"With my watch in my hand|
Te conocí hace un año,
Con el reloj en la mano |
I met you a year ago |
Tristeza marina
Tango
1943
Music: José Dames / Roberto Flores
Lyric: Horacio Sanguinetti
Carlos Di Sarli and Roberto Rufino
Tú quieres más el mar,
me dijo con dolor
y el cristal de su voz se quebró.
Recuerdo su mirar
con luz de anochecer
y esta frase como una obsesión:
"Tienes que elegir entre tu mar y mi amor".
Yo le dije: "No"
y ella dijo: "Adiós".
Su nombre era Margó,
llevaba boina azul y
en su pecho colgaba una cruz.
“You love the sea more,”
she said sorrowfully
and the crystal of her voice broke.
I remember the look in her eyes
in the dusky light
and this phrase like an obsession:
“You have to choose between your sea and my love.”
I told her, “No.”
and she said, “Goodbye.”
Her name it was Margó,
she wore a blue beret and
at her breast there was hanging a cross.
Mar...
Mar, hermano mío...
Mar...
En tu inmensidad
hundo con mi barco carbonero
mi destino prisionero
y mi triste soledad.
Mar...
Yo no tengo a nadie.
Mar...
Ya ni tengo amor.
Sé que cuando al puerto llegue un día
esperando no estará Margó.
Sea....
Sea, brother of mine...
Sea...
in your immensity
I sink with my coal ship,
my captive fate,
and my sad loneliness.
Sea...
I’ve got no one.
Sea...
And now, I don’t have love, either.
I’m sure that when I get back to port
Margo won’t be waiting there.
Mi pena es tempestad
que azota el corazón
con el viento feroz del dolor.
Jamás la olvidaré
y siempre escucharé
sus palabras como una obsesión:
"Tienes que elegir entre tu mar y mi amor".
Triste, dije: "No"
y escuché su adiós...
Su nombre era Margó,
llevaba boina azul
y en su pecho colgaba una cruz.
My suffering is a tempest
that lashes at my heart
with the ferocious winds of pain.
I’ll never forget her
and I’ll always hear
her words like an obsession:
“You have to choose between your sea and my love.”
Sadly I said, “No.”
and I heard her goodbye...
Her name it was Margo
she wore a blue beret
and at her breast there was hanging a cross.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to our recent discussion on Facebook's Tango Time Machine about the origin of the tanda! That amiable exchange got a luscious stew of ideas cooking in my head, and as a result, I realized that I might look for an answer in the Tango Time Machine archives. Here's what I came up with....
As I have argued many times, the most important medium for the diffusion of tango during the 40s was neither records nor live performances, but radio. Only relatively affluent people could afford a record player and discs. The smaller, neighborhood dances with recorded music sometimes had so few discs on hand that they played each song multiple times per night—not exactly a varied program (this according to the recently deceased Ricardo Suarez, may he rest in peace). Live shows were relatively expensive to attend, about $2 pesos in 1942-43 and about $3 pesos in 1944 (one 1940 peso equals about $3 in today's US dollars). Radio, however, delivered varied, top-quality music programming to a potentially limitless audience all over the country at no charge. And they did so morning, noon, and night. And, as we have seen in an earlier post on this blog, the radio stations sometimes provided extended programs specifically for dancing. Radio was the principal means of diffusion of tango in this period.
What was the typical format for tango programming on that all-important medium of radio? Fortunately, we can answer that question with some precision by analyzing the daily radio schedules published in the El Mundo morning newspaper, which gave the schedule for each day's programming on LR1 Radio El Mundo. (The newspaper and the station were owned by the same company, Editorial Haynes.)
What can we learn from those schedules? Quite a bit. First of all, we see that an orchestra would almost always remain on the station's sound stage for a total of about 2.5 to 3 hours per session. During that time, they'd perform in three to five short musical segments, live, on the air. For example, in the schedule for 13 March 1943 (right) we see that Ricardo Tanturi's típica, Los Indios, first appeared at 12:15, played a total of four times, and finished at 15:00, for a total of two hours, forty-minutes. Beginning at 16:00, Emilio Orlando appears four times, and his típica remains in place until 18:45, again two hours, forty-five minutes. Finally, Edgardo Donato's outfit appears; they start at 19:10, play four segments, and finish at 21:30 for a total of two hours and twenty minutes onstage.
The length and composition of radio segments were highly variable. There were a few very short, five- or ten-minute programs featuring one orchestra, whether tango, jazz, or some other genre. There were many fifteen-minute programs featuring either one orchestra alone, or two orchestras, each playing a different rhythm. And there were frequent thirty-minute programs featuring two or three orchestras of different musical genres. Though there were many other variants, these were the most common formats for musical programming on Radio El Mundo.
Returning to the example of 13 March, Tanturi's "Los Indios" played three "solo" segments of fifteen minutes each and one "split" segment of fifteen minutes shared with a non-tango orchestra. Next, Emilio Orlando's outfit did just the same. Edgardo Donato's schedule was a little more varied, with one fifteen-minute solo set, two split fifteen-minute sets, and one "mixed" twenty-five-minute set, a relatively atypical session. Despite that minor departure from the norm, you can see that, of the sets played by the tango orchestras that day, nine out of twelve of them, seventy-five percent, were fifteen-minute sets, seven of which (ca. 55%) featured one orchestra only. This general pattern was established during 1942-43 and became almost invariable by 1944. In other words, we can say with confidence that the fifteen-minute segment was the most common unit of musical programming on LR1, and the majority of those segments were performed by a single orchestra.
Was the same true for Radio El Mundo's main competitor, Radio Belgrano? I strongly suspect so. According to Matthew B. Karush 's book, Culture of Class: Radio and Cinema in the Making of a Divided Argentina 1920-1946, Radio Belgrano was the gold standard for Argentine radio. Belgrano was the originator of Argentina's popular radio-programming format; the other stations emulated its programming in both form and content. (The homogeneity of radio programming was a common complaint of critics throughout the 40s, says Karush.) So, until there is we have evidence to the contrary, I'm going to assume that Belgrano's format was very similar, if not identical.
What was the content of those fifteen-minute segments? It almost certainly consisted of four songs, plus announcer chatter and ads. If each song were about 2:45, that would yield 11:00 of music, leaving 4:00 for advertising and announcer chatter. (Ratio of music to ads/chatter = 2.75:1)
Could it have been five songs? In my opinion, not; that wouldn't have left enough time for ads. According to Karush, a common complaint among critics of radio during this period was that there were too many ads. If the most common program consisted of five songs averaging 2:45, that is, 13:45 of music and 1:15 of ads (with a music-to-ads ratio of 11), it's hard to imagine how anyone would complain. It's also hard to imagine the station making any profit from advertising. Hence, five songs per fifteen-minute segment doesn't seem at all likely.
What about three songs of 2:45 each, total duration 8:00, leaving 7:00 for commercials and chatter? (Ratio of music to ads/chatter = 1.14) To me, that doesn't sound like a winning formula either. It's an unbearable ratio of music to ads. I doubt any radio station anywhere in the world could hold a music audience with that much advertising. There is a limit! Furthermore, it's hard to imagine anyone dancing to a program like that. And tango is, after all, dance music.
The conclusion? The paradigmatic programming format for tango music was a fifteen-minute segment featuring four songs by a single orquesta típica, plus announcements and advertising.
So there you have it. This "radio-centric" view gives us a likely historical precursor of the modern four-song tanda sequence, a "radio-tanda" that was repeated on Argentina's stations day after day, morning, noon, and night, for years.
Is this, then, the birth of the modern tanda whose origin we so devoutly seek? Not just yet. Our "radio-tanda" is still a tanda in embryonic form. Like our modern tandas, this "radio-tanda" is a sequence of four songs played by a single tango orchestra. However, it seems certain that many of these fifteen-minute segments included not only tangos, but valses and milongas as well. (See the Alberto Castillo ad, above, for an example.) Our "radio-tanda," then, is a four-song segment, performed by one orchestra, that can include any of the tango-related rhythms. We do not yet have the rigid segregation of the tandas by genre.
It occurs to me that genre segregation, with separate tandas for tango, vals, and milonga, might have been employed during the extended, late-night radio programs provided specifically for dancing. Unfortunately, I have never seen a playlist for one of those longer shows, and I don't know if any survive. If such a schedule ever turns up, it will add much to our understanding of the genesis of the tanda.
In Part 2, we'll examine the role of the annual live Carnavál broadcasts in the genesis of the tanda.
"Bedazzling bandoneón!
In your caresses you hold suspended
the chords of a flash tango
to whisper in her ear
that I am dying of love."
Firuletear de bandoneón
(Bedazzling bandoneón!) *
Tango 1942
Música: Ángel Domínguez
Letra: José Rótulo
YouTube: Pedro Laurenz w/ Alberto Podestá
| Firuletear que tienes la dicha de llevar en tus notas mi canción —como si fuera un murmullo de amor— a la pebeta que espera. En tus caricias llevas prendido los acordes de un tango compadrón para decirle al oído que yo estoy muriendo de amor. Junto a tu lado fui feliz, —¡mas ciego un día!— por unos ojos olvidé que te quería. Hoy, ni el amor de aquellos ojos me queda... pagué ya vez, con la traición que te diera. Sueño de amor, que convertí en llanto... ¿Por qué me fui y te quería tanto? ¡Vuelvo a buscar en tu pecho nuevamente calor de nido, para mi corazón! Yo sé corazón |
Bedazzling bandoneón, you have the joy * of carrying my song in your notes —as if it were a murmur of love— to the girl who is waiting. In your caresses you hold suspended the chords of a flash tango * to whisper in her ear that I am dying of love. I was happy at your side but --blinded for one day by a couple of eyes!-- I forgot that I loved you. Today, not even the love of those eyes remains... I paid, you see, for betraying you. Dream of love, that turned into weeping... Why did I leave when I loved you so? I’m trying to find in your breast once again a warm nest for my heart! I know, heart, that you’re going to weep... Perhaps, because I didn’t know how to love her, but now, just seeing her hurts, you see, heart, that now I’m asking your forgiveness! |
NOTES:
* bedazzling bandoneón: Firuletear de bandoneón. The verbal noun firuletear (from firulete, "an ornament ridiculous and in bad taste") means "to perform complicated steps in a dance in order to show off" or "to show off with inappropriate or ridiculous ornaments." The bandoneón of the title is bedazzling, but perhaps also a bit ridiculous.
* a flash tango: un tango compadrón. The slang term compadrón means a buddy or pal, but it is also a braggart, loudmouth, or show-off. Here, the term seems to echo the ambiguity of the title (see previous note). The tango, with its showy adornments, is impressive, but perhaps also over-blown or ostentatious.
One of Di Sarli's most beautiful songs with Alberto Podestá. The lyrics are an extended metaphor based on Generala, a type of dice-poker game using five dice thrown from a cup (cubilete). It is popular in South America. The song uses several specialized terms from the game; they are explained in the notes. Tango Decoder's subtitled video of "Cero Al As" is below the notes.
Cero al as (Zero to the Ace) 1944
Words: Francisco Bohígas
Music: Arturo (Hércules) Gallucci
English-language version by Tango Decoder.
Video of 1944 recording by Di Sarli and Alberto Podestá follows text.
Agitando el cubilete con los dados del cariño,
comenzó la generala pasional de nuestro amor.
Yo seguí tu amante juego con la ciega fe de un niño
porque vi que interpretabas el concepto del honor.
Te confié en la gran partida el papel de anotaciones,
convencido que, amorosa, lo sabrías respetar;
y al hacerte la escalera, mi escalera de ilusiones
a
la altura de tu alma yo soñé poder llegar.
Shaking the dice-cup of affection,
the impassioned gamble of our love began.*
I followed your love-play with the blind faith of a child
because I saw that your intentions were honorable.
In the great game I trusted you with the scorecard,
convinced that, lovingly, you would know how to handle it;
and while making you the “staircase,” my staircase of hopes*
I dreamed of being able to reach the height of your soul.
¡Cariñito!...
Cariñito de mi vida,
me embrujaste en la partida
con el “full” de tu pasión.
¡Cariñito!...
Me embriagaste de embelesos
y en el póker de tus besos
se enredó mi corazón.
My sweet darling!...
Sweet darling of my lifetime,
you bewitched me in the game
with the “full house” of your passion.*
Sweet darling!...
You got me drunk on enchantment
and in the “poker” of your kisses*
you confused my heart.
Continuando el desarrollo de la clásica partida
comprobé tu noble juego y orgulloso me sentí;
y ante el cielo de tus ojos, que a vivir hoy me convida
con un beso, en mi locura, la partida interrumpí.
Para gloria de mi gloria, de tu amor haciendo gala,
me brindaste el paraíso de adorarte más y más;
y tirando en favor mío le serviste generala
a mi alma, que en la vida, ¡se encontraba cero al as!*
Continuing the development of the classic game
you proved generous in your play and I felt proud;
and before the heaven of your eyes, that even now invite me
with a kiss, in my madness, I interrupted the game.
For my glory of glories, making a gift of your love,
you gave me the paradise of adoring you more and more;
and tossing the dice in my favor, you threw a generala
to my soul, which in life always drew “zero to the ace”!*
NOTES:
* gamble of our love: generala pasional de nuestro amor. Generala (lit. 'call-to-arms' or 'general alert') is name of a game of chance similar to Yahtzee in the US or poker-dice in England. The song takes the play of generala as a metaphor for love. Since the song was written during WWII at a time when Argentina's newspapers were dominated by war news, it seems possible that the literal meaning of the word generala may have carried more weight than is reflected in my translation. Hence, an alternate interpretation of this phrase might be "our love's call-to-arms began."
* stairway: escalera. Literally, the word means stairway, but in generala it denotes a throw of five dice in consecutive order.
* full house: full, two dice the same, plus three dice the same, as in poker.
* poker: póker, four equal dice.
* zero to the ace: cero al as. The generala scorecard is a grid, in which each player's score each throw of the dice is recorded (see illustration). The first score of the game is entered in first numbered row of the card, which is called the "ace." To enter a zero in the first row is called "zero/zed to the ace." It means beginning the game at a disadvantage. As a slang term it also means “broke.” The sense of this last line is that the beloved, through her loving play of the game of love, turns the singer/narrator's life around.
From El Mundo, 1 October 1944. Beginning in May 1944 Odeon Records conducted a concerted advertising/branding campaign apparently designed to establish itself as the premier record label for both tango and jazz, the two most popular musical genres of the time. This tall, one-column ad (scroll down to see it all) ran on the page preceding the Dance Guide. It offers:
"2 Outstanding Performers! 2 Extraordinary Albums! The Best of each genre on Discos Odeon."
I think it gives us some interesting data about record packaging, marketing, and branding, while demonstrating Alberto Castillo's rank as one of the most marketable acts of the moment. (I didn't know they sold albums of 78s!)
Composer, singer, clarinetist and saxophonist Barry Moral was one of the busiest jazz men of the time. He shared the stage with just about every major tango orchestra, and often appeared solo, too.
Sorry about the uneven tone on the ads. Lighting was tricky!
Argentina 1944: The day's radio broadcasts began and ended with a marcha militar, and the country was led by guys like this. And at the same time, the Golden Age of tango was in full swing. That's life....
Text: "Promoted Militar Chiefs"
El Mundo, 7 April 1944
I found the following post in an eight-year-old discussion thread about the origin of the tanda, and I find it very interesting. I've heard this explanation before, but I've never heard it stated with such clarity. I like the comments about the lata, and how the term abides in contemporary speech. However, it occurs to me that even if the facts given here are correct, there could be other important factors contributing to the development of the tanda. Your comments welcome....
Here's something delightful that I found in the El Mundo Dance Guide for 1 October 1944. It's an ad for one of the Club Porvenir's regular dances at the Salón Renacimiento in Avellaneda, this one featuring Enrique Rodriguez.
Then, in really small type below that it says:
"ALSO PLAYING, THE YOUNG LADIES' ORCHESTRA ROLAND CHAVES."
Perhaps you're aware that there were quite a few women's orchestras operating in Buenos Aires back in 1940s. It seems that they weren't exactly orquestas típicas (tango orchestras); they played tango and other rhythms. None of them ever recorded. I've heard of these orchestras before, but this is the first time I've seen one advertised. Just goes to show you, you gotta read the small print!
The fact that the leader of the band was a guy named Rolando? Not ideal, but understandable in that faraway time and place.
It's Sunday, October 1st, 1944. Lots of choices! Where will you dance? Please post your top three choices in the comments below. We'd love to hear your ideas.
"Remember, you are making history....!"
[Note: Tango Decoder is kind of busy with work this week, so we give you the "Dance Guide" as is. Feel free to add your own commentary and analysis. We'll probably chime in later in the week....]
THE IMAGES:
• El Mundo, pp. 16-17
• P. 16, top.
• P. 16, bottom.
• P. 17, top.
• P. 17, bottom.
El Mundo newspaper, 3 February 1944:
"We've already highlighted many times in this column the reappearances that occur on Radio El Mundo and which enrich the station's already valuable programming. We must now add to the published list the reentry of two good típicas: those of the maestros Aníbal Troilo (Pichuco) and Edgardo Donato that began their performance the first day of this month. Today, at 9:30 p.m. the singer Carmen Duval will reappears singing several new numbers....
"Two notable orchestras, the jazz of Barry Moral and the típica of Lucio Demare are in charge of the musical part of the program York Musical Hits that is transmitted tonight at 9 on Radio "El Mundo". The two groups will play the compositions that achieve the greatest success in the country."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Once again we see evidence that Edgardo Donato was alive and kicking follow the breakup of his first orchestra in May of 1943. The month-long contract with Radio "El Mundo" was a regular paying gig and could not be honored without a stable, well rehearsed orchestra. Donato may not have recorded during this time, but recordings were not the main channel for the diffusion of popular music. Radio was.
After perusing the Dance Guide pages we posted for September 17, 1944, our friend DJ Dmitry Pruss made the interesting observation that very few of the ads for live performances stated the price of entry. We're still pondering why that might be, and we'll let you know when we come up with an answer. But just so you don't lie awake wondering what the prices actually were, here's an ad from one of the most popular clubs, River Plate, offering a live appearance by The Maestro himself, Aníbal Troilo. As you can see, the prices are clearly stated. The text reads:
TODAY at 10 p.m.
CLUB ATLETICO RIVER PLATE
Extraordinary Dancing Soiree
in the salons of its Monumental Stadium
Típica: ANÍBAL TROILO
Jazz: RUDY AYALA
=> MEMBERS, $1.50 -- MALE GUESTS, $3 -- FEMALE GUESTS, $1 -- FEMALE MEMBERS, FREE
SPECIAL OMNIBUS SERVICE FROM BARRANCAS DE BELGRANO
By the way, there was a bit of price creep between 1942/43 and this year, '44. Formerly, the price for male guests had been $2 or at most $2.50. By '44, it was more often $3, although some venues held the line at $2. BCGs held the line at $1, ladies usually free.
All prices are in pesos. One 1940 pesos is the equivalent of about $3 USD today.
2nd Meeting
ARGENTINE DANCE CHAMPIONSHIP
Sponsored by the magazine "Dancing"
Típica: OSVALDO PUGLIESE
Jazz: EUGENIO NOBILE
Típica: REINOL
and a great singer ROBERTO QUIROGA
*200 PRIZES*
(Logo: They record on Odeon Records)
Entrance fees: $1.50, $1-, 0.70 — Registration and entrance free to the participants
[13 October 1944]
***
Editor's note: To be perfectly honest, we don't know whether Don Osvaldo's orchestra played for the dance contest or not, although that is certainly one possible interpretation of this ad. It's certainly an interesting idea to ponder....
"...The stretch of Calle Corrientes between Cerrito and Callao was, in the decades between 1920 and 1950, something almost like the Olympus, if not to say the Mecca (...), of tango. On these blocks were concentrated a large number of cafés with live music, cabarets, theaters, and cinemas with a constant influx of spectators inclined to hear and dance tango or attend movies or plays in which that genre played an essential role.
"This reporter begins by stopping in front of number 1124, where once stood Marzotto, a café that reached its peak during the 40s. There Angel Vargas had worked as a vocalist for the now forgotten orchestra of Lando and Mattino, though the reporter confesses that he has not been able to determine whether this last was Carmelo or Fortunato [Mattino]. The problem is that they were brothers, both bandoneonistas, and both played in the orchestra of [Francisco] "Pancho" Lomuto, Fortunato leaving in 1938 to join a lineup with the young Alberto Marino.
"And here one must reflect on something that cannot be repeated often enough in these reports: in the field of popular culture there isn't always reliable information about specific events or figures, since generally the oral sources--as opposed to court testimonies, newspaper accounts, etc.--are almost always subject to the fragility and subjectivity of human memory.
"...One repeats that condition in the case of Alfredo De Angelis. While some authors assert that his first orchestra debuted at the cabaret Marabú, others date it to March 20, 1941 at Marzotto, accompanied by singer Héctor Morea, who never managed to record.
"What is certain is the debut, in this café, of the second orchestra of the pianist Osmar Maderna in 1945. It all started at the end of 1944, when the "orchestra of the stars" of Miguel Caló dissolved and some of its very young members formed their own groups, like Enrique Mario Francini and Armando Pontier on one side, Domingo Federico on another, and Maderna who put together a lineup with Raúl Iriarte,* an orchestra that didn't last long before Iriarte went back to Caló. In that same Café Marzotto, Maderna held a trial of singers ... the winner of which was Orlando Verri with Pregonera, who was accompanied in the resulting aggregation by the violinist Aquiles Roggero and the bandoneonista Leopoldo Federico, among others...
Text and photo "Calle Corrientes 1930" extracted from: Cafés del centro/3... by Diego Ruiz, "musicologist and street reporter," and his fascinating blog Café Contado that covers the cafés of Buenos Aires. Translated by Tango Decoder.
*Note: Diego's original article seems to conflate singer Raúl Iriarte (b. 1916) with Rafael "El Rata" Iriarte, a guitarist born in 1890. It was the younger man, Raúl, who sang with Caló and Maderna, not Rafael "El Rata." (To compound the confusion, the younger man's birth name was Rafael Fiorentino.) I have corrected the error in my English version. Thanks to Renata for pointing out the error.
17 September, 1944. Club Atlético Sportsman, in the far southern barrio of Barracas, announces a Gran Soiree featuring the tango orchestras of Osvaldo Pugliese and Alfredo De Angelis and jazz guitarist Oscar Alemán's band. One has to read the small print to see that the three acts are to appear en versiones fonoeléctricas, which is a fancy way of saying "on recording."
It's a puckish, inside joke, I suppose: advertising the names of three orchestras, even though they'd be heard on recordings only. (And they seem to have involved Odeon Records in the jest, since the ad bears the record-company's by-now-ubiquitous logo!) Then again, all three orchestras had appeared earlier, in the flesh, at Sportsman, so the claim wasn't completely unfounded--I'm sure all three bandleaders had left behind mucho DNA on Sportsman's stage.
But there's a deeper logic for tango fans living in or near Barracas: True, all three orchestras are appearing live in BsAs tonight -- De Angelis in Villa Urquiza, in the far north of the city; Pugliese in Liniers, way out west; and Alemán in Villa Devoto, even further to the northwest. But why spend a small fortune (up to $3 pesos per show, about $9 in today's dollars), schlep all over town, and fight the crowds on pistas the size of a football field, when you can hear the same three orchestras right there in your own neighborhood club for just $1 peso? Now that's an offer you can't refuse!
RELATED POSTS:
Map of all the Buenos Aires dances advertised on this day, 17 September 1944.
Tango Time Machine for 17 September 1944.
17 September, 1944. Club Atlético Sportsman in the far southern barrio of Barracas announces a Gran Soiree featuring the tango orchestras of Osvaldo Pugliese and Alfredo De Angelis and jazz guitarist Oscar Alemán's band. One has to read the small print to see that the three acts are to appear en versiones fonoeléctricas, which is a fancy way of saying "on recording."
It's a puckish, inside joke, I suppose: advertising the names of three orchestras, even though they'd be heard on recordings only. (And they seem to have involved Odeon Records in the jest, since the ad bears the record-company's by-now-ubiquitous logo!) Then again, all three orchestras had appeared earlier, in the flesh, at Sportsman, so the claim wasn't completely unfounded--I'm sure all three bandleaders had left behind mucho DNA on Sportsman's stage.
But there's a deeper logic for tango fans living in or near Barracas: True, all three orchestras are appearing live in BsAs tonight -- De Angelis in Villa Urquiza, in the far north of the city; Pugliese in Liniers, way out west; and Alemán in Villa Devoto, even further to the northwest. But why spend a small fortune (up to $3 pesos per show, about $9 in today's dollars), schlep all over town, and fight the crowds on pistas the size of a football field, when you can hear the same three orchestras right there in your own neighborhood club for just $1 peso? Now that's an offer you can't refuse!
RELATED POSTS:
Map of all the Buenos Aires dances advertised on this day, 17 September 1944.
Tango Time Machine for 17 September 1944.
The morning edition of El Mundo for Sunday, 17 September 1944 is a mine of rubies, and it's yours to excavate! Thirty-nine events in all; thirty live performances and nine BCGs (dances with recorded music), spread out all over the map.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Juan D'Arienzo at the Club Sarmiento, Homero 853 in Villa Avellaneda
• Osvaldo Pugliese with Roberto Chanel at Amanecer, J. L. Suarez 470 in Liniers
• Aníbal Troilo at Independiente, Av. Mitre 450 in Avellaneda
• Carlos Di Sarli with Alberto Podestá at Independiente, Rivadavia 6302 in Flores
• Roberto Rufino at the Nueva Chicago, Tellier 2319 in Mataderos
• Ricardo Tanturi at Mi Club, Moreno 2967 in Balvanera
• Pedro Laurenz at Club Resurgimento, Gral. Artigas 2250-62 in Villa del Parque
• Osvaldo Donato at the Club Sarmiento, Quintana 2236 in Olivas
• Francisco Fiorentino at the Nueva Cervecería Argentina (w/ pullman gratis, free bus, from Tellier and J. B. Alberdi)
That's only a partial list, so dig into the page-views below, find your favorite orchestra or BCG, grab your Most Favored Dance Partner (MFDP), and get out there and dance. Remember, you are making history!
Click for hi-res views.
Top: Right hand page, upper.
Second: Right-hand page, lower.
Bottom: Left-hand page, all.
Horacio Salgán was born in 1916 and he's still alive today, 99 years old as of this writing. He joined the staff of Radio Belgrano as a soloist and backing musician in 1934. Two years later he was hired as a pianist by Roberto Firpo. (The Firpo orchestra, formed in 1919, was by some accounts the last great orchestra of the Guardia Vieja.) Salgán made his first recordings in 1942 and formed his own orchestra in 1944. What you see here is the primicia, the first announcement, of a performance by Salgán's new group. The date is 25 March 1944.
Here's a fantastic 1939 performance of Curda completa by Firpo's orchestra with piano by one of his two pianists at the time, Carlos Garcia and Horacio Salgán. We don't know which of the two this is, but it's exceptional, and gives you an idea of the company young Salgán was keeping at age 23. Thanks to ace DJ Theresa Faus for bringing this to our attention!
El Mundo, 7 January 1942: "The maestro Horacio Salgán, noted exponent of our popular song, brilliant pianist and inspired composer, will appear today at 21:30, playing the organ and directing his Conjunto Melódico, a new orchestra that draws together a number of selected players, with whom the new director will perform a major work for radio. Maestro Salgán will build, in this way, an extensive catalog of lovely and beautiful tunes."