TBY Lost Afterparty I - 1941
Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah · 6 Jan 2021 · 3:18:27
The first of the 'lost after parties' fills in for the missing talk after the Tango 1941 programme (9 April 2020). Lavocah plays a long second selection of 1941 recordings that Stenvoll did not play, from Biagi and D'Agostino-Vargas to Fresedo's different rhythms (foxtrot, candombe milonga, conga), a Tanturi section, Canaro milongas, Lomuto, D'Arienzo with Reynal and Di Sarli and Troilo instrumentals with their new transfers; Stenvoll then adds his own 'after-after party' with songs he left out. The talk covers the year's intense dance-music energy, shellac and master-destruction history that explains poor transfers, and details like Agua Florida cologne, the first recorded El choclo with lyrics, and a technical mistake on Di Sarli's Germaine master. Interleaved are jazz and classical pieces from 1941 chosen for the mood of the pandemic winter.
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Tango 1928Episode 27 · 13 Jan 2021 · 4:05:29What this episode gave Tangopedia
Facts said in the episode, each now cited to the minute it is said.
Stenvoll chose 1941 as the first year because it sits on the cusp between the D'Arienzo period and the more lyrical period, and because a month into the pandemic the world felt like it was on the brink of disaster.
Vardaro, known for his characteristic tone in the Típica Victor and Típica Porteña, could also play classical runs and double stops and bluegrass-like passages, which shows that he is a master tango violinist who could play anything.
In the Biagi orchestra a single bandoneón sometimes plays very quietly with a lot of tremolo (shaking the instrument), adding a spooky atmosphere under the vocal.
Agua Florida is an eau de cologne invented in New York in 1808, with orange blossom as the main ingredient; it became hugely popular across South America, and is still used in Peru as a household remedy and by shamans. The tango uses its smell to bring back the early days of tango.
D'Agostino, Vargas and lyricist Cadícamo are almost a triumvirate: Vargas's lyrics are mostly about barrio life, and many were written by Cadícamo.
Chapter · 7:25
The violinist who could play anything
Elvino Vardaro played bluegrass, classical and tango.
Vardaro's Brighton Jazz recording, chosen to show the range of this tango violinist, who combines classical runs and double stops with bluegrass-like passages.
Only in the episode
An old instrumental of Firpo (c. 1917) known from Di Sarli; Biagi pushes the off-beat all the time, a possibility already in Firpo's version.
♪ Music · 2:20 ·
Watch it danced · 4
Called one of Troilo's party pieces, with a quintessential bandoneón variation that Biagi plays on the piano instead.
Only in the episode
Chosen for what Biagi does with the bandoneons: a single bandoneón plays very quietly with a lot of tremolo low in the left hand, adding a spooky atmosphere to the lyric.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:21 ·
Chapter · 23:16
The perfume in the tango
Agua Florida is a tango about a cologne.
A tango whose strange bookend introduction was the opening for a talk on Agua Florida, the eau de cologne whose smell takes the singer back to the early days of tango.
♪ Music · 2:16 ·
Watch it danced · 7
A heavy lyric about drinking away pain, with beautiful bandoneón work and a clean Tango Tunes transfer.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 1:53 ·
Chosen so that listeners can appreciate the biting violin of Raúl Kaplún, with Francini as second violin.
♪ Music · 1:56 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 115
Chapter · 36:40
A fox-trot, a candombe, a conga and a tango
Fresedo in 1941 was barely a typical orchestra.
The Spanish version of the hit foxtrot Johnny Peddler, opening a Fresedo section of different rhythms.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:25 ·
A milonga with an amazing backbeat and candombe feeling, unusual for Fresedo; Roldán was brought in to sing only this song.
A waltz, following the Love Special's Amor; Ruiz was Fresedo's only regular vocalist through 1941.
♪ Music · 1:54 ·
A conga; Lavocah explains the real conga beat (one two three a-four) and lets listeners judge how well Fresedo conveys it.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:13 ·
Played for what Lavocah calls maybe the best counter-melody in tango; the transfer comes from archive.org because no good one exists.
♪ Music · 2:12 · The lyrics, on the song's page
A dancers' favourite for which no one has a good transfer; a lyric about the sound of a clock in an empty house.
♪ Music · 2:22 ·
Chapter · 1:01:20
The masters that were thrown away
Tango's original masters were destroyed in 1962.
A tango about remembering dancing; Tanturi directs while another pianist plays in the same style, banging out the beat with playful little bells.
♪ Music · 2:03 ·
Watch it danced · 58
An instrumental with a beautiful piano part, available only now from Tango Tunes; simple formula of bells, creamy violins and a short killer variation.
♪ Music · 2:43 ·
Watch it danced · 45
A milonga about a swaggering suburban compadrito, with good bandoneons reminding Lavocah of a Troilo milonga.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 1:46 ·
A rare Canaro milonga, only in poor fidelity, with a second vocalist, a woman journalist known only by the nickname Blackie; lyric about weighing 100 grams of faith, peace and joy.
Only in the episode
A Pintín Castellanos milonga that sounds like a horse; Canaro recorded it before D'Arienzo (1949).
Only in the episode
Chapter · 1:24:50
Recuerdo came back in 1941
Pugliese did not bring Recuerdo back. Lomuto and Troilo did.
The only 1941 recording of Pugliese's tango, played in the 1926 De Caro arrangement with a modest, restrained variation.
♪ Music · 2:33 ·
Omar and Fernando Díaz are very good singers who are not 'firework' singers, so they suit Lomuto.
♪ Music · 2:25 ·
A funny lyric: 'my heart is a cooperative'; many other loves, but he is faithful to one.
The soloist spot: Maizani, who often dressed as a man on stage, singing with guitars about drowning in a cup of absinthe; the tempo is frantic.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:05 ·
A 'triste', one of the countryside genres of the Pampas, sung by Corsini ('never fails').
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:11 ·
Carbel, the singer who made Paciencia with D'Arienzo, back as a soloist with guitars.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:38 · The lyrics, on the song's page
A bit of joy from D'Arienzo to lift the mood; heard as 'Tirita'.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:34 ·
Reynal was a forgotten vocalist who didn't stay long; the lyric introduces the band, and the arrangement has 3-3-2 marcato and triplets, unlike the straight 1930s beat.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:05 ·
A tango about a gaucho wedding at an estancia where the bride's ex stabs the dancing groom, who says the knife has come between them; Lavocah guesses it relates to a news report.
Only in the episode
♪ Music · 2:03 ·
A Rufino song about liking his whisky nicely chilled over ice.
♪ Music · 2:05 ·
Watch it danced · 24
Lavocah's teaching tango, here in the 1941 version: polyrhythm of three against four in the left hand under smooth violins. New Year's resolution: DJs should play the 1940s version.
♪ Music · 2:23 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 136
Chapter · 2:12:20
The mistake nobody caught
There is a glitch in Di Sarli's Germaine, 80 years old.
Known basically only from Di Sarli; first violin Guisado bends the third note of the riff like a blues guitarist, and there is a skip at 38 seconds that is on the original master.
♪ Music · 2:44 ·
Watch it danced · 1
In the new Tango Tunes 1938-42 edition; a tango about a brick wall that contains in embryo all the contrasts of later Troilo, with a strong, masculine verse and an intimate chorus.
♪ Music · 3:05 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 12
A masterclass from pianist Orlando Goñi, absolutely destroying the piano with rumbling left-hand bass notes.
Watch it danced · 21
A milonga 'from the beautiful times' to close Lavocah's tango selection.
♪ Music · 1:42 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Watch it danced · 47
A Rodgers and Hart song from 1937 that became a hit in 1941, chosen for the pandemic: 'we'll go back to doing something we've done a long time ago'.
Only in the episode
Stenvoll's transition piece from Grieg's Peer Gynt suite; Grieg was from Bergen.
Only in the episode
After-after party: a milonga Lavocah did not play, with fantastic energy and a detailed Tango Time Travel transfer.
♪ Music · 2:04 ·
Watch it danced · 38
Chapter · 2:43:50
The wedding march that is a tango
Biagi turned Mendelssohn into a tango.
Based on Mendelssohn's wedding march, associated with weddings and rarely played at milongas.
♪ Music · 2:07 ·
Watch it danced · 1
A beautiful, danceable Creole waltz with a successful variation played over an almost silent marcato, and changes between minor and major key. Requested by a viewer.
♪ Music · 2:29 ·
Watch it danced · 86
Stenvoll's promised El choclo: the first recording with lyrics sung; also a subtle D'Agostino piano at the end.
Watch it danced · 2
An energetic and jazzy milonga that is less heard because of usually poor sound quality; this transfer is by Bernhard Gabbaga.
Only in the episode
A radio acetate of a Troilo-Fiorentino waltz in poor fidelity, with free phrasing; lyrics begin 'Mucho tiempo después de alejarme, vuelvo al barrio que un día dejé'.
Only in the episode
From Canaro's Quinteto Pirincho: an old-style tango milonga, sometimes played at marathons, with an innocent early-days quality.
Only in the episode
A half-fast milonga about a candombe; Lavocah explains the Reds (federalists) and Blues (unionists) and Rosas's patronage of the candombes.
Watch it danced · 130
Last track: Lamarca's version of a song also heard in Tango 1932 ('today I love you more than yesterday, but less than tomorrow').
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.