The Genesis of the Tanda: A Radio-Centric View (Part 2)

Thursday 17 February 1944. Left-column text announces a broadcast the following day featuring the típicas of D'Agostino, D'Arienzo, De Angelis, Demare, Di Sarli, Emilio Orlando, Ciriaco Ortiz, Pugliese, Tanturi, and Troilo plus jazz by Oscar Alemán, Dajos Bela, The Hawaiian Serenaders, Barry Moral, Eduardo Muratore, and Osvaldo Norton.

During the month of February, 1944, Radio El Mundo offered several live broadcasts direct from the pistas of the great Carnaval dances. At least three of these programs were presented as a four-hour program with sixteen orchestras. In other words, sixteen sets lasting about fifteen minutes, each set featuring one orchestra alone. The programs were hosted by "animadores" who introduced the orchestras and described the most interesting aspects of the festivities for the radio audience. It wasn't the only format that LR1 employed during Carnaval, but it was definitely the most frequent one.

Saturday 19 February 1944. The four-hour broadcast featured Tanturi and jazz Novarro live from Club Huracán; Troilo, Demare, and jazz Norton from Racing Club; De Angelis, Ciriaco Ortiz, and jazz Muratore from Club Haynes; D'Agostino, Di Sarli, and jazz Barry Moral from Club Independiente; D'Arienzo from Boca Juniors; Pugliese from Círculo Almagro; and típica Emilio Orlando and jazz Oscar Alemán from Círculo General Urquiza.

Furthermore, these radio programs abandoned the equal, alternating, tango-jazz sequence that was typical of live performances at the time, offering instead ten orquestas típicas and six jazz, presumably in some sort of regular sequence, something like: J-TTJ-TTJ-TTJ-TTJ-TTJ. In other words, tango took precedence over jazz; jazz was relegated to a position of lesser importance, i.e., the "other" music heard between the tango sets.

Saturday 26 February 1944. Sixteen orchestras in four hours; ten típicas and six jazz. Típicas: D'Arienzo, Demare, Troilo, Tanturi, Ortiz, De Angelis, Di Sarli, D'Agostino, Pugliese, and Orlando.

These long, tango-heavy broadcasts, which lasted from 10 p.m. until 2 in the morning, must have made quite an impression on the tango fans of the time. They may also have set a precedent for the musicalizadores, those who spun the discs for the weekly bailes con grabaciones (BCG, dances with recordings) in the sports clubs of the barrios. For example, it is interesting to note that by the end of the year an ad for the very popular "Surcos del Disco" BCG at the Club Villa Sahores puckishly promised "18 Orchestras in 5 hours," a program even longer and more varied than these massive Carnaval shows—though the music would be on recording, not a live radio broadcast. (Another ad provides unequivocal evidence that the night's playlist consisted of 84 songs.) I believe that the "Surcos del Disco" audience would have understood this as a sort of "in" joke. Even so, implicit in the joke is the idea, or perhaps the direct assertion, that a BCG could be superior to a live performance and, of course, a lot less costly to attend.

Note: in the radio schedules, the ensembles of Dajos Bela and Osvaldo Novarro are identified as orquestas, not jazz, because they played a variety of dance music, including jazz.

Always remember, you are making history!