Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Tanda of the Week 43 / 2011 - Enrique Rodríguez

Enrique Rodríguez

1. Enrique Rodríguez / Armando Moreno - "A media luz" 1940
2. Enrique Rodríguez / Armando Moreno - "En la buena y en la mala" 1940
3. Enrique Rodríguez / Armando Moreno - "Llorar por una mujer" 1941
4. Enrique Rodríguez / Armando Moreno - "Cómo se pianta la vida" 1940


http://open.spotify.com/user/anttiveikko/playlist/193W7aG7PRhjgwCZyVPhup
http://www.deezer.com/playlist/776758345"This peculiar musician is a faithful follower of the traditional rhythmical style played by Edgardo Donato and Juan D'Arienzo. Criticized by innovators and praised by the dancers, his orchestra enjoyed a great popularity in the forties and fifties, either in Argentina or in the rest of Latin America.

His style was a breakthrough for the groups of the period, because he played all kinds of genres, introduced miscellaneous instruments and his repertoire, always assorted, only included merry or romantic tunes. But when he played tango, you heard the brilliant sound of a well-rehearsed orchestra, with simple nice arrangements and also with very good vocalists.

The collector and researcher Emilio Pichetti tells us: «Enrique Rodríguez was a complete functional musician, besides playing bandoneon, he equally played piano and violin or brandished the baton. He was talented and was fast to easily write simple arrangements and versions of consecrated classical and popular melodies of all countries, without depriving them of their essence of international beat. So the success of his orchestra was strengthened not only in our milieu, but also in the whole continent for the delight of listeners and dancers»."

"The singer that stood out was, undoubtedly, Armando Moreno, "El niño Moreno", who joined the orchestra in three different periods. This team left indelible footprints in the tango memory."

- By Ricardo García Blaya, Todotango.com

Rodríguez, Enrique - TOTW - Todo Tangotango.info - iTunes Store

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Tanda of the Week 42 / 2011 - Anibal Troilo

Listen to the tanda - MP3

1. Anibal Troilo - "Quejas de bandoneón" 1952
2. Anibal Troilo - "Ojos negros" 1953
3. Anibal Troilo - "Prepárense" 1951
4. Anibal Troilo - "Melancólico" 1963


I'm going way out of my comfort zone as a dj with this tanda and I've never played any of these songs in a milonga yet. I've been looking into a lot of 1950's music lately and also into alternatives for Pugliese to give people their dose of the "grande pasión" with orchestras like Troilo, Gobbi and Demarco.

I think the song I really wanted to play was "Melancólico" which has been one of my favorite "concert" tangos and even as a very traditional tango dancer I feel I would enjoy dancing to it with the right partner. I wanted to find songs that had similar style and drama but I felt the very similar classics like "Orlando Goñi" and "Danzarin" made the tanda too massive so to speak so I started the tanda with the familiar "Quejas de bandoneón". I had both the '52 and '58 version and although the soundscape of the later version is more similar to "Melancólico" from 1963 I preferred the earlier version. I went through all of the instrumentals between 1950-1963 and wanted to have the tanda go smoothly through the time period but ended up sticking to the songs from 1951-1953 and then jumping up to 1963. "Prepárense" is one of Piazzolla's classic compositions which suits the style of the tanda well and in order to bridge the gap of the sound quality I changed "Melancólico" from stereo (stereo recording became widespread in the music business by the 3rd quarter of 1957) to mono format which flattened the song a bit in a good way. I hope nobody minds this editing but I assure you this procedure is also good for the playability of the song for milongas as stereo recordings might sound different in the sound system. I also added some reverb to the end of the songs to make the transitions from song to the next smoother.

I concidered songs like "Inspiracion", "Responso", Contratiempo", "Cenizas", "Para lucirse", "A mis viejos" and the earlier mentioned "Danzarin" and "Orlando Goñi" but decided to leave them for other tandas. I believe this tanda is too much for most dancers and therefore I've decided to leave this one on the shelf so to speak and play something else from Troilo in the milongas. Nevertheless these songs are great for listening as they are true masterpieces of tango music.

EDIT 26.8.2013: I still have never played this one in a milonga but I really love to listen to this tanda. I will make a Spotify playlist for this soon....

Check out the growing collection of digitalized Troilo shellacs in the TangoTunes.com in great quality.

Troilo, Anibal - TOTW - Todo Tangotango.info - iTunes Store

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Tanda of the Week 41 / 2011 -
Miguel Caló (vals)


1. Miguel Caló / Alberto Podestá - "Pedacito de cielo" 1942
2. Miguel Caló / Alberto Podestá - "Bajo un cielo de estrellas" 1941
3. Miguel Caló / Raúl Berón - "El vals soñador" 1942

http://open.spotify.com/user/anttiveikko/playlist/3FJAQv9E6GEUY2gaLh7UoH"The Miguel Caló orchestra will be remembered as the best tango performance, one that goes beyond its age and that today is recognized for its great artistic qualities..."

http://www.deezer.com/playlist/776750575 By Ricardo García Blaya, Todo Tango.

When it comes to valses it don't get much more classic than this. The heavenly two valses from Caló and Podestá are some of the most played valses in milongas and I want to get on the dance floor every single time I hear them. There's some variation to which vals is the third one to go with these songs and you can choose from "El vals soñador","Valcesito" or "No te olvides de mi corazón" from Caló for example.

Calo, Miguel - TOTW - Todo Tango tango.info - iTunes Store
Podestá, Alberto - TOTW - Todo Tango - tango.info - iTunes Store
Berón, Raúl - TOTW - Todo Tango - tango.info - iTunes Store

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Tanda of the Week 40 / 2011 -
Francisco Lomuto con Charlo



1. Francisco Lomuto - "Guapito" 1928
2. Francisco Lomuto / Charlo - "Misa de Once" 1929
3. Francisco Lomuto / Charlo - "San Telmo" 1932
4. Francisco Lomuto / Charlo - "Dónde estás, corazón?" 1928

http://open.spotify.com/user/anttiveikko/playlist/5DjHDFlSPLj7c09Q18SzlG
http://www.deezer.com/playlist/771997851I like some of the 20's recordings from Lomuto and these tangos with the great Charlo are some of my favorites. You don't hear much of Charlo in the milongas I guess mostly since on a lot of the recordings he played a bigger part than the orchestra which makes the songs not so suitable for dancing. However he did recordings with the likes of Lomuto, Carabelli and Canaro and left us many great and very danceable tangos.

"Charlo is, after Carlos Gardel, the most important singer in tango, although, unlike him he did not become a popular myth. He was the vocalist who recorded most, in a discographic career started in 1925 and ended in 1967. However, the main part of his recordings are concentrated in only four years, from 1928 to 1931. In most of those renditions he reaches a level comparable to Gardel's. Like him, he was responsible for establishing an emotional style though austere and without exaggerations, of perfect intonation and attentive musicianship. As composer he displayed his great melodic talent, giving birth to important pieces in tango romanza style."

- Julio Nudler on Todo Tango

Lomuto, Francisco - TOTW - Todo Tangotango.info - iTunes Store
Charlo - TOTW - Todo Tango - tango.info - iTunes Store

Monday, October 3, 2011

Tanda of the Week 39 / 2011 - Ángel D'Agostino

Listen to the tanda - MP3  - Spotify

1. Ángel D'Agostino / Ángel Vargas - "El yacaré" 1941
2. Ángel D'Agostino / Ángel Vargas - "Adios arrabal" 1941
3. Ángel D'Agostino / Ángel Vargas - "Una pena" 1941
4. Ángel D'Agostino / Ángel Vargas - "Tres esquinas" 1941

I noticed there was a disturbing lack of D'Agostino tandas on the blog so here are some true tango classics to fix that. Enjoy!

D'Agostino, Ángel - TOTW - Todo Tangotango.info - iTunes Store