better, I think. Listen to the solos. There are lots of them. It's very special. Should we hear it?
Let's listen. I look forward to hearing this with all of you.
Dag's Cumparsita of the year, recorded in Berlin, with many solos including a piano octave solo like those being developed in Buenos Aires.
♪ Música · 4:23 · La letra, en la página del tango
That's a special composita, Dag.
It is, isn't it? It's so sensitive.
Very. I haven't listened to that for years. I didn't listen to it preparing for this program. I haven't listened to it for years. And it reminds me, not so much in the sound, but in its conception, of the comparsitas of Julio De Caro and Orquesta Típica Victor, where they use the structure of the pieces, the possibility to make many, many, many variations. And that's what Bianco does there. So on the one hand, yes, European tango has separated from Argentine tango and developed in a European direction, but in other ways it has remained connected. It's not always so clear in the European recordings, but for instance when quite early on, about one minute 30 or so, there was a piano solo, it was the octave piano that is being developed in Buenos Aires at this very time. So although they're playing for different audiences, the two audiences are clearly in touch with each other. The musicians are in touch. And I can't help think about when I hear this the mood in Europe in 1939 and the looming disaster.
So I'll stop sharing. So if you want, Michael, you can play some music.
Dag, thank you so much for tonight. And I have to say, it's not so easy to continue at this point, but we're here together and I'm so grateful that you were all here with us. So let's continue. I'll start off with a Cortina, a one track Cortina. Dag, at the beginning you played some, you know, very sweet jazz numbers, but I want to play something that's not sweet to introduce the second part of the evening from Artie Shaw. So of the swing bands, you know, Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, they were the most successful. Tommy Dorsey actually more successful at the time, thought of at the second level now. Artie Shaw, not really very much appreciated at the time, a rather intellectual music.
Afterparty cortina.
♪ Música · 3:01 ·
Yeah, Artie Shaw! Come on, people. Glenn Miller, 39. Yeah, easy to like. I could easily play half a dozen Glenn Miller tracks. You'd love it. But Artie Shaw, you need to listen to Artie Shaw. Another track I'm not going to play, but have you ever heard the phrase, Deep Purple? One of the biggest rock bands of the 70s and 80s. Deep Purple is the title of an Artie Shaw jazz track from 1939. There's your homework. Go and listen to that.
Now, there's been a lot of chat in the chat window. So tonight, Dag, I'm so pleased, in fact, that you played some European tangos. And there's been a lot of chat about them and the relationship to Argentine tangos and what's better and what's not, and so on and so on. But I want to say it's a complicated subject. You know, it's very easy to say, oh, European tango, it's rubbish. The rhythm is bad. That's what I used to think 10 years ago, you know, boring, no syncopation, blah, blah, blah, which is true. But it's a bit of a complex topic.
And so I don't collect 78 RPM records because I can't afford to. You need to have a lot of money to do that now. It's really become a very expensive topic, but very occasionally I do acquire a record or two. I don't have an important collection, not at all. Please don't think that. But I acquired a record that really forced me to change my opinion, because what I discovered is that the musicians who were in Paris in the late 30s played differently according to whether they were playing for a European audience or a specialist audience. So now I'm going to play for you a tango called El Mutsac. I've no idea what it means, perhaps one of the native, I've just typed in the chat window. It's not a word in any of the dictionaries I've looked at, but if somebody in Argentina knows what that means, could they please tell us. Now when you listen to this it's wild and crazy and different, but it turns out that the band is the band of Quintín Verdú, which we know is making very nice sweet music in Paris, but under a different name they make Argentine sounding music for a specialist European audience. So here's something I think most of you will never have heard, and the rubric under which they record is the orchestra of English tangos. Have a listen to this.
A wild Argentine-sounding side the Paris band recorded under the name 'orchestra of English tangos' for a specialist audience; Lavocah does not know the title's meaning.
♪ Música · 2:25 ·
Oh, my God. I think I've just recalibrated the European idea of what tango was like in Europe in 1939. Isn't that amazing? So basically, all these musicians were in close contact with Argentina, and they mostly played in a certain way because of what they thought would sell. But if they had the opportunity to play in a different way, they did that.
So, of course, that wasn't an Argentine 100% tango. But leaning much more in a European direction, there were solos, there was syncopation, there were triplets, constant variation through the piece in the Modelo de Marcato, what the backbeat was. All those guys could do that, but they didn't, even in 39. Not in 29, not in 25, not in 1913, but in 39, there was still this big connection. The musicians were able, not the band and the on players, that was the problem, but in general they could do that. How about that? Really interesting, and I'm sure there's lots more for all of us, myself included, to discover about that time in terms of how music was.
Now okay, uh, before we get on to Daddy and so, which is something we have to do, um, let's listen to Roberto Zerrillo. So Roberto Zerrillo, you may recall, was Donato's partner in 1929 and 1930, and then they went their separate ways because Zerrillo had a romantic liaison with Azucena Maizani, a happy romantic liaison. How rare is that in the tango world? But he returned to recording in 1939, and the track we're going to listen to is El taita, which is a very famous tango. I'll just type it in the chat window, El taita. You'll know this probably from the recording of the Orquesta Típica Victor, but what about this recording from Roberto Zerrillo in 1939?
Zerrillo returned to recording in 1939; the tango is better known from Típica Victor.
♪ Música · 2:17 ·
Something a bit different. So we said at the beginning of the program that 1939 is not a very diverse year. I want to play one track from the Orquesta Típica Victor. And I think I may play a couple of tracks of Canaro before we move into D'Arienzo. I'm almost a bit frightened of it because of the intensity of that.
Orquesta Típica Victor. There's one track I'm not aware of a really high quality transfer anywhere in the world. There may be one, and I'm sure somebody's going to type in the chat window in just a few seconds time. Here's an Orquesta Típica Victor track from 1939. Tijuana.
An OTV track for which Lavocah knows of no high-quality transfer.
♪ Música · 2:47 ·
Nice, huh? I wish someone had the good shellac. That's not so bad. But pretty good. Now, you know, once we hit D'Arienzo, that's it. We're on the train and there's no getting off. But before we hit that train, we should listen to a bit of Canaro.
So Canaro from '39 lacks the quality and subtlety of Canaro from '35 to '38 with Maida, but he has his finger on the pulse. He understands the changes that are happening in the world. So I'll play one tango and then a little waltz tanda. The tango, it's, um, an interesting song to play because it's one that we don't know, because it wasn't recorded by any other orchestra. Canaro, from 1939, Vanidad.
A Canaro tango no other orchestra recorded.
Lo bailan · 2 de 4
♪ Música · 1:58 ·
Nice time, Gawal. Probably would have been performed by many other bands, but we don't have recordings. So now we'll have a waltz tanda of Canaro. Here are the titles. So the first two are very well known. The third one, not so well known. For me, the third one is the really special one.
They're all good. They're all nice to enjoy. Noche de estrellas, Night of Stars, Starry Night. El vals del estudiante, The Students' Waltz. But finally, Nostalgia gris, the most unusual and interesting one of those three. Okay. Here we go.
First of a Canaro waltz set.
Lo bailan · 5 de 29
♪ Música · 1:02 · La letra, en la página del tango
I think it's time for something longer. There's so many killer tracks in 1939 that it's literally impossible to play them all in a program like ours. Earlier on Dag played Milonga del recuerdo, which is a beautiful, beautiful milonga. Let's start with one of the most exciting D'Arienzo's as long as ever.
Lavocah starts the D'Arienzo run with one of the most exciting tracks.
♪ Música · 3:10 ·
A D'Arienzo milonga with a guitar-serenade lyric, played before Mandria.
Let's move on from the milonga. How could we not listen to D'Arienzo in 1939 without listening to Mandria?
A tough-guy lyric ('lend me your poncho') at D'Arienzo's most intense.
Lo bailan · 5 de 544
♪ Música · 2:29 · La letra, en la página del tango
D'Arienzo's obsession time. We can't have a 1939 evening without listening to this. Felicia.
Damn! Right, well, let's have a bit of a change. Santa milonguita! You know the happy version of Donato? Let's contrast that to this intensity.
Played as a contrast to Donato's happy side of the same era.
Lo bailan · 5 de 76
♪ Música · 1:52 · La letra, en la página del tango
Oh, he's so bloody good. Right. I have to be careful. You know, too much of this, my brain could explode. Where have we got to? We've had, we haven't had Olvidame, have we?
Can you cope with all this? Let's have someone's asking you for the next session. The next session will be late 40s, but we don't yet know if it's going to be 46 or 48. And that depends on some music releases from a new label that we are expecting but I can't tell you anything about until it's launched, so sorry to leave you on such a cliffhanger. Let's listen to an instrumental before we get back into Por qué razón. This one now, Maipo.
An instrumental to lower the energy slightly before the finale.
Lo bailan · 5 de 102
♪ Música · 2:42 · La letra, en la página del tango
We cannot finish the evening without listening to D'Arienzo's Pampero. Let's just take the energy down a little bit before we explode.
Played to bring the energy down before the final tango.
♪ Música · 2:16 ·
Right then, it's time for the last tango of the evening, a tango from the last session of the D'Arienzo Orchestra in 1939. And if we're talking about that particular orchestra, their last session ever. It's a tango that Dag played earlier in the evening. Por qué razón?
Now there's a number of things I invite you to notice about this performance. The most important thing is the riff. Riff is a word we use normally when we're talking about western guitar-based pop music from the 70s and the 80s. But this tango has got a riff. It's got a six note riff. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. So listen out for that. Every time you hear that, that's like a signpost, a way marker. And it helps you to organize your dancing so that you don't need to memorize the piece.
The next thing to notice is the emotion that's brought by the violin section. The D'Arienzo band is not organized around emotions. That's not its most important feature, but here the violin section brings tremendous feeling. Listen to the violin counter melody that starts about one minute into the piece. And the third thing to notice is the structure, because normally a D'Arienzo tango finishes with a variation from the bandoneons, some showing off fast play to provide a highlight. But this time that's not what happens. You do get a variación, but it's not at the end. When you think it's going to be the end, we get another section with the piano of Juan Polito, who hits the keys really hard. And there's lots more pleasure to be had if you listen to him throughout the piece, both for the fills he makes in the right hand of the piano in the opening verse, but also little fills in the left hand of the piano he makes in the first chorus.
A big thank you to Dag for creating this program. Thanks as well to all of you for joining us. I really mean that. It means a lot to me, and thank you as well to our sponsors. So here we go. D'Arienzo, Por qué razón?
The closing tango from the band's last session, Lavocah points to its six-note riff, violin counter-melody and a variation not at the end.
Lo bailan · 5 de 82
Now since you're all still here, I'll play you out with something. You may not know, but I'm half Danish. My mother is Danish, and therefore I'm aware of a great tenor singer from the 1930s called Axel Schiøtz, who sang not only opera, but also folk songs. So I'm just going to play us out with some folk songs by a great opera singer, a tenor singer, a Dane from 1939. Axel Schiøtz, enjoy them. We'll see you in two weeks. I really thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining us tonight.
Danish folk songs by the tenor, Lavocah's play-out; his mother is Danish.
♪ Música · 10:31 ·
Tango By Year es de Dag Stenvoll y Michael Lavocah, publicado aquí con su permiso. El audio se reproduce desde SoundCloud.