Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Tango Finlandia

Finnish Tango Playlist on Spotify
There are a lot of people interested in finnish tango so I decided to make a Spotify playlist of some of my favorites. The playlist includes tangos mainly from the 30's-50's era (the 60's-00's era might be more popular with the actual dancers of finnish tango) and also some vals, jenkka and foxtrot. I have previously posted one tanda of finnish tango on the blog.

If you are interested in getting some old finnish tango for your collection then I recommend looking for the collections from the Dallapé-orchestra and Sointu record company besides the more obvious Olavi Virta, Veikko Tuomi, Henry Theel and others. Bare in mind though that all the compilations will also include other styles of music than just tango.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Tanda of the Week 47 / 2011 -
Carlos Di Sarli y Roberto Rufino


1. Carlos Di Sarli / Roberto Rufino - "Cascabelito" 1941
2. Carlos Di Sarli / Roberto Rufino - "Todo" 1943
3. Carlos Di Sarli / Roberto Rufino - "Griseta" 1941
4. Carlos Di Sarli / Roberto Rufino - "En un beso la vida" 1940

http://open.spotify.com/user/anttiveikko/playlist/0s18gOpMmDpyj1Zmgf0MAy

http://www.deezer.com/playlist/1027944321It's time to introduce the great Roberto Rufino who has been featured on the blog previously only in a vals tanda from Di Sarli. This is one of my favorite tandas at the moment and I can't get enough of Di Sarli with Rufino. Rufino was born in 1922 so he was only 18 when he recorded "En un beso la vida"!

All the songs in this tanda are classics that have been recorded by other orchestras as well: "Cascabelito" by Pugliese, "Todo" by Laurenz, "Griseta" by Biagi and "En un beso la vida" by Canaro for example. This version of "Cascabelito" is my favorite and I always feel a bit uncomfortable playing the Pugliese version. What I sometimes do is that I play a Pugliese tanda and follow it with the Di Sarli / Rufino version of "Cascabelito" as it is well-known as versions from both orchestras and it makes a nice connection between the two tandas.

"Listening to Roberto Rufino when he sang "María" or "La novia ausente" or "Malena" or any of the tangos he had chosen for his repertoire, was to realize that that tango was unraveling little by little and that the words sprang up separately, without forsaking the whole that gathered them, with the proper strength they had to have in their context. Rufino was that: a storyteller, a phraser, an interpreter that perfectly knew which was the meaning of what he was singing.

[...] Carlos Garay, Carlos Di Sarli´s agent, heard him sing the tango written by Di Sarli and Enrique Carrera Sotelo, "Milonguero viejo", he told his principal about it and the latter included him in his orchestra, with which he was able to record on December 11, 1939, the tango "Corazón", by Di Sarli and Héctor Marcó. Fame had already touched him with its magic wand and «at the age of 21 or 22, he had a unprecedented discographic record», as the journalist Jorge Sturla says. In fact, he recorded, together with Di Sarli, forty-six numbers."

-by Roberto Selles, TodoTango


Di Sarli, Carlos - TOTW - Todo Tangotango.info - iTunes Store
Rufino, Roberto - TOTW - Todo Tango - tango.info - iTunes Store

The cortina is from a finnish band Jo Stance - "Tell me / Girls". Someone needs to tell her how the cabeceo works ;) http://www.jostance.com/
 

Friday, November 25, 2011

Tanda of the Week 46 / 2011 -
Rodolfo Biagi y Alberto Lago







1. Rodolfo Biagi / Alberto Lago - "Te odio" 1942 - TangoTunes
2. Rodolfo Biagi / Alberto Lago - "Metido // Enamorado" 1942 - TangoTunes
3. Rodolfo Biagi / Alberto Lago - "No puede ser" 1941 - TangoTunes
4. Rodolfo Biagi / Alberto Lago - "Arrebato" 1942 - TangoTunes

Here's another guest dj tanda, this time from Dj Stephan Resch originally from Germany but living in Auckland, New Zealand.

"Biagi recorded only 5 tracks with Lago, four tangos and the heavenly "Amor y vals". These tangos are a wonderful example of Biagi's strong staccato rhythms, his effervescent playfulness and his challenging arrangements. It is a great to tanda to play instead of the more common Biagi/Ortiz sets."

Stephan also chose the cortina"Die Frau von Ungefähr" from the German group 17 hippies (I edited it into an instrumental cortina). Enjoy the tanda and thank you Stephan!

Stephan is running a TangoClub in Auckland. They organise milongas, community workshops, invite international teachers and maintain a website relating to things about tango in Auckland: www.tangoclub.co.nz.


Biagi, Rodolfo - TOTW - Todo Tango - tango.info - TangoTunes - iTunes Store

Lago, Alberto - TOTW - Todo Tango - tango.info - iTunes Store

Tanda of the Week 45 / 2011 -
Osvaldo Pugliese

Listen to the tanda - MP3 - Spotify

1. Osvaldo Pugliese - "La yumba" 1952
2. Osvaldo Pugliese - "Patético" 1948
3. Osvaldo Pugliese - "La cachila" 1952
4. Osvaldo Pugliese - "Gallo ciego" 1959

More from the grand maestro Pugliese. Played this tanda last night. I love seeing how there's no hesitation when the dancers hear the first notes of the first song in the tanda and run for the dance floor.


Pugliese, Osvaldo - TOTW - Todo Tangotango.info - iTunes Store

Monday, November 14, 2011

Tanda of the Week 44 / 2011 -
Carlos Di Sarli 1950s instrumentals - DJ Antti Suniala



1. Carlos Di Sarli - "A la gran muñeca" 1954
2. Carlos Di Sarli - "Viviani" 1956
3. Carlos Di Sarli - "Nueve puntos" 1956
4. Carlos Di Sarli - "El ingeniero" 1955

http://open.spotify.com/user/anttiveikko/playlist/3glkwz5xEq4rMXmpQtbPnohttp://www.deezer.com/playlist/1027950571I'm a rather traditional dancer who believes in perfecting the basic technique, embrace and musicality of dancing and therefore I believe that once you have reached a certain level you can learn the most by going to milongas and actually dance, dance and dance. Not saying you shouldn't attend classes as well but I recently realized there are some benefits to not going to tango classes and just going to milongas: You can fully appreciate the 50's Di Sarli instrumentals for what they are and you don't get the feeling of these songs being over-played since they are the chosen music of most classes. Enjoy!


Di Sarli, Carlos - TOTW - Todo Tangotango.info - iTunes Store