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Miguel Caló - Sus éxitos con Podestá, Ortíz y Berón

Reliquias 499969

Despite it's inelegant title, this is a wonderful CD of the totally elegant Miguel Caló in his best period - the early 1940s, before the breakup of his dazzling Orchestra of the Stars. The quality is very high throughout, and all perfect for dancing.

The tracks are very obligingly collected together by singer (so not in strict chronoligical order) so that you can appreciate their qualities. Jorge Ortíz in particular is a revelation - I think he is much better with Caló than with Rodolfo Biagi. I only wish they had recorded more together: this cd presents all but one of their 7 recordings (the one missing is the tango De barro

You even get three valses (including the hard-to-find Jugando... jugando...) and two milongas. Like El Bandoneón's Yo soy el tango, which it makes redundant, only better.

Track list

1. Yo soy el tango
2. Bajo un cielo de estrellas vals
3. Percal
4. Si tu quisieras
5. Pedacito de cielo vals
6. Dos fracasos
7. Saludos
8. Barrio de tango
9. A las 7 en el café
10. Pa' que seguir
11. Pobre negra milonga
12. Mi cantar
13. Ya sale el tren
14. Sans souci
15. La abandoné y no sabía
16. Jugando... jugando... vals
17. Tu
18. Milonga que peina canas milonga
19. Entre sueños
20. El divorcio

Cantan:

• Alberto Podestá (1-6)
• Jorge Ortíz (8-13)
• Raúl Berón (15-20)

Ricardo Malerba / José García - Grabaciones Olvidades

Reliquias 541701

The infamous lime-green and yellow covers don't get any uglier than this one, a visual impression that stays with you even once you know that the dreary scene depicted is the waterfront in the legendary barrio of La Boca. Maybe it's a plot to stop you buying this cd.

Presented here are two orchestras that are less well known, for reasons of history rather than quality. Perhaps you have heard of José García y sos zorros grises (José García and his grey foxes), who takes the second half of this CD, as there was a commercial release of him from El Bandoneón in 2000. Prior to this, there were 2 cds on private Japanese labels.

José García's orchestra didn't play much outside it's own barrio, and that's why he's not much known today. Something like a cross between Tanturi and Di Sarli, the playing and arrangements are just first class. You may have heard him at some milongas, as he's on the playlist of many of the better DJs, especially in the afternoons.

However of the two orchestras, the one you should be most excited about is the first one, that of Ricardo Malerba. This is an orchestra that has people leaping from their seats in the milongas of Buenos Aires. With his singer Orlando Medina, he develops a sensitivity somewhat akin to D'Agostino/Vargas, which is odd because they sound nothing like each other: Malerba is more like, say, Miguel Caló. What he has in common with D'Agostino is subtlety. It's good to listen to, but fantastic to dance to, and very little played outside Bs.As.

This cd was previously offered in the club way back in December 2008. Long-standing members may already have it.

Track list

Ricardo Malerba (canta: Orlando Medina)

1. Embrujamiento
2. Remembranza
3. Gitana rusa
4. Ninguna
5. Ropa blanca
6. Mi taza de café
7. Pasado florido
8. Tres amigos
9. La piba de los jazmines
10. Sollozos

José García (canta:Alfredo Rojas)

11. Esta noche de luna
12. Tristeza marina
13. Préstame tu pañuelo vals
14. Felicita
15. El once
16. Fea
17. A lo mejor quién te dice
18. Junto a tu corazón
19. Farolito de papel
20. Hula la misteriosa milonga candombe

Enrique Rodríguez - Bailando todos los ritmos

Reliquias 837408

The orchestra of Enrique Rodríguez - an orchestra characteristica rather than an orchestra típica - was nicknamed La orquesta de todo los ritmos - the orchestra of all the rhythms - and in this cd you can hear why. In fact, this cd of foxtrots, pasodobles and corridos - with the odd tango and vals thrown in - was the first Rodríguez cd released on Reliquias, years before his tangos became more widely available.

In fact, this is a fantastic cd which it would be all too easy to overlook. Rodriguez's vals Tengo mil novias is one of the best valses in the entire tango canon, and this is the best place to hear it. The foxtrots, meanwhile, are jewels: Amor en Budapest Noches de hungaria the whistful Se va el tren are regularly played at milongas all over continental Europe. A must.

Track list

1. Amor en Budapest fox trot
2. El niño de las monjas pasodoble
3. Tengo mil novias vals
4. La cumparsita
5. Japonesita fox trot
6. Sangre ecuatoriana pasodoble
7. Que puntada corrido
8. Son cosas del bandoneón
9. Se va el tren fox trot
10. Te lo juro yo pasodoble
11. Noches de hungaria fox trot
12. Adelita corrido
13. Bailando el fox-trot fox trot
14. El encopao
15. Suavemente fox trot
16. Pinocho pasodoble

Cantan:

• Armando Moreno (1,2,7,9-11,14-16)
• Roberto Flores (4)
• Roberto Videla (5)
• Omar Quiroz (13)
• dúo Moreno - Quiroz (12)

Lucky dip?!

We have one copy left of each of the following cds, which we formerly stocked (NB - most of these are not really for dancing, although I did dance quite successfully through much of La Chicana's concert)

• Los Mareados (2004) - London's own, very danceable tango band
• Astor Piazzolla - La resurrección del angel (40 obras instrumentales) - 40 tracks, double album, recordings made on Philips/Polygram/Polygram in the 1960s and 1970s. A bargain for Piazzolla fans!
• Aníbal Troilo - BMT-608 - double album of Troilo from Blue Moon
• Piazzolla-Agri - CD reprint of an album Piazzolla made with his violinist Antonio Agri
• La Chicana - Tango agazapado. The first cd of Argentine songstress La Chicana, who toured the UK only last year
• La Chicana - canción llorada. The most recent cd from La Chicana
• Salgán - De Lio: en vivo en el club del vino. A live recording from 2000 of the popular dúo of Horacio Salgán (piano) and Ubaldo De Lío (guitar)
• Nuevo Quinteto Real - Tangos. The successor to the Quinteto Real is led by Néstor Marconi
• Juanjo Domínguez - Interpreta a Carlos Gardel. Juanjo Domínguez with his guitar quartet performing Gardel's hits
• Juanjo Domínguez - Te venimos a cantar (Los 70 de Gardel vol.2). Juanjo Domínguez accompanies 19 different women singers, each of whom sings a Gardel number. Intriguing