He was a great tango personality, basically as a bandoneon player and composer. His influence as orchestra director was relatively less, though still significant. He was a bandoneon player of great techniques, skillful with both hands (high and low pitches), superb in sound, energetic in performances, and vehement in phrases. He was the founder of a performance school.
As a composer —one of the greatest in the tango history— his work mingled with those of Pedro Maffia and the brothers Julio and Francisco De Caro, but then it flew on his own. Among his best compositions, now classic tangos, is “Orgullo criollo” (with the cooperation of Julio De Caro).