Monthly Archives: July 2013

My favorite tandas: Laurenz – ‘Abandono’

A tanda featuring four tangos with brilliant bandoneón variaciones by Pedro Laurenz, culminating with “Amurado”, the all-time classic by Laurenz and Pedro Maffia.

My favorite performances: Dichas que viví (Biagi)

My choice for this week is ‘Dichas que viví’ (Rodolfo Biagi with Andrés Falgás, 1939). I reviewed 68 performances.

My favorite: Luiza Pasierowska & Osky Casas.

I also liked the performance by Barbara Carpino & Claudio Forte.

My favorite tandas: mixed tanda – ‘Pequeña’

This is a mixed vals tanda built around Osmar Maderna’s exquisite “Pequeña”. I picked Calo’s version of “Jugando, jugando” because it features Maderna as pianist and the sound of the orchestra is similar to Maderna’s. However, as DJ Mary Wu pointed out to me, Lomuto’s version of that tango (with Carlos Galarce, 1944) has a kind of bittersweet quality that is present in “Pequeña”, but absent in Calo’s version. So I suggest experimenting with both versions, as I have myself done over the past few weeks at various milongas. You may also want to try substituting ‘Una vez en la vida’ (Osvaldo Fresedo with Ricardo Ruiz, 1941) for ‘Motivo de vals’ if you find the tempo of the latter unacceptably slow (personally I find that it works at some milongas but not others, depending on the energy levels).

My favorite performances: Los despojos (Caló)

My choice for this week is ‘Los despojos’ (Miguel Caló with Raúl Iriarte, 1947). I reviewed 14 performances.

My favorite: Roxana Suárez & Sebastián Achával.

I also liked the performances by Noelia Hurtado & Carlitos Espinoza and Ariadna Naveira & Fernando Sánchez.

What DJs play: part 2

This milonga was held in the UK during the month of July. I arrived 15 minutes after the start stayed until the end. What follows is my best attempt to identify the music that was played while I was present.

Update: after this post was published, the DJ kindly shared the entire playlist with me, which I have used to fill in the remaining missing information. Starred tandas (*) were missing in the original post because I had either not arrived at the milonga or was away for a break. Double starred tracks (**) were missing because I was unable to recognize the song. Continue reading

My favorite tandas: Fresedo – ‘Niebla del Riachuelo’

I still remember the first time I heard a Fresedo/Ray tanda: I had never encountered tangos of such exquisite beauty. This set includes two songs composed by Fresedo himself, one by Enrique Delfino, and one by Juan Carlos Cobián (whom Fresedo greatly admired). I like to play this tanda either early in the evening, or after the milonga has reached its climax and the night is about to come to an end.

My favorite performances: Trago amargo (D’Arienzo)

My choice for this week is ‘Trago amargo’ (Juan D’Arienzo with Alberto Echagüe, 1939). I reviewed 21 performances.

My favorite: Inés Muzzopappa & Federico Naveira.

I also liked the performance by Fatima Vitale & Maximiliano Cristiani.