Tango 1959-1969
Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah · 4 Oct 2023 · 3:28:15
A reunion programme covering the 1960s, the decade after tango stopped being a mass social-dance phenomenon (around 1955). Stenvoll and Lavocah show a fragmented scene: Piazzolla's quintet and the 'generation of 55' playing for listeners, small groups such as the Salgán-De Lío duo and Quinteto Real, Pugliese's late masterpieces, and dance bands that carry on (D'Arienzo with Bustos and Valdez, De Angelis, Caló, Varela). Argentina is under two military coups, the pop 'nueva ola' takes over, and RCA Victor's Ricardo Mejía destroys the master recordings. It is also a decade of few new tangos, but Lavocah calls Bronca (1962) the one that expresses the coup and D'Arienzo's El último café one of the great tangos of the 60s.
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What this episode gave Tangopedia
Facts said in the episode, each now cited to the minute it is said.
Tango ends as a mass social-dance phenomenon around 1955: audiences are tired of the war years and want new music; the Perón government, which supported popular music, falls the same year.
Tango 1955
There are two military coups in the 1960s; Frondizi's elected government is under military pressure and falls in a coup in 1962. Bronca is the only tango that really articulates this.
Argentina in the 60s
Local pop music, 'la nueva ola', dominates; 1962 is seen as key because it gets its own TV show, and El Club del Clan follows.
Nueva ola
In 1959 Victor appointed Ricardo Mejía, who promoted pop music and had the building with the master recordings cleared out to save money; none of the original tango masters survived, which is why reissues come from old shellacs.
Tango bands shrink partly for money: orchestras of 10 are expensive, so a duo or quintet is cheaper. The electric guitar enters tango.
Chapter · 5:22
The day the masters were thrown away
RCA Victor scrapped its tango masters to save a building.
A Piazzolla quintet recording of a tango first heard in the Troilo arrangement of 1951; now he can be true to himself, with Antonio Agri on violin.
Only in the episode
Chapter · 14:48
Why an electric guitar entered tango
Tango got cheaper in the 60s.
A duo of Salgán on piano and Ubaldo De Lío on electric guitar: the electric guitar is new to tango, and fewer musicians are cheaper.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 1:45 ·
Danceable Pugliese from the 60s with a beautiful piano opening motif by Pugliese himself; the tempo is completely plastic.
Only in the episode
Chapter · 32:32
40,000 people in a football stadium for tango
Pugliese played a stadium in Georgia.
The tango that expresses the rage of the 1962 coup, with a lyric that openly refers to it; the data says 1961, but the events it describes make 1962 likely.
Watch it danced · 1
Chapter · 33:40
The tango about the 1962 coup
Bronca: a tango written about a coup.
An instrumental with nice pizzicati, danceable in a mixed tanda.
A waltz that started as a folkloric tune; much loved and played by De Angelis.
Watch it danced · 39
A late Canaro, played for fun, who died in 1964; the lyric is about a poor girl who climbs socially and is condemned for it.
Only in the episode
A guitar conjunto, halfway between waltz and estilo, played in the style of the gauchos; Barón was the elder brother of Raúl Berón.
Only in the episode
Chapter · 56:49
Troilo's last LP wasn't Troilo
Pontier did all the work.
A fairly modest, danceable instrumental from the most-recorded orchestra of the 60s.
Watch it danced · 2
A radio recording of a waltz Caló had recorded in the 40s with Raúl Berón; with poor sound.
Only in the episode
A tango known from Biagi with an unpleasant lyric about killing a woman; Mauré's voice is deeper and helped by closer microphone.
Only in the episode
Trademark Varela sound, like the introduction of D'Arienzo's Tirá negra; Lilian is associated with Mauré.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 0:25 ·
A power tango with Bustos, the darker, sneering voice that delivers nasty lyrics with punch.
Only in the episode
One of the great tangos of the 60s: two people breaking up over a cup of coffee, with Valdez as the high-drama voice. Lavocah asks why there is no Troilo version.
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 115
Chapter · 1:40:08
The tango with a stop you have to count
D'Arienzo made dancers count.
From the 1966 'for export' album, in Lavocah's view by far the best; the stops get so long that dancers must count to know when to restart.
Watch it danced · 13
Salamanca, D'Arienzo's pianist, formed his own orchestra in 1957; listen for his piano.
Only in the episode
A tango known from Troilo and Fiorentino: a prisoner asks his mother if his woman has put their son in an orphanage. Stenvoll asked the owner of tangodj.at for the recording.
Only in the episode
A tough lyric known from upbeat 40s versions by Tanturi and Rodríguez; Goyeneche is called the greatest singer of the 60s and 70s for his phrasing.
Only in the episode
Rufino rejoins Troilo some 20 years after; Lavocah compares Troilo to Jürgen Klopp for improving every singer.
Only in the episode
A shocking suicide tango from 1944, recorded by Troilo with Marino and by Lomuto; people said it should be a bolero. Lavocah says it was no reason to learn Spanish.
Only in the episode
Tango declaring itself and its qualities; Rivero's voice drops in volume, which makes him hard to play at milongas.
Only in the episode
Lavocah's unexpected Caló opening: a 1960s arrangement of a tango he assumed no one would expect.
Only in the episode
Vidal, who had only 18 months with Pugliese in 1949-51; the song started as a Mexican bolero.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 1:47 ·
Salgán, De Lío, Laurenz on bandoneón and Enrique Francini on violin in a quintet; almost like jazz.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:30 ·
Lavocah's 'wild joy': the tempo goes mad through discords, played by Pugliese himself.
♪ Music · 2:58 ·
Watch it danced · 319
The elements of a tango appear in the wrong order: stretchy violin first, then an ostinato bass, no melody; still very danceable.
Watch it danced · 28
From a rare LP showing Rivero at home with his family, accompanied by guitars.
Only in the episode
A closing Ukrainian song linked to the film Ukrainian Rhapsody, for the Ukraine charity.
Only in the episode
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Tango By Year is Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah's, published here with their permission. The audio plays from SoundCloud.