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Miguel Caló: From Argentina To The World

This cd of Caló instrumentals is the standout disc in EMI's revamp of their From Argentina To The World catalogue. Caló is the doyen of good taste and the musicianship is always of a high standard. His version of La trampera is full of joy, whilst Charamusca has a drive we don't associate with Caló - the arrangement sounds more like Ricardo Pedavilla. Get one of these cds before it's deleted!

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Osvaldo Pugliese en el Colón

Al Colón! Al Colón!

This is the landmark concert Osvaldo Pugliese gave in the Teatro Colón on 26/12/1985, shortly after the maestro's 80th birthday and two years after the full of the military junta following the calamitous Falklands war. Originally issued on two lps, and first re-issued on two CDs, this is a wonderful cd.

The sound fanatic will find much of which to disapprove in these recordings. The cavernous space of the Colón does not make for the best presentation of the orchestra. Even worse, the cd appears to be an lp transfer, rather than being remastered from the original tape - there is a clear wobble on the opening note of A Evaristo Carriego, which would have been the first track on side two of the first lp.

All of this is, of course, just so much straw compared to the electric atmosphere of this historic night. That the maestro - frequently denied the opportunity to work by successive military regimes - was able to give this concert at all, at a time when tango had been out of the public ear for many decades, is news enough; that it should have taken place in the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires's hallowed opera house - perhaps the greatest in the southern hemisphere - is all the more remarkable. With characteristic humilty, Pugliese describes himself and his orchestra as just a screw in a machine that sometimes is useful, and other times isn't, whilst bringing the house down with every number. The sense of a city rediscovering itself is palpable.

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Carlos Di Sarli - Instrumental vol.2

This cd on Tango Argentino is volume 2 to a volume 1 which had rather patchy sound fidelity. Happily volume 2 is much much better, presenting mostly instrumentals from the 1940s which are hard to find elsewhere. This is not the Di Sarli of the late 1950s we know on RCA Victor 100 Años, but an earlier incarnation with a strong walking beat.

The first two tracks, El jagüel and Viviani are late 50s tracks that we'll already have so the cd begins properly with track 3. Now it becomes hard to review this material because all the tracks on this cd are strong. So I'll just pick out the greatest:

• La torcacita (the screw), whose sudden turns are clearly to be heard in the music;
• The incredible violins of Shusheta, where the violins began with a percussive theme, giving way to a normal melody before returning to play whilst the bandoneons take the melody all so briefly;
• The rumbling rhythm of El recodo (the train).
• the classic La racha from the old FM tango cd

This is music you can dance to all night. Find out why the milongueros love this music so much.

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Juan D'Arienzo - sus priméros éxitos vol.1

We've been recommending the Solo Tango cd of Juan D'Arienzo for such a long time now that most of our customers have missed out on this great cd, stuffed full of early instrumental hits. We're now recommending it to absolute beginners.

Amazingly, it's also still the only cd with the killer track Milonga, vieja milonga

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