CON LAS ALAS DEL ALMA - Orquesta Z (2012) como Tangoloco (2008)

Yesterday I added Jose García’s 1942 “modern” tango piece Junto a Tu Corazón to our performance list.  Just for fun, now 70 years later, we are adding this instrumental by namesake Daniel García, who in 2008 composed innovative new tangos with his group Tangoloco in Buenos Aires, using electronic instruments, guitars and drums.  But this piece, although jazzy (and you have to remember that many early tango bands of the 20’s called themselves “tango and jazz” bands…even Canaro’s orchestra) uses the core instruments of my own tango band:  bass, piano, bandoneon, cello, violins…a song  appropriately named Con Las Alas del Alma (With the Wings of the Soul).

JUNTO A TU CORAZÓN - Orquesta Z 2011 como José García y sus Zorros Grises 1942

José García’s band was popular in the 40’s in the La Boca area of Buenos Aires.  I took this arrangement from García, who rarely recorded but chose to just simply play his music for milongas!

YO NO SÉ - Orquesta Z (2012) musica: Bendrew Jong  letra: Bendrew Jong y Cristina Bruch

It’s been almost a year since I’ve sat down to write a new song…so for all my fans :) here’s a song I wrote yesterday morning.  I’ve been largely busy putting together arrangements for Orquesta Z, but you know tango…heartbreak still is able to pierce through our lives no matter how much fun we’re having!

This is a simple chord progression but universal thought.  Hope you enjoy it.

GERMAINE - Orquesta Z (2012) como Di Sarli (1941, 1951, 1955)

I am a pianist/arranger, so I have a great deal of respect for the work of Carlos Di Sarli, also a pianist whose career spanned decades and created some of the most signature and sophisticated tangos ever recorded.  His arrangements were largely without soloists, where the syncopation and cadence of the piano led a melodic violin line, and the bandoneón were largely relegated to rhythm.  Nevertheless, I will tell you as someone who has scored Di Sarli’s arrangements, his pieces were complex layers upon layers of sound.

This is a piece written in 1941 by Lopez Buchardo Alberto. and probably recorded many times by Di Sarli.  I took my arrangement for my own Orquesta Z from one of Di Sarli’s last recordings in 1955, when he was 53 years old (he died at 57  but started his first orchestra when he was 16 years old.  In his 20’s he played for Osvaldo Fresedo’s orchestra after moving to Buenos Aires from his home town of Bahía Blanca.)

ANDROGYNE - Orquesta Z (2012) como Quartango (1997)

This tango vals is taken from a piece composed by Mario LeBlanc and for my arrangement for my Orquesta Z, I borrowed from Rene Gosselin’s 1997 Quartango arrangement. Le Blanc wrote a pretty, syncopated melody, with a hauntingly lyrical repeated theme, in the manner of say a Pachabel canon that lends itself to wonderful interpretations by current tango dancers.

Yesterday I saw a video from Ostertango with a couple dancing beautifully to this song, so thought I would arrange it today and added to the playlist of Orquesta Z.

POCAS PALABRAS - Orquesta Z (2012) como Ricardo Tanturi (1941)

“Few Words”…that’s what the Porteño is suggesting to his old flame…let’s not talk about what happened before, whatever that was.  Let’s put it in the past.  But the flame still burns.

Don’t think tango got too much better than this 1941 piece, when the 36-year-old Tanturi, the composer, added his sophisticated counterpoint composition to the singer’s plaintiff cry…(and Tanturi had one of the best in Alberto Castillo).  The balance between the quick paced music speaks of hope, while the minor key and the yearning of the words and voice speaks of great sadness.  Some pundits say that Tanturi was nothing without Castillo, but really it takes the combination of all elements to work, as I well know!

Makes for great tango.  Here’s our first take of our 2012 arrangement by Orquesta Z, with all apologies to the young Tanturi!  But we’ll have fun performing this to our appreciative audiences here in San Francisco anyway!

FUERON TRES AÑOS - Orquesta Z (2012) como Héctor Varela (1956)

Varela was already an veteran tango bandoneon player at 42 years old in 1956 when he arranged this piece written by Juan Pablo Marin the same year.

After playing ten years with D’Arienzo, Héctor Varela started his own orchestra in Buenos Aires in 1950.  Six years later, he arranged this piece with his new singer Argentino Ledesma.  Somewhat overlooked despite a huge career. Varela was well-loved for playing music to be danced to, as well as a popular radio artist in the 50’s.

I watched Brian and Yuliana, last year’s gold medal USA Tango Salon Champions dance to this song so beautifully, that I thought it would be a good one to arrange and learn for Orquesta Z, my tango band.  So here it is!

¿A QUIÉN LE PUEDE IMPORTAR?  - Orchesta Z (2011) como D’Agostino (1945)

Oooo, the Porteño’s sad again…this time the sound of the bandoneon reminds him of his lost love, his misfortune. I swear the Porteño is me in another embodiment. Or else why do I find myself learning and singing these songs with such alacrity?  This is a 1939 piece written by a 19 year old pianist Mariano Mores, with lyrics by the great Enrique Cadícamo. The arrangement I chose is taken from a 1945 recording by Angél D’Agostino and originally sung by Angél Vargas, the famed pairing known as “Los Dos Angeles”.

My recording was scratchy and broken, but I think I got this song right. I was attracted to the great musicality of D’Agostino’s arrangement, yet this piece was actually one of the hardest ones for me to notate and transcribe…there are no repeating lines, every verse has it’s own embellishments and voicing. It makes for the very rich sound of D’Agostino and seems appropriate for the song…a song, and a music, that haunts the singer, hearing the cry’s of the bandoneon.

EL AMANECER - Orquesta Z (2012) como Di Sarli (1954)

El Amancer (The Dawn) is a delightful tango written in 1928 by Roberto Firpo…including a charming use of the violins to imitate morning bird songs.  This was also one of Carlos Di Sarli’s favorite instrumentals, which he recorded in Argentina three times (in ‘47, ‘51, and ‘54).  And true to the original, Di Sarli also made sure to include the bird chirps!

My arrangement for my S.F. Bay Area tango band, Orquesta Z, borrows from Di Sarli’s.

COMME IL FAUT - Orquesta Z (2012) como Di Sarli (1954)

Comme il Faut is French for “As It Should Be”.  Also the name of Eduardo Arolas 1921 tango of such fame that one of the most popular shoe makers in Argentina took the name for their line of high design tango shoes for women.

The master tango arranger, Carlos Di Sarli, so loved Comme il Faut that he recorded it three times between 1947 to 1954.  My arrangement here, for my S.F. Bay Area tango band, Orquesta Z, borrows from Di Sarli.

Di Sarli was such a notoriously demanding conductor that three times his entire orchestra quit on him en masse.  But he definitely heard the rhythms that came to him, influenced by such earlier masters as Fresedo, and even harkening back to the beginnings of the golden era of tango in the 20’s when this song was written, and when Argentina was one of the wealthiest countries in the world.