Tango 1955

0:30Welcome to 1955, people. And Señor Lavocah, how's it going on that little island of yours?

1:02Welcome. Thank you so much. Good to be back. It's crazy times in the UK. Let's not even go there. Let's just stay with the music, man. Let's stay with 1955.

1:17And you said, I think, in '54 that '55 was the end of the golden age of tango. Oh God, yes. This is it. Tell us about it.

1:30I think this is the year more than any other where understanding a bit of the context really helps. Really helps to understand the music. Why do I say that? On the outside, you look at 1955. There's not so many recordings and it doesn't feel like so much of a story. But then you look a little bit closer and you get to the Pugliese story, which is reasonably well known.

1:56I could easily have suggested that we have a Pugliese picture for 1955 because it's very dramatic what happens to him the 10th of January. So we're reaching the end of the Perón government, which has been going on since the mid 40s. And 10th of January, Pugliese is arrested in a cafe, along with a violinist that he's gone to meet, both members of the Communist Party, and he's incarcerated for exactly six months and maybe we'll talk about that a bit later on. He gets out on, so exactly six months later, it takes us to the 10th of July and then on the 16th the country is convulsed. I posted a photograph on the Facebook group today with a plea for no political comments and it was a photograph of the Argentine military bombing the Casa Rosada, the Argentine presidential palace and the square of Plaza de Mayo on that day and hundreds of civilians were killed. And whatever we say about it, it was an awful event, a country turning in on itself. So Perón survived the coup, but not for long. In September, a more violent and more determined and better organised coup came along, the Revolución Libertadora, and the Perón regime was swept away. So it was the end of an era politically, but it's kind of the end of an era musically.

3:41Really, it is. Traditional tangos has largely run out of things to say. If you look at an orchestra like D'Arienzo, all his big numbers are new versions of his old hits. Now, we said that a couple of years previously as well, but what about Troilo? He only records like six songs. He's finding it really hard to find anything he wants to do. Pugliese is still moving forward. And then we get the photo, we come to the guy who's in the photo that we went with, which is Astor Piazzolla, you know, looking really mean, you know, like the Magnificent Seven or something, you know, these bad boys of tango.

4:21So in fact, the recordings that Piazzolla makes in 1955, he makes in Paris. He's gone to Paris to study with Nnedi Boulanger and the lessons go kind of okay but not that well and she says to him, well, what do you really do, and then he plays her a tango. Yeah, this is a famous story and she says, that's it, you must do that, and he records something like 16 numbers in 1955 in Paris and 15 of them are written by him. So he's not a cover band. He's not a cover band. That's like how Tango was with Thierpaux and Greco in the 10s and 20s. So he's really generating something new and he's no longer trying to make it fit. So as a dancer, of course, I'm not very much touched by these recordings, but if we just think as music that comes from that environment, actually really quite interesting, he's finally going his own way. So every birth comes with a death, you know. The traditional tango is kind of running out of steam, running out of creative ideas. New ideas arise but they're not really in the dancing format. So that's where we are in 1955.

5:40Yeah, and Piazzolla, he was never really concerned with the dancer, was he? I mean, you've talked about before how he was pushing Troilo even in the early 40s. And yes, he said, if the musicians are smiling then I'm happy. Yeah, so it exemplifies this change that he issues an LP, I guess it is, with lots of his own numbers that are not for dancing, and I think it's a good place to start, isn't it? Because it sort of marks the end of the dance era. And I would like to start with his recording Nonino. Okay, yes, Nonino, grandfather, which is a precursor, if we like, to Adiós Nonino, which he wrote in '67, I think, when his grandfather passed away.

6:32And it strikes me when I listen to this, because he takes a lot of space in his music, doesn't he? Because you've talked about other band leaders who kind of leave it to the other musicians, like Troilo or Biagi. They don't dominate the sound of the band. But Piazzolla, it's really all about him, isn't it, and his bandoneon.

6:56Well, in these recordings, yes, it is. And he's made a change, actually. He's now, for the first time, playing standing up, you know, the classic Piazzolla pose, standing up, one leg on the chair, foot on the chair and the bandoneon open over that knee. That's the change he's made, so he's not hiding himself and who he is any longer. These recordings, as I said, they're made in Paris on French labels, not that well known in Argentina for that reason. The string section is from the Paris Opera and with the addition of a jazz pianist on some of the recordings, it's Lalo Schifrin, who's a name you may remember from the Mission Impossible theme. So here, yes, he really does dominate. Eventually he'll move towards the quintet format, where there's a lot of space for five musicians to have something a bit more equal, especially the violin player, but the violin player in these recordings doesn't yet have the same role. It's about him. Let's listen to it.

8:05Nonino, it's also a Piazzolla.

10:35That final exclamation mark is like, Tango for dancing is over, folks. Yeah, yeah, the new kids are on the block. Yeah, but what wonderful music it is. I mean, it's really growing on me, this Piazzolla music. Yeah, I mean, today I went for a walk and I was listening to the album of these recordings on my headphones. I'd never paid much attention to it because it's not his famous recordings, you know. We listen to later stuff with the quintet and there's a lot to listen to there actually. Yeah, before March this year I was just interested in two types of music, it was Tango for Dancing and Cortinas. So that's changing. This is great stuff.

11:38Let's move on to another guy who was playing with Troilo. He's a pianist from 1947 to '54, Carlos Figari, because he has his own band now in '55. I think every pianist that Troilo ever had eventually started his own orchestra, which is a unique achievement. Yeah. Goni has lasted just for a very short while, but Basso has, yeah, he was playing for a long time. Yes. And after Figari, José Colangelo, for example. Yeah. Yeah, and I think Figari's music has some punch, and you kind of hear that he's been playing for Troilo. Yes. Very much. Yeah. So I want to play the tango El Piano del Bar. It's Figari's own composition and with text by Juan Pueblito, and the singer is Enrique Dumas. And after that, I want to play a milonga, which is called Del Campo y la Ciudad. That's an instrumental. From the countryside to the city. Yeah.

17:30Isn't that a nice and danceable milonga? Yeah. That was fantastic. Because I never heard, I'd played it at milongas and I have to thank Teresa for sharing her good fidelity version of this song with me, because I only had a really crap fidelity version. I never played it myself. No, I will. Yeah, you can hear the Troilo influence coming through in the music. Yeah. But Troilo, yes, as I said, he's only recording six tracks in 1955. The first one, I could really imagine Troilo having done that with Carlos Olmedo.

18:17There were a couple of years, no disrespect to the grand Troilo, but he was well known to like the good life, and he drank a lot of whiskey. And there were a couple of periods where he had to dry out for a bit, so possibly '55 is one of those and that's why he has such a little output. Yeah, it could be, because otherwise that first tango, El Piano del Bar, it's tailor-made for Troilo in a year and in a time where he's struggling to find a good repertoire. Yeah, well, he's Troilo in a short while, but before that let's go to another one of Troilo's, one of his singers, Edmundo Rivero, and this year he records with guitar, and let's listen to Guapo y Varón, which is a really nice tango, I think. Yes, these days we associate that with Biagi, don't we? Classic recording with Ortiz from '4D, I think. Edmundo Rivero, Guapo y Varón, con guitarras.

21:29Rivero sings like a guapo man, doesn't he? Really, you can imagine he's got the knife under his jacket. I just had a crazy thought. Can you imagine Rivero singing that with Biagi? And it just came to my mind. Do you hear it in your head? Yeah, more or less. I think Rivero wants a freer phrasing than he would be able to achieve with the Típica. But still, interesting idea. Yeah, I'm looking forward to the technology that we can be able to record these versions that you hear in your head.

22:07All right. You said Troilo has a few recordings, but he has a couple of interesting ones, I think, from this year. And this one of them is an instrumental called El Irresistible, which is a very old composition we know as dancers from other versions by D'Arienzo. D'Arienzo especially. Yeah, exactly. It goes back to the 10s or something like that. Yeah. And this one, I don't think I've heard it played at milongas because it's not very, very danceable, I should say, but it's interesting because it has some other qualities, some shading. And he has a new pianist this year, doesn't he?

22:46Osvaldo Manzi, who also played as a substitute pianist for the Pugliese Orchestra in 1957, for about six months. 1957, another military political social crisis in Argentina, and all the communists are arrested and put in a prison ship, which is towed out into the middle of the estuary, the Rio de la Plata, and chained up there. And the rumour goes around that the boat's going to get sunk with everybody on it. But eventually, you know, everyone's rescued. But Pugliese was so shocked, he couldn't play for six months afterwards. Manzi played in the orchestra. Wow. On the recording of Pata Ancha, the pianist is not Pugliese, it's Manzi.

23:39Yeah, he's good. Yeah, I mean, he can sound like Pugliese or he can play Troilo's style. So that's a very high level. Is he related to the lyricist? No, no. So yeah, El Irresistible. And a second instrumental I was fascinated by listening before this program is Intermezzo. Yeah, that's more creative, isn't it? Yeah, it's more like in the transition phase and pointing towards a different era, I think. Yes. And yeah, I think it's a really beautiful one. And so should we listen to this too? Let's listen to them.

24:33 · They playEl IrresistibleAníbal Troilo · 1955

An old composition dancers know from D'Arienzo's versions; Lavocah plays it to show Troilo's new pianist, Osvaldo Manzi, even in a year Troilo barely records.

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♪ Music · 3:00 · What the transcriber heard

27:33 · They playIntermezzoAníbal Troilo · 1955

Arranged by Roberto Pansera; played straight after El Irresistible as the more forward-looking of Troilo's few 1955 sides, so the exact split point between the two tracks is approximate.

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30:25No, at last minute of that Intermezzo just gives me goose skin. Fantastic. Same here. Yeah, same here. Now, let's just pause and feel how we feel. To sum up, both those tracks, I would say, are beautiful, but often quite delicate. There's no killer punch. And that's not like the patroller we know from before, is it?

30:47The first one was especially delicate. Rachel said, a touch of whimsy and romance. And I think, yeah, that's right. I quickly checked while it was playing. The arranger was Pansera, Roberto Pansera, who's the guy that Fresedo used to change his sound in 1950, because Fresedo is one of the bands who completely changed his style in 1950. So maybe we're slightly hearing the touch of the arranger there.

31:15But when I listened to that Irresistible, I didn't hear dancing going on. I didn't feel that I had to run to the floor. I find it very beautiful, but, you know, it's 1955, is a year that Troilo is also recording with Roberto Grela, the guitarist, in a little quartet, you know, and then you imagine an intimate basement club, you know, with a beautiful stone ceiling and a nice old bar. And the music's kind of going in that sort of more intimate direction.

31:47The Intermezzo had a bit more force and power to it. So it modulated between some really tremendous delicacy and more powerful moments, more complete and satisfying. Yeah, I love that one. And since you mentioned Grela, we should listen to one of those songs as well. And let's listen to El Abrojito, The Little Thistle.

32:11And I think the only recording with this is Pugliese Morán. Yes, it's Morán's first recording with the Pugliese Orchestra, isn't it? Is there not an earlier recording by a soloist? Maybe. I didn't find one, but you can look for it. Why we listen to it. So it's Quartet of Troilo, Grela and, yeah. So Band of Noon and Guitars. I've just checked Julio Di Caro, 1925. Oh, is that old? Yeah. All right. Let's hear it. Yes. Great recording.

36:08Yeah, imagine listening to that in an intimate club. Wow. Absolutely amazing. Yeah. Yeah, he's losing speed with his fingers as he's getting older and more tired, but he's not losing anything in feeling. On the feeling side, he's just getting better and better. Yeah. But sadder, perhaps, as a person, as of all the people he's lost in his life.

36:32And the guitar, and also the part where the double-edged play uses the bow and wow, yes, that's so unexpected when that moment comes, isn't it? Beautiful. So that's like we can kind of draw a parallel between that and say the quintet that Piazzolla hasn't even formed yet. So jazz organized dialoguing amongst players in a semi-improvised way, but here in a very traditional frame. Yeah. So that was a couple of three instrumentals. So let's listen to some singing.

37:10And I want to play a soloist called Nina Miranda. She's an Uruguay. Yes. And she sings with the Donato Rachati Orchestra. Exactly. Because we played a couple of our tracks before in 52 and 54. Powerful voice. Yeah. Is she the woman who sang Gloria? Yes. Maybe it is. Yeah.

37:29But this year she sings, or she's backed by Graciano Gómez, and she sings the tango Julián, which is a Donato composition from early 20s. Yes, Typica Victor, it's one of their first recordings in 1925. Yeah, and Fresedo also has a great instrumental recording of it in mid 40s. It's a time when there's very few Fresedo instrumentals. So it's not so easy to make a tanda with it, for which reason you don't hear it very often, but very interesting and intelligent arrangement, the Fresedo one too. Yeah. Ah, this will be nice. Yeah.

38:09And the lyrics, they're by José Luis Paniza. They're sung from the perspective of a woman. And the tango was recorded by several women singers, such as Rosita Quiroga and Libertad de Marque, and also Tita Morello. So I'll post the lyrics in the chat window while we listen to it. Okay. Talk about it after. It's a bit of girl power. Yeah, it's a bit girl power, I can say. Let's hear it. Nina Miranda, Julián.

41:34Julián, a tiger for tango, she sings. Nice lyric, and I really enjoyed listening to her singing with the Graciano Gómez orchestra, because when she sings with, um, Donato Rachati, that's it's kind of a one level orchestra, and so the vocal interpretations become also at one level, whereas here she's able to modulate her voice more. She's not always singing at full power to overcome the very loud orchestra that she's with, and she can bring it back a little bit and be a little bit more expressive. So there was a beautiful moment where she sang in aquel quartito. She said it so softly in that little room and it suddenly ejected a note of tenderness and romance into the lyric. So nice to see a more sensitive side to her.

42:25All right, let's move on to some really danceable tango. This is one you all dance to many times. Ángel D'Agostino, he has one of his big hits from this year. It's Café Domínguez. With the famous Glossa at the beginning. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, it's an instrumental with the Glossa. And it's tricky to play because you have to mix it with the earlier stuff. There aren't much D'Agostino from this time. Now, let's listen to this storming version of Café Domínguez. It's definitely storming. And it's a real café in Buenos Aires. It's a real café.

42:59And the gloss that we hear is about it. It's, um, Café Domínguez de la vieja calle Corrientes que ya no queda. Café Domínguez from the old calle Corrientes, i.e. when it was narrow, Corrientes Angosta, before streets were demolished to make all the broad avenues, um, when Buenos Aires was remodeled in the mid-1930s. At your tables, and it gives a list of all the famous musicians from the time who used to come there. So an affectionate look at the old days. Yeah, great track. Let's hear it.

43:40 · They playCafé DomínguezÁngel D'Agostino · 1955

D'Agostino's own composition, played with its famous glosa about a real, now-vanished café on the old, narrow Calle Corrientes.

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♪ Music · 2:48 · The lyrics, on the song's page

46:28A lot of people in the chat window say they want to dance this one. Yeah, we kind of wish that D'Agostino had done more in that vein, because it's not really typical, is it, of D'Agostino's 50s output? But mostly it's softer and more romantic, which I guess is really what you'd expect, knowing how the band was in the early 40s. And it's his own composition. Did he compose many songs before? I don't know. Because I don't think about him as a composer. No, me neither, to be honest.

47:15And, well, he had lost many years ago. He lost his singer, Ángel Vargas, but he is still singing as soloist in 55. Yeah, they'd finally split up. That was to the best. Yeah. And he makes a few recordings. He's accompanied by a trio, Alejandro Scarpino. Oh, and they are absolutely super recordings. Yes. La Bruja. I think this is one of the essential songs for tonight. And I believe there's actually some video which people can go and search out on YouTube after the show. Ángel Vargas in La Bruja. From a film? I don't know where it's from. Probably a film, yeah.

48:00And we know this as dancers from the D'Arienzo Achagwe version. Yes, now, isn't that an interesting thing? On the one hand, we're going to listen to this quite intimate recording by Vargas and say, gosh, how different it is to the Achagwe version. Actually, I'm going to save the end of that sentence until after we've listened to it. Sure. It's good, but this is a solo version. We can hear all the lyrics, and they're really painful about a man who, let's say, is redefining his former love relationship. So Ángel Vargas, La Bruja, with Trío Alejandro Scarpino.

51:19So intimate. Beautiful. Yeah, listening to it with all of you, I've kind of changed my opinion about it, but really deepened my appreciation for that song. So what I was going to say was, okay, Vargas here sounds nothing like the Achagwe of the 1950s, but does he sound so different from the Achagwe of 1938? Not so different, both very porteteno voices, but there's so much more intimacy and expression here. And when he sings who yesterday was the queen of my whole being, he says it really with love and affection. And as Teresa just pointed out in the chat window, when Achagwe sings it, he's angry about it. So he really brings a different feeling to the lyric and a broader range of emotions.

52:14Even to hear the second verse, which otherwise is unknown to us, where he thinks maybe someday I'll be a man and raise a home, create a create a home, that's really another aspect of the lyric. Someone wrote in the chat window, he's not over the the the ex-girlfriend, the Achagwe. Yeah, it's beautiful and so different. I mean, it's a completely different tango from the Dora and Siddhartha Tango version. So it's nice to appreciate it. And when it's so different, you don't really have to, you don't even have to compare it and think what's better than the other because they're so different. And you certainly don't have to choose either.

53:00Let's go to a different kind of sound, to the orchestra Francini-Pontier, because they also have some recordings this year. But in my view, they get a little bit too orchestral, if I can say it that way, most of it. But this is their last year, isn't it? They're breaking up this year, aren't they? They're breaking up, yes. You know why? Well, they broke up happily. They've been together since September 45. So it's a cycle of work for them, 10 years. They've kind of done everything that they've got to do together, and they both start their own típicas, they start their own orchestras and work separately. So it was a friendly separation, they remained friends. Good to hear.

53:45Let's hear a tango, an instrumental called Tanguera, and the composer is Mariano Mores, who recorded this himself a couple years later. But since we are in 55 and we're probably never gonna do a tango 1957 program, let's hear this version. You can hear it's got nothing at all to do with the 40s, a song like Tanguera. Yeah, it's a completely new current in the music, with something that's much more obvious when we listen to Mariano Mores's version, which is rather symphonic and might make you think a little bit of Hollywood. But nevertheless, it's a beautiful composer. Mariano Moris writes beautiful melodies. Yes. Tanguera, composed by Mariano Moris.

54:53 · They playTangueraFrancini-Pontier · 1955

An instrumental by Mariano Mores played as one of the last recordings before the orchestra's amicable breakup after ten years.

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♪ Music · 2:09 · What the transcriber heard

57:22The times are changing for tango. Very much so. That's a new wave, isn't it? It's sensible, though. I mean, yeah, I prefer the Mariano Mores version from 57.

57:42Yes, I mean, yeah, the Mariano Mores one is more delicate. And as you might expect coming from the composer, truer to the spirit of the original.

57:51But still, yeah, the last hurrah from Francini-Pontier before they go their separate ways. One of the last recordings. Juan D'Arienzo, you mentioned him in the introduction. He's not doing so much new, and I find there's a lot of ordinary stuff that it's not so interesting. He did better before, but there are a couple of really nice stuff. Yes, we've got the 55 recording of Loca, which is very well known, although listen to the 1942 people.

58:21Um, what else have we got? We got new recordings of La Catrera. There's a new recording of Trago Amargo with a Chagway, which is kind of a bit shocking for those of us. I was considering to play that one, but I dropped it from the list. Yeah, okay, you don't want to shock everyone. No, let's go for Laborde instead, because he has some great recording. Pero te sigo, uh, queriendo.

58:46But I still go on loving you. Yeah, I really like this one. It was a bit of a discovery for me this week. And we talked about it before, that this time, Laborde is, I don't know, he has more color to his voice somehow than Chaguan. Yes, yeah. And he's singing with this kind of melodic intensity, and he holds the notes just for a long time. And the lyrics for this song is really pretty intense stuff, again, about love as a poisoned dagger. Yeah.

59:46 · They playPero te sigo queriendoJuan D'Arienzo · Alberto Laborde · 1955

A late discovery for Stenvoll this week, picked for the extra colour and melodic hold Laborde brings compared with Echagüe.

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The lyrics, on the song's page

1:02:31It's very tango, this lyric, isn't it? Every stuff. I mean, this kind of sound. It's music for the midnight hour.

1:02:37My heart will always go more to the 46, better into a Laborde sound than this one, but yeah, packs a punch. So after this rather heavy stuff, let's go for something lighter, and since it's almost Christmas time, let's listen to some Canaro. And I'm going to play the Canaro version, or the 55 Canaro version of Cara sucia.

1:03:04You know, you really stunned me there. I wasn't expecting, I mean, I looked at Canaro obviously, preparing for tonight, and I thought, oh well, there's, um, well, I won't mention what I'm thinking, because you may still come up with it. Yeah, well, but you've totally taken me by surprise here. Yeah, and I'm curious what, uh, what listeners think about this. For me it's this, um, well, I can, we can talk about it after. Let's listen to it.

1:03:25Are you also going to play the Di Sarli Cara sucia tonight? I don't think so, no. Let's go for this one. Okay, you can do it for the after party. Yeah, I'm not sure if, yeah, hit it. All right, Canaro, Cara sucia with Juan Carlos Rolón singing.

1:03:59 · They playCara suciaFrancisco Canaro · Juan Carlos Rolón · 1955

Played as something lighter after D'Arienzo, and to tell the story of the song's real, uncredited composer.

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♪ Music · 2:04 · The lyrics, on the song's page

1:06:05I could go wash your dirty face in the fountain of love as he sings. Well, can I just briefly touch on another matter? So, Canaro was performing this tango in the 1910s. So Canaro is old enough to remember that the origin of Cara sucia is as a brothel tango with a slightly different title that's not really suitable for a family show. Just to give you a clue, go wash your face. It does was like the sun, even Saint Anthony himself. Well yeah, anyway.

1:06:41Yeah, and uh, well, we asked and he composed this and his, no, he didn't, he didn't, oh, he's listed as the composer. Yes, so what happened was it was written by a violinist, El Negro Casimiro Alcorta, who died. Then Canaro published it under his own name, but I don't think, Canaro did steal some tangos over the years, or bought tangos, but in this case it's just a way of preserving a melody from someone who's passed away. So, uh, yes, there's sheet music from 1917 with Canaro's name on it, but the very first one says arranged Francisco Canaro, and then he registered it because this guy had no estate. And there's one or two other tangos like that from the, a businessman. Yeah, I guess so. Yes, it was a bit familiar with the Rudolph the Reindeer, the red rose named the reindeer kind of feeling to this.

1:07:37Yes, there were a lot of comments on that in the chat, and we talked about it before, that Michael, Canaro before 39, it's a lot of wonderful stuff. Um, and also the Cara sucia with Roberto Maida is really nice, but after 39 not so much. I mean, at least tangos. I mean, you have milongas and waltzes, I think they're nice, but for tangos, no. Yeah, I mean, you know, give the guy a chance. He's 20 years older than Troilo, you know, it's so he's born in the previous century. So sorry for all your sensitive souls out there that I play that, but uh, and it's okay if you liked it also. I mean, part of me likes this song despite everything, but uh, we need something soothing, I think, after this.

1:08:21So um, let's listen to Nelly Omar, who sang for Canaro in the mid 40s, and now she's a solo artist and backed by no less than Roberto Grela's guitar group. So what we heard earlier with Troilo. Super. And they were listening to two songs. First a waltz, Que el cielo te proteja. And then a sad and very slow milongaish, Pa' Dumisnil. I'm not sure what it means. I think Dumisnil is a place in the Cordoba province, but I'm not sure if it refers to that. I really don't know. Maybe someone could comment. Yeah, maybe someone knows. And it's Nelly Omar's own composition.

1:09:03Can I say something about Nelly Omar before you play the songs? So at the beginning of the show, we mentioned the attempted coup d'etat that took place against the Peron government in 1955 in July. And the government finally fell in September. Now, when it did, everything from the previous regime had to be erased. So the Peronist party was banned and artists who had particularly associated themselves with Peron's projects were banned. And even artists who were merely popular with Peronist party members. So Antonio Torme, who was a folk singer and not a member of any party, but because he sang songs that appealed to poor people, he got banned. And Nelly Omar was one of the people who was banned. So as you listen to her now, these are the last recordings she'll make. She's not able to perform for the next 17 years. Have that in mind. Listen to it. The wolves and Padume still a milonga.

1:15:54Wow. Wow. I mean, I love her voice. I think we all like her voice. She could sing a shopping list and I'd be fascinated. But the lyric in that second one, it made me think of Moriré en Buenos Aires, Sare de Madrugada, which is like a tango version, a tango about death. And here we have a countryside milonga about death. Special.

1:16:27Yeah, it's very, I'm kind of glad that she didn't stay with Canaro too long, because this is much better with this kind of backing, I think. Well, she did tremendous work with Canaro in those years. I wish there were more tracks. I'll disagree slightly there. So here we've just got a few with, um, someone commented in the chat window, oh, not familiar with her work with Roberto Grela. That's because when she comes back, she works with another guitarist. And that's where the bulk of the recordings of them are backed by guitar groups come from. So this is a unique time here in 55 where she performs with Grela just before she gets banned. Never heard that before. Thank you for playing that.

1:17:14Let's listen to Horacio Salgán. And as you've said earlier, Michael, we don't hear much at milongas. He's this crazy inventive guy. He's another one actually who doesn't care for the dancers, but he's making fascinating music. And this year he records Sus Ojos Se Cerraron, Her Eyes Closed. This is a super sad tango by the man mourning his dead sweetheart, composed by Gardel, who recorded it in March 35, just a few months before the plane crash that killed him. So that's an interesting backdrop here.

1:17:51And you know who the singer is? It's Goyeneche. Yes, Goyeneche's been with Salgán for quite some years. So this is just before he goes to Troilo. So let's hear it. Horacio Salgán with Goyeneche singing.

1:18:19 · They playSus Ojos Se CerraronHoracio Salgán · Roberto Goyeneche · 1955

A Gardel composition, played to note that Gardel himself recorded it in March 1935, months before his fatal plane crash, and that Goyeneche's phrasing here is still early.

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♪ Music · 2:21 · What the transcriber heard

1:21:36Isn't that beautiful and sad? It's a wonderful recording. On the one hand, it's absolutely tremendous because Sargan performing a song as opposed to an instrumental has to keep it a bit more on the level. He can't be as crazy as he is in his instrumental numbers, so we get a more conventional interpretation. And Gozhenitsch's voice is perfect, beautiful and spectacular. But on the other hand, Gozhenetje hasn't quite yet developed that really personal phrasing that we're going to get later. So it's really interesting to hear Gozhenetje at that moment in his career.

1:22:17Let's go on to the submerged cathedral and Carlos Di Sarli. And the cathedral is well and truly getting submerged in 1955.

1:22:27Yeah, you describe this in the Sarle book as you use this metaphor, a great melodic wash slowly submerging the staccato structure of tango for this music. Yeah, I mean of course, you know, the marcato, the beats are still being marked out, but you notice them less and less. We notice more and more the melody, and I was just reviewing in the strings. Absolutely, and there's more and more of them. Um, just today I listened to those recordings again. One of them is Milonguero Viejo, and I was reminded of a curious fact which kind of parallels this change we're talking about in his music. So the 55 recording of Milonguero Viejo, and there are four from Di Sarli, which is very unusual, the 55 recording is pitched up a key. Now normally when a band changes the key of a song, it's in order to make it singable, you know, so that the vocalist gets into a comfortable part of his range. But there's no vocalist here. So there's absolutely no technical reason to change the key.

1:23:35And this is very rare in tango music. The bands always respected the original key of a composition and they would perform it in the original key if they could. That's why when there is a key change, normally it happens after the introduction. Suerte Loca, for example. So I had to think of one off the top of my head, Suerte Loca. If you go and listen to Troilo Fiorentino Suerte Loca after the show, you will hear that the introduction is in a certain key, the first minute, and then it changes key when Fiorentino comes in, in order to be the right key for Fiorentino. Now if it was just put in the right key for Fiorentino, you could have done the whole piece in the new key, couldn't you? But they didn't do that. They would do the introduction in the original key to respect the intentions of the composer, and then change. Now in the case of Milonguero Viejo, it's Di Sarli's own composition, so you know he can do what he wants, but why pitch it up a key?

1:24:31It's this process of leaving the ground, isn't it? What's the ground in tango? It's earth, it's the roots, it's the people. 1955, not many people are dancing tango anymore. The young people are turning towards new kinds of music, folklore and imported music from North America. Tango's losing touch with its roots, with the earth, with the ground, and at the same time Milonguero Viejo goes up a key. It somehow reveals this change.

1:25:00We have to listen to it now. I was going to play it anyway. And it's about, he composed it for Firpo in the 20s, didn't he, who helped him? As a thank you, yes. And if only he had a slightly longer recording contract, perhaps we could also have enjoyed a sixth version by Di Sarli. As it is, we just have to imagine, but listen to this one. Milonguero Viejo from 55.

1:25:44 · They playMilonguero ViejoCarlos Di Sarli · 1955

The fourth of Di Sarli's recordings of his own composition, oddly pitched up a key with no singer to justify it, which Lavocah reads as tango drifting from its roots.

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♪ Music · 2:29 · The lyrics, on the song's page

1:28:14So elegant, isn't it? So elegant and beautiful. No one delivers a melody better. He just maintains his sound, you know, he's unperturbed by the changes going on around him. I think largely he must have loved this also. He recorded this, as you said, four times, so it was an important tango for him. Yeah, his homage to Firpo. You think Firpo appreciated it? I think he must have done. Yeah.

1:28:46Di Sarli also has great singers this year, Oscar Serpa and Mario Pomar. So let's hear a tango with each of them. Yeah, he has a stable. Yeah, it's the first time in his life, because Di Sarli is a difficult personality, and that means he's not a good man-manager. And being a band leader is not just about being a great musician or a great composer. It's about running a happy ship. And we all know what it was like trying to run a team that had Roberto Rufino in it. You know, very difficult. So finally, with Pomar and Serpa, he gets a stable vocal partnership. Finally, in the early 50s, and that endures.

1:29:27Do you have a favorite? Serpa. When I first heard Pomar, you know, I like Pomar's voice, but after a while Serpa's voice, which is a different quality to it, really won me over. I could listen to anything interpreted by Serpa. Almost any tango I could imagine being performed by Di Sarli with Serpa. Seriously. So let's start with Serpa then. Sin Ella, the tango, without her. And it's Charlo's composition, an old tango. And with Pomar I want to play Corazón, which you of course know much better from the Rufino version from 1939, which is fast and energetic, but this is super slow, and I think it illustrates what you write about this great melodic wash, slow and majestic.

1:30:09Yes, I mean it's difficult because the Rufino version is so burned in our brains. I think the biggest shock is with Corazón, it's just as it begins, it's slower than you think it's going to be. So once you get over that shock then you can appreciate it. You know, Pomar is a very upright person. You see that in the photographs, derecho. And you also hear that in his voice. Serpa, I feel, has a little bit more color and warmth to his voice. That's why it's my favorite.

1:30:43Let's hear those two. Sin Ella first with Serpa and then Corazón with Pomar. Carlos Di Sarli, 1955.

1:31:07 · They playSin EllaCarlos Di Sarli · Oscar Serpa · 1955

An old Charlo composition, played to showcase Serpa, Lavocah's favourite of Di Sarli's two stable singers.

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♪ Music · 2:56 · What the transcriber heard

1:34:03 · They playCorazónCarlos Di Sarli · Mario Pomar · 1955

Played against dancers' memory of Rufino's fast 1939 version to show how much slower and more 'melodic wash' Di Sarli's 1955 sound has become.

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The lyrics, on the song's page

1:36:28It's timeless, isn't it? Just timeless. Yeah, it is. Beautiful. Very different from the Rufino version. Yes, yes, karma. When I start listening to that music, it could just go on forever.

1:36:50Yeah, I think I had seven or eight Di Sarli tracks on my playlist before I cut it down to three, so we can listen to other stuff as well. Maybe we'll hear some more at the after party. Maybe we will.

1:37:02All right, let's move on, and the next one is another one of the expeditions to non-Argentine tango. Two weeks ago we were in Finland and this week we're going to Turkey, and to a singer called Sara Eren, Turkish singer born in 1923. She's described on the Turkish Wikipedia site as the Turkish Marlene Dietrich. I'm pretty sure you haven't heard this song before, Michael. I will be surprised if you have. And most of the listeners. I don't think I have. I mean, I have got some CDs of Turkish tango music over on the wall there, but they're from the 30s. So I think you've pulled one over us all.

1:37:50Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. I'm curious what you think about this. And it's very simple, a accompaniment. So I like it. She has an interesting voice. Let's hear it. Sara Eren and the song Dinle Sevgili.

1:40:55Fantastic! Something, isn't it? I had heard Sara Eren's voice before, but I haven't listened to it for a long time. I'd completely forgotten about a beautiful dark voice, unmistakably the Turkish sound. And I loved the piano accompaniment, which reminded me of Weimar cabaret style piano accompaniment from the twenties and thirties.

1:41:22Yeah, I loved it. Loved it. And I've been catching myself like humming in this melody for the last couple of days. It's been sort of stuck on my mind, which is a bit, it's not very usual that I have this, but it's really something with her voice and the piano that got to me. Yeah, her voice just... Yeah, and for the translation, thanks to my tango friend in Bergen, Irem, who translated it for me. Oh, nice. It's nice looks too, very sort of sad, and she thinks about an orphaned heart. It's a beautiful image, I think.

1:41:53Right, so let's go on to another woman singer that we know met her, Lita Morales. And this is her first solo recording since she broke up with Donato in the early 40s. Well, she makes very few recordings, doesn't he? Because she's had a love child. At least that's what we think. That's what we think. She bore a child, but probably Horacio Lagos isn't the father. But this is all speculation.

1:42:17Yeah. She's kind of been withdrawn from public life. So it's amazing that she makes this comeback. Yeah, she does. And she sings with an orchestra. And let's hear Canción desesperada, which was a big hit like 10 years earlier, mid-40s. Perhaps it really describes the situation. The song of desperation. Maybe, yeah. Let's hear it. Lita Morales.

1:42:43 · They playCanción desesperadaLita Morales · 1955

Her first solo recording since splitting from Donato in the early 1940s and withdrawing from public life; a comeback the hosts feel the title fits.

♪ Music · 3:07 · What the transcriber heard

1:45:50Desperate singing for a desperate song. Voice has changed, isn't it? You can hear that it's the voice of an older woman. But I like that. Yeah, someone who's lived and has experienced. Definitely.

1:46:21And speaking of someone who's lived and has experience, let's go on to the Pugliese section, which is the last part of this program. Well, it had to come, didn't it? Yeah, and let's start not with Pugliese but with a couple of his, two of his singers. Jorge Vidal first, who sang a solo this year. And he has a very nice song, I think. It's called Que Viejo Estoy. How old am I, or how old I am, I guess you'd say in English, with Argentino Galván accompanying him.

1:46:52Yeah, Argentino Galván, a great arranger and great bandoneón player, great band leader, but preferred to work as a sideman. And wrote a lot of the early arrangements for the Troilo Orchestra. And Vidal is doing well at this time? Vidal is doing as well as he wishes to be, which is very nicely, thank you, for a guy who likes to sing in a small club backed by guitars and avoiding the big stage. He does still sing with a full orchestra, but most of the time he's to be heard with guitars. That's what he most loves and why he left Pugliese, to have the freedom to do that.

1:47:35And this is a nice one. It's a very quiet opening and then his voice comes in. Powerful. It's one of the most powerful voices in tango, isn't it, the bass baritone of Jorge Vidal. It's like an earthquake, the floor moves. Let's move the floor. Que Viejo Estoy, Jorge Vidal.

1:51:04Wow, sensational. It's such a daring arrangement from Argentino Galván, with the opening with oboe and harp, and sometimes we're listening to older recordings and we go, is that an oboe? Could it? Absolutely no doubt in that recording. Very adventurous recording, beautiful delivery for, and yeah, interesting lyric as well. Lovely recording. I love the part where he sings, goodbye sweet magic of my fantasies, goodbye beautiful times that will not return. So poetic. Yes, that reality hurting. Yeah, reality bites, that's the phrase.

1:51:58Yeah, so let's go on to the second fantastic ex-singer of Pugliese, Alberto Morán, who leaves Pugliese the year before. We talked about that in tango 1954, yes. And he gets himself Armando Cupo, who's a pianist, I believe, to direct his backing orchestra. And he largely goes back to singing how he did it before he met Pugliese, which is at 110% all the time. And he progressively abandons the metze voice, the restrained half voice that had made his singing so dramatic, because you're waiting for the explosion and then finally it comes. Pugliese makes you wait for that, but as the soloist Morán can't be bothered with that, he just sings at the max all the time and the fans love it and he loves it, but it does really affect his vocal chords and it progressively ruins his voice. But again he doesn't care and the fans don't care, it's good anyway.

1:53:07Let's hear Lágrimas de sangre, Tears of Blood, which is a bit of a hit this year, recorded also by Gobbi, de Angelis and Armando Pontier. So yeah, I posted lyrics also. It's a strong, another strong lyrics. Lágrimas de sangre by Alberto Morán with Armando Cupo.

1:56:22Yeah, as you wrote in the chat window, Michael, it's obvious that the backing orchestra is giving a kind of Pugliese sound to Morán. In the piano, you hear the chak, and then the low bass notes coming, but it's not as powerful as the Pugliese beat, is it? So, yeah, trying to give some Pugliese flavor, at least at this time, at the beginning of his solo career. Great voice, powerful voice. It's not the same without Pugliese though, is it, let's be honest.

1:56:51So let's get on to Pugliese, let's get to the maestro. And he just, you said in the introduction that he was in jail most or half, he was a political prisoner, yeah, for half of the year in the Villa Devoto prison, which is, um, it's still there actually, it's notorious today, is one of the toughest prisons in South America. There were two blocks for the political prisoners, blocks nine and ten, and they organized themselves, the politicals. So, you know, everyone had a job, you know, you cooked, you swept, and Pugliese was a bit of a celebrity prisoner for the inmates. Actually, even for the prison guards, the day he came in, the guards were whispering to each other, have you heard what the phrase they used was, who fell? Have you heard who's fallen? No, who? Osvaldo Pugliese. No, yes, they couldn't believe it.

1:57:45And then Pugliese's brought in and, you know, people just want to sit at his feet and have him tell stories. So he does tell stories because it improves morale, because he's, you know, stood up to the repression from all different kinds of regimes over many, many years. But he insists on peeling potatoes like everybody else, and he continues to arrange music while he's in prison, to compose and to practice. He hasn't got a piano, so he takes a knife and he carves the shape of a piano keyboard on the edge of a wooden table, and he plays on that every day. He says so that when I get out my hands will still be strong. Wow, that's why, wow, dedication. That is a strong mind, isn't it? That really is a strong mind. That's how we should be doing technique now during these Covid times when we can't dance.

1:58:45And what are you going to play for us, please? Let's hear Cascabelito with Maciel singing first. Okay. And after that, Mi Serenata with Maciel and Miguel Montero in a duo. Do you want to say something about them? I'll talk more when we get to the instrumentals. There'll be an instrumental after. Yeah, Cascabelito, yeah.

1:59:10Maciel, I think for many people, is now the favourite singer. He takes the high octane role that Morán had had, and he refines it. He's a more refined singer than Alberto Morán. So luckily, we don't listen to the orchestra wishing that the great Alberto Morán was still there, because it's able to move forward, which was something that he always did. And Cascabelito, it's not such an easy tango to perform again, because of this incredibly strong dance interpretation by Carlos Di Sarli with Rufino, from the beginning of Rufino's time. And before that it was a like a Gardel number back in the mid-20s, so it's an achievement always to redefine a song with a different sound. It is. And the second song also has to be. Mi Serenata is a Donato composition and recorded in '40 with Gavio, Lita Morales actually singing back then. So let's hear these two, please. Cascabelito first with Maciel, and then Mi Serenata with Maciel and Montero singing a duo.

2:00:33 · They playCascabelitoOsvaldo Pugliese · Roberto Maciel · 1955

A Gardel-era song from the mid-1920s, also famous from Di Sarli/Rufino, re-recorded to showcase Maciel as the refined heir to Morán's high-octane role.

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♪ Music · 3:12 · The lyrics, on the song's page

2:03:45 · They playMi SerenataOsvaldo Pugliese · Roberto Maciel and Miguel Montero · 1955

A happy-go-lucky Donato number from 1940, transformed into a rare Pugliese vocal duet.

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The lyrics, on the song's page

2:06:18Fantastic duet. If you didn't know that a Pugliese's version of Mi Serenata existed, you'd all think it was impossible, because it's a happy-go-lucky Donato number, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Extraordinary. Transforming, yeah. And of course, don't forget a few years later, in 1963, Pugliese and Maschilla are going to take another old Donato hit and transform it even further, if that was possible. El Adios. Remember that? Yeah, that's also great song. Sensational. Yeah. Very beautiful. Very rare to have the duets with the Pugliese Orchestra. But let's have an instrumental. There's one we have to play from 1955, Emancipación. Emancipación, and really old tango. You want to tell us about it?

2:07:13Yeah, I'll do the introduction and then, if I may, I'd like to read another gloss before you play the song. Oh yes, please. And I'll explain why when we get to that moment. So, Pugliese is in jail from the 10th of January to the 10th of July, for six months, and when he comes out the first recording session, there's two songs, one we've already heard and the other one is, um, Emancipación, on the 2nd of September. Now, what does Emancipación mean? It means emancipation, freedom, and that's what he's singing about, that's why it's absolutely electrifying. It's an old tango that was written, I think, around 1910 for the independents to celebrate 100 years of independence in Chile. Now, the song title Independencia had already gone. Someone had already written a song called Independencia. So instead it was called Emancipación. So that's why he chose it. But if you listen to Juan Maglio's 1912 recording, you can't recognise what Pugliese has done to it, and he's celebrating the gift of freedom that he has.

2:08:22Now, while Pugliese was in jail, there was a lot of passive resistance around the city. The slogan, el tango es preso, tango is in jail, was painted around the place, including allegedly on the Obelisco monument, by some brave soul in the middle of the night. Now, there's so many stories we could tell you, but you just have to read the book, because there's no time to tell them all. But I want to tell you what the gloss was in this particular year. So the guy, the presenter of the orchestra at this time, was a guy called Mario Soto. And I will read first in translation and then in Spanish, because it's absolutely relevant to this song and to this theme of being in jail and getting out. I'll read to you first the English version. Tango, street corner murmur that one drinks to the dregs. The sound of an unbroken name. He's called Osvaldo Pugliese. Tango, rumor esquinero que se beba hasta los esses. Sonido de un nombre entero. Se llama Osvaldo Pugliese.

2:10:13 · They playEmancipaciónOsvaldo Pugliese · 1955-09-02

Pugliese's first recording after six months in jail, an 1910s tango whose title literally means 'emancipation,' played with the original on-air glosa that named him.

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♪ Music · 3:04 · What the transcriber heard

2:13:17Fantastic, yeah. Thanks for the gloss and for the engagement during the song, Michael. Wow, yeah. What a tango. I feel hot. I feel physically hot.

2:13:27There's nowhere to go after that. That's it, you know. That's the top of 1955. It's over now. So we're going to round off.

2:13:35Yeah. Yeah, thanks. Thanks a lot again for sharing this time together, all of you. Yeah, but you managed to find some real jewels as well.

2:13:46Yeah, it's a challenge. I mean, we talked about this late, all these 50s years. It's a bit challenging to find a bit of variation because what you hear from the longest is usually a bit heavy. So, yes, to balance it with some lighter stuff. It's, yeah, it's been a nice, I've enjoyed it. Hope you have too.

2:14:01Yeah, I think we all have. I certainly have. Thank you so much. And it's not over yet because we have Compositas left and we have probably an after party, right?

2:14:11Yeah, and we've got some things to tell everyone about. Should we do that after the Composita? Yeah, we can do that after maybe.

2:14:17So, because I want to play two Compositas this time. There's a lot of Compositas in 1955, aren't there? There are. And there are two that you wouldn't normally hear at Melongas because they're not the dancing versions.

2:14:27The first is by Troilo Grela, which is an instrumental. I want to play that one. That's a very nice one. I think so, yeah.

2:14:33And the last one is with Alberto Castillo singing. And as far as I know, it's the only compositor that exists with Castillo singing. So it's interesting. But he's singing as a soloist, and it's backed by Ángel D'Agostino. Wow.

2:14:49And I can promise actually I will play another one in the after party. But I also, I don't think anyone's going to guess what it is. I'm just throwing that out there. There'll be a special prize. I don't know what it is, but I'll think of a special prize for anyone who can guess before it's played what the after party compositor will.

2:15:09So yeah, one with Castillo, that's really unusual. I'm looking forward to these. Yeah, and I posted lyrics also. We never did that before, actually. But let's check out, because he sings the whole lyrics for this song. That's the Si Supieras lyric. So, quarteta Troilo Grela first, and then about the Castillo. La Cumparsita.

2:18:21 · They playLa CumparsitaAlberto Castillo · 1955

As far as Stenvoll knows, the only recording of Castillo singing La Cumparsita, using the alternate 'Si supieras' lyric.

The lyrics, on the song's page

2:21:21Very unexpected, huh? Beautiful. Wonderful. Beautiful interpretation. It is. And with the cello, the prestigious voice and the cello.

2:21:38So that was it from me. Let's tell our, I don't know what to call you, viewers? Friends? Participants. Fellow tango lovers. Let's tell everyone anyway about our plans to keep them all sane over the coming months, shall we?

2:21:56So, you know, we know the show is important to you and it's important to us as well. Um, now currently we're in a fortnightly cycle which, you know, two weeks from today it's Christmas, so we're not going to do a show then. But we thought, no, we can't leave you wholly without something before the next year comes. So Dag has a plan, but Dag, you want to tell them about your special plan?

2:22:19Yeah, Wednesday in three weeks, it's December 30th, so it's the day before New Year's Eve. And the idea was to do something special, to do a love special. And I think the idea came a couple of weeks or months ago, maybe. I was looking at the songs, and there was a discussion, what was the most common word in the title of tangos? And we ended up finding out that it was amor. So I'm going to pick only songs with amor in the title.

2:22:49Really? Yeah. Limiting yourself even to that. Yeah. But there are lots of them. Yeah, it doesn't limit you too much. Yeah, and it's going to be an interesting night, I think.

2:22:59Okay, so if that's your theme, then maybe for the after party, I should choose words only with Corazón in the time. That's a good plan, actually. So that'll be December 30th, and then we'll go back to the two weeks cycle, as long as we have years left.

2:23:16Yeah, but we have another plan about that as well, because it's going to be January, and okay, not quite the darkest point of the year, but it's still going to be winter and there's still going to be no dancing. So we've got a plan that will still keep the fortnightly cycle, but deliver a program to you every week. How are we going to do that? Are we going to do repeats? No, not quite.

2:23:39But the first four shows, we didn't have an after party because we were just learning how to do this. So there are four lost after parties, 41, 44, 47, I can't remember what we did, 51, I think 51, there we go. So in January, on the Wednesdays where Dag doesn't have a show, I will do a lost after party, and maybe we'll turn the tables. I'll choose the song and get Dag to talk about it. Yeah, right. We'll see about that.

2:24:15So that will get us through what could be a difficult month. January and February. So there will be something every week. Yeah. And then we have, I think, enough years left for March, and then we'll see. Yeah, we'll see. So that's our plan. So thanks so much for Dag. I should take over the music now. Yes please.

2:24:38And play a few. I still have that Pugliese feeling lingering in the back, you know, like a beautiful wine that you drink and you still taste the sip for 10 minutes afterwards. So I don't really know whether to leave Pugliese for the end or go straight back in that direction. Let's just kind of run through the years a little bit, the way you did. So I want to start with Piazzolla. No, I want to start with something so that I can go and get another cup of tea. So I like to play something that's very good and from the year, but not a tango hit necessarily in the changeover.

2:25:13So we're going to start today with Oscar Alemán, the Argentine swing guitarist who's returned from Paris. This is called Casi Negro, Oscar Alemán and his jazz orchestra from 1955.

2:27:38That's fun, isn't it? Everyone back? I know it doesn't take very long but maybe you've managed to get yourself another drink. Let's go on. Now we touched on these Piazzolla recordings from Paris from 1955 but they're really quite interesting. Listen, go and check them out, see if you can find them. They're not so common but I want to play one more from that time and it's perhaps not quite typical, a little bit more delicate, but a Piazzolla composition, full of ideas and interests. This is called Imperial.

2:31:07How about that? Really interesting, delicate, something a bit different. Now let's have a little run around the evolutionary orchestras. So Pugliese was not entirely alone. There was Gobbi around, of course, and also Jorge Caldara. Jorge Caldara, a bandoneon player, who with the political difficulties had left Argentina for Japan for a couple of years where he worked as a backing rank of Fujisawa. But we've got a couple of recordings from Jorge Caldara so it's not pure Pugliese in style, you'll hear that, but it's fun, nice to listen to. Be a shame to let 1955 go by without hearing anything by Caldara. Here's an instrumental number, Argentine recording, not a Japanese recording, from 55 and it's a theme that you all know very, very well, just not this version. This is Lorenzo.

2:35:02That's something a bit different, huh? Very delicate in the piano especially, not just at the beginning, all the way through. So he didn't just make a Pugliese style orchestra when he left, he did something a bit different. Now I've got to play one thing by Gobbi and it has to be Camandulaje. Now you're not all going to like this, but I'd be really interested to read your comments. It's extremely advanced and dense, full of ideas. Pugliese went on to record it, he liked it so much, but not until 1973. So this is the bleeding edge, this is the leading edge of tango music, even more than Sargan, my opinion, in 1955. Alfredo Gobbi, Camandulaje, and it's his own composition. Let's see how we feel with this one.

2:36:23 · They playCamandulajeAlfredo Gobbi · 1955

Gobbi's own composition, called by Lavocah the 'bleeding edge' of 1955 tango; Pugliese liked it enough to record it himself, but not until 1973.

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• Claudio GonzalezGente Amiga · 2023

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♪ Music · 2:29 · What the transcriber heard

2:38:53So nicer, really complete music. So interesting, full of ideas, using all the technical resources that are available to tango musicians by that time. But danceable, not easy to dance, but danceable. If Dag had played that three hours ago, we'd all have gone, oh, that's way too difficult. But now we're all warmed up, much more appealing. I'm glad we listened to it anyway. Maybe it will be another 10 years before that's played in a Milonga.

2:39:47Right, I was thinking I was going to play Pugliese now. Yeah, let's do it, actually. Let's go straight on whilst we're there. So we need to listen to some of the solo recordings with Miguel Montero. Dark voice, perhaps recording Chanel in some ways, and it's such a street voice, the voice of Miguel Montero.

2:40:13Now, his first few recordings with the orchestra were not very well received. And the rest of the band said to him, well, you know, your next tango needs to be a hit. Otherwise, you will need to make way for someone who has more luck. So it was on the line. It's like your next record has to be a hit or you're out. Not an easy thing for anyone, but he managed to save the day with this tango.

2:43:02Yeah, great lyric. Different lyric, huh? Not the love story, but about love, about his love for his father. It's a nice thing to have a tango about. And so that sold 35,000 copies and his job was safe. And 35,000 for a tango in 1955 was pretty good. You know, for the mid 40s, no, it's not great, but for the mid 50s, that's very good sales indeed.

2:43:41And he's got another fantastic tango, which we might as well listen to while we are here, which is El Poncho del Amor.

2:44:00 · They playEl Poncho del AmorOsvaldo Pugliese · Miguel Montero · 1955

A second Montero number played straight after the first, with Montero's street-edged, bass-baritone delivery.

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♪ Music · 1:33 · What the transcriber heard

2:46:34Powerful stuff. You have to forgive me, but I'm going to stop playing Pugliese now because otherwise we'll never recover. And the party will have to stop and we can't have that. So it's traditional to calm everything down after Pugliese. And one of the ways to do that is with Coló.

2:46:53So no peeking. You have to guess the singer Miguel Coló from 1955. And there's a link really to Pugliese because I think the tango, by the way, it's called Desorientado, Disoriented. And I can easily imagine this being performed by Paul Lezzi in 55. I don't know whether he did or not. No idea if it was in the repertoire. So a singer that you know from other contexts, no peeking on the Internet, no cheating. Who can guess?

2:47:35 · They playDesorientadoCarlos Roldán · 1955

Played as a guess-the-singer game; Stenvoll can imagine it as a Pugliese/Morán number, though it was not recorded by them.

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• Gianpiero Galdi

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♪ Music · 2:55 · What the transcriber heard

2:50:34Yes, Carlos Roldán. So some of you knew it and just typed it in before we even got to the lyric. I have to say, I can't recognise him from the 40s. I mean, clearly the guy is a decade older, the voice has changed, but I wouldn't have recognised him. Now, before we get into the Di Sarli Fest, an artist that we listened to in the 1954 show, a singer that to many of us was unknown, and someone's just asked about waltzes, so I'm going to play one, but it's a complete coincidence. There were very few waltzes in 1955 and there were very few recordings really, not so many. Alberto Morán had a version of Je ne sais que me ha hecho tus ojos, for example, but this one is Dante Recia, he sings with guitars and this is La Vuelta al Rancho.

2:51:39 · They playLa Vuelta al RanchoDante Recia · 1955

A guitar-backed vals played as one of the few 1955 waltz recordings; Lavocah also mentions Alberto Morán's version of a different vals in the same breath, so the two may be conflated in the transcript.

♪ Music · 5:47 · What the transcriber heard

2:57:26Play three Di Sarlis and then we're going to have the mystery Cumparsita. The three Di Sarlis shall be, first of all, the instrumental El Ingeniero, which I especially love because of the way he really stretches out the melody. There's a wonderful tension in that melody. And if I'm not mistaken, the composer is Junisi, isn't it? Yes, Alejandro Junisi, the same guy who composed El Recuerdo. So he composed very few songs, but they all absolutely were wonderful.

2:58:02So first of all, El Ingeniero. After Ingeniero, we'll have Noche de Locura, which was a big song in 54, 55. So Kelow recorded his version in 1954, but Di Sarli makes a really, really special version in 1955 and that's with Oscar Serpa on vocals. And the third and final one with Mario Pomar on vocals is Bailemos, Let's Dance and it's a tragic story. The two composers were going home from a milonga, they were at the bus stop waiting for the collectivo, Pascual Mamone and Reinaldo Liso, like at two o'clock in the morning. And during the night, Reinaldo Liso, the lyricist, had seen a couple have a break up dance.

2:59:01A man and a woman at the milonga were saying to each other, and they were saying, yeah, we have to break up. And they danced one last tango together at this milonga, and then they separated with tears in their eyes. And he'd seen this, and he was telling his friend about it at the bus stop, and the guy said, that's a tango. You've got to write a tango about that, and he did. So that's what Bailemos is about. First, El Ingeniero, Noche de Locura, Bailemos.

2:59:42 · They playEl IngenieroCarlos Di Sarli · 1955

An instrumental Lavocah especially loves for how far Di Sarli stretches the melody, composed by the same man who wrote El Recuerdo.

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♪ Music · 4:29 · What the transcriber heard

3:04:11 · They playNoche de LocuraCarlos Di Sarli · Oscar Serpa · 1955

A big song of 1954-55 (Miguel Caló recorded it in 1954); played as what Stenvoll calls Di Sarli's especially special take.

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The lyrics, on the song's page

3:06:03 · They playBailemosCarlos Di Sarli · Mario Pomar · 1955

Played last of the three, with the story of its composers witnessing a real breakup dance at a milonga and writing the song about it that night.

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The lyrics, on the song's page

3:08:36Okay, so now it's time for the Mystery Cumparsita. Now, let's give you a clue, although it's not a very easy clue, who was the artist who had most success with tango in the United States? OK, I'll give you a clue. Big clue, actually. It wasn't an Argentine because everyone went to the United States and failed, didn't they? Canaro went there in 27 and failed. Fresedo went there in 1920, made some records, but came home, went back, came home. Nobody of the Argentines. Rudy Valli is a much better guess, but no, not Rudy Valli.

3:09:37Okay, I'll tell you. The person who had most success with tango in the United States was Xavier Cugat, and he recorded La Cumparsita three times, and the third version in 1955 is La Cumparsita arranged as a Mambo. So if you haven't heard from this, this is going to leave you in a good mood. It really is something unexpected. Thank you very much to everyone. Lovely to be with you. I so appreciate spending these evenings with you and special thanks to Dag, of course. Here we go, Xavier Cugat, the Mambo version of La Cumparsita.