Tango 1950
Dag Stenvoll y Michael Lavocah · 1 de jul de 2020 · 3:47:48
Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah call 1949-50 the biggest change tango music ever had: it emerges from the crisis brought on by government censorship and repression, new local labels break the long Victor-Odeon duopoly, and about nine orchestras record for the first time. Dag plays many obscure new bands (Mancione with Fiorentino, Kaplun, Salgán, D'Alessio, Gobbi, Francini-Pontier) alongside the soloists Marino, Castillo and Rivero. Troilo is out of contract after leaving Victor in 1949 and does not record for around a year, but pushes Piazzolla's modern arrangements; Varela leaves D'Arienzo mid-year, taking singer Laborde, and D'Arienzo has already turned toward the simpler 50s style; Di Sarli does not record; De Caro makes his warmest, best music. Pugliese in 1950 is Dag's favourite year, with Jorge Vidal and Alberto Morán, and the long second hour is a Pugliese fest. The show ends with Rivero's La cumparsita (Buccino orchestra) and a long afterparty.
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Troilo specialEpisodio 13 · 8 de jul de 2020 · 4:24:19Lo que este episodio dio a Tangopedia
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1949 to 1950 is the biggest change tango music ever had: after a crisis brought on largely by government censorship, the censorship lifts and tango refines and reinvigorates itself, with an explosion of new activity.
Mancione signed Fiorentino for two years, though he did not last that long. Victor may have recorded Mancione to fill the gap left by Troilo, who changed label that year.
Away from Troilo, Fiorentino's phrasing is freer and he sits more at the front of an orchestra less flexible than Troilo's.
Mancione told an interviewer that Fiorentino was late for a recording session of Te aconsejo que me olvides because he had missed a flight from Mar del Plata that crashed after takeoff, killing everyone on board except a small child.
Kaplun led his orchestra from the violin, as few did (about half are led from the piano, most of the rest from the bandoneón); he had played the strong violin marcato in early Lucho Demare and was with Miguel Caló before Francini; only about ten sides exist and they did not sell.
A new orchestra whose signing of Fiorentino for two years boosted its popularity; Fiorentino phrases more freely here than with Troilo.
♪ Música · 2:19 · La letra, en la página del tango
Capítulo · 9:33
The plane Fiorentino missed
Tango's most famous singer was late to a recording, and that saved his life.
A violinist-led orchestra on the new Teca label; Dag picks it for the sharp marcato, colourful changes, bow work and an unusual modulation at the end.
Solo en el episodio
♪ Música · 2:29 ·
Capítulo · 19:30
A compliment from Pugliese
Pugliese hugged a rival and said: you captured something of my soul.
Salgán's own tribute to the composer Agustín Bardi, witty and idea-packed with his bubbling upbeat 'umpa umpa' accompaniment.
♪ Música · 2:36 ·
An instrumental from one of D'Alessio's few sides on Teca, slower and not like the well-known Di Sarli version of 1940.
Solo en el episodio
♪ Música · 2:46 · La letra, en la página del tango
Capítulo · 31:00
The singer with a transfer fee
A tango bandleader paid a football-style transfer fee for a singer.
A tango whose title means 'kill her': the narrator is urged in dreams to kill his lost love but blames himself instead.
♪ Música · 2:50 ·
Verlo bailado · 5
Hugo Duval's first recording with Biagi, a country waltz with galloping horses and chirping birds, with less reverb than later Columbia sides.
Verlo bailado · 3
Dark and emotional Gobbi that Dag says reminds him more of Troilo than Pugliese; Maciel, later Pugliese's singer, sings with exquisite phrasing.
♪ Música · 2:34 · La letra, en la página del tango
Verlo bailado · 10
A second recording (after 1945) of an instrumental Dag cannot tell apart from the first, likely made again after the switch to tape masters.
Verlo bailado · 2
A waltz, not the Desencanto tango, apparently the only recording of this piece, sung by Lemos with a very fine vibrato.
Verlo bailado · 7
Capítulo · 57:40
The gentle De Caro
Tango's great modernizer made his warmest music at the end.
Lavocah's top track of 1950 and the best Mi dolor by far; Marcucci wrote it c.1930, and De Caro's warm 1950 band lets the bandoneóns open it and keeps the singer back for more than two minutes.
♪ Música · 3:12 · La letra, en la página del tango
Verlo bailado · 5
Capítulo · 1:03:55
Why Troilo vanished for a year
In 1949 Troilo walked out of Victor, and the repertoire went in the bin.
One of the tangos of the year and Francini-Pontier's most danceable number; Lavocah thinks the double bass here first shows the 'strappata' effect.
♪ Música · 1:48 ·
Marino as a soloist; Artola, Troilo's main arranger in 1941-42, leads the backing orchestra.
Solo en el episodio
♪ Música · 3:35 ·
A Castillo waltz with a backing that puts a pizzicato emphasis on beat two, a pattern similar to La bien pagá.
Solo en el episodio
Dag's pick for Piazzolla's 'étude for modern tango', Troilo's first take on Piazzolla's ideas; cello and double bass carry the intro, then Troilo's bandoneón solo.
♪ Música · 3:21 ·
Verlo bailado · 3
Played for Ruiz, whom Rotundo poached from Troilo for a transfer fee and a car; the quality of the orchestra rises when he sings.
Verlo bailado · 1
Rivero as a soloist with guitar backing after leaving Troilo; Dag prefers his guitar recordings in this period.
Solo en el episodio
♪ Música · 3:35 ·
Rivero with Buccino's orchestra, a lyric about a girl who renamed herself in a French style for the cabarets; the orchestra is not Troilo, but Rivero lifts it.
Solo en el episodio
A solo piano recording of Visca's own composition, melancholic, simple and 'naked', found by Dag through Bernhard's DJ database.
Solo en el episodio
♪ Música · 2:37 ·
Capítulo · 1:53:04
Lomuto's last session
The elder statesman recorded his final tango weeks before he died.
Lomuto's last recording, made on 27 October 1950, very sad and darker than his usual sound.
♪ Música · 2:39 ·
Verlo bailado · 4
The first of the 'double Vidal'; Vidal's deep baritone is described as like an earthquake.
♪ Música · 2:50 · La letra, en la página del tango
Verlo bailado · 7
A lyric about a man who gives a coin to a beggar and recognises a former cabaret hostess from the old marketplace; Lavocah explains 'se le dio vuelta la taba'.
Verlo bailado · 15
Capítulo · 2:08:10
The beggar from the old market
A coin, a covered face, and a woman he once knew.
One of only three compositions by violinist Julio Carrasco, with wild orchestral aggression and one of the most beautiful violin solos in tango.
Verlo bailado · 207
Capítulo · 2:13:50
Take it all, but not her
A tango where a man offers his brother everything he owns, except one thing.
A late-1920s tango whose lyric is a man telling his own brother to take everything but not his woman; Lavocah calls it one of Morán's best.
Verlo bailado · 10
The only one of the year's four La cumparsita recordings worth hearing, Rivero's only recording of the song; Dag bridges to next week's Troilo special.
Solo en el episodio
♪ Música · 2:53 · La letra, en la página del tango
Replayed at the afterparty because listeners asked to hear it again.
Solo en el episodio
♪ Música · 3:05 ·
A rarely heard Gobbi instrumental whose long opening 'chicharra' (a sound effect like a cicada) Lavocah calls sexy.
Verlo bailado · 1
A tango from the woman's point of view warning a man that girls are not toys, in a vigorous De Angelis year.
♪ Música · 2:41 ·
Verlo bailado · 6
Salgán's debut record, a Pugliese composition; the famous bandoneón variation from the trio section is played on the piano, in the middle of the tango.
♪ Música · 3:09 ·
A Di Sarli-like orchestra filling the gap left by Di Sarli's absence, but with an ordinary bandoneón marcato rather than the violin-led Di Sarli one.
♪ Música · 2:19 ·
First of three D'Arienzo instrumentals; the chromatic opening scale shows where the 1950s style is heading.
♪ Música · 2:40 ·
Verlo bailado · 2
Second of the three D'Arienzo instrumentals played as a small set.
A less known third D'Arienzo instrumental that mixes well with the other two; Dag mentions listeners in Belgium play it.
Verlo bailado · 8
A charming milonga written by Troilo; Troilo, out of contract, did not record it until later.
Verlo bailado · 1
A selection of tangos by Aníbal Troilo arranged by pianist Julio Medovoy; Lavocah wanted Dag to hear what the 'other' Caló did.
Solo en el episodio
♪ Música · 2:38 ·
A song Rivero sang with Troilo; Dag asks what it would have sounded like with Troilo in 1950.
Solo en el episodio
♪ Música · 2:03 ·
A warmer treatment of an exciting but cool piece; Pugliese had recorded it in 1948 to support De Caro's comeback.
♪ Música · 1:47 ·
A vocal number by the same singer as Mi dolor, showing another side of De Caro; the double bass is now clearly audible.
♪ Música · 2:34 ·
First of the Pugliese fest: an advanced instrumental that Lavocah says is Beethoven.
♪ Música · 2:50 ·
Verlo bailado · 3
Lavocah calls it '200 proof' Morán, in a tandita of Morán sides.
Solo en el episodio
A Mario Canaro piece (main version by Francisco Canaro) that Pugliese turns into drama and tension, as he did with Pinta brava in 1949.
Verlo bailado · 3
A very little known instrumental; Lavocah thought the title meant horsefly, but the chat suggested it means a horse.
♪ Música · 2:50 ·
Verlo bailado · 1
An instrumental very few people know, a killer with no respite from intensity.
A long-lyric milonga about a benefit dance for a man out of jail that gets out of hand.
La letra, en la página del tango
Verlo bailado · 15
Dag explains barra as a gang of friends, an Argentine Spanish word with no English equivalent.
Verlo bailado · 1
The final song of the night, the last of the remaining Vidal numbers.
Verlo bailado · 3
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Tango By Year es de Dag Stenvoll y Michael Lavocah, publicado aquí con su permiso. El audio se reproduce desde SoundCloud.