"...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.
Very nice details - thanks! Must stop and make a bow at Corrientes 1124, next time in Buenos Aires...
Posted by: Chris | 09/19/2015 at 12:10 AM