Cuesta Arriba
Tango Club
Cuesta Abajo, Cuesta Arriba
One of the themes of tango lyrics has been the idea of being dragged downwards by life:
cuesta abajo
(downwards) in Gardel's famous song,
or more forcefully, bajofondo
: down to the bottom,
a word instantly identified firstly with the famous lyric of Catulo Castillo, La última curda
(the final binge),
and now with the Bajofondo Tango Club
Now it's true that there's good stuff buried down in the mud, but this isn't an aspect brought out by tango lyrics!
So instead we've decided to call our club cuesta arriba
- upwards.
And there's a tango lyric with this title as well.
skip to this month's selections
Welcome to our Tango Music Club!
Nothing improves your dancing so much as a good feeling for the special qualities of tango music. The idea of the club is to help you build a library of good tango music, tailored to your own tastes. For a fixed monthly subscription, the price of one of our cheaper tango CDs, you get:
- a tango cd every month delivered to your door - take our recommendation, or choose one of the alternatives
- Free postage on your club order
- Free postage on any other CDs you buy from us (within the UK)
- preference for low stock or deleted items
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This month's cds (December 2009):
Just three CDs but we think you'll be pleased
Enrique Rodriguez - Tangos con Armando Moreno Vol.2
Reliquias 541707
More dancing hits from Enrique Rodríguez with his most popular singer, Armando Moreno. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but Marinero and Iré are very often on my playlist when I'm DJ-ing. Aquel silbido is pretty good too, whilst the optimistic Que lo sepa el mundo entero elevates Rodríguez above the level of popular music - I can't believe that no other orchestra recorded this. Essential for dancers everywhere.
Track list
- Como se pianta la vida
- No te quiero más
- Al mal tiempo buena cara
- Contigo pan y cebolla
- El huérfano
- Sólo tú
- Yo no sé por qué razón
- Iré
- Marinero
- Aquel silbido
- Que lento corre el tren
- Que lo sepa el mundo entero
- Por eso canto yo
- Ya no cantás chingolo
- Los muñequitos
- Motivo sentimental
- Traje de novia
- Soledad la de Barracas
- Giuseppe el zapatero
- Este es tu tango
Ariel Ramírez - Recordando Valses
Polygram 5332532
Pianist Ariel Ramírez is a folklore musician, so this CD of tango valses, performed in a light jazz style that's perfect for dancing, comes as a real surprise. Ramírez plays with the accompaniment of a jazz drummer. The whole thing is delightful.
This CD was first printed back in 1996 and if I know anything about this label, the last and final printing was some years ago. Once stocks run out, it won't be reprinted.
Track list
- Desde el alma
- Amor y celo
- Ilusión de mi vida
- Lagrimas y sonrisas
- Pulpera de Santa Lucia
- Noche de verano
- Palomita blanca
- Francia
- Santiago del Estero
- Olga
- Aeroplano
- Nelly
- Uruguaya
- A su memoria
Juan D'Arienzo - Sus priméros éxitos vol.2
BMG 63342
This is not a bad D'Arienzo CD but it's hard to recommend. On the one hand, D'Arienzo didn;t put a foot wrong in the 1930s. Everything he recorded was wonderful. On the other hand, the public played those records a lot and it's sometimes been hard to find good quality masters. This cd suffers a little from the fidelity of the 78 rpm discs used for the transfers. La mariposa is particularly badly affected, which is a pity: it's a great arrangement! In addition - unusually for this label - no filtering has been applied at all, and so there's a fair bit of surface noise. This is sometimes intrusive, for instance on Desde el alma - I believe the only place you can hear D'Arienzo's great arrangement of this famous vals.
However once (if) you get over these disappointments are some fantastic tracks here that I listen to and use a lot: The killer vals Mentias, and the tangos Charamusca and Lelia stand out. A number of other good tracks are now available in better fidelity in the series Homenage en Sony BMG. Others are not, and both collectors and D'Arienzo fans will definitely have this CD in their library depite its shortcomings.
Track list
- El choclo
- La payanca
- La catrera
- El porteñito
- Desde el alma vals
- De pura cepa milonga
- Comme il faut
- Maipo
- Ataniche
- El esquinazo milonga
- El apronte
- La mariposa
- Charamusca
- Lelia
- Valsecito criollo vals
- El triunfo
- Yunta brava
- Pico blanco
- El cencerro
- Mentias vals
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