TBY Lost Afterparty I - 1941
Dag Stenvoll y Michael Lavocah · 2021-01-06 · 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.
Lo que este episodio dio a Tangopedia
Datos dichos en el episodio, cada uno citado al minuto en que se dice.
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.
Discos que suenan · 44
Transcripción
Transcripción automática del audio, luego puntuada; puede haber nombres mal oídos. Toque una línea para escucharla. El episodio es en inglés, y su transcripción también.
“Nobody crazier than Mr. Rodolfo Biagi.”
Good evening, everybody, and welcome to Tango by Year in the year 2021. And welcome to the first of the lost after parties. Yay! Yay! A new format for us, so we're not entirely sure ourselves how this is going to work, but we'll find out. We're all together. That's the most important thing. Such a pleasure to be here with you.
Dag, how are you? How are you in Bergen? I'm really good. It's cold here. I think it's in Norwich too. You're wearing your warm coat. It's cold everywhere. It's winter, except for those joining us from the Southern Hemisphere.
So I just looked it up and the 1941 program, our first program, was on the 9th of April 2020. So that's what? Nine months ago. Nine months ago in a couple of days' time. How's that feel? We've come a long way since then. We have, haven't we? Yeah, in all kinds of ways.
And I wanted to ask you, was it, I mean, obviously 1941 is a fantastic year for dance music, whether it's tango or jazz, what we've been listening to now. But was it really an obvious choice for you to start with 1941? Because there's lots of other places you could have started. Yeah. I think there were two reasons mainly. One is that it's a great year, it's kind of in between the two periods, important periods in tango, the arianza period and the more lyrical. Yes, it's kind of on the cusp, isn't it? Yeah, so that was one thing, and the other thing was that, uh, at that point, one month about in into the pandemic, I was feeling a bit, the world was kind of in this really strange situation, yes, just like we're in 1941. I mean, of course, now it's a bit strange to cop to compare, even though it's bad today, it's not like '41, but the world was on the brink of a disaster, and that's what it felt like in those first weeks of the pandemic. So maybe that's also why I chose this year. Yes, yes, a year that stimulated a lot of creativity.
Yeah. So I'll try and treat this like the 1941 after party, which means, um, first of all, uh, I'm not going to play anything that Dag played, and let's just give a little rundown of what he played. Yeah, and I went and listened to the '41 show again, and I know that some of you have because you got in contact. But okay, 60 second resume of what we heard earlier this evening. Nine months ago we started with, um, D'Arienzo with, uh, Ya lo ves with Maure and the instrumental El resero, um, and in the same line we had some Biagi, El enterigriano and Humillation, which is... There's a classic tango with Jorge Ortiz. Then we come down with some D'Agostino, Tres Esquinas, Adios Arabal. You said you were going to play El choclo, but you didn't. Yeah, I made a mistake, actually. It's fine. Adios Arabal is an absolutely lovely song.
Then we hit Troilo. Just two songs. We had to make do with just two. El Bulin de la Calle Ayacucho and Milongueando en el Cuarenta. Then we kind of went a bit softer. We had Juan Julio Ricardo with Farrell singing No Me Pides La Exclusiva or 1941 of course. Then Laurence, Orgullo Criollo, Quédate Tranquilo, Miguel Caló, Bajo En Cielo De Estrellas, and then one I wasn't expecting you to play, the Yo Soy El Tango, but the Caló version. You were expecting the Troilo version. I was indeed. Then some romantic Frisado, Vamos Corazón and Buscándote, the tango more than any other that's guaranteed to have 500 people say, oh, so lovely. And then I guess we had to hear a Canaro. You played Papyrusa with Ernesto Fermat. I'm going to play some Canaro. Cuando llora la milonga of Lomuto, which, as we both said, really underrated mid-40s, early 40s, lo monto.
Getting near the end now. Tisali, Marinito and Lo Mismo Que Antes, classic songs, then a couple of Firpos, La Chola and then Tulento, upbeat, and then you finish off with Tanturi, including for your Compasita, La Vida Es Corta, Life Is Short, You Gotta Live It, and Adios Pueblo, beautiful tango. That's from 1940 actually because there are no Compasitas from 1941. Just a month before, wasn't it? December, the final Compasita.
So if you just played all that, what I would do now, well, first of all, what I'm not going to do, what I'm not going to do is make us all desperate that we're not dancing. Because this was really weighing on my mind. And 1941 is a really intense year for dance music. So I'm not going to sit here and just play 1941 D'Arienzo, for example. First of all, it's too energetic for me. I need to warm up before I can play anything like that. But secondly, I'll go bonkers. So I'm going to try and be kind to us all. And normally I like to start with something, well, I always make the joke, you know, you've got a chance to go make a cup of tea. Nobody ever does. But something that's not, strictly speaking, maybe a tango. And I wasn't going to do that, but I just found something while I was sitting here playing the warm-up music that I absolutely have to play for you. What is that, you ask? This is Elvino Vardaro.
Now, Elvino Vardaro doesn't have a tango orchestra in 1941, but he forms a jazz band called the Brighton Jazz, and they record a couple of songs. This one is called... Actually, I have to sign this with a Spanish accent, Violinomanía, violinomania in English. And as you listen to this, now, if I say Elvino Vardaro, many of you know who we're talking about, a violinist with a very characteristic tone that we recognise playing with the Orquesta Típica Victor in the opening of the Typica Porteña Confession or lots of other Orquesta Típica Victor tracks. A great violinist, and if I mention his name, you don't think, oh yeah, he was a classical violinist who also played tango music. You think he was a very good tango violinist, not something that we really say about Francini, who is very popular with musicians. Whenever you hear Francini playing, you think there's a classical player, a guy who can do it all and is doing it with tango bands as well. But listen to this, and I think it's going to expand your idea of Elvino Vardaro and what he could do.
Capítulo · 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.
So there you go, he could play it all. Isn't that interesting? You have these very strong classical touches there, very fast classical runs and double stopping. And then he broke into, as somebody said, bluegrass, solid bluegrass. And when he's playing tango, he sounds like a tango violinist. But for me, that's a level of mastery that very few people get to. Did you play a lot of jazz? Not so much. Not so much. You need special abilities at the personal level to organise a típica and not everybody had those. And he didn't really. Yes, maintained a good team amongst his musicians, but in terms of pushing for work and getting all the contracts and stuff, that wasn't him. More of a side man in many ways.
So we are in mad times, folks, so it's time to listen to some Biagi because he's the craziest tango orchestra that we've got. That's where we're going to kick off tonight. Nobody crazier than Mr. Rodolfo Biagi. I'd like to start with Didí, which is an old instrumental of Roberto Firpo, not very well known. Well, moderately well known, I guess. You'll know it probably from Di Sarli, but I think Firpo first recorded it in something like 1917. And it's interesting to listen to Firpo's old version, which we're not going to do after this one. Because what does Biagi do? Of course, he pushes the offbeat, the one, bang, all the time. And then when you go back and listen to Firpo, you can hear that the possibility is there in the music and Biagi brings it out. So let's start with that one. We're going to, yeah, no, let's have two. We'll just go straight off with two instrumentals first. Didí, so this crazy offbeat, and finally, yes, one of Troilo's party pieces with a very important quintessential bandone variation. Of course it's Biagi, so you don't get that, and he plays it on the piano. Enjoy.
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.
Lo bailan · 3 de 4
♪ Música · 2:20 ·
Called one of Troilo's party pieces, with a quintessential bandoneón variation that Biagi plays on the piano instead.
How about that? Is that mad enough for you? Very tough. Setting the scene for 1941. Now the bands I really want to play tonight, I want to play the calm stuff also. Di Sarli, of course. D'Agostino with Vargas. We really need to listen to some of that as we are in chairs and not at the milonga. What did we say? D'Agostino with Vargas. And Tanturi. That's the third one. But a bit of a surprise.
So there's one track. We've got a choice whether we play D'Agostino Vargas or another band, which would be Ya no me conoces. Classic D'Agostino Vargas track from '41, but let's have a bit more madness and let's listen to the Biagi version. Ya no me conoces means you don't know me anymore, like you don't recognise me in the street. You go, who's that? Don't know them. So we're going to listen to the Biagi version with the voice of Jorge Ortiz. And the thing to listen out for in this track, apart from the obvious, is what Biagi does with the bandagnons. So what's the role of the bandagnons in the Biagi orchestra? Sometimes you get a single bandagnon, so not the whole line. They're busy with the marcato. But a single bandagnon plays very, very quietly with a lot of tremolo, where you shake the instrument to vibrate it and get the woo sound. And you get some of that going on, I think, quite low in the left hand of the first bandagnon in this track. So it adds a slightly spooky atmosphere to the lyric. So, Biagi with Ortiz, Ya no me conoces.
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.
♪ Música · 2:21 ·
Was that mad enough for you? Biagi version rather than D'Agostino Vargas. So now we need to play some D'Agostino Vargas. First track I want to play is Agua florida. Now, Agua florida, maybe we don't play it quite so often at the milonga because it's got a slightly unusual introduction that we get at the beginning and then again at the end, like bookends to the piece. Now, what did I want to say about this? Agua florida, what's it about? Agua, water, florida, flowered, florid. Does it mean water that smells of flowers? I just went and looked this up. Maybe some of you knew this already. I didn't know. I was just looking it up this week and it turns out it's a brand of eau de cologne. Agua florida is a brand of eau de cologne that was invented in New York in 1808 and became huge all over South America. The main ingredient was orange blossom in the water. And it became very popular in Argentina at the turn of the century, so in the very early days of tango, not just in Argentina, it was popular all over South America. It's still extremely popular in Peru, for example, where it's used as a household remedy and is used by shamans in their ceremonies. That's how widespread it was. So that's what Agua florida is about, it's called Florida water. I wrote a little article about it on my blog with some pictures so you can go and look at the labels. I'll post the link to that while we're listening to it. So the idea of the lyric is that the smell of Agua florida takes the lyricist and the singer Vargas in this case right back to those early days of tango and all the memories that they have as aromas and smells do.
Capítulo · 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.
Lo bailan · 5 de 7
♪ Música · 2:16 ·
Isn't that beautiful? So sweet. So sweet. The kind of music you could dance to for a long time, I feel. Next one is Traigan caña, which I'm sure many of us know. Caña is rum. Bring another rum. Why does the guy want another rum? I had a look at the lyric and I had a surprise, his mum's died, that's why he's drinking. How about that? Bit of a shocker. Beautiful bandoneon work in this track. I'll try and point out when it comes.
A heavy lyric about drinking away pain, with beautiful bandoneón work and a clean Tango Tunes transfer.
♪ Música · 1:53 ·
Another beautiful tango. Beautiful, clean transfer from tango tunes as well. They're really good transfers. They're D'Agostino transfers.
That's a really heavy lyric, Mike. Can I ask you? Because I think you said before that. Yeah, it's a really heavy lyric. Before I was just, oh yeah, D'Agostino, isn't it nice? But usually Vargas sings more light lyrics, doesn't he? About barrio life and romantic stuff. This is unusual.
It is unusual, but the lyrics are always about barrio life more than romance. Barrio life is the theme of the Vargas lyric, and so many of them written by Cadicamo. It's almost like there's three people in the orchestra. There's D'Agostino, Vargas and Cadicamo. We should name him too as part of this triumvirate. Yeah, heavy lyric.
And then I thought I could play El choclo, because you meant to, but no, I'm not going to play it. The unusual thing about the El choclo is it's the very first time that you get the lyrics sung, because I think the first recording of El choclo is 1905 or something incredibly early like that. And there are many, many recordings, but the first one with the lyric is 1941. But not tonight.
Let's have a little bit of romance. I want to play one piece only by Miguel Caló, which is Dos fracasos. And the reason I want to play it is so that we can all appreciate the fine violin work, not of Enrique Francini, but of Raúl Kaplún. Now, in the early Caló orchestra, Francini is there, but he is second violin. Think about that. Francini is second violin to a guy called Raúl Kaplún, who is another one of these violinists from Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine area.
So that kind of influence to the playing. And Kaplún is certainly as fine a violinist as Francini, but he plays with more bite. It's a less classical touch, although, of course, he can play classical. Got more bite to it. Something that you hear when he leaves and Francini takes over his job. And Kaplún goes to Lucho de Mare, where he contributes to the strength of the de Mare backbeat.
So what do my notes say? Yeah, it's a minute and a half before Kaplún comes in. But you'll hear the tone, which has got more body than Francini's tone. And the violin also continues when Alberto Podestá starts singing. So notice too the way that Kaplún's violin accompanies the singer. Dos fracasos, Miguel Caló with Alberto Podestá.
Chosen so that listeners can appreciate the biting violin of Raúl Kaplún, with Francini as second violin.
Lo bailan · 5 de 109
♪ Música · 1:56 · La letra, en la página del tango
Did you hear the violin? Beautiful. Did it sound any different to you, the Francini's? Never mind if not. Do you like the more biting violin of Kaplún better than Francini? I mean, it's better for tango, maybe.
For me, it's... I mean, there are moments of Francini, like there's a few tangos like Marion. He had his own band, you mean? No, later on with Caló. There's a few where he plays beautiful solos and beautiful introductions. There's one that the name won't come to mind where there's a recording also with Troilo. But here, for me, Kaplún is a more tango sounding violin, I guess.
And body and bite makes marcato, doesn't it? Yeah. So he's not kind of seduced by the beauty of his own sound. Yes. Right.
Now we're going to have a little Fresedo section. And what I've decided to do is to play as many different rhythms as possible. A few people commented when Yenzingo and Benedict released the complete 1930s crusader a couple of weeks back how interesting it was to hear the other rhythms, because you know not all record labels bother. Some record labels when they do a release they just would issue the tangos, waltzes and malongas, which is what they think we wanted, but it doesn't give a complete picture of the orchestra.
Capítulo · 36:40
A fox-trot, a candombe, a conga and a tango
Fresedo in 1941 was barely a typical orchestra.
Even Tango Tunes, one of their early releases when they released the 1930s D'Arienzo, there are 116 tracks. It's like a magic number, the great 116 D'Arienzo tracks, but they only released 114 because two of them were polkas. But I'd like to hear them. Wouldn't you like to hear them? It's only two more tracks to give an idea of the music of the band. And in Fresedo's case, he plays a lot of other stuff.
So what I've got lined up for you is we're going to start with a Foxtrot. I'll tell you more about that in a moment. It's really mad. Then we're going to have a Milonga. The Milonga is Negra María, which has got this amazing backbeat with a little bit of a Candombe feeling. It's kind of strange. You don't really think of Fresedo as a Candombe band, do you?
Because Candombe signifies drums, weight, Africa, power, whereas Fresedo connotes lightness, European, playful. New York. New York. Yeah. But Fresedo and Milongas are interesting. Then we'll have a waltz. You played a beautiful waltz in the Love Special last time, Dag. You played Amor, and I'm going to play Una vez en la vida. And then we're going to have a conga. But I'll say something about the conga before we get there.
So first three, Foxtrot, a milonga, and a waltz. The Foxtrot, this song was a hit all over the Americas, first of all in English and then in Spanish. The English title is Johnny Peddler. So it's a peddler, a street vendor, who goes from door to door, knocking on the doors and trying to sell stuff to housewives. And he says to them, I got. And he gives a list of all the things he's got. And if he doesn't got, he can get.
So this is the Spanish version of that from Osvaldo Fresedo. Juancito el vendedor, Johnny Peddler.
The Spanish version of the hit foxtrot Johnny Peddler, opening a Fresedo section of different rhythms.
♪ Música · 2:25 ·
A milonga with an amazing backbeat and candombe feeling, unusual for Fresedo; Roldán was brought in to sing only this song.
So just a quick word about the vocalists. Ricardo Ruiz is basically Fresedo's only vocalist right through 1941, and Carlos Roldán, who's from Uruguay and is kind of like a Molonga specialist, has been brought in to sing just that one song. Otherwise it's Ricardo Ruiz. That's in 1941, at the end of 1941. Fresedo loses his entire band. They go on strike for more money and they quit, the whole band.
So that didn't just happen to Risale or to Renzo. And now as promised, so of course with Ruiz, or Waltz, Una vez en la vida, once in your life.
A waltz, following the Love Special's Amor; Ruiz was Fresedo's only regular vocalist through 1941.
♪ Música · 1:54 ·
Isn't that sweet? The vibes. Ting.
Now the conga. Now, just in case you don't know, a conga is. A conga is a Cuban dance and it's thought to be a slave dance that developed because the slaves were chained together in lines. So they needed something that they could do with everyone shuffling forward together as a group. And the beat of conga, this doesn't need explaining, it's a before the beat syncopation. So it goes one, two, three, a four. So there's a double beat at the end and that's often missing in western interpretations of the conga.
When I say western I mean non-Cuban. Very often what they do is they go one, two, three, uh, and then you don't get this double beat. You just get one, that second beat falls off. So the real conga is one, two, three, a four. And if my, these are my feet going up the room, you would go one, two, three, a four, like that. And at the same time, you make a gesture with your hands called Bacu Nau, but that belongs to another show, not a tango show.
So there's a few bands play his conga. Lomuto has a conga from 1941, but let's stick with Fresedo as he's giving us so much joy. You can decide for yourselves how good a job he does of conveying the conga beat. The name of this conga is La negra está loca. That black girl is crazy.
A conga; Lavocah explains the real conga beat (one two three a-four) and lets listeners judge how well Fresedo conveys it.
♪ Música · 2:13 ·
So, yeah, Fresedo didn't play so much for the same public as everyone else. He liked to play for upper class people in hotels. He didn't really like playing Saturday night dances. So they love that kind of thing. Yeah.
So, yes, a master of different rhythms. Now, we can't let Fresedo go without playing one tango. And, Dag, you played Buscando Te in your show nine months ago. So I can't play that. But I can play a tango that has a different but equally strong effect on me, which is Después del carnaval, After the Carnival. This is an absolute killer track.
That's a wonderful counter melody, isn't it? Exactly. So, you know, I talk in my Di Sarli lectures about the Di Sarli counter melodies in the violins and we listen to them. And of course, Di Sarli is the master of counter melody, second harmonising melodies in tango music. But this is maybe the best counter melody in tango ever. Really beautiful counter melody that just grabs your heart every time.
Very hard to find a good transfer of this song, although Yenzingo and Benedict are working now, amongst other things, on 40s Fresedo. So we'll see how they get on. I got this transfer from the archive.org website, but then I cleaned it. Anyway, what I've ended up with is better than anything you can find on disc. So far. Maybe not later on. Maybe 2021 will bring us good things musically. So enjoy this one. Last Fresedo number. Después del carnaval.
Played for what Lavocah calls maybe the best counter-melody in tango; the transfer comes from archive.org because no good one exists.
♪ Música · 2:12 · La letra, en la página del tango
Oh, so beautiful. Just exquisite. Work of exquisite beauty. Gosh. I wonder what else he had that he performed and didn't record. Did he have more songs in that vein at that time?
We'll never know. So what do we have? We started with the foxtrot. Then we had a milonga candombe, a waltz, a conga and a tango. That's Fresedo for you. Barely a typical in 1941. On the record labels it was printed Osvaldo Fresedo y su gran orquesta Argentina. Osvaldo Fresedo and his great Argentine orchestra. So he didn't, he'd even stopped calling himself a typical on the record labels, which is interesting.
Now, let's move away from the romance, and we'll have one track and one track only, ladies and gentlemen, of Enrique Rodríguez. Now this is a real dancer's favourite, but no one's got a good transfer. If anyone's got a shellac of this disc, call me collect, day or night. In fact, don't call me, call Yenzingo. And he can do the transfer. This is Enrique Rodríguez's Tic tac.
A dancers' favourite for which no one has a good transfer; a lyric about the sound of a clock in an empty house.
♪ Música · 2:22 ·
Yeah, the transfer is not perfect, is it? The story with these transfers is that some of them are good and some of them are not. And despite the great efforts of a lot of people in the past five, ten years, most of the stuff we're listening to is still not new transfers being done from shellx but the old stuff. So what's with this variation? So the record companies had the masters and they kept them for a certain time, and we think that Victor and Odeon destroyed their masters around 1962. Why did they destroy them? They thought that tango was an old business and it just wasn't going to be important. I know. Sorry about this. I can see somebody drinking in the windows. They thought it wasn't going to be important anymore. And the bands that were still successful were still recording, so you could buy their new records. So why would you want the old ones? But 1962, the LP had already happened because the vinyl EPs began in the early 50s. And the first LP started around 1960. So there was a couple of years where they were producing LPs, either in Argentina or abroad, but they still had the masters.
Capítulo · 1:01:20
The masters that were thrown away
Tango's original masters were destroyed in 1962.
“We think that Victor and Odeon destroyed their masters around 1962. They thought that tango was an old business.”
So what they did was then they'd make a, you could call it a mother master, a master for making the LP from. That always had to be done. But for those two years or so, that mother master, the LP master, was prepared directly from the original metal masters. So those are good quality, and they've kept those. So if the song happened to be included on an LP in that time, i.e. one of the more popular ones, then there is still a master. It's a copy of the original master. And that's where Euro Records got a lot of their transfers from. Carlos Puente begged the companies to be allowed to run around in their store. He didn't want to be paid for it, just for the opportunity, and he rescued a lot of stuff.
And then after 62, when they trashed everything, then when they wanted to make an LP of a 78 that they didn't have, they had to go and beg a private collector to lend them their records. There are LPs like that, like the Bendy Anniversary, 20 Anniversary of Canaro. On the back, it gives a list of the collectors who graciously donated their records to Odeon in order that they could produce it. Craziness, eh? So sometimes the version that ended up on the LP was a really good one, and then we've still got the track. Anyway, we can only hope one of the shellacks that we hope gets discovered in good quality in 2021.
How about some Tanturi? Yes. It's a really good year for Tanturi, 1941. There's a couple of uptempo tracks at the beginning: Pocas Palabras, which you played, Dag, and Comparsa Criogia. But then the speed backs off a little bit, and Tanturi 1941, I think, is really fantastic for dancing. The instrumentals in particular, we just didn't have for a long time, and they're available now from Tango Tunes and they're great for dancing. Let's start off with a vocal number though, with Castillo of course, the only vocalist, the flamboyant Alberto Castillo. Noches de Colón, he's remembering dancing, so this is a tango that's for us, isn't it, remembering our nights dancing.
A tango about remembering dancing; Tanturi directs while another pianist plays in the same style, banging out the beat with playful little bells.
Lo bailan · 5 de 57
♪ Música · 2:03 ·
Tanturi's got an absolutely fabulous pianist, doesn't he? Tanturi was a pianist, and in the very first recordings from 37, 38, he's on the piano, but it's not him here. He's directing the orchestra and the pianist is playing in the same style. His name's Armando Posadas. So banging out the beat, but then these nice little bells, less subtle than the Di Sarli ones, but playful and beautiful. And it's really nice for me to hear that music at the right speed. It's really relaxed for dancing.
Yeah, we think of Tanturi as often an uptempo orchestra in these early years, but that's actually quite relaxed. Now an instrumental, El buey solo, buey is an oxen, the lone ox, again with a beautiful piano part.
An instrumental with a beautiful piano part, available only now from Tango Tunes; simple formula of bells, creamy violins and a short killer variation.
Lo bailan · 5 de 45
♪ Música · 2:43 ·
No, you're really making everyone want to dance, Michael. Sorry about that. So it's one of these orchestras with quite a simple formula, but it really, really works. Little bells on the piano. Piano keeps it simple, just makes little bells every now and then, the violins go all creamy like they did just near the end. Quite a short variacion, killer, killer. Now one little milonga. Fag end dangling arrogantly from his lips, hat cocked, the walk so porteno, a supercilious look, hair black and dishevelled. There goes that handsome youth from the suburbs with his unequalled good looks. Del tiempo guapo at the right speed.
A milonga about a swaggering suburban compadrito, with good bandoneons reminding Lavocah of a Troilo milonga.
♪ Música · 1:46 ·
Bandignons are pretty good as well, aren't they? Beautiful, almost Troilian timing. Yeah, that, on the end of that. Reminds me of a Troilo milonga, which maybe we'll hear later on. So that was that little Tanturi section. Fabulous orchestra in 41. Wow.
I'd like to play a Canaro track, a really rare track, that again, I only have in quite poor fidelity, but I know you lot, you're a loving and forgiving lot, so you're going to allow me to play this. This is a milonga called Life in a Thousand Grams. I didn't look up the lyrics, so I can't explain to you what it means. I love this one.
Yeah, and it's when it stops, right? Like you think it's stopping but continues after. I can't remember. It's fun. Fun to dance. Yeah, it's fast waltz. And there are two vocalists. So there's Carlos Roldán, who Canaro has brought in. But there's a second vocalist, which is a woman who also worked as an interviewer and journalist. And she was known only by her nickname, Blackie. So a really unusual track, again one I'd love to find in really good fidelity. Somehow this is from one of the transfers done by the people in Hamburg. Danza y Movimiento.
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.
It's bonkers. That's a movie ending. Yeah. Absolutely bonkers.
I'm going to play one more Canaro track, and this is a milonga. And it's a milonga composed by Pintín Castellanos. Now, Pintín Castellanos is the guy who wrote La Pugnalada. So if I say milonga, Pintín Castellanos, you should all be thinking of which band leader, people? That's right, D'Arienzo. Well done. Because D'Arienzo's La Pugnalada was the track more than any other that made D'Arienzo famous in 1937. It was his first really big hit. And then when you look at the discography, he records lots and lots of Pintín Castellanos milongas in the following years.
Now, one of them is a milonga called La rompedora. Someone commented a bit earlier, I think it was the milonga of Fresedo, Negra María, that it sounded a bit like a horse. Now, this one really does sound like a horse. And not only that, the subtitle, the second title is El potro, which is a kind of horse. But it's not the D'Arienzo version because D'Arienzo doesn't record it until 1949. So this is 1941. Canaro gets in there first. He's a sneaky, cunning guy.
A Pintín Castellanos milonga that sounds like a horse; Canaro recorded it before D'Arienzo (1949).
And maybe, whether you're a DJ or not, maybe you leave notes for yourself in the comment field on your computer. I'll read you my comments, what I've written to this song. I've written: mad clarinet, bizarre organ, hard to know what to think. I'll let you make up your own minds. La rompedora of Francisco Canaro.
What do you think? Do I have to revise my notes? It's a lot of fun, isn't it? A lot of fun. A lot of fun. Well done, Canaro. If Canaro performed it, you can be sure it's in D'Arienzo's repertoire at this time. Castellanos. Me longer.
Now, time to move on to another orchestra. Okay, little quiz time. Let's talk about Recuerdo of Osvaldo Pugliese. Now, what do we know about Recuerdo? Pugliese wrote it in the early 1920s when he was still in his early teens. It took him three years to write. Eventually, Di Caro heard it. Di Caro recorded it in, was it 26? Someone will tell me if I'm wrong in the chat window. And that was very, very successful. And then the popular version of the, like how we normally think of it, is the song kind of disappears until Pugliese finally gets his band together. And then he rescues all of these old numbers from Di Caro's repertoire. And he records it in 1944 with that fabulous variacion from Ruggero. It's just a magisterial performance. You all know it.
So that kind of made me think, oh, that's the recording of Recuerdo that rescues it for us dancers. But that's not true. Recuerdo was rescued for dancers in 1941, three years earlier, probably not by Pugliese. Pugliese did have an orchestra but the music wasn't very interesting in 41, he hadn't found his sound. Now there are at least two performances we know of but only one recording. We're going to listen to the recording of Francisco Lomuto, which is a really excellent recording. All the normal Lomuto qualities, you know, understatement, but solid. Quite a lot going on when you pay attention. And I hope your enjoyment isn't diminished too much when I tell you that Troilo was performing it in 1941, when of course there was Goñi on piano. It survives in really poor fidelity on an acetate disc. It's too poor for me to be able to share it with you because for a lot of people it just won't be enjoyable. It's the kind of thing I'll play just, you know, for one friend who I know won't be scandalized by how bad the sound is. But that is absolutely stunning because at the beginning of 41 Troilo was playing fast and Goñi was improvising like a mad creature. So it's in 41 that Recuerdo really comes back as a dance number in a bizarre kind of way. It's one of the songs of the year, when it was written in 26 and the famous recordings from 44, but it's one of the songs of the year, 1941. So we'll move on to a little Lomuto section, beginning with Lomuto's very fine instrumental version of Recuerdo.
Capítulo · 1:24:50
Recuerdo came back in 1941
Pugliese did not bring Recuerdo back. Lomuto and Troilo did.
“Recuerdo was rescued for dancers in 1941, three years earlier.”
The only 1941 recording of Pugliese's tango, played in the 1926 De Caro arrangement with a modest, restrained variation.
♪ Música · 2:33 ·
It's so modest, isn't it? The dialogue, all the dialogue is still there, although it's handled in a very different way to the Decaro arrangement from 26, which is the same arrangement that Pugliese plays. The variation is still there complete, but somehow it's not like, look at me, look at me, look at me. There's this slightly restrained and modest quality to it, which is very appealing.
Yeah, Dag, I really like what you said about your notes. Yeah. Not the best version, but sweet and different. Yeah, it's different, yeah. Yeah, I'd really go for that.
So now let's listen to one of each of the two singers, the two singers that Lumutov has got for many years, he's had them for a few years, are Jorge Omar and Fernando Díaz. They suit the orchestra very well because they're very good singers without being firework singers. Like a singer like Rufino wouldn't fit in this orchestra, would it? So let's start off with a number by Jorge Omar called Loco torbellino and we'll go straight on after that to a number by Fernando Díaz, which is called No tengo más que un amor, which has got a really funny lyric. First, Loco torbellino with Jorge Omar.
Omar and Fernando Díaz are very good singers who are not 'firework' singers, so they suit Lomuto.
♪ Música · 2:25 ·
A funny lyric: 'my heart is a cooperative'; many other loves, but he is faithful to one.
Well, especially to the ladies listening, what did you think of that? I only have one love, and it's you. Yes, I go around with a hundred girls on my arm, but it's just to prove, it's just to test whether I'm still attractive, and it's so nice to find out. So I may walk around with a hundred, but you're the only one I'm faithful to.
Someone wrote in the chat window, "My heart is a cooperative." Yeah, that was one of the lines at the beginning. My heart's a cooperative. Wonderful. Oh, crazy. Now there's a really nice Lamoto tango, not very well known, from 1941, called La copa de ajenjo. Now ajenjo means absinthe, which is what a lot of artists, including Toulouse-Lautrec, ruined themselves on, but we're not going to play the Lamoto version because it's time for our soloist spot.
Dag, something you've done through the programs which I've really appreciated is you've featured the male and especially the female soloists who were huge in tango but not in tango dance. And that's given us a much rounder appreciation, I think, of the musical scene in Buenos Aires at that time. So we're going to listen to the version by Azucena Maizani.
She's a really interesting character, one of the early female vocalists. There's such a wistful quality to her voice. She sings with heartbreak at every single moment. A woman moving in a man's world, she often dressed as a man, as a stage performer, and she wasn't the only one to do that. Tita Morello commented that Tita Morello was bigger in the 50s. And someone asked her, you know, why do you sing in that strange way and in that deep voice? And she said, come on, tango is so macho, I have to do it.
So if a woman dresses up in a dinner jacket, it's not just for fun. It could be partly as a kind of like a uniform that enables her to move in the male-dominated tango world. You know, maybe you've got your own thoughts about that or something to tell me about it. But Azucena Maizani was a very tragic figure. She wasn't good at being independent and she always made bad choices about men. So some of the lyrics end up being a bit self-referential when you look at the lyric and you think, gosh, that could be about you. So here she's drowning, knocking back a cup of absinthe to try, of course, and forget.
We're still in 1941, of course, but she's making much fewer recordings by this time. She carries on performing and even making a few records into the 50s, but the big part of her career is over. I think you'll understand why when you hear the voice, because it's a voice that belongs to an earlier era.
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.
♪ Música · 2:05 ·
That's an intense lyric, isn't it? I've lost my dignity. Now I'm a hopeless drunk looking for happiness in the cup of forgetting. Goodness, good strong lyric, but there's something hectic about this song. I mean, I feel it's a kind of it's played too fast. Maybe it's the spirit of the times that this kind of female voice and this kind of lyric fits better when they're in slower tempo for me.
Hmm. Maybe I can reframe that. I understand. I think I feel something of that franticness, particularly in the way the guitars accompany. But isn't that the emotional turmoil? Also, you know, I can interpret that as the emotional turmoil of the lyric. Okay. I don't know. Maybe she'd have done it differently 10 years earlier, but we'll never know.
Now, time to listen to another soloist, and this time it's Ignacio Corsini. Just one. The genre that we're going to listen to, it's one of the countryside genres from the Pampas and it's called triste, which is the Spanish word for sad. I guess we'd call it a lament. So this is actually a musical genre, one of the many musical genres in the Pampas. Triste campera, and this one is called Ay de mí, por mí.
A 'triste', one of the countryside genres of the Pampas, sung by Corsini ('never fails').
♪ Música · 2:11 ·
Corsini never fails, does he? What a voice. What a voice, beautiful natural voice.
Now, third spot in the soloist spot. 1941, one of the other songs of the year was Charlemos, Let's Talk, a tango about a wrong telephone number, and Ignacio Corsini has got a wonderful version of that, as of course does Carlos Di Sarli, but I'm not going to play either of those. I found another one preparing for this evening, which is by a guy called Enrique Carbel.
Now, just pause for a moment. Enrique Carbel. Anyone remember that name? Enrique Carbel. Paciencia. Yes, we have a winner. He's a vocalist that D'Arienzo tried out before he went with the Chagwe. He's the vocalist singing on Paciencia with D'Arienzo in, what is it, early 37? Something like that. Yeah. So here he is back with guitars as a soloist performing the beautiful tango Charlemos from 1941.
Carbel, the singer who made Paciencia with D'Arienzo, back as a soloist with guitars.
♪ Música · 2:38 · La letra, en la página del tango
Wow, that's wonderful. Thank you for that, Mike. I've never heard it. I hadn't heard it. Well, it's something I hadn't, I had heard, but sometimes you don't have time and things don't really register. Here's my question. Would you have worked out that was the same... If I hadn't told you the name, would you have been able to tell that's the same voice as Paciencia? I'm not sure I would. No. Everyone's shaking their heads. Interesting, huh?
I think we need to lift the mood a little bit. Yes, please. Okay, I know what we'll do. We'll go and do some D'Arienzo. Yeah, let's have a little bit of joy. Tirita with Darien Zomare.
A bit of joy from D'Arienzo to lift the mood; heard as 'Tirita'.
♪ Música · 2:34 ·
Great stuff, isn't it? Now let's go straight on and listen to something with the kind of forgotten vocalist from 1941, Alberto Reynal. He doesn't stick around that long with the D'Arienzo Orchestra, but there's some nice tracks. Well, listen to La típica, which is really fun because the lyrics go around. It's sort of like introducing the band. And yes, we've got the band agnion, and the band agnion plays a little bit, and so on with the double bass. Lots of interesting things to listen to in the arrangement as well.
In the 30s, D'Arienzo just goes chuk, chuk, chuk, chuk, and chuk, chuk, chuk, chuk. All you have, the models of marcacion, models of marcato, the way the band accompanies are just straight beats, or the normal tango syncopation. But in the 40s, in this new orchestra led by Varela, you get many different kinds of marcato. So here you're going to hear a lot of 3-3-2 in this piece, for example, which is something otherwise we think, oh, 3-3-2, that's Troilo and the guys like that. No, not in the early 40s. D'Arienzo does it too. And some beautiful use of triplets as well. So, La típica.
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.
♪ Música · 2:05 ·
Right, I'm going to play one more. Fantastic song, isn't it? Fantastic song. Really interesting. And again, that's the new transfer of TTT. Fantastic. Sparkling quality from the treble right down to the bass.
Now, this is one of those moments where I don't know whether I should explain what the lyric's about or not. But another. Please do. Okay. Okay. Okay. It's okay if you don't like this, it's Dag's fault. Okay. The song is now ruined for you. But again, it's a song that we don't know as well as we should.
Anyhow, it's another Darien Zorainel number from 41, and this one is called Olvidal. Forgotten. And it's about a guy who gets stabbed at his wedding. And it's a tango from 1932, and there's lots of names in it. So I presume it relates to a news report. I don't know that, but that's my guess that somebody really did get stabbed.
It's set in the countryside. It's a gaucho wedding at a ranch, at an estancia. And the guy's dancing with the bride and the girl's ex turns up and they have a knife fight. And the interloper stabs the other guy just above the heart. And he falls to the ground and he says to her, don't worry, don't worry, gaucho. I just feel this breeze coming, it's nothing. This stupid knife has come between us, but just remember me. And the implication is that she doesn't, or she does for five years and then she moves on.
I think five years is enough time to mourn, isn't it? Does she go back to her ex? No, it doesn't say that. She doesn't go back to her ex. So there are some extraordinary stories tucked away in these tango lyrics. So I'll post the lyric in the chat window for you. Olvidá.
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.
♪ Música · 2:03 ·
Crazy story. You can forget that. Just enjoy it the next time somebody plays it. And it's not played that often anyway. It's going to be a while, even when we're dancing, before DJ plays that one, so you'd have forgotten by then. We even have the girl's name. It's in the next verse. Her name was Lucinda. It tells you everything, like the town, who the other guy was. It must have been a real event that gets commemorated. Based on a true story. I think so. I think so.
So now it's Di Sarli time. And before we play some Di Sarli, I should pass on the news that you may or may not have seen this week, that Di Sarli's widow died a few days ago. Now, Di Sarli himself died in 1960, didn't he? January 1960. And we are now 60 years later. And the report that I read said she was a few days short of her 100th birthday. Sounds amazing. Extraordinary. Must be the oldest tango widow in the world. The oldest tango widow, yes. And she survived by her two daughters, Maria Cristina and Dora.
So that was a bit of sad news. And another bit of sad news we had this week was that the bandoneon player Raul Jaurena, who moved to New York and was a really important figure in the United States, especially in the early days of tango, he passed away this week from COVID, unfortunately. So that's another loss. But let's not get too sad about that. Let's listen to some Di Sarli. 1941 is a perfect dancing year with Carlos Di Sarli. We'll start off with a Rufino number, Bien frappé. Bien frappé is about how he likes his, well, it's whiskey in this case, nicely over ice. Bien frappé.
A Rufino song about liking his whisky nicely chilled over ice.
Lo bailan · 5 de 24
♪ Música · 2:05 ·
OK, now, next track, maybe not an obvious choice. I'm going to play the 1941 Di Sarli Don Juan. Now, if you've been to my lectures, you know that I used the early 50s Don Juan as a teaching tango to really see what Di Sarli does on the piano. So Di Sarli, he puts these beautiful smooth violins over the top and it's easy not to notice what's going on underneath. But when you start focusing on the piano, especially the left hand, the bass hand, Zorda, which is giving the driving force, it's not as just simple and plain as it sounds.
Now, it turns out that's all there in the 40s version as well, but even more modestly. So you're really going to have to concentrate. Those of you who've got headphones on are going to be an advantage. We'll play the 1941 Don Juan, and we're going to try and focus on the piano all the way through. So you start off with those little campanas, the high bell-like notes, and then it moves to the middle, and then it moves to the bottom of the piano and there's a lot of polyrhythm going on.
Even in 41, polyrhythm, that's two rhythms at the same time. So the polyrhythm in Don Juan is three against four. Argentines call it marcato in tres. So instead of going one and two and, well, it does that, but at the same time it goes one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. That's polyrhythm. But Di Sarli does it so tastefully you don't notice. You just think, oh, that's nice. Here we go.
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.
Lo bailan · 5 de 136
♪ Música · 2:23 · La letra, en la página del tango
Magic, isn't it? When you listen to the piano. Stunning. OK, let's make a New Year's resolution. All the DJs, New Year's resolution is to play more 40s Di Sarli instrumentals, because, you know, 15 years ago we all played the late 50s. Don Juan, we'd have played the late 50s one. And now we're playing the early 50s one. But 2021, we're going to play the 40s version. How about that for a New Year's resolution for the tango DJs?
And on the same vein, and also exploring complex rhythms, let's listen to Germaine. Another beautiful tango. In this case, a tango that we basically know only from Di Sarli. Firpo, I think, performed it, but I can't think of another well-known performance, apart from Di Sarli's performances. And again, 41 performance, really interesting. There's one particular moment where you hear Guisado, the first violin, bend a note.
So Germaine is one of the tangos, I call them three note tangos. There's lots of tangos where the main riff is three notes, like Re Fasi, for example, even tells you the names of the notes in the Re Fasi, doesn't it? But in Germaine, that's another one. And it goes da, da, da. Yeah, every time you hear that, you know it's Germaine. But on one of the occasions, and you're going to hear it now in this 41 version, Guisardo is playing that and he bends the third note like a blues guitarist. So you'll hear Guisardo play like that, as well as all the rhythmic stuff. There's lots of great 40s Di Sarli instrumentals, but I think this will have to do us. So, Germaine.
One comment, if you're super geeky or have very sharp ears, you'll notice there's a mistake in the transfer. Don't feel bad if you don't notice. It's very easy to miss it. But there's a mistake at 38 seconds. So 38 seconds, each block of music is about 30 seconds. So there'll be first an A music or a verse, 30 seconds. And then there'll be a B music or a chorus. So about one line into that there's a tiny little jump and I chatted to Yenzingo about this and he went and made a transfer of the shellac and it's on the shellac now.
Capítulo · 2:12:20
The mistake nobody caught
There is a glitch in Di Sarli's Germaine, 80 years old.
If it's on the shellac, not on an LP, that means it was on the master on the day that it's recorded, because the shellac record is a one-to-one pressing of the master record. So the technician there was a technical mistake during the recording and nobody noticed. The technician didn't notice, RCA Victor didn't notice, and either Di Sarli didn't play it back or he did and he didn't notice. How about that? Germaine.
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.
♪ Música · 2:44 ·
Wow. Great song. Wow. When you can hear it cleanly, so good. So, so good. Right, folks, you know what it is now, don't you? It's Troilo time. Yes.
And in 2020, Tango Chins released a new version of their early Troilo transfers. And the 38 to 42 album is just amazing. If you haven't got that, just go and get it after the show. Yeah, you won't be disappointed. It's really good. It's better than the earlier ones. And it's not necessarily the case that just because there's a new version, it's going to be better. But this one is. So we can enjoy everything in super quality. Lots of my favourite tracks.
Let's start off with Tinta roja. If you've been to one of my lectures, you know this is one of my favourite tangos, but it's my show, so I can play it. Tinta roja is a tango about a brick wall. Red tint. Tinta roja en el gris de la jera, in the grey of yesterday. So he remembers this brick wall and all the memories come flooding back. And it's a tango that has in embryonic form all the contrasts that you hear later on in Troilo. Someone's just asked, is there an after-after party? Maybe. Hang on.
Back to Tinta roja. What I really invite you to notice is when Fiorentino comes in, how he makes his entrance and he starts singing in a very strong and masculine way through the verse about the past. And then when he gets to the chorus, the mood changes. And suddenly he gets very nostalgic and intimate and introvert. And that's not how he begins to sing. So that's something really key about the Troilo style.
“He changes mood within one song, that's why it's so satisfying to dance to.”
It's not like choosing, oh, this is going to be an extrovert song and that's going to be an introvert song, which is what other bands do. No, he changes mood within one song. That's why it's so satisfying to dance to, because each journey of each tango of three minutes is really a voyage, a journey in its own right. But you have to pay a lot more attention as a dancer. That's the payoff.
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.
Lo bailan · 5 de 12
♪ Música · 3:05 · La letra, en la página del tango
Fiorentino masterclass, but although we heard a little bit of the other, well, everyone in that band is super essential, aren't they? But the key players, Troilo and the pianist, Orlando Goni. So we heard a few of his interventions then. Now let's listen to a tango masterclass from Orlando Goni. Now remember, you've got to listen to the left hand, listen out for the rumbling bass notes as he absolutely destroys the piano in El Tamango.
A masterclass from pianist Orlando Goñi, absolutely destroying the piano with rumbling left-hand bass notes.
Wow. The guy is a phenomenon. I imagine they had to rebuild the piano after that. He hits the key so hard.
Michael, I was listening to Tango 1941 last week. Yeah, me too. And at some point during this, I think I played, it was Milan Guando and Las Carentas. At some point you shout, Gagne, Gagne, in the background. I didn't edit it out because I thought it was so fantastic. I couldn't stop myself.
Oh, what a talent. A bohemian. He lived and died the way he played. Always on the edge. Best pianist in tango ever, right? Horacio Forea says it's stupid to say that there's such a thing as the best pianist. It's a stupid idea. But Gony was the best.
Let's be stupid tonight. Right then, one more Troilo track before we build a bridge to the after after party, and we'll play a milonga because it's fun, and it's the one where Troilo has this one note solo at the end. If you want to make a solo on one note, you've got to have some special qualities of feeling and timing. Del tiempo guapo, from the beautiful times.
A milonga 'from the beautiful times' to close Lavocah's tango selection.
Lo bailan · 5 de 47
♪ Música · 1:42 · La letra, en la página del tango
Yowza! Isn't it wild? That's absolutely wild.
Right, now before I hand back to our beautiful host I want to play a special song. You know, I like to, if I can find something that's really of superb quality, that's unmissable for the year, and it's not a tango, I like to share it for you all the same. So I absolutely knew there was a song I wanted to play. It's a Rogers and Hart song. Rogers and Hart, famous American songwriting team in the 20th century, wrote over 500 songs together. Many very famous songs. I think this is their best song ever. It's called Where or When. And this was first performed in a stage show in 1937, but 1941 is the year it made it really big.
Now, what's the lyric about? It could be about déjà vu, meeting somebody and having a déjà vu. But I don't think it is about déjà vu. I think it's more about synchronicity, the feeling that something's meant to happen. And I'll read the lyric to you. It seems we stood and talked like this before. We looked at each other in the same way then, but I can't remember where or when. The clothes you're wearing are the clothes you wore. The smile you're smiling, you were smiling then, but I can't remember where or when.
And I wasn't sure whether to play this song for you. It's a strange song because in tango, there's a lot of songs that sound happy, but when you get to know the lyric, they're actually quite sad. This is the opposite, it's played in a terribly sad way, but when you think about the lyric, it's actually extremely beautiful and quite hopeful. Anyway, I was walking back from the supermarket yesterday and I realized this lyric's about us now. When we go back to dancing again, how will we feel? We'll go back to doing something that we've done a long, long time ago, and for many of us, you know, we can't. When was the last time you were in a milonga? Can you remember what it was like? I can barely remember. It's going to be a very odd feeling. So suddenly this new layer of meaning to this beautiful song suddenly appeared to me. And I thought, oh, that's it. I have to play it to you. And it's heartbreakingly beautiful anyway. This is Benny Goodman with Peggy Lee. Peggy Lee, superb vocalist. Perfect tuning and pitch, great sensitivity and tenderness.
“I was walking back from the supermarket yesterday and I realized this lyric's about us now: when we go back to dancing again, how will we feel?”
And maybe part of the reason that it affects us quite as much as it does is the historical circumstances again. This was recorded on New Year's Eve in New York. So not New Year's, Christmas Eve, which was 17 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. So the resonance of that would have been hanging in the air, making everyone very uncertain about what was coming.
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'.
So, last song from me tonight. Thank you to all of you for being here. Thank you to Dag for organising it. Thank you to our sponsors. To Tango Abrazo in Bergen, to Tango Norfolk, my home community, and to the Maribu Nightclub. Last track from me, before we go across the water, Benny Goodman, Peggy Lee, Where or When.
This is Norwich handing over. Come in, Bergen. That was wonderful, Michael. Thank you so much. Absolutely extraordinary performance. The control she has to sing so quietly and yet everything is perfectly done. It gives me the chills. Yes. That song. It's really candy. Candy for the year.
So, our first, not only is it a double first tonight, not just our first lost after party, but now our first after after party. Yeah, well, someone joked about it in the chat. This could be a long night. I mean, we're still 119 people here, so it's too early to stop. It's only 10.40 here in Norway. But you kept going for about the average length of a Tango by Year program, so it just shows how many fantastic songs there is. You know, we could do another 1941 program and still not repeat anything we've played so far.
Well, I'll say, as you sometimes say when I played, thank you for the selection and it's really nice, but there's always some songs that could also be played in addition. So why don't we, those of you who want to hang around for a while, I'll play something for you to go and get a cup of tea or a glass of wine and something different than tango. And as most of you know, the signal song that we always end with is Grieg's Morning from the Peer Gynt Suite, and Grieg grew up in Bergen. He's from my home, from this town, and yeah, so this is why we picked this song. But I wanted to play a different song from the same suite as a transition song before we go and get back to the tango world. And you will hear In the Hall of the Mountain King from the same suite.
Stenvoll's transition piece from Grieg's Peer Gynt suite; Grieg was from Bergen.
That's almost Gony style, folks. Someone asked who it was. It's Alice Sara Ott playing the piano. Wonderful, wonderful interpretation of that song. So Michael had about nine months to prepare for his after party. I only had a few minutes, but there was some... Let's just follow the same sequence that I had for the original 1941 tango, 1941 in April last year. And we'll start with Alianzo. And there was one song that Michael didn't play, a milonga called Bolada de aficionado. It's a great milonga that you don't hear so often at milongas. But listen to this, guys.
After-after party: a milonga Lavocah did not play, with fantastic energy and a detailed Tango Time Travel transfer.
Lo bailan · 5 de 38
♪ Música · 2:04 ·
Fantastic energy to that one, isn't it, Michael? And the tango time travel transfer is amazing. The transfers are really detailed, I'm hearing new things in the music that I didn't really notice before, so interesting to listen to. Yeah, it's hard to stay in your seat for that one. Yes, and we're warmed up now, we're ready for that D'Arienzo energy. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so let's pass on to Biagi, and there's one very special song that you also don't hear much at milongas because it's associated with weddings. Normally it's based on the wedding march by the Swedish composer Mendelssohn. La marcha nupcial, yes. And it starts straight off with those wedding notes, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. Let's hear it. Take us to the wedding.
Capítulo · 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.
Lo bailan
♪ Música · 2:07 ·
Mendelssohn was indeed German, not Swedish, sorry for that confusion. It's not the only one, like a Zara Leander. What nationality was Zara Leander? She was Swedish, but she sang in German, made a career in Germany, but she was Swedish. So easily done. Anyway, Biagi was Argentine, so we could agree on that, no confusion about that. Yeah.
Let's hear one last Biagi song, and for some reason during Tango 41 I didn't play beautiful Biagi waltz that we heard so many times at milongas. I even received an email requesting me to play it tonight, so now we're going to hear it. I can't remember who sent it, but your dream has come true. Let's hear it. One of the most beautiful danceable waltzes ever.
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.
Lo bailan · 5 de 78
♪ Música · 2:29 ·
Oh, what a killer waltz. It's amazing, really. I mean, that variación is so successful, but the band is playing almost nothing. They're playing this really quiet marcato, and he's just playing triplets. It's nothing complex, but super, super successful. And it's wonderful how the song, I mean, the tears and laughter, and the changes between minor and major key. Oh, it's a brilliant observation. It's brilliant, yeah. It's really fantastic. One of the really popular Creole waltzes.
So we have to hear D'Agostino's El choclo that I announced on the first 90-foot time. Finally. And what I love about this song is the fantastic piano at the end. Because, I mean, as you said, it's the first time the lyrics are sung. So that's interesting. But also the piano, D'Agostino's wonderful, subtle piano at the end. It's beautiful. Let's hear it.
Stenvoll's promised El choclo: the first recording with lyrics sung; also a subtle D'Agostino piano at the end.
The End The End Vieja milonga que en mi zona de tristeza traes a mi mente tu recuerdo cariñoso y encadenándome a tus notas dulcemente siento que el alma se me encoge poco a poco hoy que los años han blanqueado ya mis sienes tango querido viejo tango que me embarga With the reported norcerial music in front of that beautiful age
Such a beautiful piano there. And the vocal is completely convincing, isn't it? As soon as Vargas is singing, I'm not thinking, why is he singing? This is meant to be an instrumental, as most of the other versions are. It really works. What is he singing about? because the title is, it means a corn cob or something. But there's a lot of controversy or different theories about what the title really means. Like it could be a sexual reference or it could be the wish that one can earn one's daily bread through one's work. The lyric itself, I wasn't paying attention, sorry. Let's go to an orchestra we didn't hear in April last year and you didn't play it either, Typica Victor. and there is a really nice milonga from this year called their punta it's a very energetic milonga that you don't hear so much at uh at milongas because i don't know why the sound quality is usually not so good this one i got from from um it's uh bernard gabbagas so he has a good transfer of this one so maybe you haven't heard this before in this sound quality the Punta i Accia orchestra typica Victor
An energetic and jazzy milonga that is less heard because of usually poor sound quality; this transfer is by Bernhard Gabbaga.
The End The End The End The End super jazzy isn't it rocks yeah it really rocks i remember we listened to this when you were in bergen last time michael had good fun yeah so uh next song i think uh most of you have never heard before and i'm not going to introduce it just uh let us see what if you can guess who it is it's very bad the sound fidelity is not good because it's not a issued uh song it's it's from i think a radio transfer or just uh as a disc so let's see if you can recognize it
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'.
Good morning. Mucho tiempo después de alejarme, vuelvo al barrio que un día dejé, con el ansia de ver por sus calles mis viejos amigos y el viejo café. En la noche tranquila y oscura, hasta el aire parece decir, no te olvides que siempre pitura y sigo esperando que vuelvas a mí. In this night I'll say that I don't see it again with it so short That she sent me from last few months and she gave me her There's a voice that says in the voice that you hear but you know We get here for her, for her let me resist you in the forest'sader With her pregnant trees and children's fruits When all that done for us from every single number That was an enormous impact of being mentioned Now, how about that? How often do you hear Troilo Fiorentino songs that you've never heard before? It's brilliant. The phrasing, the fraseo of Fiorentino in that waltz is really interesting because it's quite free. And there are other early Troilo numbers with such a free fraseo, but there's not many. El Joron would be another one. What do I mean by the freedom of the fraseo? so at the beginning mis viejos amigos el viejo café that's not how he's saying it he's saying mis viejos amigos el viejo café and then in the next line en la noche he came in early viejo café en la noche so he's playing around with the timing all the time and that's it's very elastic and this is Troy Lowe on the radio before he got back to his recording studio right? these are yeah they're radio acetates but i don't know when they were made it's quite possible he did have his contract okay by then because the contract comes quite early in the year around carnival time but of course you can only record so many songs i think he records 12 discs so 24 numbers in that year and some of those are going to be hits from the back catalog so there's going to be very important songs in the repertoire, very important songs that he doesn't record because he just doesn't have the possibility, like the Troilo Recuerdo. Yeah. There's also, folks, so in the same mold as that one, there's a Troilo Racing Club. Yeah. Racing Club. Remember that? Of Biagi or later of Gobi. There's a Troilo Racing Club from 1941, 142, El Apache Argentino. Yes, there's quite a few in this quality or poorer. The Recuerdo is much poorer than that even. Sorry. And there'll never be a good transfer of this because there isn't any. It's not possible. It's possible to do better things with the acetate. Okay. So there's a Ruiz radio acetate of Les Despojos from 47. And that was kicking around, sounding very much like that for many years. And then when in 2014, the Clarín newspaper did a special box set called Pichuco. That's Toro's nickname. 100 years. And you couldn't even order it mail order. What you had to do was you had to collect the coupons in the Clarín newspaper every week. and when you got those once a week you were permitted to buy the cd from the from the newspaper kiosk so i couldn't get hold of this at the time but um one of the things they put on there was a fresh transfer from this single acetate of los des bojos and it was much better than the one that we'd heard before wow so you know somebody with more skill had uh or better equipment or both had done the transfer so it's possible that with the right equipment you may get an improvement but i don't know just speculating i'm thinking maybe two or three songs more and let's play canaro song and this is a canaro in the 40s this is actually from the quinteta also quinteto perincho and it's a it's a special song i'm not sure if i'm going to call it a tango or milonga It's called La Cara de la Luna. You sometimes hear it at marathons. It's an old style tango. So nowadays we'd call it tango milonga. Yeah. So sometimes it's played in a milonga tanda for fun, mixed milonga usually. Yeah, you could mix it up with a arabalera and those ones. Yeah. It's a feel good milonga or tango milonga. Let's hear it. La Cara de la Luna.
The End ¶¶ Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was fun, wasn't it? What I feel is it has an innocent quality to it, which is very refreshing. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, it's very different from the more heavy stuff from this period. yeah and don't forget canaro started his professional career in what like 1908 or something or maybe even a bit earlier so his affection for those innocent early days all right let's hear one real milonga before we end on a different tone this is the salle with la mulateada it's a half fast milonga with the rufino singing The End 17
From Canaro's Quinteto Pirincho: an old-style tango milonga, sometimes played at marathons, with an innocent early-days quality.
A half-fast milonga about a candombe; Lavocah explains the Reds (federalists) and Blues (unionists) and Rosas's patronage of the candombes.
yeah anything edley kid changed the more federal of the quartiles of the record the sentimental mulatto dance beautiful under the moon and the chiquichí of the chines the black of the tambour dance beautiful of the rock divisa that is looking at the eyes of our restaurateur
arm
long black
Michael, you had a few comments about this song in the chat window. Do you want to talk about it? The lyrics? Gosh, I mean, it could take half an hour to explain all the references. You have 15 minutes. I'll try and keep it as brief as I possibly can. So in the 19th century, there were two parties. They started out as two factions in the independence movement, the Reds and the Blues. The blues were the unionists and the reds were the federalists. So you see the word federal and federacion a couple of times in this lyric. And they wore red. So they'd wear red badges or red hats. And one of the words for red is punzo, which means blood red, the red colour you get also in poppies. And it has exactly the same association in Argentina as it does for us. If you say poppy in Europe, it means the blood shed in the First World War.
So Rosas is the leader of the Reds, and he is sympathetic to the black population. The Blues are more European minded, and they think it's absolutely scandalous that he permits the Candombes and even encourages them. He attends the milonga, the candombes of the blacks. And the lyric has got lots and lots of details, which there's no time to talk about now, about a particular candombe. So it gives the name and talks about aspects of the ceremony. Divisa, somebody asked Divisa Roja, the red. Divisa literally means uniform, but here it means the badge. it could be a sash or a hat or a bit of material in brief just to touch on that thank you for that story yeah so we're coming towards the end and uh yeah well this was a surprise night actually for me also it was that it turned out to turn to be as long as our usual nights and uh it's really nice and it just shows how many i mean i played like 30 songs in the first tango 41 in April last year and you played the same and we're still listening to just new songs and they're still, it's just a wonderful selection from this year. A very fertile year for tango, isn't it? Extremely, yeah. This explosion of creativity has taken place, lots of new bands and now they're finally being recorded because of course that creativity was already happening in 39 and 40, but a lot of the bands were locked out of record contracts. Yeah. So in 41 it gets documented. and most of it is also dance music so you've heard a lot of these songs before and you've danced to them but the last song the last track i'm going to play i think you haven't danced to but before i i talk about that let's let's talk about next week because we have an ordinary program next week tango by year where are we going we're going back as as far back as we've been ever to 1928 yeah it's going to be the the first year yeah it's a beautiful year i remember when when we did Tango 1929 in spring sometime, I think it was May or June, a lot of people were surprised by the extraordinary songs from that year. I mean, because it's not so known from Milongas for dance tango, but there's so much fantastic music. And this is my impression also from 1928 when I started preparing for this. So much nice music. So I'm looking forward to next week. A lot. And no, I won't talk about it now. We'll talk about it next week. I look forward to that very much as well. Thank you. We'll announce it on the weekend. So, yeah, thank you, everyone, for tonight. Thank you, everyone, for joining us.
It's such a pleasure for us as well. It gives me, certainly just speaking for myself, something to look forward to, and I really enjoy preparing for it. So we get as much out of it as all of you do. Thank you so much for trusting us to guide this little journey for us. And the last song I want you to hear is another woman singer. Because you played, as you said, on my son earlier, Michael, but there's another woman singer from this year, Libertad La Marca. I thought it might be, yes. She recorded some wonderful songs. And she records also a song called Te Quiero that we listened to in Tango 1932 with Ada Falcón singing. Wow. And I really like this version also from 1941 with Libertà della Marca singing and Mario Maurano backing her. So with this, good night, everyone, and see you in one week in 1928. Thank you for your music, Doug. Thank you, too. Good night, everyone. Te quiero.
Last track: Lamarca's version of a song also heard in Tango 1932 ('today I love you more than yesterday, but less than tomorrow').
I love you, as no one wants, no one wants, no one wants, no one wants, I love you, as How to love in the life, a man who loves me, how to love the world, how to love the life, when life is true, how to love a brother, how to love a mother, how to love a mother, with that love without the same love, how to love the life, one thing, and nothing more. Hoy te quiero más que ayer, pero menos que mañana Y no hay fuerza sobrehumana que detenga mi querer Son muy lindas las caricias y nacen del corazón Y son lindos los amores que conservan la ilusión and if a love is causing you, it is even a pain and the pain is not a pain when it is a pain of love today I want you more than yesterday, but less than tomorrow Mi pasión es soberana y reclama tu querer Te quiero Well I let it make them How did it end all had said How did it end all had long For who love my god How did it end all had For something about those man Who knew one heart during who any type of love how will life be loved once and away
¶¶ Amen.
Tango By Year es de Dag Stenvoll y Michael Lavocah, publicado aquí con su permiso. El audio se reproduce desde SoundCloud.