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Tanturi / Castillo: Tangos de mi ciudad

TARG 63357

The golden decade of the 1940s is decorated by the great binomials - the two name combinations of singer and orchestra that went together so well that one speaks of them in the same breath: Troilo / Fiorentino, D'Agostino / Vargas, Di Sarli / Rufino. Tanturi / Castillo is another such combination.

This isn't simply a question of combining good orchestras with good singers. Like any good marriage, something alchemical is at work, in which the two partners transform one another. However these were not equal marriages: most of the orchestras managed to work well with more than one singer, but for the singers finding the right orchestra was even more critical and there is not a single case of a singer achieving true greatness with more than one orchestra

The dissolving of these unions was generally brought about either by money or boredom. As the singers achieved fame with their chosen orchestra, they realised that they could make more money working for themselves, and so they left their employers, taking their song-book with them. Hire a musician to conduct your own orchestra, get an arranger to copy the style of your old arrangements - easy! Economically this was fine, but time has shown that musically the singers and orchestras needed one another equally. There isn't a single orchestra singer who achieved the same level of greatness as a solo artist as they did melded into the tango orchestra.

The one who came closest was the Alberto Castillo. Whilst still a medical student he joined Ricardo Tanturi's orchestra, Los Indios (named after Tanturi's favourite polo team). Tanturi's orchestra emphasised rhythm but still respected the melody, which makes them one of the finest orchestras for dancing.

For a while Castillo managed to combine both professions, but specialising in gynaecology brought its problems as his practice was flooded by a queue of women keen to be examined by the famous young singer. By this time the die was cast, and so he relinquished his medical practice in order to sing full-time.

Castillo's voice was not refined like the voices of Fiorentino or Berón, but belonged to the street: nasal and canyengue in the local argot. As instrumental in his fame though was his flambouyant personality which made him a great performer and a natural actor. The tango which he made his own was "Así se baile el tango" (This is how you dance the tango) whose opening lines say:

What do those stuck-up greased up dandies know about tango?
What do they know about the beat?

When he sang this it was clear that he meant it - Castillo would mime punching out the well-dressed city clickers in the audience whom he felt were all looks and no substance. Naturally it was a sensation!

There are two discs of Tanturi's work with Castillo on Tango Argentino. It's a close call, but we recommend the second one because of its great variety. There are some outstanding milongas here such as Mozo guapo and Mi morocha - just listen to Tanturi's sensational piano playing. Then there are five fine valses and some of the fast tangos from his first years with Tanturi such as Pocas palabras, La vida es corta and the one instrumental Comparsa Criolla - a barely disguised rhythmic rearrangement of Comme Il Faut. How they got away with that we'll never know.

Track list

1. Barajando recuerdos
2. Decile que vuelva
3. Mi romace vals
4. Así es la milonga milonga
5. No mientas
6. Noches del Colón
7. Ese sos vos
8. Con los amigos vals
9. Mi morocha milonga
10. Me llaman el zorro
11. Comparsa criolla
12. La serenata (mi amor) vals
13. Mozo guapo milonga
14. La vida es corta
15. El moro
16. Un crimén
17. Marisabel vals
18. Tango
19. Recuerdo vals

Edmundo Rivero: Lunfa Reo

As their vocal faculties deteriorate, most singers get worse with age, but some get better. Not because there are exceptions to this rule - there aren't - but because the experience and wisdom they are able to bring to their performances outweighs the physical factors.

Edmundo Rivero is a case in point. He began life accompanying himself on guitar before joining the orchestras first of Salgán and later of Troilo as one of the first bass voices to be accepted in tango. After leaving Troilo he performed with a mix of guitar and frankly indifferent orchestral backing.

This is Rivero's final album, published posthumously on lp in 1990 and then printed on cd in 1994. Rivero performs here just with guitars, either a group or sometime a solo guitar. This is the culmination of a lifetime's work. The repertoire is carefully chosen and exhibits his love of lunfardo (the slang of Buenos Aires). These songs are not really for dancing but rather tell stories in a way in which, of the current generation, only Daniel Melingo has been able to continue. (Melingo's tango Leonel "El Feo" is a tribute to him). The many milongas are really tango-milongas in the old style. Rivero brings a lifetime's experience to these tracks which although sometimes joyful are more often stripped back, occasionally bare, and visit dark places as well as light ones. Even if you don't speak Spanish, this is unique and deeply moving music which gets right to the heart of life. One of his obituraries took for its headline the title of this famous tango: Cuando llora la milonga (when the milonga weeps). There couldn't be a more fitting title.

Track list

1. Batiendo el justo charla
2. Milonga del consorcio milonga
3. El piro canción
4. Tardecitas estuleras milonga
5. Tres puntos canción
6. En una feca milonga
7. Cuando llora la milonga tango
8. Garufa tango
9. Silbando tango
10. Lechuza tango
11. Ladrillo tango
12. Por cupla del escolazo milonga

Osvaldo Pugliese - Nostalgico

When Polygram reprint just one cd from a formerly deleted series, that's a clue that something significant is going on.

For the bulk of his recording career, Pugliese recorded with EMI but in 1960s he was signed to Polygram. This means that Pugliese's 1960s sides aren't included on any of EMI's compilations of his work.

The 1960s were a low decade for tango. Pugliese was one of the very few bandleaders who managed to maintain an orchestra, which was an expensive operation to run. Six of his musicians founded a sextet and it must have been a terrible blow when in 1968 they left his orchestra to devote themselves full-time to the Sexteto Tango, breaking a line-up which had essentially remained unchanged since the orchestra's inception in 1939 - an astonishing achievement.

Pugliese, indomitable as ever, reformed his orchestra and the following year recorded one of his greatest instrumentals, A Evaristo Carriego.

This is the only cd presenting the studio recording of that work. The other 19 tracks represent the cream of his 1960s output. Essential.

Track list

1. El entrerriano
2. El amanecer
3. El Marne
4. Taconeando
5. El pensamiento
6. La payanca
7. Lorenzo
8. Inspiración
9. Que Noche
10. Marejada
11. Cabrera
12. Lágrimas
13. Canaro En París
14. Charamusca
15. Didi
16. Orlando Goñi
17. Don Agustín Bardi
18. Nostálgico
19. A Evaristo Carriego
20. Adiós Nonino

Nuevo Quinteto Real

Not the original Quinteto Real - not all its members were still alive when these recordings were made - but its descendent, still directed by the ever youthful Horacio Salgán. Like its illustrious forebear, the quintet showcases the possibilities of instrumental tango within what we would today call traditional tango. The playing is of the very highest quality, although designed for listening rather than dancing. The performances are sparkling, with El amanecer a real highlight

Track list

1. Mal de amores
2. Ensueños
3. Shusheta
4. Ya no cantas chingolo
5. El amanecer
6. Caminto
7. Julian
8. Organito de la tarde
9. Hotel Victoria
10. Don Agustín Bardi