Author Archives: Pablo Stafforini

The endings of the great tango orchestras

When I started dancing and listening to tango music two years ago, I quickly discovered that one of the easiest ways to identify an orchestra was to pay attention to the final two chords of the song (the dominanc-tonic, characteristic “chan-chan” ending ). Each orchestra plays those chords in its own, distinctive way, so by learning how the chords sound like, one can infer the orchestra even of songs one is unfamiliar with. The video below, which I created a while ago for my own amusement, provides a sample of the tango endings of 20 of the most popular tango orchestras. I am now posting it here in case it is of interest to readers of this blog.

Latest update: 22nd June, 2013

My favorite performances: La capilla blanca (Di Sarli)

My choice for this week is ‘La capilla blanca’ (Carlos Di Sarli with Alberto Podestá, 1944). I reviewed 36 performances.

My favorite: Michelle & Murat Erdemsel and Roxana Suárez & Sebastián Achával (ex aequo).

I also liked the performance by Natacha Lockwood & Claudio Coppola.

Latest update: 27th April, 2015

My favorite tandas: D’Agostino – ‘Adiós, arrabal’

A “gently melancholic” tanda about things past (“la milonga porteña, que nunca más volverá“). I am not at all bothered by the fact that the first song was recorded more than a decade after the other three and does not feature Ángel Vargas–especially since ‘Café Domínguez’ is one of the most beautiful tangos of all time–, but purists might want to replace it with ‘Mi viejo barrio’ or ‘Quien tuviera dieciocho años’ (both from 1944 and sung by Vargas).