milonga.co.uk

Los grandes orquestas del tango on Blue Moon's tango label Maestros del Tango Argentino is a series of a twelve beautifully presented double CDs, each dedicated to one of the great orchestras of the golden age.

Blue Moon have really paid attention to the design of these albums. As you can see from the clickable map below they have come up with a clean and elegant design which is maintained across the whole series, varying the spot colour from album to album. Inside the case the discs flip up to reveal a photograph of the orchestra which is also overprinted onto the discs themselves.

The sleeve notes themselves are very limited, confining themselves to brief biographical details followed by an extensive listing of musicians and singers who have played or performed with the orchestra. The sleeve notes also contain the photograph of the bandleader used on the cover.

We sell these CDs at £27 + p&p.

Please note: the two most popular ablbums, the Canaro and the De Caro, have gone out-of-print. Blue Moon appear not to be reprinting any CDs from any of their series when stocks are exhausted

Tracklists

Click on the word "tracklist" under each CD to make the tracklist appear and disappear, or use these buttons to show or hide all the tracklists.

show all | hide all

Catalogue - map version

Francisco Canaro

BMT 601

out-of-print

A superb album of Canaro's early works. Canaro's late '20s output (previously only available on the French EPM label) has enormous charm and delicacy which in the 1930s became alloyed with an energy that makes this delightful dance material. This is most especially true in the milongas and they are all here; as far as I know this is the only place you can currently obtain his recording of Milonga Brava

But don't let me finish without telling you more about the '20s material. Canaro's interpretation of Don Juan is one of the best ever put on wax, and Ada Falcón's rendition of La Morocha a true classic

Finally, those aren't misprints on the track list - Pajaro Azul and Halcon Negro really are five minutes long. Each was recorded on a single side of a 78 which just goes to show what could be accomplished using microgrooves. Pieces like this give us an idea of the kind of thing that Canaro and Pelay would have been using in their stage shows.

The sound quality throughout is impeccable: warmly recommended.

Track list

Alfredo De Angelis

BMT 602

El Bandoneón gave us the cream of De Angelis's 1940s output, the duos of Danté and Martel, in its 1995 release. This album omits most of those duos and thus ends up feeling very much like a companion volume. That aside, this is an outstanding release: we get some of the tracks De Angelis recorded very early on in his career (1943) with Floreal Ruíz (although not Dejame Así), Julio Martel's Rosicler and Jiron Porteño, Carlos Danté's La Brisa and Oscar Larroca's Prohibido. A very strong contender for your second De Angelis disc (check out also the From Argentina to the World disc if you want Pavadita), but get the El Bandoneón release first.

Track list

Osvaldo Pugliese

BMT 603

Pugliese's '40s output has sometimes been overlooked in favour of his more dramatic '50s interpretations. On this album Blue Moon confine themselves to that wonderful period. Everything Pugliese recorded in the 1940s was of the very highest quality; instrumental and vocal numbers alike have a youthfulness and delicacy. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the transfers on this album. Many of the 78's are worn, sometimes - particularly in the case of the vocal numbers with Roberto Chanel - distressingly so.

Blue Moon also suffer from their old problem of sometimes transferring at too high a pitch. Yo Te Bendigo is here a semitone too high.

If possible I would advise you to get Pugliese's 1940s instrumentals on El Bandoneón (EBCD 71) and pick up the vocal numbers with Chanel and Morán on Reliquias, or else get the Harlequin disc. Those on a budget will be tempted by this album which has all the material on the El Bandoneón disc and much besides that is worthwhile.

Track list

Julio De Caro

BMT 604

out-of-print

This album of Julio De Caro's early works is the other true pearl of the catalogue. Blue Moon have gathered the best material from their El Bandoneón releases together with some previously unreleased tracks.

De Caro was constantly innovative in his early recordings, housing the rhythmic playfulness of the guardia vieja within a rich musical structure. These recordings prefigure the work of his disciple Osvaldo Pugliese by some twenty years - if you haven't heard De Caro before you will be astonished by the similarity of the arrangements.

I just can't get enough of this. Two CDs of Julio De Caro is not too much - this is the best album of his work available. Exquisite.

Track list

Miguel Caló

BMT 605

With a lot of good Caló material already available this disc has a tough act to follow. Blue Moon don't shy away from the good material already covered on their El Bandoneón releases and this is really an excellent disc that it's hard not to recommend. However Blue Moon are just a little too even handed for their own good on this release, presenting material from the whole decade of the 1940s. Caló's famous Orquesta de las Estrellas broke up in 1945 and although the new band he assembled was very strong it could not quite match the quality of its forebearer. By showing us both periods this album places itself at a slight disadvantage.

If you prefer to confine yourself to his best period there is a better, although more expensive solution: the El Bandoneón disc EBCD 34 and the Reliquias Caló/Berón release. On the other hand if you want a comprehensive Caló album, or want only a single Caló album in your collection, this is definitely the right choice.

Track list

Carlos Di Sarli

BMT 606

Blue Moon have released very little Di Sarli - just one mediocre release on El Bandoneón. This album is very good indeed: we get plenty of tracks from Di Sarli's two early singers, Roberto Rufino and Alberto Podestá, as well as three each from Jorge Durán and Mario Pomar thrown in for good measure. If you want a single, representative Di Sarli album, this is it. On the other hand: most of the late instrumentals are missing - you'll still have to buy the RCA Victor 100 Años disc for that. And the transfers here are not as good as those on the six disc EMI Tango Argentino series. Why not buy, say, the Rufino disc of that set as well? In summary: the disc of choice for the budget buyer, but those with fatter wallets have better options.

Track list

Osvaldo Fresedo

BMT 607

Blue Moon enter a sparsely populated field with this Fresedo release. Now here is the real surprise: they have partially at least eschewed the dreadful 1950s period covered on the El Bandoneon Fresedo release and given us the cream of the 1930s crop. The album is stuffed to the gunnels with Fresedo's classic hits with Roberto Ray such as Niebla de Riachuelo, Vida Mia, Siempre es Carnaval, Isla de Capri and No Quiero Verte Llorar. Even more welcome is the superb instrumental Tigre Viejo which has been unavailable since all the Disco Latina albums were deleted. This album really contends with the excellent EMI/Tango Argentino Fresedo/Ray release.

What's more we also get some great 1920s tracks such as El Enterriano and La Cachila. However as we get into disc 2 the density of the 1950s material picks up and, whilst the milongas are great I find myself repelled by the tangos which are just too sweet.

Despite these misgivings, though, this is another excellent album. Those who love the 1950s material will have no doubts. For those who don't, your alternative is a Fresedo/Ray album (Reliquias or Bandoneón) and the wonderful new album of late 1920s Fresedo on Blue Moon's main tango label Maestros del Tango Argentino. This album is still very tempting.

Track list

Aníbal Troilo

BMT 608

This is a very different album to any Troilo album that we have seen previously, for it attempts to cover all of Troilo's 1940s output on a single disc - we get tracks with Fioretino, Marino, Floreal Ruíz and Edmundo Rivero, as well as instrumental numbers.

This instantly makes this the most ambitious disc of the set and I should tell you it's a project that the Argentines have never attempted - they tend to categorise Troilo into instrumental and vocal numbers, with the latter issued on discs devoted to individual singers, a trend that El Bandoneón have followed in their releases. This means that the only way you would otherwise cover such a broad period would be to buy more discs - somewhere between five and eight discs, in fact, instead of this two disc set.

Troilo was famous for the way in which he allowed his vocalists to flourish and therefore we must pay very close attention indeed to the sound fidelity because this is what will allow the emotion of the singers to be transmitted to the listener. Comparing this album to the superb BMG releases I have to tell you that, aside from the 1941 sides with Fiorentino (which are available on ebcd01), the BMG transfers are noticeably better.

I am not telling you there is a simple alternative to this set for those wanting to extend their Troilo collection. (There are alternatives, but they are expensive). What I am saying is that this is a unique compilation but there are better transfers available elsewhere. A qualified recommendation, then.

Track list

Roberto Firpo

BMT 609

The idiosyncratic Roberto Firpo merits his place in this series for the uniqueness of his sound and his pivotal role (along with Canaro) in defining the line-up of the Orquesta Típica.

The album includes the classic El Amanecer amongst a dozen of his own compositions and other favourites such as El Aeroplano. Only Ataniche is missing from this comprehensive set.

If you are really a dedicated collector, then there are now three volumes of Firpo's guardia vieja material on Reliquias. If not - get this album. It's great.

Track list

Juan D'Arienzo

BMT 610

This D'Arienzo release, frankly, is pretty good. It covers all the familiar late 30s material they've omitted on previous discs - Gallo Ciego, Jueves, La Morocha, Rodriguez Peña, El Caburé (it's a long list isn't it) as well as some unfamiliar late 30s material such as D'Arienzo's recording of the Canaro classic Silueta Porteña. On top of that there are some early 1950s tracks thrown in for good measure. The two CDs run in chronological order. CD1 runs from 1935-1937, and CD2 is really in two halves - the first from 1937-1939, and the second from 1949-1955, omitting the 1940s. Occasionally the wrong date is given on the back.

Looking at the 1950s material I almost fell of my chair to see Canaro En Paris, Independencia and El Internado included here. Are Blue Moon trying to steal the crown that FM Tango won all those years ago for their classic Todo D'Arienzo Vol. 1? Maybe, but I most confess to a perverse thrill of pleasure in telling you that they have not succeeded for these transfers, although fine, do not sparkle the way FM Tango's do. And where is Paciencia, where is El Flete, why have they chosen the 1950s recording of Felicia and not the 1930s one?

D'Arienzo, like Pugliese, is an artist who deserves more than one disc in your collection (if you can afford it). This is not a bad album: it's a very good album. Those wanting only value for money can buy it with a clean conscience but there are even better albums available. I would buy Solo Tango (FM Tango) Instrumental vol. 1 and Tango Argentino sus priméros éxitos vol.1 in preference to this album.

Track list

Astor Piazzolla

BMT 611

A real surprise, and an intelligent choice, is this double album of early Piazzolla. There's nothing new on this - we've heard it before on El Bandoneón and Reliquias. If you've not heard this music, and frankly it's unlikely that you have because it's little played in the milongas, then I recommend that you do so. It sounds much more like "normal" dance music but even in his first orchestra Piazzola is pressing hard up against the boundaries of tango convention. He crams in so many musical ideas that this music become very difficult for the improvising dancer. Piazzolla's arrangement of El Recodo stands out as a masterpiece of creative invention.

This is an excellent album, but do you really want 2 CDs of this material? If you'll be content with a single album with the best tracks, the first El Bandoneón release (EBCD 2) instead.

Track list

Francini - Pontier

BMT 612

A comprehensive survey of this famous orchestra. Not one of my top twelve - I can't escape the feeling that Francini-Pontier are only included here because Blue Moon didn't have enough good transfers of Pedro Láurenz or Ricardo Tanturi. First rate transfers.

Track list