Tango Masters: Osvaldo Pugliese 978-0-9573276-7-2

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Tango Masters: Osvaldo Pugliese

Michael Lavocah a

,

♦

milonga press

Tango Masters: Osvaldo Pugliese

Published in Great Britain by milonga press Cop) right © Michael Lavocah 2016 Michael Lavocah has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998 to be identified as the author of this work This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. All rights reserved First edition 2016 2345678901 milonga press England www.milongapress.com

Paperback: ISBN 978-0-9573276-7-2

Series editor: Mike Stocks Cover design: Nigel Orme

set in Garamond 11/14

There has never been a group o f people that played with such warmth and affection... on stage they stripped their souls bare, and that sent the people crazy. -

Jorge Vidal

(singer with the orchestra 19 49-1951)

Locura tanguera (Tango madness) 1 Buenos Aires is full of contradictions. She charms as she infuriates. Even more than the grand European capitals that inspired the architects who built her, this is a restless city which never really sleeps. Peace is to be found only beyond, in the vast spaces of the Argentine countryside. In the barrios, the mechanical impulses of the city are never absent, but their disturbing influence is alleviated by a pervasive lyricism. Flowers tumble from balconies as traffic drums on the cobbles of the streets below’. Busy junctions still have pavement cafes and ice cream parlours. This is a city which has not allowed the metropolis to drown out the human spirit. At the crossroads of the human and the mechanical there arose a new7music that was not really concerned with fusing these rhythmic and lyrical impulses. Instead, it allowed them to stand together, like an unresolved question - not an enigma, but a contradiction that cannot be eliminated, only lived through. Today this music stands far removed from the nostalgia and sentimentality that perv ades the tango universe. It is the music of the only orchestra from the golden age of tango that wras still developing as that age drew' to a close, because it is a music that looks forward rather than backward. It still sounds modern today, and continues to offer those wTio hear it not an escape, but the opportunity for the spirit to rise in order to meet a reality that is contradictor}7 and uncomfortable. This is the music of Osvaldo Pugliese. Michael Lavocah Buenos Aires April 2015 1 Locura tanguera is the title of an instrumental tango written by first bandoneön Osvaldo Ruggiero and recorded in 1966.

Contents Part 1: The Sound 1.

Introducdon

2. 3. 4.

Yu m b a The inheritance o f De Caro The first orchestra (1939)

5.

O svaldo Ruggiero: bandoneon

6. 7.

Enrique Cam erano: violin O svaldo Pugliese: piano

8.

Roberto Chanel: voice

Part 2: The Repertoire 9.

An introduction to the repertoire

10. Pugliese before Pugliese (1943) 11. Ruggiero comes o f age (1944) 12. Recuerdo (1944) 13. The fans 14. Alberto M oran: a voice from the heart (1945) 15. L a yum ba (1946) 16. Erased (1948) 17. Perm itted? (1949) 18. Jorge Vidal (1949) 19. The 1950s: a new style 20. N ew versions? (1952) 21. On the radio (1953) 22. M oran goes solo (1954) 23. Prison (1955) 24. C lavel rojo (Red carnation) (1956) 25. A nclao en Pans (Stranded in Paris) (1957)

vm

Part 3: The 1960s and beyond 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

Still m oving forwards The m issing link (1960) The 1960s: Corrientes bajo cero (Corrientes below zero) Sexteto Tango (1968) The 1970s: free to work?

31. A1 Colon!! 32. Globetrotters 33. M uchas gracias, M aestro Part 4: The M an & the Myth 34. Inside the orchestra 35. San Pugliese, antimufa 36. O svaldo Pugliese: a short biography 37. Pugliese on Pugliese 38. The voices o f those who loved him Appendices A. B. C.

Pugliese on disc D iscography O rchestra formadons

D. Carnival appearances Bibliography Glossary Index o f ddes Acknowledgem ents

Part 1 The Sound

Introduction

Pugliese: the most passionate of the great tango orchestras. Also the one around whom the most passions are generated. A music that is as uncompromising as it is beautiful. Pugliese inspires us but he can also make us feel uncomfortable. He does not fit neatly into the categories we use to classify the music. D’Arienzo pushes the beat, and Di Sarli the melody. Many orches­ tras can be placed, more or less conveniendy, on an axis between these two poles. Troilo, who pushes the lyric, hints at another di­ mension, but we can say that he blends the two impulses, or moves between them, and leave it at that. Pugliese destroys these notions of a simple classification of tango music into the rhythmic and the lyrical. These two forces are pre­ sent simultaneously in his music, it’s not that he’s “off the scale” he’s not even on the scale in the first place. This strange and conflicting music - how can we understand it?

Tension and release The first aspect of Pugliese’s music that strikes us is the way that it builds and releases tension. He drives us forward with his signature nmrcato, the driving rhythm that he called la yumba (pronounced zhum-ba). This is an urban rhythm, it is the beat of a man pacing resdess city streets, and it’s so central to our understanding of Pugliese that it demands a chapter all of its own. Whenever the beat of la yumba becomes too forceful, too insistent, too tense, Puglicse gives us a moment of respite. The beat disap­ pears, and we enter an interlude where the melody predominates. The disquiet of the city is stilled and the tension is lifted. We experi­ ence a tranquillity that speaks more of the countryside than of the harsh reality of the city. But this interlude is only brief: the music finds an intermediate gear, like a breeze stirring up a pile of leaves, and then the driving rhythm returns. Tension, release, tension release, the music builds in re­ peated cycles, driving us onward to the final crescendo where the orchestra will make its ending: tango’s traditional final two chords: chan-chan. But the ending is altered, because it delivers the final cycle of tension and release in the piece: the first chord is played fortissimo, as loud as possible, and then, after a dramatic delay, comes the second, pianissimo, played as quiet as possible. This second chord is often lost in the noise of the milonga, but listen closely for it. It is always there, and it is an important moment, because it is the mo­ ment of final release, of completion, the moment in which Pugliese, having driven us forward for three minutes, finally lets us go. It is Pugliese’s signature.

Rhythm and melody An appreciation of Pugliese’s characteristic marcato is important, but the key to a fuller understanding of the orchestra lies one level deeper, as it were, in the realisation that it separates the rhythmic and the melodic elements in the music - not in time, but in space, in the way they are handled by the orchestra. This separate treatment of rhythm and melody is unique among the dance orchestras of the golden age. The beat drives forwards, whilst above this rhythmic foundation, the violins - and it’s usually the violins - stretch out long melodic lines. This produces, simultaneously, two different responses in the body and in our inner being: the rhythm pushing us onwards, whilst the melody invites suspensions and silences. The music is a collision, or perhaps a marriage, of power and beauty. Despite its great force, it is often surprisingly tender and even joyful. Like an alchemist, Pugliese engages in the union of opposites: ein’ and countryside, rhythm and melody, tension and release, power and beauty.

2

Yumba

With its driving, almost relendess walking beat and its successive building and releasing of tension, La y u m b a is the prototypical Pugliese tango. Pugliese began working on it in 194323and it took him three years to complete. W e’ll discuss the tango L a y u m b a itself later (see pp94-95 below); for now we’ll examine the yumba itself, the signature marcato that gives its name to that piece and to the Pugliese style as a whole. This is a heavy, driving beat that has been described as strong enough to push heavy furniture across the floor} W hat then is yum-ba? Yum (pronounced zhum) is for tango musi­ cians the sound of the arrastre, a way of marking a beat so that it starts quietly and gets louder. It’s a very old technique in tango, something that can be easily heard in the walking beats of the sex­ tets of the late 1920s, especiallv those of Carlos Di Sarli. Pugliese makes this yum as strong and loud as he can, but compared to Di Sarli his arrastre is more percussive. The strings (including the dou­ ble bass) attack, and the bandoneons, who have their instruments resting in their laps, bounce the bellows open sharply across one leg. Λ great example of this percussive arrastre in the violins can be heard in D e r e c h o v ie jo from 1945. 2 Nelida Rouchetto, Osvaldo Pugliese, Su Trayectoria in La Historia de Tango vol.14, Osvaldo Pugliese, p2517 3 the words of the critic Eduardo Lagos

In the yumba, Pugliese strongly marks the first and third beats of each bar with th e yum, the arrastre. What about the second and the fourth beats? Well, that’s where we get the ba\ The bass section of the orchestra makes a ‘boom’: the double bass slaps the strings percussively with the bow, a technique called canyetigue by the bass players of the golden age, whilst the piano hits the sustain pedal (allowing the whole instrument to resonate) and makes a low rum­ bling sound. This could be a chord, but more often Pugliese would play “dirty” (mugre) and just hit a cluster of low notes, as low as possible, to maximise the volume - when notes are very low, it is hard for the human ear to hear the pitch. The whole is a brilliant example of how the orquesta tipica incorporates percussive elements in the music without drums, whose sound is less flexible. Now we have a yumba, and to complete the idea, it’s only necessary to package these four beats into a cell and repeat it: yum! baa, yum! baa, yum! baa, yum! baa... If you watch film of the band playing the yumba, pay attention to Pugliese’s piano playing. You’ll see the left hand moving rhythmi­ cally down and up the keyboard, down and up: it’s in a normal, fairly central position for the yu m on beats one and three, but drops right down to the very bottom of the keyboard to the deep notes for the ba on beats two and four. This is a highly demanding style for the player, as replacement pianists sometimes found to their cost, all the more surprised because of Pugliese’s slim physique and elegant bearing. With the whole orchestra working hard to generate these sounds, the visual impression is something very physical. This is tango’s maquina muHcal,' its musical machine - something like an old fashioned car engine with the pistons pumping hard. An orchestra like D’Arienzo’s gave all the beats in tango equal emphasis. Pugliese is at the opposite end of the spectrum, making the greatest contrast possible between the odd and the even beats. He is the orchestra of extremes.

Walking The beat of La y u m b a is a walking beat. A famous story relates a conversation between Pugliese and El Cachafatζ, the most famous dancer of the day, whom Pugliese met when he was playing with Pedro Maffia at the Moulin Rouge in 1926/27. How did you get so good? asked Pugliese. Walking, lad, walking came the reply.4 Pugliese himself knew how to walk. “He walked like the portefio5 of 1935-1950. A rhythmic way of walking using his whole skeleton, harmoniously. This way of walking, our way, is linked to tango, and to football - football has bits of tango in it, football played with the ball on the ground. All the great football players were great tango dancers. In those days, they’d play the match after having been out dancing until five in the morning.”6

4

Keselman: Osvaldo Pugliese p34 porteno : an inhabitant of the port, i.e. Buenos Aires Interview with Saul Cascallar, a fellow political prisoner alongside Pugliese in 1954. See: http://www.paginal2.com.ar/diario/sociedad/3-63009-2006-0213.html

3 The inheritance of De Caro

What was it that Puglicse so admired about the music of |ulio De Caro? If you arc a De Caro fan this may be an easy question to answer, but for many modern tangueros the appeal of De Caro is a bit mysterious. I le has some great melodies, but so do other orches­ tras such as Fresedo’s. He can sound a bit like a band playing so­ phisticated music for a seated audience at a nightclub, rather than a band playing at a milonga. Pugliese understood that De Caro had enormously enriched the resources at the disposal of any group playing tango. De Caro was not the first to describe his group as an orebrstra, but his is the first to ment that title. Before him, in the 1910s, all the musicians in a tango group largely played the same thing at the same time (what musicians call tutti). De Caro created a space for each instrument to shine, with frequent solos in the bandoneons and \iolins. The piano was elevated above its former role of simple accompaniment, a role it retained in many orchestras into the 1930s. De Caro also used more complex harmonies than the very simple ones that tango had previously employed, and replaced the uncomplicated violin obbliga­ tos with true counterpoint, i.e. counter melodies (contracanto) - addi­ tional melodics that harmonise with the primary melody.

Pugliese appeared at a time when D’Arienzo was achieving enor­ mous success through rejecting many of these innovations. Troilo had shown that there were alternatives, but Pugliese wanted to stay much closer to the richness that De Caro had created. To get an idea of how well he succeeded, listen to Pugliese’s seminal 1944 recording of Recuerdo, and then play De Caro’s version from 1926. The feeling created by these two performances is quite different, but the arrangements arc identical. W hen we examine the details rather than the overall picture, the similarities emerge, particularly when we look at the individual plavers. De Caro had his brother Francisco on piano, whom Pugli­ ese later identified as a strong early influence on his own playing. De Caro’s bass player, Lcopoldo Thompson, was the defining bass player of his generation, and is said to have introduced the slapping effect called canyengue to the instrument: Pugliese’s bass player, Aniceto Rossi, was one of the few to carry on this style, and it became a key ingredient of the sound we now call La yumba. Turning to the violins, we find little similarity in the style: the play­ ing of Julio De Caro himself does not really find an echo in the human warmth of Enrique Camerano, Pugliese’s first violin. As for the bandoneons, there was a great duo at the core of each group: De Caro had Pedro Laurenz and Pedro Maffia; Pugliese had Osvaldo Ruggiero and Jorge Caldara. It’s easy to hear echoes of Laurenz in the playing of Ruggiero: Ruggiero has his brilliance and his dynamic, as did Troilo, but to this Ruggiero adds a new quality: tension. He plays with edge. It has been said that Pugliese is De Caro with force, but to this 1 would add that he is also De Caro with warmth. Pugliese takes the ideas of Julio De Caro and clothes them in humanity, and it’s this combination of human warmth with vigour that creates the feeling that we so associate with Pugliese’s music: passion.

4 The first orchestra

( 1939)

Cuando tocds tenes que mirar los pies de los bailarines; si te siguen es porque vas bien, sino el equivocado sos vos. When you play , you must look at the dancers ’feet; if they follow you, it's because you are doing well; if not, the one who has gone wrong is you. - Adolfo Pugliese, Osvaldo Pugliese’s father"7

7 Carlos Medrano in the magazine BsAs Tango Ne182, March 2007

The history of Pugliese and his orchestra is that of a man who had to work for everything he achieved. He was first noticed as a com­ poser in 1926 with the tango Recuerdo, but this did not lead to instant success as an orchestra leader. There were many failed at­ tempts before he was able to form a group that was successful, such attempts alternating with stints working in orchestras directed bv others, some of them big names such as Pedro Laurenz (1934) and Miguel Calo (1936). After failing to establish his own orchestra in 1936, 1937 and again in 1938 (twice), the orchestra that we know was formed in 1939. This orchestra continued almost without interruption until 1968, and Pugliese retained a lifelong affection for it. The new feature of this orchestra was that it was a co-operative. Pugliese had joined the communist party in 1936 after the outbreak of the Spanish civil war.8 It’s not quite true, as we sometimes read, that the income of the orchestra was divided equally. There was a points system which rewarded the musicians according to their contribution. Extra points were awarded for composition and ar­ ranging. This meant that the orchestra attracted musicians who could also compose and arrange9, which helped to drive the musical devel­ opment of the orchestra. Points were also awarded for longevity with the orchestra. This wras practical: spending time together deepened the musicians’ understanding of one another. And this w^as more important in the Pugliese orchestra than in any other. There w ere many things in their style, such as the rubatos (the stretching of musical time) and suspensions, which could not really be written dmvn in the music, necessitating long rehearsals. 8 The war was followed closely in Argentina, which had a large Spanish popula­ tion centred on Avenida de Mayo in the barrio of Monserrat. Those who supported Franco's revolution gathered in the Hotel Espariol (now a branch of Standard Bank), on the corner with Calle Salta. On the other side of this narrow side street was the stronghold of the supporters of the republic, Bar Iberia. Skirmishes between the two groups took place on a daily basis, with occasional running battles in the street. 9 The orchestra was sometimes called "the orchestra of the composers", although similar remarks were made about Calö's orchestra.

Pugilese, communism and Argentina

The Argentina in which Pugliese grew up was one in which business owners had great power and workers few rights. Pugliese had vivid memories of the Semana Trdgica, the tragic week of 1919. A strike at the Vasena metalworks resulted in violent confrontations with the police, with deaths on both sides. When a general strike was de­ clared, President Yrigoyen declared martial law and sent in the army and the marines. A funeral procession was ambushed at the Chacarita cemetery by the police and the army, with men, women and children shot dead.10 By the end of the week an estimated 700 peo­ ple had been killed, and thousands injured. Many thousands more were put in jail, whilst a government backed paramilitary group, La Liga Patriötica (the Patriotic League) carried out a pogrom on the Jews, who being largely Russian were identified with the anarchist movement In Pugliese's own words: During the Semana Trdgica myfather wouldn't let us go out The shooting was barbaric. 1 saw a worker shot dead in the middle of the street; and what was even sadder, painful, was seeing a procession carrying the bodies of dead children. Because they killed everyone. 11 Similarly, a strike by workers on sheep farms in Patagonia in the years 1920-1922 was brutally suppressed by the army. Fifteen hundred rural workers were killed, many executed by firing squads after surrendering. The episode was known as Patagonia Rebelde (Rebel Patagonia) or Patagonia Trdgica (Tragic Patagonia). The military coup of 1930 was a turning point in Pugliese’s growing political awareness. One day he came home to a family dispute:12 When we heard that the troops were coming all the lads went to see them, and we saw the armed troops and General Uriburu pass by. One day 1 came home tofind my brother Alberto arguing with my father. My brother was infavour of the coup, but I listened to my old man... Up until then, I’d never got involved in politics.

10 www.elhistoriador.com.ar/articulos/movimiento_obrero_hasta_1943/ la_semana_tragica.php 11 Hamlet Lima Quintana: Osvaldo Pugliese, p28 12 ibid, p38

It was system largest widow ceived

also possible to lose points if one missed a rehearsal. The was so fair that Pugliese did not necessarily receive the share: Ruggiero noted that he sometimes earnt more. His Lydia Elman reports that, at the time of his death, he re­ 16.5% of the income of the orchestra: “Not 50 or 60, but

16. 5% !” 13

Emilio Balcarce, who joined the orchestra in 1948, said: “For the public it was Pugliese’s orchestra, but for us it was everyone’s or­ chestra - our orchestra... four] ideas for the arrangements contrib­ uted to the development of the orchestra. It was a co-operative, not in word, but in deed.” 134 The co-operative ethos bound the group together: many stayed for twenty years or more. This bond enabled the orchestra to survive the repression that followed. Would any other group have survived their director being imprisoned for six months? It’s hard to be sure, but one doubts it very much. Pugliese made no secret of his communist beliefs but it was not necessary to be a communist to join the orchestra. Most of the musicians were not. Pugliese did not try to convert them, but led by example. The band was formed after a friend, the violinist Jaime “El Chino” Tursky, found out that there was an opening for a group at the Cafe Nacional (located at Corrientes 974), known in its day as Catedral del Tango - The Cathedral o f Tango. From the outset it was clear that the orchestra would have problems because of Pugliese’s politics. Before Tursky could even tell Pugliese about the opportunity, Pugliese was incarcerated as a political pris­ oner in the infamous prison in the barrio of Villa Devoto, known as 13 Interview in the magazine ElAbasto, n° 176, febrero 2015, http://www.revistaelabasto.com.ar/176-Lydia-Pugliese.htm Emilio Balcarce quoted in the newspaper La Naciön in 2005: see http://www.lanacion.com.ar/761206-pugliese-el-director-de-la-orquesta-detodos

one of the toughest in South America. Tursky had to inform Pugliese by letter. In his absence, Tursky was responsible for assembling the band15. His first stop was to get in touch with Enrique Alessio who had been first bandoneon in the previous orchestra (in 1938). Another clear choice was Aniceto Rossi for double bass - he had joined each group Pugliese had formed, beginning in 1936. Once the orchestra was assembled, Alessio rehearsed them, visiting Pugli­ ese in jail so that the latter could work on the arrangements.16* The opening was fixed for Friday, 11th August 1939. At first, Tursky concealed the problem from the cafe’s owner, Sr Prado. However as the day of the opening drew close, Pugliese was still locked up later he described this episode laconically as “spending the holidays in Villa Devoto”. Tursky felt that he had to tell Prado that Pugliese was in jail and might not be released in time. Prado was a democrat and a progressive, and his answer was the most anyone could have wished for: “You open in five days, with or without Pugliese. W hen he gets out of jail, let him come and play.” r That very day, Pugliese was released. He rehearsed the band for five days and they opened on the 11th August as planned. According to one source, the first tango they played was La g u ita n rita .18 The members of this orchestra were: Piano: Osvaldo Pugliese Bandoneons: Enrique Alessio, Osvaldo Ruggiero, Luis Bonnat Violins: Enrique Camerano, Julio Carrasco, jaime Turskv Bass: Aniceto Rossi Singer: Amadeo Mandarino

15 Arturo Lozza: Pugliese en el Colön, 2nd ed, p92 16 quoted by Tino Diez: www.terapiatanguera.com.ar/Notas%20y%20articulos/tino_pugliese.htm Alessio recalls that the replacement pianist at this time was Armando Cupo, but I've been unable to corroborate this. Lucela Delma Pugliese: Osvaldo Pugliese, Testimonios de una vida, p77 18 Sleeve notes to the 1955 EMI-Odeön LP A la Luz del Candil, LDS205

The group performed at the cafe daily from 1pm to 7pm. When they finished work Pugliese and Tursky would pile into Mandarino’s car, and the three would drive round the neighbourhood clubs looking for more work.19 Pugliese recalled: Back then the National was nothing special. I really wanted to play there because it had a lovely balcony, ju st big enough fo r five or six musicians. One day I spoke to the owner and convinced him that an orchestra would make his place more important, as well as creating work fo r some lads. And in a short time we made our debut with a phenomenal success.20 As the group’s reputation increased, they moved three blocks down to the famous Bar Germinal (Corrientes 942-948). Pugliese had played here before - first with the Pugliese-Vardaro sextet in 1929, and briefly with his own orchestra in 1936. A poster advertises the group’s performance for Friday, 20th September, 1940: “Osvaldo Pugliese in front of his conjunto tipico with the singer A Mandarino”, sharing the bill with a vocal duo from 2pm to 7:30 pm. The poster outlines Pugliese’s credentials: “the prestigious composer of R e c u e r d o , L a b e b a and S e l a r g o e l c la s ic d \ Of these, La B e b a was not recorded until the 1970s, and the last remains unknown. The performances at the Nacional are remembered because they were the first, but the group’s real fame was slowly accumulated at the Cafe Argentino in Chacarita (Corrientes 6841), next to Villa Crespo, Pugliese’s own barrio. In those days, all the orchestras had their loyal fans, and the Argentino became the base for Pugliese’s own barra (gang). However the group received its strongest support in the working class southern barrios of Avcllaneda, Gerli, and Villa Dominico, across the Riachuelo river (and thus outside the city limits). The orchestra brought a new audience to tango and there’s anecdotal evidence that these fans created new tango steps.

19

Lucela Delma Pugliese: Osvaldo Pugliese, Testimonios de una vida, p77 20 Nelida Rouchetto: Osvaldo Pugliese, su trayectoria, in La Mistoria de Tango 14, p2511

By 1943 the band was appearing on Radio El Mundo. This was an important step because it boosted prestige as well as exposure. Being on the radio made it much easier to get work. Mandarino had already left to join Troilo and the singer was Augnsto Gauthier. Radio El Mundo recorded all of their broadcasts and one of these performances has been published on CD. Gauthier left the orchestra at the end of 1943 to join the “Zorros Grises”, the orchestra of Jose Garcia. The core of this orchestra, which Pugliese referred to not as its axis but as its “central lung”21 and which remained unchanged until 1958 comprised four musicians: Pugliese himself (piano), Osvaldo Ruggiero (bandoneon), Enrique Camerano (violin), and Aniceto Rossi (bass), four men breathing tango. Let’s meet them.

Publicity photograph for the first orchestra c.1939 On the left the bandoneons: Ruggiero - Bonnat - Alessio On the right, the violins: Carrasco - Camerano - Tursky Note the advertised repertoire: Recuerdo, La beba and Las marionetas

21 Hamlet Lima Quintana: Osvaldo Pugliese, p56

5 Osvaldo Ruggiero

bandoneon

Cuando m e pregu ntan sobre e l bandoneon repito que es e l instrum ento que le dio su verdadera person alidad a l tango... la sonoridad, la agresividad’ e l color, a m i m e en loq u ecen .2223 When p eop le ask m e about the bandoneon I keep on saying that it is the instrum ent w hich brought a true personality to tango... Sound, aggressiveness, a n d colou r d rive m e crazy. -

Osvaldo Ruggiero

All the great orchestras were built around some key individuals. In the Pugliese orchestra the most important of these, apart from Pugliesc himself, was the bandoneon plaver Osvaldo Ruggiero (1922 - 1994), just 17 years old when he joined Pugliese from one of the orquestas dt senoritas (young ladies’ orchestras) in 1939.2’

22 interviewed in La Maga 25-Nov-1992: http://www.todotango.com/english/history/chronicle/243/Osvaldo-Ruggieroand-his-confidences/ 23 Women were largely not accepted in tango groups, so they formed these young ladies orchestras instead. The novelty was often completed by having one boy in the band as well. Troilo also played in such a group.

Ruggiero was a phenomenon in that he was almost completeh selftaught. His onlv teacher was his father, who was an amateur pla\er. From then on he just studied alone at home. When asked if he was influenced by Pedro Maffia or Pedro Laurenz (the two leading players of the 1920s, and both creators ot a style), Ruggiero replied that he had never heard them play as a young man: IJ'V didn't even have a radio at home 2λ. The main influence on his formation as a musician was ()s\aldo himself: Pugliese formed me and left his mark on me forever... M) formation as a tanguero began with Osvaldo. One had to he temperamental because the orchestra demanded bite and force. Pugliese

pushed Ruggiero to develop: You have to stud)'. Stud)! ) on mint hnonu as interesting as Troilo!1'

The first orchestra c.1940 Standing: Camerano, Carrasco, Mandarino, Pugliese, ?, ?, Ruggiero Below: Rossi, ?, Tursky, ? Alessio The unidentified musicians may include Antonio Roscini (bandoneon) and Antonio Puleio (violin)*25 Interview by Eduardo Rafael in La Maga, 25-11-1992, http://www.todotango.com/english/history/chronicle/243/Osvaldo-Ruggieroand-his-confidences/ 25 ibid

Ruggiero is many things as a musician. He can play with great power: Pugliese’s signature marcato, the famous y u m - b a , is delivered pri­ marily by the bandoneons. And of course he has a tremendous facility as a player: the effordess way he and Alessio dispose of the final ναήαάόη of R e c u e r d o (1944) makes it sound easy, undl one hears it played by anyone else. Impressive as this is, however, it does not reveal much of Ruggiero’s personality: this variation had been written twenty years earlier by another musician. We can learn more bv listening to Ruggiero’s own variations; one of the most revealing is that of his own composition iV ... JV... (1947). Ruggiero’s playing discomforts and unsettles. It is different to everything that has gone before. It’s clear he is equally comfortable playing with both hands, as one often hears a motif played first in a low register (with the left hand) and then a high one (with the right), or the other way round. Characteristic is the speed with which he can fly between them, creating movement and energy. The Ruggiero sound, sharp and piercing, is easier to appreciate in M ala e s t a m p a (M ala p in t a ) from December 1944. He makes my hair stand on end, and the development of the band in the nine months since R e c u e r d o (recorded in March) is astounding. Both works had previously been recorded by Julio De Caro and it’s in­ structive to compare the versions. As many have noted, Pugliese’s arrangement of R e c u e r d o is virtually identical to De Caro’s, but the same cannot be said of M ala p in ta . Listening to the performances, one of the big differences is the contribution of Ruggiero: he is one of the tools - a tool that Pugliese himself helped to forge - that enable the Pugliese style to manifest itself. One of his bandoneon players went so far as to remark: “Pugliese before Ruggiero is just Julio De Caro” - an exaggeration, but with a kernel of truth. The Ruggiero sound is embedded into the orchestra. Thcv arc hard to separate, and by the mid 1940s, people were referring to the group as “the orchestra of the two Osvaldos”.

Fueye cadenero In the days of horse and cart, a good lead horse, especially one that could be hitched to a team that needed extra help, was called caden­ ero (from the Spanish cadena, chain): a horse that could inspire and pull along the whole team. In tango this word became applied to lead musicians, particularly to bandoneon players. A fueye cadenew is a fueye (bandoneon) who has the ability' to pull along with him the rest of his section, or even the whole orchestra, and the dancers too. And the fueye cadenero par excellence was Ruggiero. He was beloved of the fans; after one of his solos, they would shout: Basta, Tano! (Enough, Tano!) (Tano means Italian). From the end of 1944, Ruggiero’s partner in the centre of the ban­ doneon secdon was Jorge Caldara. When two bandoneons were required for sod (a solo passage for more than one player), these were the two men who would do the work, sometimes turning towards one another. As well as being capable of producing great rhythm, the bandoneon is also highly rhythmic to play. Crouched low over their instruments, heads bobbing to the beat, the wavy, unruly hair of Ruggiero and Caldara would start to fall down over their instruments in the more vigorous passages, sending the audi­ ence into raptures: the fans even fabricated a giant comb which they threw into the stage on such occasions.26

Oscar del Prlore: Osvaldo Pugliese, Una vida en tango, p59

6 Enrique Camerano

violin

The violins in the Puglicsc orchestra, like the bandoneons, had to deliver a sound that was not only lyrical, but also dynamic, attacking and at dmes even aggressive. Their playing is fearless and expressive. One of the Puglicsc violins remarked: “we played with all our strength in the amistres, in the expression; because one feels oneself alive when one is playing”.2' The expression of those violins bears the stamp of the first violin Enrique Camerano, born, it has been said, to play with Pugliese. He created the violin style of the orchestra. Pugliese, a modest man not given to exaggeradon, but not afraid to say what he believed, said that Camerano was the best violinist he ever heard. He had perfect technique but also a certain edge to his playing for which he was nicknamed Elpjtcino, the gypsy. These gifts were not for show, but at the service of the feeling that he wanted to transmit; very often in his solos, 1 feel his deep, rich vibrato sobbing in my throat. His colleagues said of him that, more than being a good violinist, he was the creator of a stvle - the highest accolade one musician can pay to another.27

27 Emilio Balcarce: http://www.todotango.com/english/artists/biography/1045/Emilio-Balcarce/

Camerano’s playing is particularly rich in the low register, where he has an enviable tone - one thinks for instance, of his entrance at the ending of the tango N ... N ... —and it’s this thick, full tone that identifies his playing. When he retired in 1958, the orchestra had to add a cello to fill out the sound —something they had never needed before. Camerano was equally able to produce the same rich timbre in the high notes. Musicians tell us that producing this tone requires the use of exacdy the right amount of pressure on the bow: enough to make the strings sound, but not too much so as to smother the sound. Camerano was also possessed of a wonderful vibrato, the vibration of the note that is so important for expression in violin playing. Oscar Herrero, who succeeded him as first violin, said “I can tell you that his sound and vibrato were unique”.2829 If these talents were not enough, Camerano had in addition a unique expressive gift. The violinist Ramiro Gallo, a fervent admirer of Camerano, explains: There is still one more peculiar detail: his way o f emphasising the notes one by one. This is achieved by means o f a softly intermittent, not uniform, pressure o f the bow on the strings. This spacing o f notes does not take place abruptly but with a permanent resonance. The right hand fingers press down and move upward stressing each sound. It is almost like speaking while splitting the words into syllables, but in a natural not mechanical way, where each note has its moment o f existence, its own emphasis. Once I asked Emilio Balcarce i f this unique touch had had an antecedent in some previous violinist, someone who at least had outlined its way. Emilio categorically answered me that no one had, that it was the result o f an over­ whelming personality that needed to express each note with his own fire.

28 http://www.todotango.com/english/history/chronicle/432/Herrerolnterview-to-Oscar-Herrero-made-in-June-1998/ 29 www.todotango.com/english/artists/biography/1606/Enrique-Camerano/

The term cadenero is not used for violinists, who do not propel the orchestra forward in the way that the bandoneons do, but for want of a better word one feels tempted to apply it to Camerano. He imprinted his style upon the whole violin section, which itself had many fine musicians who deserve to live on in our memories. 1 always feel drawn to Julio Carrasco, who was offered the post of first violin when Camerano retired in 1958, but turned it down. He mav have only contributed three numbers to the Pugliese discogra­ phy, but just look at the tides: F lor de tango, De üoreo - both masterpieces of controlled aggression - and M ilam ento. After Camerano’s retirement the role of first violin passed to Oscar Herrero, a man with a more lyrical style. His compositions for the orchestra include Quejumbroso and the iconic N ochero soy.; a favourite of Pugliese fans everywhere. The violins were completed bv Jaime Tursky, who acted as the band’s representative. W hen we consider the strings, let’s not forget the double bass player, Aniceto Rossi. He was one of the foundations of the orchestra, staying with it right through to the separation of the Sexteto Tango in 1968. He played cello before double bass (switching instrument because there was more work3") which gave him an excellent bow­ ing technique, beautifully displayed in his α cappella solo on Canaro en Pans. Those who heard him plav - in an era, don’t forget, when amplificadon was either very weak or nonexistent - remember him as a powerful player whose sound filled the room and could be heard the moment you walked through the door3031. The tango Don Aniceto is dedicated to him.

30 Interview with Alcides Rossi by Hernan Volpe on todotango.com: http://www.todotango.com/english/history/chronicle/419/Rossi-lnterview-tomaestro-Alcides-Rossi/ 31 Jose Libertella in Keselman: Osvaldo Pugliese, p88

7 Osvaldo Pugliese

piano

Pugliese’s qualities as a pianist have long been overshadowed by his qualities as an orchestra leader, composer and arranger - the creator of a style. There is very litde written about it, except that he prac­ ticed dailv, even in jail where, lacking a piano, he drummed his fingers on the wooden table. His daughter tells us that he got up to practice at 9am even7 morning (having returned from work at 4am the night before), beginning with scales and arpeggios to exercise all the fingers, and then moving on to classical composers: Czerny, Moszkowski , Chopin and Beethoven.^2 Musically, we can say the same thing about Pugliese’s piano playing that we say about his orchestra: it is De Caro, but with rhythm. In this case, however, we are talking not of julio De Caro but ot his pianist brother Francisco, whose plaving Pugliese grcatlv admired. The Decarean elements in Pugliese’s playing are easy to find. Many of his tangos open delicately in the piano - a quality of tone that tells us that the pianist has relaxed arms and wrists. Particularly interesting are the opening bars of T ierra q u e r id a , which we can compare with the much earlier recording of De Caro. Here, Pugliese32 32 Lucela Delma Pugliese: Osvaldo Pugliese, Testimonies de una vida, pl99

deploys a subtle mbato - the stretching of musical time - that is not present in De Caro’s earlier performance. It is characteristic of Pugliese’s work as a soloist; here is a pianist with great touch and timing. We can hear it in the openings of many of his early tangos, such as E l m o n i'to and L a a b a n d o n e y n o sabia. Another very interesting tango is L a ca ch ila , which Pugliese re­ corded in 1945 and again in 1952. This is the only tango I can think of in which Pugliese takes an extended solo (starting at 0’45”), and the same rnbato is evident in the phrasing. Even so, Pugliese’s solo is characteristically modest, an exercise in minimalism: what a contrast to Di Sarli’s interpretation, where he takes the opportunity to unleash a brilliant display of his pianistic gifts. Francisco De Caro was not the only influence on Pugliese’s piano playing. In his interview with Lozza he recalls an Afro-Argentine pianist whom he met in 1930. Pugliese describes this man as “a marvel” who played by ear in the milongas, and then adds that they got together to improvise, sometimes playing four-handed duets.33 Standing opposite this melodic aspect is the role of the piano in delivering, together with the bandoneons and the double bass, the driving, almost percussive rhythm that Pugliese called La jum ba. Here the mass of sound makes it harder to hear what the piano is doing, but it is particularly clear in M a la n d ra ca where we can often hear the deep grumbling of the piano’s very lowest notes on beats 2 and 4, i.e. in the gaps between the strongly emphasised main beats. This is a long way from Francisco De Caro’s more romantic and more formal lyricism. Pugliese said that there were two streams in tango: the romantic, typified by Francisco De Caro, and the milonguero, the tango for dancers, and that when he formed his or­ chestra, he chose the latter. This might explain why he never re­ corded Francisco De Caro’s F lo r e s n e g r a s , one of the most beauti­ ful melodies ever written for tango. 33 Arturo Lozza: Pugliese en el Colön, 2nd ed, p96

Pugliese unites in his person the rhythmic and melodic aspects of his music which to the listener can often feel as though they are working in different directions. In this regard, the overlooked D em a s ia d o ta r d e (1946) provides an interesting example. Pugliese again plays a delicate introduction and then the link before the orchestra starts up, dropping down the registers of the keyboard, like a sports car dropping down a gear as it prepares to accelerate. This additional gear is the one that provides the almost violent power of the orchestra, and it’s a gear that, for all its musical rich­ ness, the De Caro orchestra never possessed. W hen Pugliese was in prison and thus unable to play, the musicians stamped on the floor to make up for his absence. This tells us a lot about what he con­ tributed to the orchestra. Pugliese the composer R e c u e r d o (1924) outlined Pugliese’s credentials as a composer of note, but despite its brilliance and importance (see chapter 12), it is not typical of his later work, where we find two main strands. First of all, there is the path marked out by La y u m b a (1946), N e g r a c h a (1948) and M a la n d ra ca (1949), a rhythmic and urban tango. How­ ever, at the same time, Pugliese always respected the rural influences on the early tango, seeing in them as well one of the roots of tango, which for him was always in the people. As well as the rural milonga, the precursor of tango, and other countryside styles, these influ­ ences for him included the country air of the work of Agustin Bardi, a composer much admired by Pugliese, and even the use of the arrastre^ which Pugliese states could be heard in the folk music of the pampas. The development of Pugliese as a composer can be traced through his most important instrumentals (which is nearly all of them) and runs something like this:34

34 Arturo Lozza: Pugliese en el Col0n, 2nd ed, p98

1926: 1935: 1936: 1946: 1948: 1949:

Recuerdo (recorded 1944) La beba (recorded 1972) Los m anonetas (recorded 1945) Layum ba Negracha M alandraca 1958: Corazoneando 1962: Cardo y malvon 1964: A Jos artistas plasticos This development continues into the 1970s and 1980s but for danc­ ers those later works are less important. Looking over this list, it’s noteworthy that none of die first three tangos - all famous works were recorded by the maestro in the era in which he composed them. Especially to be regretted is the fact that we shall never know what La beba sounded like in 193535, the year when Laurenz de­ buted his own De puro guapo and Elvino Vardaro debuted the seminal tango of his pianist and arranger Jose Pascual, Arrabal.

35 At that time the work was called Amargura - Pugliese changed the title after his daughter was born in November 1936

Roberto Chanel

voice

When Mandarino went with Troilo, the owner at the Xacional said to me: You 're left without a singer; do you want to try one who sings here? Ur/ho is he? He ’s called A Ifredo Ma^yochi Okay, tell him to come This was el turco V) Roberto Chanel. The idea for his stage name came to the announcer Julio Jorge Nelson when he saw the name Chanel on a neon sign advertising the famous perfume. What a struggle we had with Roberto Chanel! Xo-one wanted him anywhere, because he was tall and thin, nith a big nose and a face like an Arab. After we made our debut on Radio Hl Mundo, the artistic director called me to say: - Why don’t you get rid o f this singer? - Get rid o f him?! Xo way! - A ll the same, I'm going to recommend another, a good looking lad. And this nice looking lad was Alberto Lagor . But Chanel, this skinny bignosed Arab, pushed a style that was incredibly popular. .. he prepared very well. He played the guitar and listened a lot to the discs o f Gardel, and others. He36* 36 turco, turk, is a blanket term in Argentina for anyone from the Middle East and hence generally means an Arab. Lago replaced Gauthier early in May 1943, and his last gig with the band was 21st August of that year - a tenure of less than four months. (Original research by Michael Krugman).

leamt the tangosfirst on his guitar and afterwards we combined [the lyric with the music]. Chanel’s nasal tones immediately identified the orchestra with the man of the street. Like Fiorentino (Troilo’s most important vocalist and the epitome of the cantor de orquesta or orchestra singer), he integrated himself into the orchestra. In range he was a baritone rather than a tenor: one researcher says that he sang like the viola of the orchestra38, which - aided by the exceptional violin of Camerano - did without one until the 1950s. Chanel is not a dazzling singer, but the more one listens to him, the better he sounds. Looking back, he was in one sense Pugliese’s best singer - a great voice, and the only one who was a classical cantor de orquesta, something you can’t really say about the man who later joined Chanel as his vocal partner in the orchestra, Alberto Moran.

38 Nelida Rouchetto, quoted by Nestor Pinson: www.todotango.com/english/artists/biography/731/Roberto-Chanel/

Part 2 The Repertoire

9 An introduction to the repertoire

Pugliese made his first recordings in 1943, five years after forming his orchestra. This group continued essentially intact until 1968, a time of little work for tango musicians, when the nucleus departed to form the Sexteto Tango [you can sec the rupture in the orchestra personnel in the table in Appendix C). Pugliese formed a new or­ chestra and continued performing until his death in 1995, with the last studio recordings being made in 1986 - the longest recording career of anv of the great tango orchestras. Normally this is the point when 1 tell you that the 1940s recordings are the best, the 1950s ones are interesting but not so good, whilst the 1960s show the music in a state of stagnation and decay. With Pugliese this is not true. In the 1950s his output does not simply maintain its level, as D’Arienzo’s does, but undergoes a clear evolution. This does not make the music any less danccablc. Many people consider that the late 1950s finds the orchestra at its absolute peak, and there are some great arrangements from the 1960s and 1970s as well. Pugliese studied music his whole life long, constantly striving to develop. This lengthy career and constant evolution makes the Pugliese story a more complex one than that of anv other tango orchestra. The timeline overleaf is provided to help orient vou to this long career which we can divide into a number of phases.

1

1939

orchestra established

1944

y { Recuerdo I

1946 1948

y f Layum ba 1 Negracha

1949

't r M alandraca

1952

y f La tupungadna

1954

“mature” style emerges

1955

y f Nueve de julio I y^ Em ancipacion

1959

y f Gallo ciego

tour of the Soviet Union

1964 1966

A los artistas plasticos I y£ La m ariposa

1968 1969

^

beginning of “Pugliesean” style

I

1..............

Sexteto Tango splits

A Evansto Camego

1973

Zum 1

1979 1985 1995

y f Desde el alma I

I

X

second tour of Japan concert in the Colon last performance

Figure 1: Orchestra Timeline

9

There are two elements to the repertoire of the band when it first appears. The first is what Pugliese called the ‘ABC’ of tangov': Arolas, Bardi, and Cobian. Eduardo Arolas was the self-styled “tiger of the bandoneon” and a great innovator both as a player and as a composer: the band performed his La guitarrita (not recorded until 1954), Derecho viejo and La cachila (both recorded in 1945). Arolas’s music was beautiful and melodic and yet also muscular and energetic: it was truly a music of the city, and far ahead of its time. Agustin Bardi, a lyrical composer heavily influenced bv the countrvside (a much stronger influence on early tango musicians than we might imagine from the Buenos Aires of today), brought the “aroma of the pam pa” to his music. The band recorded Bardi’s E l rodeo (1943), E l paladin (1945), No me escribas (1946), Chuzas (1949) and Gallo ciego (1959). The works of these first two feature heavilv in the repertoires of many other orchestras. Finally there was the pianist and composer Juan Carlos Cobian, who mixed urban and countryside influences. Although Pugliese recorded only a few of his works, he was greatly influenced by the elegance that Cobian brought to tango. The second element was the contribution of the De Caro brothers and their school, i.e. Julio De Caro, Francisco De Caro, Pedro Maffia and Pedro Laurenz. Pugliese declared that in the early years the band had relied heavily upon their repertoire. A short inspection of the discography verifies the truth of this statement. Vi e have M ala junta (1943); Tierra quenda, E l arranque , Amurado and M ala estampa (Mala pinta) in 1944; and E l monito, Pelele, Por que no has venido? and Tiny in 1945. To this list we might add the works of Pugliese himself, whose voice was still very much identified with the Decarcan school: Recuerdo , Adios Bardi and Las manonetas. For Pugliese, De Caro was the culmination of the earlier stage represented by Arolas, Bardi, and Cobian; those three are the roads which lead to De Caro. And to add what Pugliese39 39 Arturo Lozza: Pugliese en el Colon, 2nd ed, pllO.

himself would never have said: Pugliese, more than all the other “post Decareans”, is the road that leads from De Caro, on into the future. Later on the band would add other streams to its repertoire: new tango milongas, i.e. modern instrumentals such as his brother’s E l remate, and of course the compositions of Pugliese and the other band members. But at the beginning, the band leant heavily on the work of Arolas, Bardi & Cobiän, and on De Caro and his school. The second phase: transition By 1946, Pugliese felt confident enough to perform and record works which neither sound like De Caro nor trace their roots to him. The first of these was the iconic La yumba, the first of the famous trio of instrumentals completed by Negracha and M alandraca. As his first bandoneon Osvaldo Ruggiero put it: “After La yum ba Osvaldo went his own way”. Now we hear the style that we recognise as Pugliese, a “Pugliesean” style, if you will. It is not fully complete, it will take the best part of the next decade to refine it, just as a good red wine needs years to mature in the cask, but it has emerged. The band is now in a transition stylistically, characterised by music with a dense texture. From this time on, De Caro’s reper­ toire makes up a much smaller part of the band’s repertoire, and their 1948 recording of De Caro’s Boedo sounds out of place. The third phase: Pugliese after Pugliese In 1954, beginning with N ueve de Ju lio , the so-called “mature” Pugliese sound appears, more spacious and luminous. The second half of the decade is for many the orchestra’s absolute peak as a dance outfit, with a string of enduring if overplayed masterpieces, both instrumental (Gallo ciego, Em ancipacion , Nochero soy) and vocal (Remembranza, Cascabelito, E l panuelito , Antiguo relo j de cobre). Alongside these is an extensive repertoire of similar quality that is less well known.

9

Pugliese is often criticised for taking less care of his vocal repertoire than other orchestras did. This is an important accusation that we have to take seriously, so let’s look at it right now. The 1940s was the decade of the danced tango song, the union of the two streams of tango milonga (tango for dancing) and tango camion (tango for listening). The lyricists - who were referred to as poets were as important as the composers, and die most famous were household names. Many bands are thus remembered for their vocal output, Troilo’s being die supreme example. With Pugliese, if you take a random selecdon of his output then you can find some poor vocals. But Pugliese continued to record into the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, so that “random selection” is unlikely to be from the golden decade of tango. Even in the 1960s, Di Sarli was gone, and D’Arienzo’s vocals were works of high camp which few take seriously. As for Troilo, yes he had better vocalists, but - along with tango itself - he was in a painful decline, performing relatively little. Pugliese was still active with a full orchestra. It’s thus unfair to complain about Pugliese’s vocalists from the 1960s, when we could easily do the same for all the other orchestras. No-one would at­ tempt to compare the vocal tangos of the 1950s and 1960s with those of the 1940s when it comes to their greatness as dance pieces. Indeed, in the early 1950s D’Arienzo, Di Sarli and even Troilo all reverted back to a largely instrumental tango for many years. When we focus on the 1940s, we find that Pugliese had two out­ standing singers. First there was Roberto Chanel, one of the most successful vocalists of the day. His quality’ as a singer is beyond question. Personally I appreciate his choice of repertoire very much. Later he would be joined by the passionate and intense Alberto Moran. At his height Moran was a pop idol who inspired the sort of frenzy we associate more with rock bands.

However, when wre consider the repertoire of the 1940s, Pugliese is also remembered for his instrumentals: R e c u e r d o , La y u m b a , N e g r a c h a , M a la n d ra ca and many others. This isn’t true of many of the other great orchestras. (Quick question: name a Troilo in­ strumental from the second half of the 1940s). Even D’Arienzo had already produced much of his best instrumental work in the 1930s, with the 1950s seeing him return to largely the same repertoire. There is no real development there, even if the music is very appealing. Pugliese however continued to develop the instrumental tango. In the 1940s he did not give the absolute priority to the vocal tango in the way that Troilo did. The Troilo band was focussed on delivering the lyric - a lyric that was always beautiful, always well-presented, but that was also nostalgic. The Pugliese band wras focussed on creating a tango that was modern and relevant. This led to a different repertoire. The reason that Pugliese suffers from these criticisms - that he was an instrumental band, and had poor vocalists - is that he was a late starter. VCTien he entered the studio for the first time it was already 1943. The other big orchestras had already been recording for some years at a time when tango wras developing very rapidly. So it would be unfair to compare Pugliese’s vocal work with, for instance, the best of Troilo-Fiorentino, which comes from 1941, or the best of D’Arienzo-Echagiie, which comes from 1938-1939. We don’t have recordings of Pugliese from these years; as far as wTe know, the music was very similar to what we hear from 1943, only played faster. We would do better to compare Pugliese’s early vocals to Troilo with Marino (1943-1946) or D’Arienzo w’ith Laborde (1945 on­ wards). In my opinion, the orchestra bears this comparison very well, and the criticisms levelled at it are unfounded. At the same time, the Pugliese orchestra is at the vanguard of the musical development of tango. Here it finds itself w’ith few compan­ ions, the only other orchestra w’ith similar ambitions, that of Al­ fredo Gobbi, remaining unrecorded until 1947.

Pugliese before Pugliese

1943

In Volume 1 of Tango Masters, we saw how the Troilo orchestra remained virtually unrecorded for its first four years (1937-1940), and moreover that these were very important years for the orchestra musically. If such recordings existed, we would certainly be listening to them and dancing to them today. Radio recordings that have survived from the period are tremendously exciting, showing a vigorous young orchestra at the height of its powers. The lack of recordings from those years is a great loss to the tango communin’, leaving a gap both in our heritage and in our understanding. Pugliese formed his orchestra in 1939 but did not record until 1943. Isn’t this the same situation? In my opinion, the answer to this question is no, not really. True, the absence of recordings from this period is a loss. The orchestra was popular, and danceable. We have one radio transcription disc from this period, La ca s ita d e m is v ie jo s , with Augusto Gauthier on vocals.40 This comes from 1942 or early in 1943 and show’s an orchestra playing writh pace, and we can imagine that it played faster still w'hen it opened at the National in 1939.

From the CD Lafonola ineditos - Orquestas con Cantores [CDFOG 549].

1943: Censorship is formalised

On June 4th, 1943 the Argentine government was overthrown in a military coup which enjoyed widespread support. The new regime enacted a policy of "moral purity" that involved the purification of the language. This was a policy of Hispanidad, Spanishness: the original, white Castilian language of Spain was seen as clean and pure, whilst lunfardo, the local slang, was considered to be of criminal origin and therefore morally repugnant and degenerate. On the 18th of June41, the office of Radio Communications issued a circular with a list of banned lunfardo terms. In practice, all use of lunfardo, as well as vesre (reves, backtalk, e.g. saying gotd n instead of tango), and even the voseo, the use of the word vos instead of tii for you, was now banned on the radio, the most important medium of the day. The impact was huge: eighty per cent of Gardel's recordings were immediately prohibited. Argentina was no stranger to censorship, and this move had been expected: Troilo's Farolito de papel, recorded two days before the coup, on the 2nd June, has a modified lyric clearly anticipating what was about to happen. 1Lyricists had to submit their lyrics for approval at the Office of Radio j Communications. A famous anecdote concerns the tango Percal, which j had been recorded by both Troilo and Calo and was getting a lot of air Iplay. The new administration banned it Domingo Federico, the Itango's composer, and Homero Exposito, the lyricist, visited the office ί to find out why. It emerged that the problem was that the girl in the lyric was only fifteen years old. Exposito asked for a typewriter and typed out a new version which replaced the offending phrases with pleasantries. "This makes sense", said the official. "This is rubbish!" Exposito exclaimed, and screwing the paper up into a ball, stormed j out of the office. ! Censorship stimulated the development of a new kind of sentimental, romantic tango, which was especially beneficial to the Troilo orches­ tra in the mid 1940s, but it was frustrating and demotivating for many lyricists, who rightly felt that they could not express themselves in the natural p orten o way. By 1947, the production of good quality lyrics was beginning to dry up, and this is one factor behind not just the reduced number of recordings as the decade draws to a close, but the decline of tango itself. www.paginal2.com.ar/diario/suplementos/radar/9-4990-2008-12-14.html

But Pugliese is still finding his unique voice in these first vears. This voice begins to manifest in 1943 and acquires a clear identity onl\ in 1946, with La y u m b a . If that recording establishes the Pugliese sound, then this first period can be summed up as “Pugliese before Pugliese”. In the middle of 1943, Pugliese signed to Odeon (as did Alfredo De Angelis and Antonio Rodio). It’s a tentative beginning: not a disc a month, which was the norm in those days, but just three discs between July and the end of the year: 1 2 3 4 5 6

15.07.43 15.07.43 27.08.43 27.08.43 21.10.43 21.10.43

Faro! El rodeo Muchachos, comienza la ronda Mala junta Milonga de ml tierra (M) Qu6 bien te queda

matrix Chanel 12925 12926 Chanel 13081 13082 Rubino 13288 13289

disc 7660-B 7660-A 7661-A 7661-B 7662-A 7662-B

T a b le 1:1943 r e le a s e s The big omission here is the tango R e d e n . Laurenz recorded it on Odeon on 22nd September 1943 and Tanturi on RC Victor on 24rl March 1944. Unless a new tango was really huge, each compam would record it only once, in order not to compere with itself. Once Laurenz had released R e d e n on disc, Pugliese's opportunin to do so as a new and untested band was gone. Also missing is 1942’s hit E l e n c o p a o , recorded by Troilo and Rodriguez amongst others but perhaps now out of fashion, and affected by censorship ('see the text box opposite). These first records present an orchestra that, whilst it is pla\ing beautiful music, is not quite the orchestra we recognise as the Pugliese orchestra. Let’s listen to the tracks. You will find pla\ lists on the book's website: ww w.m ilongapress.com /books/tango-m asters/pugliese/playlists/

1

Pmi

15.07.1943

(Gas lamp) vocals: Roberto Chanel music: Virgilio Exposito lyrics: Homero Exposito For his first recording, Pugliese chose a tango whose subject is the urban poor. F a r o l transports us back in time to the arrabal the margins both of the city and of society. The poverty is ex­ treme: the people live in tin shacks (un barrio de laid), but they have their dreams. It is un arrabal humano, a human place, full of life, and it expresses that life through tango. The gas lamp stands on a “corner of memories” and looks down a dead-end street (una cortada). It has seen many changes, but they are not necessarily for the better: the vitality of the bamo has dimmed. The choice of this tango demonstrates Pugliese’s sympa­ thy for the poor and the human. Chanel, with his nasal tones, is absolutely convincing as the narrator: in him we feel the voice of the urban poor. He sings not about them, but as one of them. The recording gives us the opportunity to compare Pugliese’s work to that of Troilo, who would record this piece with Fiorentino two months later. Pugliesc’s is much longer, 3’20” compared to 2’40” for the more up-tempo Troilo version, and yet doesn’t drag. This is partly because of the greater use of dynamic —a change in volume - even if this is as yet rather less developed than it would become. Troilo is more rhythmic, but Pugliese makes up for this with the driving force of his marcato: shordy before Chanel enters, we can hear a prototype of la yum ba (lis­ ten to the recording at around 0’48”). Pugliese’s simpler rhythmic treatment and slower pace pushes attention on to the singer, and Chanel is more prominent than Fiorentino.

Bar Pugliese, it is less so for Troilo. is wonderfully sophisticated, and empha.flostaigie aspect o f the lyric. Pugliese’s interpretation is Br ficom any sentimentality. It sounds modem. About the famles themselves: these refer to the old street lamps lit mostly by gas, although sometimes by alcohol or kerosene. At the time o f this recording they were already a thing of the past: elec­ tricity had been installed, and the last gas lamp was extinguished in 1931. It now stands in a museum. The flickering light of the jeroks inspired an affection that no-one feels for electric lamps: tango lyrics mention them variously as sentinels, witnesses, friends, and confidantes. 2

E l rodeo (The detour)

15.0". 1943

music: Agustin Bardi This was an old tango bv Agustin Bardi, one of the greats ot the first part of the 20th century. A gifted musician, and little moti­ vated by financial rewards, he decided to devote himself to com­ position rather than performance. This means that today he is not as well known bv the public as he deserves, but he was much appreciated by his fellow musicians. For Pugliese, Bardi was an inspiration because he combined the sounds of the citv with the sounds of the pampa (the fertile grasslands), something that Pugli­ ese considered fundamental to tango, and to his own stvle. W hen this tango was recorded it was just a few months alter Bardi’s early death, and it is thus a tribute to this great composer. This performance tells us a lot about how the orchestra has been developing because, in a nutshell, it does not rcallv sound like Pugliese. It sounds like Julio Dc Caro, except with more torce. This force is most apparent in the violins, whilst the bandoneons sound strangelv muted compared to the bandoncon sound we think ot as “the Pugliese sound”. When, after a brief introduction.

the band really starts up at 0*09” (and I think you can hear some­ one’s foot beating out the time on the floor) it is the violins that dominate, with a sharp attack. The beat is stronger than with De Caro, but there is as vet no y u m -b a . This is especially evident in the third or trio section (starting Γ13”). W hen this breaks into syncopation, the sound is percussive, a real clue to how the band would develop. Rossi can be heard thumping the double bass with his hand, the violins attack, and Pugliese himself repeatedly plavs a beautiful discord on the 4T ” (i.e. on the main beat) - but what about the bandoneons? YThat are they doing? WTere is Osvaldo Ruggiero, Pugliese’s iconic first bandoncon? One could be forgiven for wondering if he isn’t playing here. The answer is intriguing: Ruggiero is playing, but he is not first bandoneon. That post is taken by Enrique Alessio, a fine musi­ cian, both as plavcr and arranger, who would later join D’Aricnzo. W e will talk more about him in Chapter 11. Giving the greater space in the arrangement, Pugliese’s fine piano playing is much more in evidence than it would be later and this is another of the fine pleasures of the piece. It makes a great tanda with other early instrumentals bearing a Decarean touch such as E l r e m a te, A m u r a d o and perhaps M ala ju n ta . As a footnote - surely there must have been other tangos by Bardi, a real inspiration to Pugliese that went unrecorded by him. I’m particularly thinking of La ra ch a , recorded memorably by Di Sarli in 19-Γ and earlier, by Demare, in 1938.

5

Muchachos../ Comienza la ronda (Guy*~1 The tonda is starting)

27.08.1943

vocal: Roberto Chanel music: Luis Porcell lyrics: Leopddo Diaz Velez This tango is one of those affected by the absurd censorship brought in by the military government. It was originally entitled 'Muchachos, se armö la milonga,, {Lads, the milonga is getting going), and under this tide it was a hit for Tanturi with Alberto Castillo. In fact, the work was written especially for them.42 Tan­ turi and Castillo premiered the work at the Palermo Palace in February7, and were about to record it (on the Victor label) when censorship hit, prohibiting lunfardo on the radio. Castillo quit and Diaz Velez had to re-write his lyric, creating the social message that we now enjoy so much (“The ronda that tango invites you to form is starting up”) almost by accident. Tanturi then recorded the censored lyric with his new singer, Enrique Campos. Odeon meanwhile had intended the song for Demare with his singer Raül Beron, but Pugliese had a word with Demare and the latter agreed to let Pugliese record it instead43 (remember, the record companies insisted that most tangos could only be re­ corded by one artist on each label). Pugliese’s performance is more lyrical than Tanturi’s, with the fine bowed double bass of Aniceto Rossi especially in evidence.44 The composer Luis Porcell is Luis Porcellana, one of the bandoneons of Carlos Di Sarli. 42 http://tangosalbardo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ll/muchachos-comienza-laronda.html 43 told to Nestor Pinson by lyricist Leopoldo Diaz Velez in an interview: http://www.todotango.com/english/history/chronicle/461/Leopoldo-DiazVelez-tells-us-about-his-tangos/ 44 I strongly recommend the TangoTunes Pugliese transfers for studying this early work, particularly for the instrumentals and the vocals with Chanel.

4

M ala junta (Bad company)

27.08.1943

music: Pedro Laurenz / Julio De Caro This is the first Pugliese recording that is also in the recorded repertoire of Julio De Caro and, as ever, a comparison with De Caro’s recordings (1927, 1938, and 1949) is instructive. Pugliese restores the laughter at the beginning of the piece which is in the original score, but which De Caro had jettisoned by the time of his second recording. Generally speaking, there is more clarity’ in the melodic line: as one instrument takes a solo, Pugliese is much less likely than De Caro to decorate this with interventions from the other players. This is especially true in how he handles the final ναήαύόη, which transforms the feeling of the piece (more on this in a moment). Pugliese’s interpretation is closer to De Caro’s earlier version of 1927 than to that of 1938, not only in its arrangement but in its feeling, in the impression that the piece gives. Whate\Ter his good qualities, the De Caro of 1938 has been audibly disorientated by the D’Arienzo revolution. His rhythm has accelerated, and his phrasing has become more square. Pugliese rejects these devel­ opments. He returns to the De Caro who inspired him as a young man - not to reproduce it, but to let it develop further. In many ways, this piece is the most mature of the six titles Pugli­ ese cut that year - if one didn’t know the 1943 date, one could easily guess that it was from ’44 or ’45. Camerano’s violin solo (Γ07”) has all the majesty we associate with him, and underneath the band accompanies with a 3-3-2 syncopation. The main change is that Pedro Laurenz’s magnificent final ναήαάόη for bandoneon, which De Caro smothers underneath the violin counter-melody, is given pride of place. And how it soars! A final note on the title: yes it’s lunfardo, and so was banned. The record was announced on the radio as M ala companfa.4S

45 Arcängel Pascual Vardaro, Censura Radial del Lunfardo, p90

5

M2o*%*dc m itten* ßükmgn o fm y Und)

21.10.1943

vocal Jorge Rubino music: Alberto Pugfiese lyrics: Jose Sassone This milonga from the pen o f Osvaldo’s elder brother Alberto is the only recording with Jorge Rubino on vocals. Rubino was with the orchestra for just a few months at the end of 1943. In this recording we can hear that his style is rather similar to that of Roberto Chanel, so it’s no real surprise that he soon leaves, as Chanel has the better voice. In this fine milonga the lyricist praises the old milonga cnolla (cre­ ole milonga). Whilst this is not unknown for milonga - Canaro’s Milonga cnolla (1936) had a similar subject matter - the lyrics still manage to feel atypical o f the genre. The last stanza throws in a reference to an idyllic love relationship, reminiscent in flavour of the 1905 tango La morocha. The sound reminds us more of De Caro than o f Pugliese, and the overall impression is innocent and light: very fine, in both senses o f the word - a sophisticated piece, but too fine for the robust earthiness o f the milonga. The orchestra’s next recorded milonga, Tottazos (1944), presents a very different impression. 6

Que bien te queda (How well you are keeping)

21.10.1943

vocal: Roberto Chanel music: Vicente Salerno lyrics: Juan Florencio Mazzaroni This is a tango about the evolution of tango itself, and it’s abso­ lutely appropriate that an innovator such as Pugliese chose to include it in his repertoire. Modernism has out-done you, says the lyric, but how well you are keeping: how you're changed! The lyric refers to the

tango of yesteryear, respectfully, but without nostalgia: it looks forward. The performance is a bit of a slow burner, and neither this ver­ sion of Pugliese with Chanel, nor a more conventional one bv Tanturi with Campos, are considered amongst the “top five” performances of either pair. The tricky thing about the song is the link between the verse and the chorus, which contains a four note motif that sounds like a quote from an old tango. This almost drove me crazy trying to work out which one it was, but once I’d solved the puzzle 1 noticed that diere’s a clue in the lyric. The verse ends with the line: dandng to the chords o f an old organito (barrel organ). Yes, it’s a quote from O r g a n ito d e la ta rd e. Pugliese takes this motif first on the piano, and then Chanel and the band whistle it (Γ45”). As we reach the end of the piece, it appears again just before Chanel returns (3:00”), rather dissipating the tension that the piece has generated —interestingly, Tanturi dispenses with this repeat, and one could argue that it works rather better. Trying to maintain two moods - the dramatic open­ ing chords, reflecting the modernism the lyric speaks about, as well as the wistful nostalgia of the old organito, proves to be a tall order. Rossi’s bowed double bass is much in evidence and there are moments when we can hear the genesis of the rhythm we now call l^a yumba, but they arc just that - moments. The tango has a feeling of a work in progress. The 1943 recordings capture an orchestra at a fascinating moment, as a bud about to open, poised between a Decarean style of the past and a post-Decarean, genuinely Pugliesean style of the future. All six tracks display signs of what is to come; and the stronger these signs, the more excitement the music generates. One example of the Decarean flavour is Don Osvaldo’s piano playing, where we can hear many solos in the upper register. As time goes on, wc will find

him with his right hand resting on the centre of the keyboard, whilst the left works low down in the bass register. There was a significant change in the orchestra’s line-up at the end of 1943: Oscar Herrero left the orchestra of Emilio Orlando and joined Pugliese, expanding the violin section to four. This was an awkward moment for Herrero because Pugliese’s offer arrived at the very moment that he had accepted a position with Alfredo Gobbi, another orchestra in the vanguard of the evolution of tango music: that of. Herrero commented drily: “W ell, 1 think my choice was obvious”, adding: “the style attracted me more”.40 He remained with Pugliese for more than twenty years. The recording contracts for new artists were generally on very unfavourable terms. Pugliese said that they signed the contract with Odeon without even reading the small print, because to record was their greatest wish. But the contract left Odeon holding them by the scruff of the neck4", and their royalties amounted to 4% of sales. Later Pugliese found out that other bands got 6 or 7% and com­ plained, but Odeon wouldn’t budge - they didn’t have to.46*48 Pugliese burned with anger at this injustice and resolved to set up his own recording company, an Argentine one, something he eventually did in 1960. Naturally, the venture was opposed by the government, who made sure that it failed.

46 http://www.todotango.com/english/history/chronicle/432/Herrerolnterview-to-Oscar-Herrero-made-in-June-1998/ let's recall that in 1943, Frank Sinatra only got out of his contract with Tommy Dorsey with the help of the mafia 48 Arturo Lozza: Pugliese en el Colön, 2nd ed, pl05

11 Ruggiero comes o f age

( 1944)

In the Cafe Argentino The Cafe-Bar Argentino in the barrio of Chacarita was a small venue where many singers and small groups took their first steps on the road to fame. It was an important venue for Pugliese, one of the venues where the orchestra had accumulated its fame in its early years, and a home base for his barra (gang of supporters). The band re-opened there on W ednesday 10th May 1944. This was not a prestigious gig, but it was a home coming, and it was extensively trailed in the press. An advertisement on the day of the perform­ ance announced the presence of celebrity guests, including the orchestra leaders Anibal Troilo, Lucio Demare, Enrique Rodriguez, Ricardo Tanturi, and Florindo Sassone.49*The publicity was too successtul: such was the press of people trying to get in that the police had to be called to close the doors, and many people re­ mained outside. Meanwhile, it was so packed inside that chairs, tables and mirrors were broken. The owner was forced to close the bar for a few days for r e p a i r s T h e following Sunday, Pugliese ran an ad in the newspaper to apologise.51

Original research Michael Krugman, www.tangodecoder.com Oscar del Priore: Osvaldo Pugliese, Una vida en tango p57 Original research Michael Krugman, www.tangodecoder.com

Ruggiero comes oj age A singing partner for Chanel? In Februan^ 1944, after less than six months with the orchestra, singer Jorge Rubino left Pugliese. We don’t know why, but it is clear that he was the junior partner to Roberto Chanel, and as such was not going to be given many recording opportunities, just as Amadeo Mandarino had found when singing alongside Florentine) for Troilo. After this, Augusto Gauthier returned for a couple of months. In July Pugliese tried out the singer Omar Cevallos (sometimes spelt Ceballos). Litde else is known about him. In short, after five years, Pugliese had still not found the right partner for Chanel. Aleseio quits Towards the end of the year, Alessio quit. The reason remains unknown. One theory is that Alberto Castillo summoned him to direct his orchestra, which re-appeared on the 9th November with Alessio in charge. Others say that Alessio had already left and was thus free when Castillo’s offer arrived. Either way, it’s clear that he left the orchestra no later than mid October. My own feeling is that with Ruggiero beginning to determine the sound of the bandoneon section, Alessio felt himself redundant. Alessio’s recordings with his own band in early 1950, i.e. just before he joins D’Arienzo, provide us with a point of comparison between the two musicians. One of those recordings is T in y,52 for which we have a wonderful Pugliese version from 1945, with Ruggiero now as first bandoneon. This tango begins with a brief, unaccompanied motif on the bandoneons, allowing us to compare how Alessio and Ruggiero handle the phrase. Alessio’s is up-tempo and exciting, but it does not transmit the feeling and tension that we get from Ruggiero. They are audibly very different players, confirming what the stories tell us - that the bandoneon sound in early tracks such as M ala ju n ta and R e c u e r d o is not down to Alessio, but to his junior partner, Ruggiero.

One can find Alessio's version on YouTube

Pugliese promoted Osvaldo Ruggiero to first bandoneon, a natural move, and with Armengol also leaving, brought in Jorge Caldara and Oscar Castagniaro, completely reorganising the bandoneon secdon. Ruggiero-Caldara became the centre of the new bandoneon section for the next ten years, a pivot of the orchestra, and a famous combination amongst the fans. 1944 recordings The band cut eight records (sixteen tracks) in 1944. R e c u e r d o is so important that it requires a chapter by itself; we present it in the next chapter. W’e now discuss a selection of the remaining highlights of that vcar, which means most of them. matrix

disc 7663-B 7663-A 7664-A

7 8 9 10

31.03.44

Silbär de boyero

Chanel

31.03.44 01.06.44

Chanel

01.06.44

Recuerdo Tortazos (M) El remate

11 12 13 14

06.07.44 06.07.44 20.07.44 20.07.44

El dia de tu ausencia Tierra querida Tu casa ya no estä (V) La abandone y no sabia

15 22.08.44 16 22.08.44 17 01.10.44 18 01.10.44 19 24.11.44

El tango es una historia El arranque Adios Bardi Corrientes y Esmeralda Amurado

Chanel

14166

7668-A

20 24.11.44 21 21.12.44 22 21.12.44

Nada mäs que un corazon Puentecito de mi rio (V) Mala estampa (Mala pinta)

Chanel Chanel

14240 14241 14331

7669-A 7669-B 7670-A

14332

7670-B

Chanel Chanel Chanel Chanel

T a b le 2:1944 r e c o r d i n g s

13680 13685 13818 13819 13923 13924 13957 13958

7664-B 7665-A 7665-B 7666-A 7666-B

14039

7667-A

14040 14165

7667-B 7668-B

31.03.1944

€&md music: Booetto Bazin lilies: David Barbeds We might think that a tango with a country air could not also contain drama, but wc would be wrong! From the first moments, the bandoneön riff and the shimmering violins, descending in imitation o f the shepherd’s whistling, create a complex emodonal mood. The beat drives forward, and the syncopation at the open­ ing o f the B section (O ^”) pushes the mood even darker. The lytic is not one o f a country idyll: the ox drover whisdes because his heartache cannot be expressed in words. His whistling, the lytic fells us, is a song without words, as slow and sad as the sluggish walk of an ox. 9

T o rta z o s (S m a ck s)

01.06.1944

vocal: Roberto Chanel music: Luis Casaravilla Sienra^ lyrics: Enrique Maroni Now this is more like it —after the finesse and countryside feeling of M ilo n g a d e m i tierra , here is a modern, down-and-dirty city milonga. As we know, the urban milonga was popularised by Canaro in 1933 and supposedly created by Sebastian Piana in 1932 (with M ilo n g a s e n t im e n t a l) . However, this milonga pre­ dates Piana’s compositions: it was written at least as early as 1930, when it was recorded bv Gardel, and an intriguing note by lyricist53

53 Jose Razzano's name figures on the sheet music because he bought the rights to it from Casaravilla, who was not a musician http://www.todotango.com/english/artists/biography/363/Luis-Casaravilla/ (in Spanish)

Enrique Maroni may imply that it was written earlier.54 Perhaps Piana didn’t quite invent the urban milonga after all. The lyric is certainly 1920s style: scorn for a woman of humble origins who has married above herself, and climbed the social ladder. The narrator sees only ostentation: false airs and graces. The work was widely known in the ’40s: both Demare and Fresedo recorded nice versions in 1942. Pugliese and Chanel switch back to the version of the lyric sung by Gardel, with only one change to the lunfardo (perhaps too obscure for the ’40s audi­ ence) - this song wrould certainly have been banned on the radio. Chanel gives us all four verses; to achieve this, he sings right from the beginning. The arrangement has some nice touches: Chanel repeats the second line of each verse for emphasis, which sounds so natural that one assumes it is written in the music (it isn’t), and switches the last two verses round so that the lyric finishes with the stanza mentioning the title: Si atan do litcis tu falle / con ese coso del bra^o Xo te rompo con un torta^p /p a ’ nopegarte en la calle but when you ’re showing off your figure / nith that thing on your arm , I won’t smack y ou hard /just so as not to beat you on the street (the “thing” on her arm being her irritiating neur man).

54

Maroni's great niece Laura Hansen published an interesting note about this milonga on the website antiquehistory.net in which she publishes a photo­ graph of Maroni's original lyric, typewritten with hand-written alterations. At the top we read the note: "At the request of the Gardel-Razzano duo I wrote this lyric with an arrabalero feeling", which implies that the lyric was written as far back as 1917, the year in which the duo stopped performing due to Razzano's vocal problems. Ms Hansen adds: when my great uncle wrote his lyric originally, it was called Como pätalo de rosa (Like a rose petal), and when Gardel picked it up he said: No, you should call this Tortazos. www.antiquehistory.net/gardelweb/original-de-letra-tortazos.htm

01.06.1944 apasic: ÄÖscwPugfie«

& bit mote De Caro in style than the previous record, E l remate is lifted out o f the ordinary by an inspired arrangement, in which an extended bandonedn ναήαάόη appears surprisingly at 1’45”, in the middle o f the piece. This was an old trick of De Caro’s that D’Arienzo had resurrected the same year, without real success in my opinion, in a new version of La cumparsita. Here it is an absolute success. After the ναήαάόη, Camerano takes the melody, and the violins build to a skin-tingling conclusion. Another of those great but neglected early Pugliese instrumentals - and it’s so easy to make a tanda with E l rodeo, E l remate, Adiös Bardi\ and if you need a fourth, say Raza criolla. Most dancers can’t place the music, and as a DJ one will often be asked who the orchestra is. This tango was originally called Siete mesinos, with Pugliese giving it its debut under that tide in the Cafe Germinal in 1936.55 12

Tierra querida (Beloved land)

06.lP.1944

music: Julio Dc Caro

Pugliese floats the short piano introduction out into space, and immediately we are in different territory to that created by the De Caro recording of 1927. Especially noteworthy throughout is Aniceto Rossi’s work on the double bass. In the first B section, we can hear him slapping the bass underneath the attacking violins (0’50”) with a 3-3-2 synco­ pation not present in De Caro’s original, and then, as the B th em erep eats (T(P”), bowing one of the first e\er double bass

55 Lucela Delma Pugliese: Osvaldo Pugliese, Testimonios de una vida, p67 Each section in a tango (A, B, sometimes C) has a main musical theme.

s o l o s t o u r years before his own a cappella solo in Canaro en Paris, whilst the bandoneons play the melody very quietly and the percussive knocking is taken up by —whom? One of the violins? In the second B section, Knrique Camerano takes a solo of heart­ melting tenderness (2’ 12”), supported almost solely by Rossi (that man again). Then, in the final Λ section (2’56), the whole orches­ tra builds to a climax - melody in the violins, yumba in the ban­ doneons and piano, with Rossi’s bowed double bass supporting the whole. Julio De Caro wrote this tango towards the end of his tour in Brazil in 192”7*, when he was longing for home. It’s possible that Pedro Laurenz collaborated with De Caro in its composition: Gabriel Clausi tells us that this work, as well as E l arranque and Boedo, actually belonged to Laurenz.58 14

La abandone y no sabia (I abandoned her and I didn 9t know)

20.07.1944

vocal: Roberto Chanel music and lyrics: Jose Canet La abandoney no sabia que la estaba quenendo. .. La abandone y no sabia que el cora^on me enganaba. .. I left her and I didn Vknow that I loved her... / left her and I didn Vknow that my heart was deceiving me. .. This tango is not the “cry of the cuckold”, but the lament o f a man who realises he’s made the worst decision o f his life. It*s one of several that Pugliese-Chanel have in common with TanturiCampos (Muchachos! comienza la ronda, Que bien te queda, E l sueno del pibe, presumably Reciän, and others which we today know only from one of the two orchestras). Francisco Lomuto's Nostalgias (1936) has a very short double bass solo in a link section around 0'52" Nestor Pinson, Interview with '£7 Chula': www.todotango.com/english/history/chronicle/102/Clausi-lnterview-to-EI-Chula/

The recording has * delicacy we don’t get from the fine but more conventional interpretations o f Tanturi or Calo. Pugliese’s ar­ rangement develops the piece a long way from its origins. The violins open with a slow pivgicato into which Don Osvaldo floats his liquid piano, establishing the melancholic mood of the piece; following Pugliese’s piano is one of the joys of the piece. The mood shifts with the entrance of the bandoneons at Γ15”; their . syncopation takes us by surprise, and although forceful it is much more restrained than the style we will come to think of as “the Pugliese style” in a couple o f years’ time. It’s a long introduction: Chanel doesn’t enter until Γ30”, and the interplay between him and the orchestra is delightful. A little jewel. 16

E l a rra n q u e

22.nK.1444

(S ta rtin g u p )

music: lulio Dc Caro Another wonderful example of how Pugliese transforms De Caro’s arrangements into treasures that warm the heart as well as the mind. Pugliese’s magisterial opening run on the piano sounds completely new. It is present in the De Caro recording, hut ob­ scured by the big opening chord (on Julio's cornet violin) which gives sense to the piece’s title. Pugliese simph dispenses with it. This is not another case of Pugliese playing largely the same arrangement as De Caro, although with a different feeling, as we had with T ie rra q u e rid a . De Caro’s ideas are the base, but the piece has been reconstructed. In the B section (second melody), De Caro simph forgets the dancers, creating a dialogue between the main orchestra and the piano in which the latter is unsupported b\ the double bass. Pugliese handles this quite differently, giving the pianist (himself) a minor role, and maintaining the beat for the dancers. In the trio (third section) d ’l c)”), Pugliese is spacious, subtle and delicate. The melody begins in the piano, then the uolins begin to sing oyer the top (listen closely and the piano is still playing un­

derneath), then passes to the bandoneons as Rossi bangs out the 3-3-2 syncopation on the back of the double bass. The recapitulation of the A secdon contains some crazy syncopa­ tion (around 2 Ί 5 ”) on the piano. Puglicse cuts the repeat of the B secdon, skipping directly to the trio, this time with Camerano taking the melody as a violin solo (2*32”) with lovely trilling. The bandoneons appear in the gaps in the violin playing and the two sections together build quickly to a climax, with the bandoneons playing a short variation underneath the violins. The 1944 Pugliese is surely a music that every dancer can like, even those disoriented bv the fire of his later work. 18

Comentes y Esmeralda

22.08.1944

vocal: Roberto Chanel music: Francisco Pracänico lyrics: Celedonio Esteban Flores If you don’t speak Spanish, this tango is already very enjoyable as a simple vocal tango in the early style of the orchestra, with a traditional verse - chorus structure and strong clear beats. We will deal with the extraordinary lyric, but first let’s take a look at the music. This is one of Chanel’s finest performances, a miracle of phrasing - just compare it to Lomuto’s 1934 version to hear how plastic his sense of time is. Here he shows himself to be Fiorentino’s equal when it comes to phrasing the lyric whilst still re­ specting the strict tempo of a dance orchestra: perhaps he even goes further. Typical for Pugliese at this time, the performance displays the strong influence of De Caro, with prominent violins, a relatively restricted role for the bandoneons, and the opportunity to catch some of Don Osvaldo’s beautiful piano playing. The piece opens with a strong beat that is not quite La yumba it is not yet quite percussive enough, nor repetitive enough - but still has a strong arrastre on the main beats. As the bandoneons introduce the B theme (0*33”) listen very carefully to hear the

rising bass played softly in the piano. Chanel then enters over the strong manato of the bandoneons. Halfway through the B theme (Γ49”) the violins make their first showing with a brief counter melody. As Chanel takes his break (2Ί4”), the violins play a strong counter melody under which you can hear the bandoneons quiedy marking out the melody in melodia ritmica. When he returns, the violins shift to a higher regis­ ter and continue with him, building to a strong repeated high chord before unexpectedly falling silent to let Chanel finish the lyric alone. Now if you fancy a challenge, let’s have a look at the lyric. If you’ve ever been to Buenos Aires you’ll realise that Corrientes y Esmeralda is the junction o f Corrientes, tango’s most famous street, with Esmeralda, in the heart of the old city. The lyric takes us back to 1902 when Corrientes was still a narrow street, not the broad avenue we know today. Its comers (ochavas) are populated with archetypal porteno characters. Street corner toughs (bravos) hang about, but when one bothers a dandy (un elegante) it turns out that the latter has studied boxing, and he floors him with a single punch (cross). Upper class theatres (the Odeon) sit chcck-by-jowl with dodgy cabarets (the Royal Pigall). If you can afford it, you can drink g n f i or if not you can get drunk on grappa. There are wild gangs of testosterone fuelled youths (patotas bravas), and girls high on cocaine (pris). You can indulge yourself playing bacara, or just buy a lottery ticket (quiniela). There are French prostitutes, and beggars who are so poor that they are anaemic. They’ll spend their last coin just to take the tram back home to their arrabal All o f life is here; it is the quintessential street corner of Buenos Aires. The lyric tells us that famous poets write about this corner, and concludes: En tu esquina rea, cualquier cacatua ruena con lapinta de Carlos Gardel Onyour bumble street comer, any cockatoo dreams be looks tike Carlos Gardel

11

Ruggiero comes of age

Flores wrote his poem in 1922, but Pracanico only set k to mtmc in 1933 when the widening of the old Calle Corrientes made k topical. Many famous buildings had to be tom down, irrevocably damaging the human scale of the city, because it was no longer possible to talk to someone on the other side of the street Vi"hen the tango was published, the radical thinker Raul Scalabrini Ortiz was inspired to update his famous monograph E l hombn que esta solo y espera, “The man who is alone and waits”, locating his archetypal porteno on this very corner. For anyone who wants to understand the porteno mentality, and its contradictions, this work is a must: later editions carry the sub-title La biblia portena, The porteno biblc5