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Tango Club
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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 was to help you build a library of good tango music, tailored to your own tastes.
The club ran for 8 years, from December 2008 to December 2015, but was forced to close because of the reducing supply of tango CDs, itself a consequence of on-line listening (youtube and spotify) and of course copying.
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This month's cds (January 2015):
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Lucio Demare - Sus éxitos con Miranda, Berón y Quintana
EMI 529132
Lucio Demare made romantic, lyrical music that had more weight to it than De Angelis or Caló, often collaborating with the lyricist Homero Manzi. Raúl Berón may be the big name vocalist here, but whilst he was fantastic with Miguel Caló, and as tender as the vals Se fué may be, Juan Carlos Miranda is a better match to the orchestra. The Demare/Miranda version of Malena - to which Demare write the music - is definitive, knocking even Troilo into second place.
Also very good is the less well known Horacio Quintana, with a similar style to Miranda. His rendition of the Demare/Manzi track Solamente ella is an unrecognised classic.
Finally: Carnavlito, although arranged as a milonga by Demare and with lyrics again by Homero Manzi, is not a milonga. It is an argentine folk rhythm called - wait for it - carnavilito, or little carnival dance. The credits list the folk musicians Los Hermanos Abalos (The Abalos Brothers) as the original authors.
Track list
- Malena
- Al compás de un tango
- No te apures Cara Blanca
- Negra María milonga
- El naranjerito milonga
- El baile de los domingos
- Vieja ribera
- Me llaman el zorro
- Se fué vals
- Carnavalito arr. en milonga
- Torrente
- El aguacero
- Nos encontramos al pasar
- Igual que un bandoneón
- Oriente
- Solamente ella
- Estan sonando las ocho
- Alhucema
- Dos corazones vals
- Señores, yo soy del centro
Cantan:
- Juan Carlos Miranda (1-5)
- Raúl Berón (6-10)
- Horacio Quintana (11-20)
Mercedes Simone
DZ 3402
Another special offer for club members: this rare CD of Mercedes Simone. This is the woman who made Lomuto, Simone never sang with dance orchestras, so sadly most of the material here - except the milongas - is not really suitable for dancing. But this is one of the finest voices in tango: a dark, velvety voice with great expression. Interestingly, she also seems to have had a happy life - unlike so many of her contemporaries - marrying a guitarist quite young but then continuing to perform and travel, with her husband acting as one of her accompanists.
Note: Once again, this is a special offer for this month only. Limited stock.
Track list
- Cada dia te extrano más
- Motivo sentimental
- Otra noche
- Pena mulata milonga
- Desdén
- Dale,,, dale...
- Que nunca lo sepa
- Negrito milonga
- Serenata
- Mi obsesión
- Puede que si, puede que no
- Milonga negra milonga
- La victrolera
- La marcha nupcial
- Milonga sentimental milonga
- Cadenas
- Esta noche me disfrazo vals
- Damisela encantadora
- Verdemar
- Aguacero
Oscar Alemán - Sus grandes éxitos vol.2
Reliquias 543020
Oscar Alemán - who?
Suppose I told you that, back in the 1930s in Paris, the famous gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt had a contemporary whose music swung harder? And that he was a black Argentine?
That is Oscar Alemán's story. He stayed in Paris when the war broke out, but was racially abused by the Nazis. Fleeing over the Spanish border, his steel guitars were seized by the Germans so they could be melted down for the war effort.
Returning to Argentina, Alemán achieved a more limited fame and was quietly forgotten by the rest of the world. In the milongas in Buenos Aires you still hear his music played in swing breaks.
This CD is the best of four great cds of Oscar Alemán on the Argentine Reliquias. It contains his best track, a stunning, hard-swinging arrangement of the classic bolero Besame mucho with fantastic playing from the whole ensemble. Almost as good is the opening track, Caminos cruzados a swing arrangement of Ernesto Lecuona's Malagueña - you may well have heard the original as a classical guitar piece, but this arrangment is so far from the original that it takes a while to recognise it here.
Swing lovers can also amuse themselves by recognising famous swing numbers in their Argentine versions such as El rag de la calle 12 (12th Street Rag) or Bailando en una estrella (Swinging on a star).
Essential stuff, and tremendous fun.
Track list
- Caminos cruzados
- Comienza el beguine
- Bailando en una estrella
- El saltarín escoses
- Me has enamorado
- Nunca supé
- Muñeca de papel
- Bésame mucho
- Me voy de fiesta al campo
- Como te llamas
- El baile de los negros
- Swing en la
- El rag de la calle 12
- Rio Swanee
- Avanzando de costado
- Ensayo a las tres
- Vieni sul mar
- Marechiare
- Minuet
- Daphne
Roberto Goyeneche - Nuestro Buenos Aires (1968)
BMG 664253
In 1968, Roberto Goyeneche - now a consecrated soloist in his own right, and amongst the most famous voice in Buenos Aires in those years, recorded an LP wth Aníbal Troilo. Troilo had poor health in those years and the orchestra was co-directed by Armando Pontier, which would be unusual to say the least. It's not clear whether Troilo actually participated, or only lent his name.
However his absence is not felt; Armando Pontier was a great musician, a former member of Calo's "Orchestra of the Stars", and the author of Milongueando en el 40.
This is not the era of dance music so don't expect that, but if you want to enjoy Goyeneche's voice, then this is a great CD.
Track list
- Nuestro Buenos Aires
- Romance de la ciudad
- Amanece
- Palermo en octubre
- Tanguihistoria
- Apenas Marielena
- Cielo de cometas
- Señorita María
- Otra vez Esthercita
- Tango del colectivo
- La esquina cualquiera
- Para poder volver
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