TBY Lost Afterparty II - 1944
Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah · 2021-01-20 · 3:12:11
This is the recovered after-show talk from the second-ever Tango By Year episode, 1944, led by Michael Lavocah rather than Dag Stenvoll. Lavocah recaps what Stenvoll played in the original broadcast (Laurenz, Di Sarli, Tanturi, Caló, D'Agostino, D'Arienzo and Troilo) and then plays roughly forty more 1944 recordings the main show never had time for, with Stenvoll joining partway through. The talk circles back to Osvaldo Pugliese, whose orchestra is 'bursting onto the scene' in 1944 even though recording quotas kept him from cutting some of his best compositions, and to Alberto Echagüe, whose more nuanced singing with D'Arienzo this year strikes both hosts as a real discovery. Along the way they place 1944 tango against wartime popular music in the United States, explain the Cuban pregón form behind a flower-seller's tango, and close by setting 1953 as the next year on the show.
What this episode gave Tangopedia
Facts said in the episode, each now cited to the minute it is said.
With most young men at the front, the record-buying public was largely female, which pushed Frank Sinatra's romantic ballads to popularity over Tommy Dorsey's swing numbers and reportedly annoyed Dorsey.
Argentine tango's 1944 lyrics run between the same emotional poles as American wartime pop, soft romance against darker, heavier material, but tango's dark songs go further into gloom than anything from the Northern Hemisphere that year.
Doris Day's 'Sentimental Journey', recorded in the last days of 1944, only became a million-selling hit in 1945, after the war ended and people made their own journeys home.
Echagüe's 1944 singing with D'Arienzo shows a new nuance that both hosts call the discovery of the night, in tune with the times rather than looking back to the 1930s the way D'Arienzo's own band later would.
By 1944 Varela was arranging and effectively running D'Arienzo's orchestra.
Records played · 40
Transcript
Transcribed by machine from the audio, then punctuated; names may be misheard. Tap any line to hear it. The episode is in English, and so is its transcript.
And now for our final warm-up song, the song you've all been waiting for. It's Ethel Smith and her karaoke band with her version of Tickle Tickle No Foba.
Welcome to 1944, which was a crazy year, as you've just been hearing. And Dag, welcome to you. Thank you, that was a good warm-up mix of romance and fun.
Well, I think maybe that summarizes how the year is going to be. So let's just remind everybody, I know there are some people here from Montreal, for example, for the first time. This is kind of a bit different to one of our regular shows. I'm kind of filling in through the dark winter nights. The main show is fortnightly and this is an after party from our second show back in April last year when we didn't have an after party. So that's the plan for tonight.
Dag led the show on the... He leads the first part of the show, so I'll lead this part to the after party, and we'll have a little look at what you played before I get going. And I just want to say, you know, we've had some tough times on this show. Everyone's feeling maybe a bit more cheerful tonight. Given world events. Don't worry, I'll soon fix that with some tango music.
I was listening to the radio a couple of hours ago and I was so uplifted that I immediately deleted some sad songs from my playlist and cast about desperately for some happier ones. But let's have a look at what you played, Dag. And what I noticed looking back at the playlist is that there are so many top bands in 1944 that it was a struggle to get them all in, really. And we tried to stick him within the two-hour frame at that point. So we didn't have that much time.
That's true. We still thought that two hours was a good idea. So I think by the end, D'Arienzo and Troilo had been permitted three songs each, but no one else got more than two. And there were plenty of bands that didn't get played at all. So it's got to be a long night.
It could be. You know, I mean, feel free to go early, but this could be a long night. So we started with Laurenz, my favourite band.
Yeah, because it was your birthday. It was my birthday, yes. We had a bit of Di Sarli, one Podestá, one instrumental. Tanturi, again, one with Campos, one instrumental. Just one D'Agostino Vargas. So nice in 44. Some Caló, one of each, one with Iriarte, one with Baron. Domingo Federico, which was nice.
Very nice. And Lucio Demare with his rich romantic sounds. Not enough Troilo. One De Angelis, one Típica Víctor. Then we had a little burst of D'Arienzo. We had Amaras, Corle Cielo and Huracan. Viaggi's Lison. That's got a really crazy, funky rhythm to it. A couple of Puglieses. And then just to wrap it up with Mantelito blanco of Troilo, which is so, so beautiful.
So I've got, oh God, I had about 60 songs in my playlist this morning. So I contacted Dag and said, "Dag, how do I choose? Advise me." And he said, think about the ones that are really important for your public. And I thought, oh yeah, I understand that. That's the same as when I'm writing a book. So I did that and then I had 70. It didn't help. It did not help.
So just to start us off fairly gently, I'd like to play one De Angelis, because we don't get to play much De Angelis. It's not often heard at the Milonga, but I liked De Angelis in 1944. This is a tango called Campanita, Little Bell.
Opened the second half of 1944 recordings the main show skipped, with a bright De Angelis number.
♪ Music · 2:36 ·
Not bad, eh? That's a sweet little thing.
A sweet little thing, not overcooked. Yeah, De Angelis keeps it simple, keeps it nice.
How about... Well, there's several orchestras that we just didn't have time to play in a single two-hour show back in April. And I had a look through them. And 1944, there's so many orchestras recording. And there are one or two orchestras that are verging on being B orchestras that don't really have a unique voice. And in 1944, that meant two things. Not just the sound, it's also the material. If you wanted to make it as a band, you had to come up with your own material.
And there are bands, like the band around in 42, 43, Jose Garcia and his Oros Grises. He makes a sound. It's not so different to others, but he creates a unique sound. But his material is all taken from other bands. It doesn't have any of his own material. That's not enough. That's why the band comes and goes. And you could say the same about Antonio Rodio. And to a lesser extent, about a band I'd like to play one song from now, which is Ricardo Malerba.
Now, Malerba often doesn't really excite me. I find it's a bit lacking in impulse and there are not many songs, so we tend to hear the same ones all the time. But here's one that's a bit more vigorous. I remember Horacio Godoy introducing me to this tango. This is a tango called Violin, which, as you might imagine, has a very nice violin solo from the first violin in the band, a guy called Francisco San Martino.
Played to showcase a violin solo by Francisco San Martino inside the Malerba sound.
♪ Music · 2:50 ·
How about that? A bit more vigorous than the Malerba that we listen to and maybe a bit less familiar because it wasn't on the one CD. There were two CDs shared between Malerba and another band. So we just had these 20 tracks and that was it. I like that. So people in the chat window say it's their favourite Malerba track. Oh, that's nice to hear. Oh good, it's better known than I realised.
Let's go to some D'Agostino. We only had time for one D'Agostino track last time.
Yeah, I remember you complained about that. Did I? Oh dear. Okay, okay. There's so many good ones to choose from. D'Agostino is an orchestra with a really spacious and open texture. You get this lovely crystalline playing in D'Agostino's piano, the voice of Vargas, nearly always.
I want to play two tracks. First of all, Yo soy de Parque Patricios. I'm from the barrio of Parque Patricios. The piano introduction is just so lovely. So, so lovely. And the second one, Palais de Glace. Very nice bandagnon playing. I had to check who's the bandagnon player because the guy who had been leading the bandagnons had left the previous year in 43 when Vargas attempted to go solo. That was Alfredo Atadilla, who we have heard, I think, Dag, on another night. But he's gone.
And in fact, it's Eduardo del Piano who's now leading the line of bandagnons. And you'll hear that he starts in the second song, Palais de Glace, first of all, very low in the left hand. And then he also continues accompanying Vargas. Beautiful, beautiful playing. So, Yo soy de Parque Patricios and Palais de Glace.
A D'Agostino-Vargas number to round out the pairing's 1944 showing, already represented once in the main show.
♪ Music · 3:23 · The lyrics, on the song's page
A second D'Agostino-Vargas title, back to back with the first.
Danced to it
So the lyric asks, what's happened to the Palais de Glace? What is the Palais de Glace?
The Palais de Glace, it was an ice rink. It's Ice Palace. Palais de Glace. And it's an exceptionally beautiful building in Buenos Aires.
Why are there two spellings?
It's because an Argentine would write P-A-L-E, Palais de Glace. But of course 1944 is during the time of censorship, so they weren't allowed to write it, and they had to write it the French way on the labels.
Beautiful, beautiful clean transfers from Tango Tunes. Now, 1944 was a year of lyricism and romance, a big difference to 1941 in that aspect. 1941, all the music is upbeat, up tempo, high energy. You've already heard, it's not really about that now. So let's go for a little voyage into some romantic bands, and I'm thinking especially of Lucio Demare and of course Pedro Laurenz.
“Torello is always the best unless there's a Pugliese version.”
So let's have just one first of all of Lucio Demare. This is a really creamy, beautiful track with a lyric by Homero Manzi and Demare wrote the music. So that's the same team that wrote Malena, so that's already quite a pedigree. And in this time the first violin in the Lucio Demare orchestra is Raul Caplon, who has a very strong, biting rastre, a really thick and rich tone. So let's enjoy that.
Chosen to hear violinist Raúl Kaplún's playing inside the Demare orchestra.
Danced to it · 5 of 107
♪ Music · 2:19 · The lyrics, on the song's page
“Laurens to me transmits more joy... Ruggiero is more serious.”
“It's like a Pugliese tanda... at the end of it, it's like, let it all come down again.”
Isn't that just amazing? Very nice. And the final part of the lyric when he's whispering, I translate it for you: together without anguish, without reproach, without the past, night by night, we learnt how to dream. So romantic. Wow, wow, beautiful, wonderful, strong violin, subtle band, it's got everything. Demare's got everything, uh, and this uh, this uh, Demare 44 with Quintana, it sounds a bit like Orientalist, isn't it? Oriental in sound almost. There is something like that, isn't there?
And of course, he does record Alusema and Torrente, I think. Is it Torrente? Yeah, and Oriental, there's one. Oriental, yeah. Yes. There's something exotic, something slightly different about the harmony in that particular tango. Oh, goodness. So beautiful.
Right, now time for a little bit of Pedro Laurenz. We'll have two, one to warm you up and then one to kill you. First of all, one with the voice of Carlos Bermúdez. There's two singers. Alberto Podestá has gone. His job is done. He's joined Laurenz for a year, which has pushed Laurenz up in terms of popularity because by the mid-40s you needed a good singer to reach the very top. So he's done that and he's gone. And Laurenz is able to record more than he was before. That's why there isn't much early Laurenz because he didn't have a Rufino or an Echagüe in those years. Terrible shame but there it is. So first with the voice of Carlos Bermúdez, Me están sobrando las penas. I'm being overcome by suffering, by sorrow. And then Naranjo en flor.
And Naranjo en flor, for me, this version is even more beautiful than the version of Troilo, which we're not going to hear tonight. Troilo gave the song its debut. It's unusual for a tango because tangos are meant to be set in the city. Tango is a city genre. And Naranjo en flor, Naranjo here, it's orange blossom. All the metaphors are drawn from nature. He talks about the girl and says she's softer than water.
Better even than Troilo. I can't believe I'm saying that. You don't hear that often. No, you don't. Well, we'll talk about how we feel about Troilo vis-à-vis Pugliese a bit later on, shall we? We're saving the big guns for a bit later. So without further ado, two beautiful romantic songs from Pedro Laurenz. First with Bermúdez, Me están sobrando las penas. And then a song which was very challenging and unusual for the time, written by the Espósito brothers, Naranjo en flor.
A Laurenz title with Bermúdez singing, filling out the orchestra's 1944 recordings.
♪ Music · 2:23 ·
Can you believe that's considered a second-rate voice? Second-rate voice? That's considered second tier. I really love the tone of Carlos Bermúdez there. The slightly breathy quality that I noticed with the headphones on that I really, really enjoyed. A little bit of chat in the chat window regarding the fact that Yenzingo and Benedict are planning to do a Laurenz release. That's fantastic news. I know, it's fantastic news.
So of course when I saw that I immediately sent them a message offering to beg at their feet or do whatever was necessary so that I could finally have the Laurenz version of Flores del alma in good sound fidelity, because it is a stunning waltz. It takes a beautiful melody that we all know and adds the Laurenz sense of swing and dynamic. So, so exciting. I have it, but only in medium fidelity. And they explained, Jens Ingo explained, that it's really difficult getting hold of the shellacks because Laurenz wasn't an absolute top-selling orchestra, which meant fewer shellacks were made, and a lot of the shellacks are really rare. It is a frustration. Please, Lord, bring me in 2021 for my birthday, complete set of Laurenz. Now, let's go on. Everyone out there, start looking. Yeah.
“For me, it's the discovery of the night.”
Let's go on to Naranjo en flor. Jorge Linares singing here. One of the most beautiful tangos ever written.
Played because Lavocah rates Laurenz's version of this song even more beautiful than Troilo's, which introduced it.
Danced to it
♪ Music · 2:22 · The lyrics, on the song's page
So when you're listening to that, when you're dancing to that one at the milonga, the point you have to listen to is, well, all of it, of course. The bit that really gets me is when you get to the chorus and the second line of the chorus, he sings, Después, qué importa me el después. I mean, it's such a fantastic line. Like, afterwards? What do I care about afterwards? Afterwards? I'll just read out that chorus to you again. First you have to know how to suffer and then to love and then how to leave and walk away without a second thought. Ouch. The perfume of orange blossom, it's like the vain promises of love that just disappear in the wind. Afterwards, who cares about afterwards, my whole life is yesterday that's holding me back in the past. I understand the guy, but let's not be that man. Let's be more positive in 2021.
Goodness. And great dynamic. I mean, you talked about Laurenz before, the dynamic and using the change of volume. And it's really... It's still there, isn't it? In much smaller form than it is, say, in the 38 or 40 Laurenz. But it's sudden... Love it. It comes out of nowhere. But it still seems organic and natural. It doesn't sound forced or overarranged.
D'Arienzo time. Ooh. Now, D'Arienzo time in 1944 doesn't mean what it means in any other year, does it? What did you play last time, Dag? You played Amaras, the high watermark of lyricism in the D'Arienzo Orchestra. I'd love to play that again, but we have a strict policy on this show. You don't hear anything twice. And then you played Color Cielo. And we've even got a better transfer now than what you had then. You can go ahead and listen to that again after the show.
The first track of Armando Laborde recorded in a hurry with only two days to rehearse because the band had to get on the boat to Montevideo for carnival. Can you believe it? And then finally, El Huracán. Something a bit different, energetic, upbeat. And as you pointed out, the only time D'Arienzo recorded that. It seems like a shoo-in for the D'Arienzo Orchestra, but it doesn't seem to have remained in the repertoire. So I had to choose different songs, which wasn't difficult. And we are going to start with the song that's closest in feeling to Amaras, with Héctor Mauré singing. And of course, that has to be Lilián.
A D'Arienzo-Mauré side chosen to hear pianist Fulvio Salamanca solo.
Danced to it · 5 of 16
♪ Music · 3:08 ·
Being able to hear the voice in a clearer way than before really makes a difference, doesn't it, to how we feel? Exquisite. Yeah. I love the piano solo also in that one. Yes. Where Salomanka plays the piano. Yes, I also like very much the use of stop time. The way the backing just stops and then the singer, Mauré, floats on into the space. I mean, D'Arienzo uses stop time a lot, but normally in a much more on-off digital way. This is much more nuanced. D'Arienzo we hardly recognise.
Now, who was the other singer, another singer who suffered in the 30s terribly with quality problems? Well, he didn't. We did when we listened to his records. Echagüe. The end of 1944, Mauré has been on his own in the band for a long time. D'Arienzo brings back Alberto Echagüe. And for a long time, I didn't really get on with these recordings, but the 1944-1945, there's some very interesting tracks to listen to. Mauré goes at the end of the year. Initially, I thought that he was angry that Echagüe had been brought back to the band because he maybe thought, oh, they're going to go back to the old repertoire. But that's not how it happened at all.
Mauré was ill. He was terribly, terribly ill. He had many problems with his voice and an operation and came back to singing too early and had a hemorrhage which nearly killed him. So he was invalided out of the orchestra. Can you believe it? And that's how then Laborde gets his place. But Echagüe comes first. And at the end of 44, there's a couple of really interesting songs, really interesting ones, where Echagüe is a bit more tender and expressive. So it's neither the Echagüe of La Bruja that we know from the late 30s, and nor is it the Echagüe from later on, who just sounds like a guy from the past. It's an Echagüe with a little bit of romance and sensitivity to his voice.
Let's start off. I'm going to play two. We'll just go straight through. First, No nos veremos nunca.
Part of building the case that Echagüe sings with new nuance in 1944.
Danced to it · 5 of 73
♪ Music · 3:15 · The lyrics, on the song's page
It's so subtle, isn't it? So subtle compared to D'Arienzo's other output. Sensitive for a Shaguar, yeah. Yeah. And the sound quality, I think it must be, because I'm hearing this song like I've never heard it before. So you hear the details, like you're writing the chat windows, the piano, the violin. It's funny, when I hear a good transfer, I say to myself, I never heard that before. It feels this way. It is that way. But then what I do is I go back and listen to the previous transfer, which is not as good, and now that you know it's there, you can find it, but not clearly. It doesn't call the attention. So somehow it really does make a difference. Yes, as Teresa says, it's not aggressive.
Very unusual. It's a very narrow window, really. By 1947, which is, I think, our next Lost After Party, he's doing crazy stuff like Carton Jornal, which is a tango much beloved by Porteños, about a career criminal who will murder someone for you. And everyone goes, yeah, yeah, isn't this a great tango? Because it's full of linfado. Very different kind of feeling to this one.
Now let's listen to one more of the sensitive. Thank you for that. The sensitive Echagüe. With wonderful accompaniment from Héctor Varela. Héctor Varela runs the band. He's the first band in Yon. He assembled it. He runs it. D'Arienzo's just telling them what to do and waving his stick around. I exaggerate a little bit. And this is La madrugada, which means the wee small hours of the morning.
Chapter · 49:05
Echagüe's secret 1944 upgrade
The singer everyone thinks they know still had a surprise left in 1944.
Chosen partly to hear Héctor Varela's bandoneón counter-melody under Echagüe.
Danced to it · 5 of 54
♪ Music · 1:45 ·
Lovely. Great. The sensitive Chagwe. Yeah. There's also another version of this tango by Pedro Laurenz. And what you wrote in the chat window, you can hear the bandoneon. Yeah, it's really unusual, isn't it? To have a bandoneon accompanying the singer, a bandoneon counterpoint.
And it's just a single bandoneon, so you can be sure that's Héctor Varela himself playing low in the left hand, in the bass register. I can't think of another tango that does that. Nice. Very nice.
I think we need a few waltzes. Yes, please. Lighten the mood a bit. Now, I always think I'm going to play stuff that you don't know and you always do. So, let's not underestimate the audience.
Let's assume that you already know these beautiful waltzes that I'd like to offer you from the Típica Víctor. But they're not so easy to get hold of. 1944 waltzes. First of all, Te amo, I love you, and then Sobre las olas, which never fails to put a smile on my face.
First of a pair of Típica Víctor waltzes played together.
Isn't that sweet? It was a sweet Walsh's, yeah. A bit slower, a bit slower, like more romantic than the earlier OTV Walsh's, I think. Yes, that's true, but that's really the theme, isn't it? OTV and the tangos are quite dark, aren't they? I think you played lovin tus ojos, true. Yeah, yeah, this is a counterbalance. The waltzes keep it nice and light and playful.
So one of the orchestras that I think we've discovered a bit more during our time together in Tango By Year has been the orchestra of Francisco Lomuto. Or at least Dag and I have both always been gently pushing him on our unsuspecting public. So 1944, I think, is a very, very strong year for Francisco Lomuto. Let's start with the waltz. I think we also know this one from the orchestra of Enrique Rodriguez. This is Mantelito blanco.
A Lomuto waltz played before moving into his tangos.
♪ Music · 2:08 ·
That was nice, wasn't it? Not too demanding. But now time for... What do we normally say about Lomuto? A bit like Canaro, but with a heavier beat. And sometimes a more intense atmosphere.
So now a song that we associate with Troilo, with the same singer, Alberto Rivera, Copas, amigas y besos. Just listen to the opening of this. Almost Trillian.
A Lomuto-Rivera tango added to the main show's single Lomuto pick.
♪ Music · 2:07 ·
That's such a beautiful song. I don't even remember having heard it before. Thanks for that. Wow. Yeah. That's what the show's for. One of the reasons. One of the things it's for. Yeah, I really like it. Love the dark tones. Interesting lyric as well.
It kind of implies that he became rich and that destroyed the relationship, although you can read it several ways. There you go. Listen to the guy. We've got one more Lomuto to play you with the other singer from 1944, Carlos Galarza, again with a dark, intense and brooding opening. This is El barco María.
A second Lomuto tango, this time with Galarza singing.
♪ Music · 2:12 ·
How about that? Rich and dark, like really good chocolate. So the lyric, María is not a ship. It's a girl that's gone back. And it reminds me of the Di Sarli tango, La Novia del Mar, which has got a much softer, more lyrical feel because La Novia del Mar is about the girl who works at the bar in the port and all the sailors in love with her and eventually she goes off with the captain. Enamorado de un capital. But this one takes the same kind of idea that the girl has gone back.
Possibly she's what they call a golondrina, people who came just to work for one year or even one season in Buenos Aires and then go back to Italy. Of course, many came with that plan and stayed forever. So maybe that's why she's come and she's gone again and the guy's heartbroken because he's lost her. Really lovely tone in these Lomuto tangos from 44. Right.
Speaking of Di Sarli, there's a lot of... Now we could just put on a playlist here and listen to 1944. It's a really, really good year for Di Sarli, both vocal and instrumental, the most elegant and understated version. So I didn't finish that sentence. I was thinking of Milonguero viejo, but that's true of any song that Di Sarli records several times.
This is in a way his most elegant time because if we go back to 1939 and 1940 Di Sarli is more up-tempo. He still has his elegance but he has the fast beats that were characteristic of that time and if we go later to the 50s he still has his elegance but there's this super magisterial quality and the very rich sound of the huge string section. Here it's more minimal, he's got a smaller string section. Um, the Milonguero viejo I think is the classiest, we talked about this in Tango 28 last year, last week, and he didn't get to record it but he composed it. That's right, yes, because he doesn't get a recording contract right till the end of the year, so we just have to dream about that.
So we're going to listen to quite a bit of Di Sarli I think and as it's meant to be a romantic night let's start with Di Sarli's, well, one of his most romantic tangos ever which is La capilla blanca. Oh, the White Chapel. This was inspired by a real chapel. If you watch cowboy movies sometimes when they ride into the Mexican village with all its whitewashed stone houses. There's a little white chapel with bells hanging open to the sky. That's the kind of chapel we should imagine. And that's not just my fantasy, it's on the cover of the sheet music. Here we go.
First of several extra Di Sarli sides to balance the single Podestá track from the main show.
♪ Music · 3:03 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Oh, goodness gracious. Now let's listen to the 1944 Milonguero viejo. So the second of Di Sarli's four recordings of this instrumental. His composition to honour Osvaldo Fresero. Notice a couple of things in the performance. That there's a short bandoneon phrase in the opening. Nothing much to write home about, except Di Sarli hardly ever does it. And also the jazzy touches in the accompaniment. They're easy to miss because the overall feeling is so smooth.
An instrumental Di Sarli pick, despite the milonga-sounding title actually a tango.
♪ Music · 2:00 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Did you notice the jazzy touches in the piano? It's almost polyrhythmic at the end. Da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da. That's Di Sarli. It's always a bit more complex than it sounds. Smooth surface, like the swan underneath. The swan is paddling furiously.
Let's go straight on with another super romantic 1944 Di Sarli Podestá number. Vamos, corazón. Come on, heart. Let's go.
A second Di Sarli-Podestá vocal to go with the instrumentals.
♪ Music · 2:47 ·
So I'm going to restrict myself to just one more. They're all so delicious. I was going to play Nada, but no, Nada. But I've come up with a justification for the next song, Champagne tango, which is actually it's not played very much. So your ears are all tuned in now. We're listening for the jazzy touches in the piano, especially in the left hand, but in both hands and moments which are even a little bit polyrhythmic. So this is Champagne tango from 1944. And things start getting interesting like already 20 seconds in. So don't drift off. Pay attention now.
Closed out the run of extra Di Sarli recordings with another instrumental.
♪ Music · 2:30 · The lyrics, on the song's page
I think we better end the Di Sarli segment there. So who have we listened to so far? It's quite a rich year musically, isn't it? We had a little bit of De Angelis, a little bit of Malerba, then a little bit more of D'Agostino, could easily have played more D'Agostino. So elegant and spacious. Demare, Lucio Demare with Solamente ella. Couple of Lauren's numbers. Then we treated ourselves to three D'Arienzos. Típica Víctor on waltzes. Lomuto, a waltz, and then one tango each from the two vocalists. Dark and intense. And now we've had four Di Sarlis. Very peaceful and joyful music. You could listen to that all night.
But we've got other orchestras to listen to. Now, we have to listen to a little bit of Troilo. People are screaming out for it in the chat window too. Troilo time, yes, actually. You're absolutely right. It's Troilo time. But I'm going to try and restrict myself to just two. Oh, that'll be hard. Well, we'll see if we... I mean, you already played La vi llegar and Mantelito blanco last time, so thank you for that. And the try-not special, I think I played also something. 44. I can't remember which one. I can't remember either, but I did check that and remove it from my playlist. So I'm going to try and play only two.
Let's introduce them individually. First of all, a carnival tango. Or with Moreno. Two tangos with Alberto Marino, the second voice in the Troilo orchestra that becomes the first voice as Fiorentino departs. Sigue el corso is the first one. This is a carnival tango. It was an old Gardel number from about 1926. A corso, which comes from the word for pirate, because Corsicans were obviously pirates, refers to a kind of carnival procession where people would just drive around in their cars. We used to have carnival floats. So a corso is when the young people get in their cars and they drive around together. Follow the corso. And it's lovely because it's so delicate and Marino drops his voice to this absolute whisper and starts trying to chat up the beautiful girl he can see but he can't really see her properly because she's wearing her carnival mask. Let's start with that one. Sigue el corso.
A carnival-themed Troilo-Marino tango, added to the one Troilo side the main show had time for.
♪ Music · 3:14 ·
Marino was so great this time. He's a superb voice. It's an opera trained voice. He's had a full bel canto training. So he's got the technical ability to modulate the volume from really strong power to singing barely at a whisper. And that's something that Troilo needs. Troilo likes a full range of colour. And it's something that he gets his other singers to do, doesn't he? He gets Floreal Ruiz to do that. Edmundo Rivero in Sur, where at one point, again, he's almost whispering, but not singing, whispering, full control. So Troilo is about bringing lots of colour to the music.
And these are the new tango tunes called Near Editions, right? They are, yes. In 2020, tango tunes did many troilor releases. But I really like this one. I think 38 to 42 is the first one. That's essential. And then the second one is 43 to 45. Again, strongly recommended. Really strongly recommended.
Now, only one more. Here's a tango with a story, Después. Now, Después has got a lyric by Homero Manzi, who's one of Troilo's favourite lyricists. And Después means afterwards. And it's about a couple who are going to break up. And you know you have to do it, but you know it's going to feel awful. And I'll explain why Manzi writes this story afterwards with the help of another song. Okay.
Troilo and Marino's version of Homero Manzi's lyric, played before the night's surprise alternate take.
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♪ Music · 3:16 · The lyrics, on the song's page
It's so, so dark. There's a lot to listen to, and I think it takes many, many listenings to that song to hear everything that's going on, particularly when Marino's singing, because his voice is so lovely. But when you start listening to underneath Marino, this and how that's also changing colour and shifting around different models of marcato. Sometimes syncopa, sometimes marking in four. Stop time, it's all there. Beautiful song.
Now, who is Homero Manzi talking about? When Jose Maria Contorti speaks about his frustrated love, we know he's speaking about Grisel. What about Manzi? He's talking about Nelly Omar. They were together for a little bit but Manzi just couldn't make his mind up so eventually she said just don't come anymore. Now, things are always more intense when they're sung by the people they're about, so would you like to listen to Nelly Omar singing Después in 1944? Oh wow. I know! So exciting. I had no idea. Wow. I only discovered this a few months back. These are from radio takes, but the quality is exceptional. Have a listen to this.
Chapter · 1:36:53
A heartbreak hiding in a love song
The night's surprise wasn't a new tango, it was who sang it.
A second, radio-era take of the same song sung solo by Nelly Omar, the woman Manzi wrote it about; billed as the surprise of the night.
♪ Music · 2:58 · The lyrics, on the song's page
That was stunningly beautiful. Wow. Wow. Imagine Manzi's feeling when you heard her sing his song like this. And I find paying attention to the sound texture, just the feeling of the lyric rather than the actual words, I found that the emotion changed quite a lot. There were moments where the lyric sounded almost hopeful and joyful and then it suddenly plunged back into despair again. Oh.
So I've published the name of the album in the chat window, you can find it on YouTube and Spotify and all the unusual channels. And there's lots of good stuff on there. So there's something for you to get you through the week until we meet again in one hour. I can't tell the year yet because I don't think it's announced.
Right, I know I said only two Troilo, but I lied because I wanted to play some Milonga. We haven't had any Milonga yet. We've had waltzes, but not Milongas. And I want to play one Troilo Milonga and follow immediately with one Milonga by Miguel Caló. These two were great rivals, and it was a rivalry that was promoted vigorously by their record label, who would encourage them to record the same pieces and release them on similar dates. But in this case, there's no direct rivalry. I really wanted to play a Troilo Milonga because the serious tango orchestras, by which I mean Pugliese and Troilo, they liked to do something a bit different with waltz and especially with Milonga. So Milonga is generally our party party, let's have fun. And sometimes they're like that with Troilo, but sometimes they're not.
So this one is Compromiso, with permission. And just the way it opens, the string harmony, the string counter melody at the beginning, just clutches at my heart. I find it very moving and beautiful long, long before we get to the lyric. So Compromiso of Troilo with Marino and then we're going to listen to Mulata of Miguel Caló.
A Troilo-Marino milonga, a change of pace after two tangos.
♪ Music · 0:30 ·
A candombé-flavoured Caló milonga played right after Troilo's.
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Joyful. Nice joyful, slightly sad lyric as a lot of the Molonga Candombé lyrics are about the difficulties faced by the black population.
Now, one more Miguel Caló. One tango, only one, and it's La vi llegar, which has got to be one of the tangos of the year. Now Dougie played the Troilo version. This is one of those tangos where there's two really delicious versions that are really quite different, both sophisticated versions.
La vi llegar has this magnificent violin introduction from Francini, and it's one of the ones where he remembers that he's not a classical violinist, that he's playing with a tango orchestra, and he plays with a real tango feeling. And when he does that I find him completely irresistible. So here's the tango playing Enrique Francina, still moderna on piano and the voice of Raúl Iriarte.
Framed as one of two very different, equally delicious versions of this tango, the other being Troilo's from the main show.
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♪ Music · 3:16 · The lyrics, on the song's page
And of course the little piano fill from Chopin. Sorry, Osmo Moderna at the end of the piece. So we're rolling up to the highlights of the evening. We've had Troilo, so we've already had one.
Now, perhaps a bit of a surprise and a delight for Julio De Caro fans everywhere, let's listen to one really rich and complex Julio De Caro number from 1944, unfortunately not in the very best fidelity but good enough for us to listen to, especially two hours into the show, your ears are all tuned in. This is Boardija.
A rich, complex, poorly-recorded De Caro side, a surprise pick and a treat for his fans.
♪ Music · 2:36 ·
That's pretty good, isn't it? Nice one. I think it's Carlos Marcucci leading the bandoneon section there in 44. Someone wrote in the chat window they only knew it from Calo, and that goes for me too. That's a more known version.
Yes, because as you can hear, the sound quality is not great. But when we're all listening and paying attention, it's so complex and interesting. Really nice. And I begin to hear the influence back onto De Caro from Troilo in Pugliese. As his style is evolving, as his disciples carry the banner forward, carry the torch of his music into the next decade.
So we're coming to the climax and really it's a Pugliesian climax that's coming, surprise, surprise. Well, I remember some years ago we had a really enjoyable discussion on Facebook, they're not always enjoyable, are they, but we were discussing orchestras with Theresa and Iona Italia and we came up with some rules, not rules, I don't take this too seriously. How did it go? Something like Troilo is always the best, unless there's a Pugliese version. Something like that.
Now to really paint you the full picture, because Pugliese is just bursting onto the scene, to paint you the full picture, I have to play you a song that he didn't record in 1944, one of his greatest compositions, which was Recién. Another tango about forgiveness.
Chapter · 1:57:01
The song Pugliese wasn't allowed to record
Osvaldo Pugliese wrote one of his best tangos in 1944 and still couldn't put it on record.
Played to imagine what Pugliese's 'Recién' would have sounded like in 1944, even though recording quotas stopped him cutting it that year; he had asked Lucio Demare, on the same label, for permission to record it himself.
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♪ Music · 0:06 · The lyrics, on the song's page
“Would you mind if I record this tango?”
Today, just now, I've returned to your side. Bringing my whole life back to you. But he wasn't able to record it, because you could only record so many numbers in the year and when you were not a powerful orchestra, the record companies would make that decision. But we know, in another case, that Pugliese went to Lucio Demare and personally asked him, because they were both on the same record label, would you mind if I record this tango? And Demare, knowing full well that that meant he wouldn't be able to record it, said, yes, that's fine, go right ahead. So that's how things were. And it meant that he wasn't able to record Recién.
But you may have noticed that there's quite an overlap between the repertoire of Pugliese with Chanel and the repertoire of Tanturi with Campos, like La Bandoné y No Sabía, for example, and Nada Más Que Un Corazón. So we just have to listen to this and try and imagine what it must have been like in 1944 listening to Pugliese singing this with Chanel. Here we go.
Special. Beautiful. But still not the mature Pugliese, really, if you think about it. There wasn't a big solo from the violinist or the bandoneon player, but we did get to hear quite a lot of the piano, which is quite unusual. These floaty piano moments between the phrases of Chanel. That's special and something to treasure, because Osvaldo Pugliese was a very modest pianist.
Now, every single track that Pugliese records in 1944 is a masterpiece. There's one waltz. Let's just call that excellent, slightly below masterpiece level, because I'm trying to find excuses not to play things. So I can get away with not playing the waltz. And Doug, you played one last time of the instrumentals. So I've still got a lot of stuff I need to play. Can you cope with an intense Pugliese finish?
Let's start off by playing the songs which are less intense and are not generally very well known. So I'll pick one of those. Songs like Adios Bardi or El Remate. Let's have El Remate. Really underplayed, I don't think I know it from any other orchestra. These are the Tango Tunes transfers from 2017. They released their Sam Pouliési albums I think 2015, but then in 2017 they redid them and the new version is really quite a lot better. So if you bought them but weren't bothered to update it, really is worth a difference because the sound balance is much nicer. They're not really any cleaner, they are a little bit cleaner, but there's less treble and there's more bass and nicer balancing of the sound. So something that sounds a bit like Pugliese before Pugliese, this is El remate.
An underplayed, still-transitional Pugliese instrumental, picked as one of the less intense tracks before the finish.
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♪ Music · 2:30 ·
So that's Pugliese before Pugliese. Doesn't really sound like Pugliese, but we know it's him. We can tell it's him. All the elements are there. Now we move into the transition zone. I'm going to skip Adios Barri. You can listen to that after the show. We can't play them all. There's too many. There's too many.
The transition zone. This is a piece that I loved for a long, long time. It's so easy to love, the Pugliese Tierra Querida. It's a piece that we know from Julio De Caro back in 28, something like that. So here we are in 1944, and it starts to get the Pugliese treatment. So much heavier in the bass. There's almost a double bass solo in Tierra Querida. And Aniceto Rossi, don't forget, is the double bass player, famous double bass player, famous for his loud and powerful sound in the era before amplification. It was really important to play loud and one person told an anecdote opening the door to the milonga and being able to hear the double bass unamplified from the door, which if there's 300 people in the room, you know, that's something very important for dancing. So what else do I need to tell you, anything about this? You'll hear 3-3-2 syncopation, also an exquisite violin solo from Enrique Camerano towards the end. Tierra Querida. Beloved Land.
Chapter · 2:10:53
The bass you could hear from the street
Before amplification, one bass player's sound carried out the door of a 300-person milonga.
An older De Caro-era tango getting the heavier 1944 Pugliese treatment, with a near double-bass solo.
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♪ Music · 3:00 ·
It's beautiful music. It's so intense. You're getting hot. Yeah. And when we're listening together like this, it's even more intense than when you're to Milonga and a lot of things happening. Yeah. Can you manage one more? Yes, please. Let's go for two more before I hand over to my colleague in Norway. All right, then.
Here's a track that we normally play from Laurenz. Somehow, Laurenz's interpretation has come to overshadow that of Pugliese. Maybe because Laurenz wrote it. Amurado.
A tango usually associated with Laurenz, who wrote it, played here in Pugliese's version.
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♪ Music · 1:10 ·
I love it. I love that little flourish at the end as well. Joyful, yeah. Joyful.
The actual bandagnon line that Ruggiero plays is very similar to what Laurenz plays, but the feeling is somehow different. It changes the key, doesn't it, when it goes from right to left hand on the melanin. Changes octave, which is something that Ruggiero does a lot. Laurenz to me transmits more joy as a musician, both as a player and a band lead. Ruggiero is more serious. Right.
Now for the big finish, one of the most intense Pugliese tangos, and it's amazing to think that this is only 1944. This is Mala Pinta. Mala Pinta means evil look, bad look. He looks nasty, that guy, Mala Pinta. They had to put another title on the labels because of censorship, Mala Estampa.
Now, what I most love about this is the opening. Well, no, that's not true. There are things absolutely to fall in love with from the opening, let's put it that way, because what happens at the beginning, Ruggiero plays this little arpeggio and then he just holds this note out and it drifts off into... It's like Podestá, but on bandagnon. Holds the snow out forever and ever and ever and then it just dies away. It's so courageous.
And for me, that's one of the things that characterises the Pugliese band. It's about courage and fearlessness. So this is Mala Pinta and after this, there's nowhere else to go. So I'm stopping, but Dag says he's going to carry on. So I've dug a hole for him. I really don't know how he's going to possibly play anything else after this, because this is the tango at the end of the universe. Ladies and gentlemen, was Vanna Pugliese with a superb solo from Ruggiero, Mala Pinta.
Chapter · 2:19:48
The tango at the end of the universe
One held bandoneón note, and the whole room stops.
The closing, most intense Pugliese track of the night, built around a long held bandoneón note from Osvaldo Ruggiero.
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♪ Music · 2:29 ·
“This is the tango at the end of the universe.”
“It's about courage and fearlessness... that's one of the things that characterises the Pugliese band.”
1944 was an incredible year for tango. My God. You told me this morning that you had like 10 or so Pugliese tracks on your list and you had to cut it down to, what many were there? Four, five? At the end? No, I played one, two, three, four. Just five. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We could have played more. People are suggesting these magnificent titles in the chat window.
It's like a Pugliese tanda. Like at the end of a good Pugliese tanda, I need to sit down, you know, but if you really dance a good Pugliese tanda, four song tanda, at the end of it it's like, let it all come down again. So, a year mostly of romance and lyricism, but also, once we got into Troilo, of drama and power. Such a range of material, so many bands. Yeah, beautiful. And in between us, like the first or the program in April and now, we played about 60 different songs from the year and it's all so excellent stuff and there's loads more. Yeah, there's lots more, there's loads more.
I was thinking when I was preparing the warm-up music about the range of music outside, so of course 1944, we're still in the second world war and we're at the height of the war, the war's at its most intense, although people can begin to see the end. And in the music from the United States, you can kind of see the music in polls. So on the one hand, there was that Frank Sinatra ballad, If You Were About a Dream, super, super romantic ballad that was very, very popular with the public. Why? Because the record buying public in the United States was largely female because all the men were at the front. So it was women listening to the records and they wanted these ballads of Frank Sinatra and it annoyed the hell out of Tommy Dorsey because they were a swing band. So they played these swing numbers and the public would be, yeah, yeah. And then Frank Sinatra would come up and sing a ballad and all the girls would rush the stage. He was really annoyed.
So on the one hand, there were these ballads and then on the other hand, there was this up-tempo crazy music like the Tickle Tickle No Fouba that we played. That was the spread they had. And in Argentina, they have a different spread of music. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe not so much these two poles apart. Lots of good music from the Northern Hemisphere as well in that year. Very rich year musically.
And a song recorded in 44, but I didn't want to play it because it wasn't a hit till 45, was Doris Day's Sentimental Journey. Recorded in the last days of the year. And then, of course, in 1945, lots of people made that sentimental journey home after the Second World War, and it sold a million copies. But really, that's a hit from 1945, so not tonight. But maybe Argentina isn't that different, because you've played a lot of, I mean, the Salis, some of them you've played a really super soft, romantic, and then the much more heavy, Cholo and Prieta stuff. So you have also the same poles, the dark emotional stuff, but also the light, hopeful, bells. I think the tango songs are the darkest. I can't think of anything in that dark room up north.
Yeah, that's right. So Dag, do you feel like playing a few more songs for us? Yeah, we can listen to a few more songs, because I made a little list of what I didn't play in April and I think that's a long list. Yeah, it was a long list and you played some, lots of them, but there are a few left. So we can play a couple of them and see what people want to hang around. We'd love to hear, we're still 130 guests. Okay, so let's take it a little down from the... As you said, it's difficult to play after this. So I want to play this soft, because you played two waltzes by Típica Víctor. Yes. But they have some really nice tangos also from this year, I think, with Alberto Caroll singing. And one of them is called Mi taza de café, My Cup of Coffee. So if anyone wants to get a coffee or something else, play this, feel free. Lovely.
I was thinking you played mostly tangos tonight. I guess it's because it's maybe more interesting to talk about tangos, isn't it? That's partly true. I guess there's more often a story associated with a tango than there is with a waltz. The waltzes and the milongas are usually more simple also in terms of the lyrics. But let's listen to a few waltzes first, I think. That's a nice idea.
And you play the De Angelis tango, a really nice one, but he has lovely waltzes also. And this year he has, in the beginning of the year, he has Floreal Ruiz singing for him, who moves on to Troilo later in the year. Yes, Floreal Ruiz manages to sing and record Marionetta with both bands, I think, although not in the same year. Like Marionetta's 43, I think, with De Angelis, and then 44 with Troilo. Yeah. So what we'll hear is Mi novia de ayer, my girlfriend from yesterday, or my fiancee from yesterday, we might say, with Floreal Ruiz singing.
A De Angelis waltz from early in the year with Floreal Ruiz, before he moved on to sing for Troilo.
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♪ Music · 2:05 ·
Floreal Ruiz, he lifts the De Angelis. Two points for me, always. Well, he does lift it, but I think the other singers that De Angelis has are also very good. Yeah. Alastante and Julio Martel. And Floreal Ruiz is not singing, he doesn't need the full extent of his capacities with De Angelis. Troilo's going to get more out of him. I think partly, again, it's just to do with the year that the 44, the De Angelis is a lot easier to like than the De Angelis of five years further down the line. Yeah, I agree.
But there are other nice waltzes as well. There's El Valtz de la Noche Buena, waltz for Christmas Eve, but I didn't want to play that as it's not Christmas Eve. No. We've had Christmas. Yeah, but let's leave another waltz instead because you played two beautiful Lomuto tangos. But yes, we played before many Lomuto tangos and enjoyed them. No, sorry, waltzes. And there's one here called Un vals se fue, which is really nice also, I think. This is with Carlos Galarza singing. Yeah, there's a number of nice versions of this. And if I'm not mistaken, the composer of the music is a bit unexpected. Isn't it Salgán? I don't know, I didn't check. I think it's Horacio Salgán, who's already busy as a composer, even though he's not having success as a band leader. Let's hear it. Un vals se fue, Lomuto, with Galarza singing.
Played partly because the music may be an early composition by Horacio Salgán, before his own band succeeded.
♪ Music · 1:51 ·
Yeah, it's always nice with the clarinet that you hear. It gives a special feeling to Lomuto. Yes. Just thinking about the choice of woodwinds. So you never get a flute though, do you? Flute was what was in the very early tango bands, the playful, picaresque street tango with the guitar and maybe a violin. But the woodwind has a darker tone than the clarinet and you'd get from a flute. And Lomuto's not afraid to let us hear it, he doesn't blend it in with the rest, it really shines out and takes melody lines. I like it.
Next one, I want to play a waltz by Tanturi and with Campos, and you don't hear this waltz so often. It's usually when you hear the Tanturi waltzes, it's with Castillo. They're beautiful. I guess there are less Campos waltzes recorded, so it's harder to make a good tanda from. Yeah, that's exactly right, and then if you don't have them all in decent quality then your plan is scuppered. Yeah, but this is called Añoranzas. This is a long thing. Yeah, and it's on the Tango Tunes edition, so it's very fine quality. Yeah, let's hear it.
A rarer Tanturi waltz with Campos rather than Castillo, in good Tango Tunes transfer quality.
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♪ Music · 2:14 ·
This waltz with Campos gives a much more melancholic feeling, doesn't it? Than the Castillo waltz is, I think. Still swings, but yes, the slower pace, more intimate. Yeah, beautiful.
I wonder which other ones they performed at the milongas. Yeah. Okay, let's hear also a Caló waltz, because he played tango, I think, and he has nice waltzes. This is one called Me duele el corazón.
What does it mean? What's duele? To hurt. It injures my heart. It injures my heart. It pains my heart. So it's a sad waltz, at least the lyrics. I'll try and look it up for us.
Yeah, and this is with Raúl Iriarte. Y coro. So there's a chorus in there as well. I've written in the comment, fantastic.
A sad-lyric Caló waltz with Iriarte and a chorus, traced back to a Peruvian original.
Danced to it
♪ Music · 1:57 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Ah, so soft, very, very beautiful, although when you look at the lyric it's really intense, the first part. My heart hurts so violently. I can't breathe. Goodness, really strong stuff. And did you notice the one, two, the Peruvian warts? I guess that came from Peru originally. There is a version recorded in Peru.
Carmen de Moral, someone was asking who the yes, Teresa's answered that it was a folk group. I just typed their names, the chorus, the Trovedores of Peru. All right. Trovedore, people singing native music. Yeah, beautiful. All right.
Let's hear one last waltz and it's by an orchestra we didn't hear tonight. Biagi, and he has a version of a waltz that we know mostly from Di Sarli. Sueño de juventud. So it's a slow one, and this is Carlos Acuña singing. What do you think, I mean I know you love the Di Sarli version, Michael. What do you think about the Biagi version?
I like the Biagi one but what I've come to realise, it's not that the bands interpret it slowly, it's that it is a slow waltz. All the versions of Sueño de juventud are very, very slow and I don't think they intend for us to dance to them because they're all very really off the pace compared to a Creole waltz. It's not a Creole waltz. Maybe that's what it is. It's a more modern creation, but achingly beautiful composition.
And Biagi, I don't know, it's like it's not the obvious partner for such a waltz, but I think it really works, the interpretation, especially for listening. And since it's so slow, you don't really hear this often at milongas. It's a bit too slow to dance to. And I noted also that this is a funny ending to this one. So listen now to that one.
Well, Biagi loves the funny endings, doesn't he? The piece that you played in the original 1944 show, listen, has got some of the most crazy rhythmic endings I've ever heard. So this is Biagi, Sueño de juventud with Carlos Acuña singing.
A very slow waltz mostly known from Di Sarli, played here in Biagi's version with a famously odd ending.
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♪ Music · 2:37 · The lyrics, on the song's page
It's a shame that I played the milongas because it's always a laugh when songs end like this and you're on the dance floor. What are you going to do? Maybe you'll find the right moment to booby-trap them. Yeah. All right, that's it for waltzes for tonight.
Let's move on to some milongas because you didn't play so many of those either. And I was thinking maybe you would play a Laurenz milonga because there are a couple of really beautiful ones from this year. It's Mr. Morris cracking version, it's the instrumental one, right? Yeah, because we play the vocal one and, was it 37? Yeah, 37. So let's skip that one and go instead for El criollito oriental. Also very nice, this is with Podestá singing. Yes, yeah, classic, it's a great track. Let's hear it.
Chapter · 2:50:01
The flower seller's trumpet
Why does this milonga just sing 'tarí tarí' over and over?
A Laurenz-Podestá milonga, picked over a better-known 1937 vocal version to play something different.
Danced to it
♪ Music · 1:42 ·
“He toots his trumpet, tari, tari, and all the ladies of the house know he's there.”
What does it mean, Michael? It's tari tari that he's singing all the time. I just looked it up. I'd never paid attention to this lyric before. It's about a flower seller.
So there ought to be a special word for it, but there is in Spanish. I don't know if it's used in Argentina. In Cuba, there is a class of songs called pregón. Pregón is the shout that a street vendor makes to attract you to go and buy his wares. When I was a child, we would go to the market and the guy would shout, two pounds for 15 golden. And, you know, everyone knew what was what. And this is called pregón in Spanish.
And in Cuba the son is the main musical form at this time in the 1940s and there's a class of sons called son pregón, the most famous one of which you all know. Every single person listening to the show knows it. It's the peanut vendor. Peanuts, that's the English lyric. So this is a tango pregón or a milonga pregón, and you know what tari tari means because you've heard that in El cornetín de tranvía of Carlos Di Sarli.
It's a little bugle, you know, a short little trumpet, like a military one. And the drivers had these on the primitive trams, the ones that were drawn by horses. And you sound your trumpet and then people would know you were coming. So this guy is a flower seller and he goes from door to door and he toots his trumpet, tari, tari. And all the ladies of the house know he's there.
Very, very charming, sweet. Yeah. Let's move on to some D'Arienzo milongas and they're not so, I mean, when you hear D'Arienzo milongas at milongas it's usually from the 30s because they are fantastic. So these 40s milongas are less played, I think. You write something about it in your book. Yeah, I think they're underplayed and I certainly appreciate them more now that we've got the TTT transfers, they're all really good. And, you know, why not play a different one? Perhaps they're a bit lighter in mood.
And that would be the reason that some of those 1930s D'Arienzo milongas, like La cicatriz, Estampa de varón, they're really quite intense. And here, at the height of lyricism, we don't have the same intensity with the D'Arienzo milongas. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't play them. It's another colour for our palette, isn't it?
Well done, I'm sorry I didn't play any now but you've rescued the situation. Maybe they're less intense in a way, but they're also, I find them a bit darker, maybe more melodic. That's why I hear this more. Maybe they're closer to the tangos then. Yeah, maybe. Possibly it's the influence of Héctor Varela, who's arranging the band and running it now.
Well, let's hear two of them before we pass on to a couple of tangos before the end. La mañana and Oro de ley, both with Echagüe singing. I think they're great. Listen to this.
Introduced as one of two lighter, less intense D'Arienzo-Echagüe milongas from 1944, less played than the orchestra's 1930s milongas.
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♪ Music · 3:29 ·
I thought it was fantastic. They really are fantastic. And it's got that quality of a horse, which I find irresistible. The supreme exemplar of that would be Mucho mucho. But here we can hear it. And there's others like that from 45, 46, like La espoila was quite well known after that was released by Euro Records fairly early on. But now we've got more to choose from.
Yeah, and it's interesting what you said in the after party about Echagüe, that he has a more nuanced, there's a period of more nuanced singing. Yeah, I think we're all feeling that. For me, it's the discovery of the night. That's for me.
There's something really positive for me about Echagüe's voice here. It's in tune with the times. It's not throwing back to the 30s as the D'Arienzo band itself does in the 50s and onwards. So I like it. Another side to the man.
Okay, it's getting late, so I think I want to finish off soon, but let's finish with two tangos, and everyone who's been waiting for more Pugliese and Troilo are going to be disappointed because you played a lot of that in the after party.
I played a lot of Pugliese. So let's hear instead two orchestras that we haven't heard tonight. The first one you mentioned in your introduction as a B orchestra, but we never played it in Tango, but it is Antonio Rodio.
Very interesting orchestra. Antonio Rodio was a violin virtuoso in 1930. When Gardel made, Gardel normally played accompanied by guitars, but in 1930 he made a half dozen or so recordings backed by a small musical group which featured on piano, anybody know? Rodolfo Biagi.
So he was already known and respected, and I think Rodio was the violin player on one of those sessions. So a virtuoso, but not with a big sound, a smaller sound as a violin player, like Kaplun, another virtuoso, very very fine player.
Yeah, he got his own orchestra, and they recorded for a couple of years but didn't really succeed in establishing themselves. Some fine songs, yeah, a couple fine songs from this area. Let's hear Dónde estás corazón. Where are you heart? Oh, this is a really famous old tango. Yeah, lovely, and his vocalist here is Alberto.
Chapter · 3:02:57
From Gardel's backing band to his own orchestra
A violin virtuoso who once played behind Carlos Gardel got his own band, and it barely survived.
Picked to introduce Antonio Rodio, a violin virtuoso who once backed Gardel and later led his own short-lived orchestra.
♪ Music · 1:51 ·
So you posted the lyric in Spanish, Michael. Do you want to say a few words about it in English? It sounds pretty tragic.
Where are you, heart? Yeah, there's two tangos actually, Dónde estás corazón, so I just had to quickly check which one it was. Same title, exactly the same title.
Where are you, heart? I cannot hear your beating. Your pain is so great that I cannot even weep. I'd like to, but I have no tears left. I loved her so much and she went, she's not coming back.
Ouch. If you like that particular tango, it's got a lovely melody, hasn't it? There's many, many nice versions from around 30, 31, 32 when it was first to hit.
All right, so let's, uh, finish off with, uh, because my surprise for the night was the beautiful, uh, version, um, that you played with Nelly Omar singing Después, with this west, of course. Yeah, yeah, beautiful. So let's finish off with another with another female singer we haven't—
Oh, lovely. Libertad Lamarque. Singing a song that was recorded by several orchestras this year, Torrente. This is one of the ones that's got a slightly eastern exotic. Yeah, the Mara has a version of it, yeah.
So with that, it was a nice night. We've been going for about, yeah, more than three hours. So these after parties are stretching out, and after after parties.
And have you chosen the year for next? Yes, I think actually we told last week also, so it'll be, it'll be 1953. So it's the last year from the 50s that we're covering in Tango by Year, probably, and uh it's a really good year. This is why I saved it for the last 50s program.
And then two weeks after we'll go back in time again, so, but we'll announce that later. Okay, so that'll be next Wednesday. Same time, same place. So thanks for joining us.
And thanks, Michael, for your main contribution to tonight. Yeah, I've enjoyed it so much, and I'm so grateful to all of you for joining us. Yeah. Yeah, thanks too to our sponsors, as usual. Yes. So, Libertad Lamarque, Torrente. Good night, everyone.
Closed the night with a female singer not yet heard, on a song several orchestras recorded that year.
♪ Music · 4:17 · The lyrics, on the song's page
Tango By Year is Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah's, published here with their permission. The audio plays from SoundCloud.