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Starting with Di Sarli By DJ Emily
When beginners start to explore tango music, they often ask “Which kind of music is the best for me to try first?” Of course there is no perfect answer, but almost always I recommend the music of Carlos Di Sarli, an orchestra leader often referred to as “El Señor De Tango”. His highly danceable music, especially his recordings of the mid-1940s to mid-1950s, is very popular in many tango classes. So when people who have just started dancing tango go to milongas and hear pieces such as “Bahía Blanca”, “A La Gran Muñeca” or “El Once”, they usually recall them as the songs played by their tango teachers as they attempted their first steps. The reason this music is a favourite for teaching is because of its slow but strong beat and an elegant melody – an ideal combination to train the ears of all newcomers to tango.
The Carlos Di Sarli title in the “RCA Victor 100 Años” series is an all-round excellent album. This CD collects many of Di Sarli’s classics from the 1950s, among them “Bahia Blanca” (which should be familiar to many people after featured as the soundtrack of a Heineken television advertisement), “A La Gran Muñeca”, “El Choclo”, “Comme Il Faut” and “La Cumparsita” (the song usually played at the end of a milonga). The recordings on this CD have had noise-reduction treatment to remove the hiss and crackle of their original recordings. This gives them a sense of newness. Indeed, listening to them it is easy to wonder if the music was recorded a lot more recently rather than around half a century ago.
To hear an older sounding recording, try “Carlos Di Sarli–20 Grandes Exitos” from RCA’s “Inolvidables” (unforgettables) series. It features a similar collection to the RCA Victor 100 Años disk, but has more pieces recorded in the 1940s, among them “La Racha”, one of Di Sarli’s most elegant songs.
Both the RCA Victor 100 Años and the Inolvidables disk comprise mostly instrumental pieces. If you prefer his pieces with singing, then try “Carlos Di Sarli – Sus Primeros Exitos Vol. 1”, “Sus Primeros Exitos Vol. 2” and “Porteño Y Bailarín”, all part of the “Tango Argentino” series issued by RCA.
“Sus Primeros Exitos Vol. 1 ” collects the classics of Di Sarli sung by Roberto Rufino. The combination of Di Sarli and Rufino was one of the great pairings in tango history. Many of their productions are classics, admired as much today as when they were recorded. Among the highlights of this CD are Rufino’s first recording with Di Sarli in 1939, “Corazón”. Vals-lovers are certain to like “Alma Mia” and “Rosamel”. Rufino worked with Di Sarli from 1939-1944, a period when the latter’s beat was faster and more rhythmic than in his lusher, more grandiose works of the 1950s.“Sus Primeros Exitos Vol. 2” collects lyrical pieces sung by another renowned singer, Alberto Podestá (who, incidentally, is still alive and performing in Buenos Aries). He started as a Di Sarli vocalist before reaching the age of 18. This album includes many classics recorded between 1944 and 1947, among them “Nada”, “La Capilla Blanca”, “Vamos!”, “Junto A Tu Corazón” and “Tu! ... El Cielo Y Tu!”. These songs are as good as guaranteed to pull dancers on to the floor when played at a milonga.
“Porteño Y Bailarín” is a collection of Di Sarli’s music with Jorge Duran as vocalist. Its best-known tracks include “Porteño Y Bailarín”, “Que No Sepan Las Estrellas” and “Tus Labios Me Dirán”. The album also has a few famous instrumental pieces, among them “Marianito”, “El Ingeniero” and “El Pollito”. As the album collects recordings ranging from 1945 to 1958, it has a more varied style than the Rufino and Podestá CDs.
For anyone wondering how best to lay the foundations for a tango CD collection, or simply wanting to have some great music to listen and dance to, any – or all – these five CDs are an excellent place to start.
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Osvaldo Fresedo may not be as famous as other orchestra leaders such as Carlos Di Sarli, but Di Sarli might well have remained unknown if Fresedo had never existed. Di Sarli’s music, especially his early pieces from the late 1920s, were very much modelled on the style of Fresedo, who first formed his own orchestra in 1918.
Fresedo’s music, especially in the 1930s and early 1940s, is characterised by soft rhythms supporting elegant melodies to evoke a totally romantic atmosphere. Many DJs, myself included, like to play his music towards the end of a milonga when dancers, possibly a little weary after dancing for a good few hours, are looking for something a little softer and less demanding.
Fresedo’s most representative pieces come from between 1933 and 1941, with many of them featuring the singing of either Roberto Ray or Ricardo Ruiz.
Ray started working with Fresedo in 1933. Ray’s way of singing – soft and delicate, almost feminine – became a benchmark Fresedo’s later lyrical tunes. “Tangos De Salon” in the Reliquias series collects the most popular pieces of Fresedo with Ray, among them such classics as “Vida Mia”, “Yo No Se Llorar”, “Canto De Amor” and “El Mareo” One rarity is “Isla De Capri”, a tangoable foxtrot rarely featured on other albums that is also noteworthy for featuring a harp to ornament the melody.
“Osvaldo Fresedo con Cantores” in the Solo Tango series has many of the same tunes as “Tangos De Salon”, but it also features some songs with Ruiz. Ruiz, who had a similar tenor range as Ray, was chosen by Fresedo to replace Ray after the latter left Fresedo in 1939. Ruiz’s voice is even softer and more feminine than Ray’s – quite easily mistakable for a woman’s. The highlights of this CDs include “Mas Alla”, “Niebla Del Riachuelo”, “Rosarina Linda” and “Vida Querida”; my favourite is Ruiz singing “Despues Del Carnaval” – a piece also adored by many other Hong Kong milongeros after they watched Javier and Geraldine perform to it in Taiwan.
To hear some of Fresedo’s finest instrumental pieces, try “1933/1948”, released last year as part of the Colección 78 RPM series. This album collects many previously unreleased tunes, many of which are popular with DJs in Buenos Aires who previously only owned poor quality bootleg recordings. Fresdeo’s instrumentals are similar in style to his sung tangos, witness his recordings of “La Clavada” and “Firulete”. Also worth listening out for is the subtle sound of the vibraphone in “Mariposita”.
Since the album collects recordings made from 1933 to 1948, it also offers a taste of Fresedo’s pieces from the late 1940s when he experimented with a more grandiose and dramatic sound than in his earlier days. Adding drums and other percussion, however, is not to everyone’s taste; certainly it makes for less tranquil, more abrupt sounding style of tango. For those looking to try a disk from this period, “Y La Perdí” is recommend.
For those looking to sample Fresedo through a single CD, “Años ’33 Al ’48” in the Buenos Aires Tango Club series features something in just about all of his different styles. The album collects instrumentals and lyrical pieces with a number of different singers. Its stand-out tunes – for me at least – are “Tigre Viejo”, “Cuartito Azul” and “Buscandote”. Some rights reserved, some errors deserve.
