Tango By Year, by year: The afterparty
Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah · 10 Nov 2021 · 3:43:55
A reunion afterparty from Bergen in which Lavocah and Stenvoll walk the series year by year, from the mid-1920s to the 1950s, with a few recordings per year. Lavocah frames the early period as a big three (Fresedo, Firpo, Canaro) plus De Caro, then shows how the Depression darkened the music in 1931, pruned the sextets and the new bands, and how D'Arienzo's 1935 insistent beat started the milonguero 1940s. He singles out 1942 as the deceleration into a more lyrical tango (Troilo's Malena), 1943 as the peak (Uno, Di Sarli's piano polyrhythm, Marino's vocal control), and 1948-50 as the crisis of censorship and the new competition from imported music, ending on Di Sarli's La cachila and the first Piazzolla arrangements for Troilo.
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Tango 1959-1969Episode 40 · 4 Oct 2023 · 3:28:15What this episode gave Tangopedia
Facts said in the episode, each now cited to the minute it is said.
Firpo got the idea for El amanecer on a tram home after a late cabaret job: partygoers in the cheap seats, workers on their way to jobs, birds singing, and factories starting at four in the morning.
In 1928 the young Charlo appears on Lomuto and Canaro records as a guest, not a band member; before 1928 singers were not regular parts of the typical orchestra on records, which prepares the 1940s.
In 1926 the De Caro band already played advanced music, with the Maffia and Laurenz duo pushing it; the soft parts are Maffia.
Maizani sings with blue notes and deep melancholy, the voice of a poor woman from the arrabal; she recorded Pero José at least twice (1928 and 1931).
Canaro's symphonic series of 1929 coincides with the arrival of Ada Falcón, his muse and partner in a tempestuous relationship of about nine years; the music alternates soft and hard, starting soft, and after the Depression it starts hard.
Chapter · 6:21
How Firpo's tram ride became a tango
Birds, a tram and 4am factory hammers.
Illustrates Firpo's tram ride home from a cabaret: birds singing and, in this version only, the hammering of factories starting at four in the morning.
Only in the episode
A man waits for his girlfriend; Charlo's first appearance on Canaro records changes the level of the band and softens it.
From early 1926, to show how advanced the sound of the De Caro band was, with Pedro Maffia's soft passages standing out.
Maizani's own composition about a smart man in a sports car who weeps when he gets home; the voice of a poor woman from the arrabal.
Only in the episode
A Discépolo tango about a harlequin who dances to hide the pain; picked as one of the best tangos of 1929.
Only in the episode
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 16
From the year Minotto formed his own band on the Columbia label; his bandoneón style reminds Lavocah of Canaro, but he shows off more.
Only in the episode
A Fresedo Brunswick recording from the height of the Depression, written by Famá himself: a man tells his friend 'you can always count on me'.
Only in the episode
Donato's first Victor recording, from late 1932: the new, deliberately cheerful sound after a year of miserable music.
Only in the episode
A long, beautiful waltz that Lavocah DJs sometimes; Firpo kept to his musical vision after a flood and the crash wiped him out.
Only in the episode
Played because we cannot hear Laurenz's version of the tango from this year.
Watch it danced · 5
The record that defines the D'Arienzo project: Biagi's piano pushes an insistent beat 'like a dripping tap'; two violinists, Mattioli's low and Mancuso's high.
Chapter · 1:15:30
Gloomy Sunday: the Hungarian suicide song
A song banned by the BBC.
The Polish version of the Hungarian 'suicide song' of 1932; original title The Last Sunday, played for its Depression-era darkness.
Only in the episode
A very fast waltz where the train nearly comes off the rails; the bandoneón section is 'dirty', not the clean fingering of 1950s D'Arienzo.
Watch it danced · 94
Echagüe, a year in the band, finally records and sounds like 'the man next door who can sing well'.
Only in the episode
Simple, cracking dance music from an orchestra that plays foxtrots and pasodobles; the title is ironic, 'I've got a thousand girlfriends'.
Only in the episode
On D'Arienzo's final session with his old band he recorded two tracks; rock-and-roll riffs, in Lavocah's phrase.
Only in the episode
The 'bitter drink' D'Arienzo had to swallow when his band deserted him.
Watch it danced · 117
Mariano Mores's tango of his courtship, with the little blue room painted with a whitewash cube; Corsini, born in Sicily, was said to have learned to sing from birds.
Only in the episode
Chapter · 1:51:58
The blue room
Mariano Mores painted a room blue after a hit.
An unusual tango with a nature lyric where all the sounds of nature name the woman he loves; written by a lesser-known lyricist.
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 12
A Tanturi instrumental played straight after Todo te nombra.
Only in the episode
Chapter · 2:10:44
Why 1942 sounds slow
Tango hit the brake in 1942.
Early Caló, with Enrique Francini, the star violinist, at the heart of the orchestra of the stars; romantic but with more body.
Only in the episode
The recording that epitomizes 1942's slowdown: it fades in as if from a distance, Goñi plays a piano solo, and it is the first arranged vocal number in the Troilo band. A first take was made in January.
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 21
A tango that starts by mocking slicked-back pretty boys who know nothing of the beat: the working class voice asserting itself.
Only in the episode
Chapter · 2:33:55
Why tango is called Uno
A tango with no name.
Perhaps the most important composition of 1943, with about eight versions; Mauré's voice soars in this version, one of his top three lyrical songs.
Watch it danced · 21
Chosen for the funky polyrhythm in Di Sarli's left-hand piano, said to be some of the clearest in his music.
Only in the episode
Originally titled Muchachos, se armó la milonga, changed because lunfardo was forbidden; Castillo was already singing with Tanturi.
Only in the episode
Shows Marino's supreme vocal control, from fortissimo to a whisper; Marino joined as second singer next to Fiorentino.
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 6
One of the most romantic, dreamy tangos ever recorded; Podestá is in his second stint after Rufino went solo.
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 1
Omar records just ten numbers with Canaro over two years; the special arrangements are by Mariano Mores.
Lavocah squeezes it in as a Chanel number, though it is not typical of Pugliese at all.
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 129
A Carlos Marcucci composition likely brought into De Caro's repertoire by Marcucci, who joined and now leads it; the De Caro of this period is 'rich and warm and juicy'.
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 5
One of the new Piazzolla arrangements played by Troilo, 'reviewed and approved by Troilo'.
Only in the episode
Eduardo Arolas's tango with the only really long piano solo in Di Sarli's music; Lavocah hears Beethoven.
The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 3
Ortiz on bandoneón with a guitar trio: intimate guitar-bandoneón music of the 1930s.
Only in the episode
Final track: Mores wrote the tune in 1955; Lavocah plays a version that is close to Mores's own 1957 recording, not Francini-Pontier's of 1955.
Only in the episode
Chapter · 3:42:36
A record nobody could miss
Four and a half million records in a country of 15 million.
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Tango By Year is Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah's, published here with their permission. The audio plays from SoundCloud.