This week's traditional tanda is medium tempo set by Ricardo Tanturi with Enrique Campos.
Tanturi's orchestra, while not standing out musically, can be described as mature, solid, with an understated elegance. The orchestra was more well known for its singers Alberto Castillo and Enrique Campos. Tanturi and Castillo recorded many songs of a fairly rhythmic nature.
After Alberto Castillo left the orchestra, in May of 1943, he was replaced with Enrique Campos. At this time, Orchestras that were moving to a more melodic sound, such as Caló with Beron and Di Sarli with Podesta, were doing very well. With Campos, Tanturi's music became more melodic, but without sacrificing the rhythm. Unlike Castillo, Campos was not a show-off and sang in a calm, simple voice and was at the service of the orchestra.
Many believe that while Castillo had a better voice, Campos is better for dancing. I am more 50/50 on this and very much enjoy dancing to both Tanturi-Castillo and Tanturi-Campos, although they are very different. Tanturi-Campos recorded 51 songs between 1943 and 1946.
This tanda features two of their most famous tangos, "Una Emoción" and "Oigo Tu Voz."
Great version of this tango by Osvaldo Pugliese with Roberto Chanel. The title is "The men are forming the circle (la ronda)." La ronda refers to the dance floor or line of dance.
The original title was "Muchachos se armó la milonga," which uses lunfardo (street slang of Buenos Aires), but the title was changed along with many other tangos in 1943, because of "le ley seca (the dry law)" a policy by the ruling military and the Catholic church to "purify" the language of Argentina. They also wanted to protect the youth from the corrupting influence of tango.
Other examples of famous tangos with name changes are:
Old Title
Revised Title
Muchachos se armó la milonga
Muchachos Comienza La Ronda
Shusheta
El Aristocrata
Chique
El Elegante
La Maleva
La Mala
Milonguero Viejo
Balarín Antiguo
Concha Sucia
Cara Sucia
La concha de la lora
La cara de la luna
El Once
A Divertirse
Raza Criolla
El Taita
Mí Pebeta
Mé Nena
Con Los Amigos
A Mí Madre
Rique
Olvídame
Rosa Morena
Abuelita Dominga
Marquita
Marcheta
Condena
S.O.S.
Metido
Enamorado
Comparsa Criolla*
Comme il faut
El Morocho y El Oriental**
Gardel-Razzano
* This tango was composed by Rafael Iriarte and Eduardo Arolas. They both registered the song separately under different names, Iriarte "Comparsa Criolla" and Arolas "Comme il Faut."
** It is hard to tell if "Gardel-Razzano" is a true second title or just a subtitle or there for clarification. Carlos Gardel’s nickname was “El Morocho del Albasto (The dark haired boy of the Albasto district)” and José Razzano’s nickname was “El Oriental (person from the Eastern bank of the Rio de la Plata or Uruguayan)” The nicknames could have been considered inapproriate slang and so the song could have been renamed in the 1940s.
"Shusheta" which was changed to "El Aristocrata" and "Chique" was changed to "El Elegante." The best translation that I found for chique is that in lunfardo it meant to be fake. Susheta was similar in that it meant to be a backstabber or someone who would rat you out. "La Maleva (The Bad Girl)", meant bad as in evil or criminal, but was simplified to "La Mala", which was just bad. "Milonguero Viejo" was changed to "Balarín Antiguo."
I think most went back to their original names after 1947 or 1948.
Words in the lyrics were also changed, "vieja" meant "old lady" but was often changed to madre or madrecita, which were less disrespectful. Pibeta became muchacha.
I have also read that there was some censorship and name changes after the coup of General Uriburu in 1930.
Some song titles and lyrics were changed because the originals were so vulgar. "Concha Sucia" was a traditional song believed to have been composed by 'El Negro' Casimiro Alcorta, a black violin player from the earliest days of tango. The title literally translates to "Dirty Shell," but concha (shell) was a common, obscene term for vagina. Canaro registered this tango, under his own name, and changed the song title to "Cara Sucia" in 1916. Canaro is believed to have done this with several of the old tangos. The name change was probably to conform to the changing audience of tango, which was including more women and the middle class.
"La cara de la luna" was originally "La concha de la lora." Lora was lunfardo for parrot, which meant a prostitute from Europe.
This week's traditional tanda is by Ricardo Malerba with Orlando Medina singing. This is the first tanda that I presenting that is not by one of the major orchestras. Malerba was a regular on the radio for over 20 years and was also popular with dancers for his rhythmic style.
This alternative tanda is really more of a modern tanda by Sexteto Milonguero.
The Sexteto Milonguero formed in 2006 with the simple desire to play the dance repertoire, usually heard in the milongas, including different styles of different bands, emphasizing the 40′s, and beyond the excellent versions heard for years, Sexteto Milonguero tries to give a personal sound to these great old songs.
The only intention? … follow the path of those great bands, and do not let the tango, withdraw from the neighborhood, the dancers, the popular, the milongas …"
This week's traditional tanda is a dramatic set by Osvaldo Pugliese. This set features Recuerdo, the first tango Pugliese composed, in 1924, when he was only 19 years old. The title was originally "Recuerdo para mis amigos" (Memory for my friends) and was an homage to his friends that he used to hang out with in the cafe. This song is often described as a milestone of tango composition for its melodic structure and its complex density. "Recuerdo" shows Pugliese's knowledge of European classical music and his commitment to the streets of Buenos Aires.
"One could speak, with total justice, of compositions before and after Pugliese's 'Recuerdo' and the instrumentalists before and after 'Recuerdo'." - Horacio Ferrer.
This week's traditional tanda is a popular set by Francisco Canaro with Roberto Maida singing. This tanda features the super popular song Poema. These songs fall at the end of the Guardia Nueva Period (1925 to 1935), when tango was transitioning from the sound of the Guardia Vieja sound to the more modern sound of the Golden Age. These songs still have that old sound, with some touches of the new. Poema has the beat or rhythm of the guardia vieja period which has sort of a dropping feeling (at least to me), but then it also has the elegant strings and smooth singing. Also, notice the strings in the first part and then how the singer almost imitates the strings in the second part.
This week's traditional tanda is a super fun set of tangos by Edgardo Donato with Horacio Lagos singing. This is one of my favorite tandas to dance to and it is perfect for canyengue.
