Monthly Archives: May 2013

My favorite tandas: D’Arienzo – ‘Amarras’

These tangos from D’Arienzo’s collaboration with Héctor Mauré are full of emotion, and mark an obvious contrast with his earlier period with Alberto Echagüe.

The endings of the great tango orchestras

When I started dancing and listening to tango music two years ago, I quickly discovered that one of the easiest ways to identify an orchestra was to pay attention to the final two chords of the song (the dominanc-tonic, characteristic “chan-chan” ending ). Each orchestra plays those chords in its own, distinctive way, so by learning how the chords sound like, one can infer the orchestra even of songs one is unfamiliar with.  The video below, which I created a while ago for my own amusement, provides a sample of the tango endings of 20 of the most popular tango orchestras.  I am now posting it here in case it is of interest to readers of this blog.

My favorite performances: La capilla blanca (Di Sarli)

My choice for this week is ‘La capilla blanca’ (Carlos Di Sarli with Alberto Podestá, 1944). I reviewed 36 performances.

My favorite: Michelle & Murat Erdemsel and Roxana Suárez & Sebastián Achával (ex aequo).

I also liked the performance by Natacha Lockwood & Claudio Coppola.

My favorite tandas: D’Agostino – ‘Adiós, arrabal’

A “gently melancholic” tanda about things past (“la milonga porteña, que nunca más volverá“).  I am not at all bothered by the fact that the first song was recorded more than a decade after the other three and does not feature Ángel Vargas–especially since ‘Café Domínguez’ is one of the most beautiful tangos of all time–, but purists might want to replace it with ‘Mi viejo barrio’ or ‘Quien tuviera dieciocho años’ (both from 1944 and sung by Vargas).

My favorite performances: La bruja (D’Arienzo)

My choice for this week is ‘La bruja’ (Juan D’Arienzo with Alberto Echagüe, 1938). I reviewed 55 performances.

My favorite: Stefania Colina & Juan Martín Carrara.

I also liked the performances by Mary Ann & Oscar Casas, Paulina Cazabon & Carlitos Espinoza and Noelia Hurtado & Carlitos Espinoza.

My favorite performances: Ella es así (Donato)

My choice for this week is ‘Ella es así’ (Edgardo Donato with Horacio Lagos, 1938). I reviewed 66 performances.

My favorite: María Antonieta Tuozzo & Ezequiel Herrera.

I also liked the performances by Ariadna Naveira & Fernando Sánchez and Daniela Pucci & Luis Bianchi.