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Argentine Tango School

“Qué te importa que te llore” by Miguel Caló y su Orquesta Típica with Raúl Berón in vocals, 1942.

Osmar Maderna. Argentine tango music. Escuela de Tango de Buenos Aires.Osmar Maderna

Pianist, leader, composer and arranger
(26 February 1918 – 28 April 1951)

A pianist strongly inclined to romanticism, viewed as the Chopin of the tango.

His subtle, almost ethereal and suggestive touch, deprived of any emphasis or pomposity, led him to create an orchestral style based on the same pattern. Plain and transparent, his arrangements conceived fancy solos alternating piano, bandoneon and violin. That style of his, born toward 1940, influenced the entire decade and contrasted with both the popular tango (with Juan D’Arienzo as remarkable example) and the academic tango (Anibal Troilo). His tangos lack any tough or coarse traces but also any symphonic pretension. He preferred to convey a simple emotion and accurate expression, which he achieved through a permanent self-control. Continue reading at www.todotango.com...

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“Bien compadre” by Osvaldo Pugliese y su Orquesta Típica, 1949.

Emilio Balcarce

Emilio Balcarce, Argentine Tango musician, leader and composer.Violinist, bandoneonist, bandleader, arranger, and composer (February 22, 1918 – January 19, 2011)

Only a great one, after handing an arrangement for the orchestra to Aníbal Troilo, can be relieved from the suffering of the implacable torment of Pichuco’s eraser from which nobody escaped.

That rare privilege was conferred to him in 1958 when Emilio Balcarce, in his condition of orchestrator, delivered the music sheets of his arrangements of “La bordona”.

The latter is his most significant work due to the beauty of its melody which always sounds contemporary despite the passing of time.

He was by then the inspired musician who had walked along with the music staff in every possible way and who, discovering the secrets of perfect harmony, was shaping the best sounds of the most important orchestras. Continue reading at www.todotango.com…

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“Mi Dolor” by Héctor Varela y su Orquesta Típica, 1953.

Héctor Varela. Argentine music at Escuela de Tango de Buenos Aires.Héctor Varela

Bandoneonist, leader, arranger and composer
(29 January 1914 – 30 January 1987)

Luis Adolfo Sierra tells us in his book Historia de la orquesta típica: «Héctor Varela, lead bandoneon and arranger of the Juan D’Arienzo Orchestra, for ten years, identified himself with the trends of a genuine traditional origin, and his orchestra boasted, as major attraction, the precision of a difficult technical performance, in the middle of a very personal hasty rhythmic beat». And Jorge Palacio (Faruk) added: «And that is, exactly, what Varela strove for during his tango career: to play with his orchestra for dancers».

He was born in Avellaneda where he spent all his childhood and youth. He graduated as accountant but he never worked as such. He had his first studies of bandoneon with the teachers of his neighborhood, he later attended the conservatory led by maestro Eladio Blanco with whom, time later, he would play at the bandoneon section of Juan D’Arienzo. Continue reading at www.todotango.com...

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“Pocas palabras” by Ricardo Tanturi y su Orquesta Típica with Alberto Castillo in vocals (1941)

Ricardo Tanturi. Argentine Tango music at Escuela de Tango de Buenos Aires

Ricardo Tanturi: El caballero del Tango

Pianist, leader and composer
(January 27, 1905 – January 24, 1973)

The turn for records came in 1937 with an unforgettable piece recorded for Odeón, containing the instrumental version of “Tierrita” tango by Agustín Bardi, and “A la luz del candil”, with music written by the talented Carlos Vicente Geroni Flores, cruel lyrics by Julio Navarrine, and sang by Carlos Ortega.

But Tanturi’s great success would come in 1939 when he incorporated Alberto Castillo, a great attraction for the public. Castillo, with his perfect tune, master ability in the use of pitches and mezza voce, seduced the audience in many possible ways: with his exaggerated gestures, his masculine elegance, and neat hairstyle, his gynecologist degree (obtained in 1942), and that sometimes intimate sometimes lively mood, all of which made a show of every tango. Continue reading at www.todotango.com...

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“Sobre el pucho” by Juan D’Arienzo y su Orquesta Típica with Héctor Mauré in vocals, 1941.

“Sobre el pucho” by Juan D’Arienzo y su Orquesta Típica with Héctor Mauré in vocals, 1941.

José Gonzalez Castillo, author of tangos

José González Castillo

Poet and lyricist (25 January 1885 – 22 October 1937)

Lyrics for tango were born around 1914, based on those ones conceived by Pascual Contursi that year and the following years (“De vuelta al bulín”, “Ivette”, “Flor de fango”, “Mi noche triste (Lita)”), and they were growing strong very slowly.

So much so that in Carlos Gardel’s repertoire tangos were, until the next decade, a rare bird. There was not even a notion of how to sing a tango, a standard that Gardel was gradually establishing after 1922.

That was, precisely, the year José González Castillo truly disembarked in the genre with the lyrics of “Sobre el pucho”, after Sebastián Piana’s music, which was introduced at the talent contest organized by Tango cigarettes.

José Gobello (Crónica general del tango, Editorial Fraterna) stated about this work that, with it «some novelties broke into tango that the tango literary work of Homero Manzi would later turn into true constants. By the way, Pompeya («Un callejón en Pompeya/y un farolito plateando el fango…»); later, the description of the neighborhood and, soon, the enumeration as a descriptive procedure».

But in those lyrics there is something else, metaphor, that springs up in the memory that the malevo devotes to his lost love «…tu inconstancia loca/me arrebató de tu boca/como pucho que se tira/ cuando ya/ni sabor ni aroma da». It is clear that González Castillo was a forerunner, and also that other later lyricists were who deepened those trends.

Read more about José González Castillo at www.todotango.com

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It is the number 1 source for professional Tango DJs all over the world.

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    You will find two compilations at the beginning, one tango and one vals compilation in amazing quality.
    The price is 50€ each (for 32 songs each compilation) and now the good news!

If you enter the promo code 8343 when you register at this site you will get a 20% discount!

Thanks for supporting this project, you will find other useful information on the site, a great initiative.

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