My choice for this week is ‘Mañana zarpa un barco’ (Carlos Di Sarli with Roberto Rufino, 1942). I reviewed 22 performances.
My favorite: Stefania Colina & Juan Martín Carrara.
I also liked the performance by Sandra Bernard & Loyd Vidal.
Category Archives: 2. Orchestras
Discographies of the major tango orchestras
The discographies of the tango orchestras are scattered all around the web. Below is my best attempt to make the relevant links all available in one place. When I found more than one discography for a given orchestra, I chose the one which seemed most complete and reliable. I plan to keep this post updated, so if you think I’m missing something, please let me know.
Update: See here for my current attempt to improve on these discographies. The links below will gradually link to my own discographies, as they become available.
- José Basso
- Rodolfo Biagi
- Miguel Caló
- Francisco Canaro
- Ángel D’Agostino
- Juan D’Arienzo
- Alfredo De Angelis
- Julio De Caro
- Lucio Demare
- Carlos Di Sarli
- Edgardo Donato
- Domingo Federico
- Roberto Firpo
- Enrique Mario Francini
- Francini-Pontier
- Osvaldo Fresedo
- José García
- Alfredo Gobbi
- Pedro Laurenz
- Francisco Lomuto
- Osmar Maderna
- Pedro Maffia
- Ricardo Malerba
- Orquesta Típica Victor
- Osvaldo Piro
- Armando Pontier
- Osvaldo Pugliese
- Antonio Rodio
- Enrique Rodríguez
- Francisco Rotundo
- Florindo Sassone
- Ricardo Tanturi
- Aníbal Troilo
- Héctor Varela
My favorite tandas: Biagi – ‘Indiferencia’
Biagi with Ortiz is simply Biagi at its best. And the four tangos included in this set are so congruent in terms of the mood they evoke that they seem to have been conceived for being played together. A sine qua non tanda.
- Ahora no me conocés (1941)
- Todo te nombra (1940)
- Quiero verte una vez más (1940)
- Indiferencia (1942)
My favorite performances: Milonga, vieja milonga (D’Arienzo)
My choice for this week is ‘Milonga, vieja milonga’ (Juan D’Arienzo, 1937). I reviewed 70 performances.
My favorite: Marina Marques & Ozgur Demir.
I also liked the performances by Barbara Carpino & Claudio Forte, Amanda & Adrián Costa, Julia Gorina & Aníbal Montenegro, Michelle Marsidi & Joachim Dietiker and Evelina Sarantopoulou & Theodore Georgedakis.
My favorite tandas: D’Agostino – ‘Así me gusta a mí’
D’Agostino’s milongas are underappreciated, and the last two numbers from this set are seldom heard at tango events. This is a pity because these songs are both a pleasure to the ear and very fun to dance to. The closing number, with its subtle dynamic and rhythmic changes, has now become an all-time favorite of mine.
- El morocho y el oriental (1946)
- Todos te quieren (1944)
- Así me gusta a mí (1942)
My favorite performances: Te aconsejo que me olvides (Troilo)
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My choice for this week is ‘Te aconsejo que me olvides’ (Aníbal Troilo with Francisco Fiorentino, 1941). I reviewed 49 performances.
My favorite: Barbara Carpino & Claudio Forte.
I also liked the performances by Moira Castellano & Gastón Torelli, Stefania Colina & Juan Martin Carrara, Noelia Hurtado & Carlitos Espinoza and Inés Muzzopappa & Federico Naveira.
My favorite tandas: Pugliese – ‘Vieja recova’
I am admittedly not a big fan of Pugliese. There is an exception to my reservations about his orchestra, however: his collaboration with Jorge Vidal. Unfortunately, Pugliese and Vidal recorded only seven tangos together (plus one milonga), so the options for a DJ are very limited. To spice things up and challenge seasoned dancers, I sometimes substitute ‘Testamento de arrabal’ with Argentino Galván’s ‘Pa’ mí es igual‘ (1951), which also features Vidal on vocals. (Galván arranged some songs for Pugliese in the mid-40’s, and his orchestra, while clearly distinct in style, shares some similarities with that of the celebrated pianist from Villa Crespo.) Another possible substitution is Galvan’s ‘Cuando yo me vaya’ for ‘La cieguita’: while musically the song doesn’t fit as nicely, the lyrics are evocative of both ‘Testamento de arrabal’ (“Tan sólo una cosa pido, que me llore un bandoneón”) and ‘Puente Alsina’ (“A la barra de Boedo, Caballito y Puente Alsina”).
- La cieguita (1949)
- Puente Alsina (1949)
- Testamento de arrabal (1949)
- Vieja recova (1950)
My favorite performances: Temo (Orquesta Típica Victor)
My choice for this week is ‘Temo’ (Orquesta Típica Victor with Mario Pomar, 1940). I reviewed 38 performances.
My favorite: Noelia Hurtado & Carlitos Espinoza.
I also liked the performances by Cecilia Piccinni & Andrés Molina, Juana Sepulveda & Mariano Frumboli, Paula Tejeda & Lucas Carrizo.
My favorite tandas: D’Arienzo – ‘Amarras’
These tangos from D’Arienzo’s collaboration with Héctor Mauré are full of emotion, and mark an obvious contrast with his earlier period with Alberto Echagüe.
- Amarras (1944)
- Lilián (1944)
- Enamorado (1943)
- Si la llegaran a ver (1943)
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.