Tango 1941
Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah · 9 Apr 2020 · 1:59:57
Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah spend their first Tango By Year on 1941, one of Lavocah's favourite tango years and the last year of the music's initial fast, rhythmical explosion. Troilo finally escapes a three-year dead-end record contract and signs with Victor, launching his breakout year; D'Arienzo, a year into a rebuilt orchestra arranged by Héctor Varela, is playing as fast as he ever will and gains singer Héctor Mauré. Biagi, D'Agostino, Laurenz, Caló, Fresedo, Di Sarli, Firpo and Tanturi are each finding or defending a personal sound, while Julio De Caro, tango's great modernizer, has lost direction chasing D'Arienzo's success and now makes music too undanceable for the milonga. All of it plays out against the war in Europe, which Buenos Aires' Italian and Spanish immigrant communities follow in the daily papers even as the tango world dances on.
0% heard
1:59:57 left
Up next, as released
Tango 1944Episode 2 · 15 Apr 2020 · 2:35:33What this episode gave Tangopedia
Facts said in the episode, each now cited to the minute it is said.
1941 is the year Troilo finally signs his record deal with Victor, after being stuck for three years in a dead-end contract with a label that would not record him.
1941 is the last year of tango's accelerated, fast-tempo explosion that began at the end of the 1930s, playing out while first- and second-generation Spanish and Italian Argentines followed the European war daily in the papers.
By 1941 D'Arienzo had lost his whole orchestra over money; the new band, a year old, was arranged and run by Héctor Varela.
The orchestra D'Arienzo lost had recorded La Bruja, Pénsalo bien and (probably) Mandria; none of its members carried over into the 1941 band.
Mauré joined D'Arienzo in 1941 as a young singer with a rich, creamy voice that would have a big impact on the band over the following years.
Chapter · 4:15
The year Troilo finally got his deal
Three years stuck in a contract that wouldn't record him. Then 1941 happened.
The first recording with D'Arienzo's new singer Héctor Mauré, whose rich, creamy voice would shape the band for the next couple of years.
♪ Music · 2:46 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 11
Picked for violinist Cayetano Puglisi's solo in the final 30 seconds, which Lavocah compares in his book to the sound of a bee.
Chapter · 13:13
The bee in the violin
Listen for the bee in the last 30 seconds.
Chapter · 14:15
The pianist who got fired and landed on his feet
D'Arienzo's star pianist got fired in June. By August he had his own band.
An instrumental chosen to show Biagi's super-sharp, surprising marcato, with the piano filling in everywhere without dominating.
♪ Music · 2:51 ·
Watch it danced · 29
A Biagi composition sung by Jorge Ortiz, played to show the bandoneón's low tremolo under the vocal and Biagi's trick false ending.
Watch it danced · 23
One of the D'Agostino-Vargas classics most dancers already know, from the first batch D'Agostino recorded that year starting in July.
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 144
Stenvoll changed his mind and played this dialogue song instead of the planned El Choclo, to show D'Agostino's softer, more relaxed sound after the high-energy tracks before it.
Only in the episode
One of Troilo's best-known 1941 recordings, with lyrics by Cadícamo describing a real room he and his friends used to rent.
♪ Music · 1:55 ·
Watch it danced · 51
An energetic Troilo instrumental played to show the band's more complex music: the left-hand piano runs, a David Díaz violin solo, and a true counter-melody from second violin Barrales.
Only in the episode
Chapter · 44:51
The orchestra nobody could dance to
He invented modern tango. By 1941 he'd lost the plot.
Played to demonstrate De Caro's missing marcato: the double bass just plays another melodic line instead of marking the beat, so dancers lose the pulse.
♪ Music · 1:57 ·
A well-known, inventive, rhythmically rich Laurenz instrumental, chosen to show how he made De Caro's complexity more danceable.
♪ Music · 3:00 ·
Watch it danced · 11
A rarely-played track Stenvoll had just rediscovered, only available in poor sound quality, recorded near the end of December.
Chapter · 1:00:53
Argentina's only two record labels
After 1931, tango had just two record labels left - and one of them barely bothered with you.
One of only four sides Caló recorded in 1941 after years stuck in Odeon's contract limbo; Stenvoll played the vals from that session.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 3:20 ·
A well-known tango that Troilo also recorded the same year; Stenvoll chose to play Caló's version of it.
Only in the episode
Played to contrast Fresedo's smooth, romantic sound against the high-energy orchestras heard earlier in the evening.
♪ Music · 2:21 ·
Watch it danced · 7
A deeply characteristic Fresedo mood piece, recorded on the last days of the year and, Lavocah notes, probably the last 1941 recording played that night.
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 299
Stenvoll's one exception to his rule against playing Canaro from this era: an instrumental he felt was good and not recorded by other orchestras.
♪ Music · 1:00 ·
A track Lavocah calls a perfect three-minute story, building to a beautiful climax, and an underplayed example of Lomuto's work.
Only in the episode
A choppy, energetic Di Sarli instrumental from May, played to contrast with the more lyrical December track that follows.
♪ Music · 3:00 ·
Watch it danced · 21
A far more lyrical December recording with new singer Roberto Rufino, showing how quickly Di Sarli's 1941 sound matured away from his choppier early-year, D'Arienzo-like tracks.
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 17
Chapter · 1:46:14
The doctor who could sing
Tanturi found his singer at a hospital dance.
An early-year, up-tempo Tanturi-Castillo track showing the pairing that had just found its footing.
♪ Music · 1:06 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 244
One of only four full-orchestra tangos Firpo recorded in 1941, chosen to show him chasing relevance in the D'Arienzo era.
A slower, more lyrical instrumental from later in the year, played to show Tanturi's sound shifting over 1941.
Only in the episode
The second of two rarely-heard 1941 Firpo instrumentals, with busy, octave-handed piano playing (likely Carlos García, conducting by this point).
Chapter · 1:54:56
Tango's missing year
Over 300 recordings of La Cumparsita. Only two years have none.
Closing track: no version of La Cumparsita exists from 1941 at all, so Stenvoll used the closest recording, from mid-November 1940.
♪ Music · 4:00 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 4
Follow through every episode
Tango By Year is Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah's, published here with their permission. The audio plays from SoundCloud.