From "Cantando" weekly, 1945. Translation by Tango Decoder. Photo from the Tango Time Machine archives. At the bottom of the page, the De Caro orchestra is seen in a clip from "Luces De Buenos Aires."
By Vicente Demarco
Four men in a continuous line set the life of the tango, its soul and its popular expression, on its far-flung travels: Arolas, Cobián, De Caro, and Fresedo.
Tango was the music of the people, of our people, and it had to triumph. Fresedo and Cobián in North America, and Arolas and De Caro in Europe (without forgetting Canaro, Bianco and Pizarro), were the agents of this indisputable and irrepressible international triumph.
1915: Students of the Colegio Nacional Moreno rehearse their manly steps on the pista of the dance hall "A. B. I." "Labey", but they take pride in "what is going to happen" to one of them: Julio De Caro. They insist and... Julio plays "La Cumparsita" in the orchestra of Roberto Firpo, with emotion that belongs to his memory, to his world of memories.
AROLAS, who is a visitor to the place, approaches and asks him to be the first violin of his orchestra that's going to debut at the "Botafogo"...!
With FRESEDO in 1917, he forms part of the unforgettable quartet with Juan Carlos Cobián and Tito Rocatagliatta...
HIS OWN ORCHESTRA: In 1922, with his brothers Francisco (piano) Emilio (violin) and Luis Petrucelli and Pedro Maffia on bandoneones. Ah! If only memory could give us the chance to feel the emotion locked in the tangos produced by that quintet!
70 MUSICIANS formed the giant orchestra that enlivened the dances of the Teatro San Martín in 1924, when Julio De Caro, with his diminutive form and his clear eyes that communicated decisiveness, and his soul hidden in the accompanying violin, faces the public and his own fate.
He is recognized by the Buenos Aires music scene, and this signifies his future and his popular recognition.
Buenos Aires is excited by the foreign music that comes from France, and from North America, and Julio De Caro appears to counterbalance the success of the foreign and to demonstrate the dignity possible in our music... Julio loves tango and loves his people, who he defines and defends with his violin, in front of his orchestra.
The six aces appear then and they succeed in moving Buenos Aires' popular music from the right-hand corner of the silent-movie theater to center stage at the old Select Lavalle cinema. The players are Julio and Emilio De Caro (violins), Francisco De Caro (piano), Pedro Maffia and Pedro Laurenz (bandoneones) and [Leopoldo] Thompson (contrabass). The tangos that mark this epoch and set the example for other musicians are "Guardia Vieja," "Mala Junta," "Buen Amigo," "Tierra Querida," "Todo Corazón," "Triste," etc. In this resides the great value of Julio De Caro for us: he extolled the value of our tango, and he elevated it.
His brother Francisco De Caro was declared an "ace" of the tango and he composed tangos that would be "the method" required by aspiring pianists. Everyone loved him as they did Julio, and admired him for his keyboard artistry and for his tangos: "Flores Negras," "Loca Bohemia"....
1931. On the steamship Massilia they arrive in France. They carry in their suitcase of dreams the memory of Buenos Aires and an eagerness for triumph that throbs in their hearts and is expressed in dignified tango phrases.
CHARLIE CHAPLIN: In the Palais [de la] Meditarranée [Nice, France] they play as a variety act [i.e., in concert] and by special request of Charlie Chaplin, they move to the dance floor where the virtuoso Charlie dances "El Monito"... A tango! Argentine music! They continue via Cannes and Biarritz, to Italy.
TURIN: The (Theatre) Politeama Chiarella holds a gala reception for De Caro. The Prince of Piamonte attends the debut, and after the performance he stays in his seat, compelling the Argentina orchestra to play fourteen encores, after which the prince gives a standing ovation before leaving. They go to Genoa, Milan, Rome, and Paris where they meet our great CARLOS GARDEL, and film with him "Luces de Buenos Aires."
In a month and a half in Paris they earned 800,000 francs, a record for the period. President Lebrún congratulates them and thanks them or coming. The dailies say succinctly: "One has heard tango of a very high level."
And Julio and the guys pack their bags again with the joy of triumph and return to us, without imagining perhaps, that everything passes and the happiness can't last. The tango has declined. Therefore we say: A moment of silence in memory of the figure of Julio De Caro... enough said.
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