Tanda of the Week with Pugliese-Vidal. Lyrics translated and historical pictures.
++Timestamps++
Start 00:00
Tutorial 00:22
Por qué canto el tango 04:54
Ventanita de Arrabal 07:34
La cieguita 10:37
Testamento de Arrabal 13:24
Osvaldo Pugliese was born in Villa Crespo, Buenos Aires in 1905. He was a pianist, composer and orchestra leader in the so-called ‘evolutionary school’ of tango. Pugliese wrote his first tango ‘Recuerdo’ in 1924. And Julio de Caro was the first to record it, in 1926. By that time Pugliese played the piano in the sexteto of Pedro Maffia.
In the early 1930s, Pugliese played together with Elvino Vardaro, Alfredo Gobbi, Aníbal Troilo and Ciriaco Ortiz, and he started his own orchestra in 1939. Most members of this orchestra would stay with him for many years, some even decades.
He made his first record on the Odeon label in 1943, and in spite of being censored, banned from the radio, and imprisoned by various regimes during his career, he kept recording and performing till the 1990s. In the 1940s, Pugliese had various singers – the best known are Roberto Chanel and Alberto Morán. But this time we have a tanda with a singer you don’t get to hear so much at the milonga: Jorge Vidal.
Jorge Vidal was born in the barrio of Caballito, Buenos Aires in 1924. He was discovered by Pugliese while singing in the café Argentino on Corrientes, early 1949. Pugliese and Vidal recorded 8 tracks together, 7 tangos and a milonga. Now the recordings with Vidal are somewhat different from those with Chanel and Morán for instance. Although Pugliese was dedicated to tango for dancing (not saying it’s always easy to dance to) the tangos with Vidal are more like tango canción. Vidal sings the complete lyrics, and there are even parts of parlando.
So Pugliese lets Vidal shine as a cantor de orquesta in their recordings.Still, after 2 years Vidal quit with Pugliese to persue his solo career, because in his own words he “didn’t want to be like an instrument in the orchestra, like Chanel and Morán had been”.
So this tanda of the week is more like a tanda for listening than for dancing. And the first track is ‘Por qué canto el tango’ from 1950. Music written by Oscar Castagniaro, who was one of the bandoneon players in Pugliese’s orchestra at that time. And lyrics by Antonio Cantó. Memories and melancholy – there’s a reason to sing tango.
The second tango is a classic, written in the 1920s by Antonio Scatasso, with lyrics by Pascual Contursi: ‘Ventanita de Arrabal’. Carlos Gardel sang it in 1927 and so did Ignacio Corsini, and it was also recorded by Canaro, Lomuto and Maglio that same year. Vidal and Pugliese revived this tango in 1950, and it’s quite interesting to compare it with one of the earlier versions and hear how much tango had evolved.
Third is ‘La cieguita’, another tango dating back to the 1920s. Music written by Keppler Lais and lyrics by Ramuncho, both from Spain. This tango, about a little blind girl who has no one to play with, and then on top of it all is about to die as well, is a proper tearjerker. But nevertheless, Vidal’s interpretation, together with Pugliese’s majestic orchestration is quite convincing.
The final track of the tanda is ‘Testamento de Arrabal’ from 1949. Music again by Oscar Castagniaro, and lyrics by Raúl Hormaza. This tango is very much a final goodbye: “I will leave you forever, mi querido Buenos Aires” sings Vidal. And 4 bandoneons will be the guard of honour.
So that’s the tanda of the week by Osvaldo Pugliese & Jorge Vidal:
1. Por qué canto el tango 1950
2. Ventanita de Arrabal 1950
3. La cieguita 1949
4. Testamento de Arrabal 1949
Enjoy!
Thanks:
www.tangoarchive.com
www.todotango.com
www.tangosalbardo.blogspot.com
FB Tango Time Machine: [ Ссылка ]
#tangomusictutorials #tandaoftheweek #losamigostango
Please note: We do not own the music in this video. Songs are included for educational purposes only. All songs have been edited/cut to prevent downloading of the complete songs. You can buy them from various providers (like TangoTunes, or TangoTimeTravel) or stream them on Spotify.
