Adios, pampa mia

Tango is the music of Buenos Aires.   It’s almost impossible to walk the streets of the city without hearing tango.  I’ve loved tango since I was a child growing up in Chicago. 

I recently attended a concert by Leopoldo Federico and his orchestra.  Federico recently won the Latin Grammy award for best tango album of 2009– Mi Fueye Querido (my beloved bandoneon).  Their concert program included one particular tango which struck a strong chord in me — Adios, pampa mia.   It almost brought me to tears while I listened to their performance that evening.

The tango is so familiar to me, although it is rarely played in the milongas.  It’s a tango I heard during my childhood in Chicago.  My parents had a collection of tango records, and this tango was one of my favorites.  I didn’t know at the time that the lyrics of this tango described a path I would take in my life–I said goodbye to my homeland for strange lands, never to return. 

You can follow the score while listening to this recording by Quinteto José Libertella on Todo Tango  and read the original lyrics with English translation.

Quien tiene tu amor

This is a tango  by Leopoldo Díaz Vélez.  I discovered it on the Todo Tango site while reading about Juan Carlos Godoy, a tango singer who recorded with Alfredo De Angelis and Ricardo Tanturi.  A friend called to tell me that Godoy (86) will be performing at La Casa del Tango on January 24.  His 1958 interpretation of Quien tiene tu amor  is so beautiful that I had to translate the lyrics.  This is an example of the poetic richness of tangos and how they mean more to us when we understand them.

Who has your love

I had received your note
where you tell me goodbye, without soul…
I ask myself how I can
continue living if you don’t love me…

Who has your love
now that I don’t have it?
Tell me who it is
and who has carried off your kisses
Where will I rule
the sweet look that I now can’t feel?
I don’t know
because I lost you without wanting it.
Today I have before my eyes
a photo where you are
smiling at me, the last alms that you gave me
Who has your love
now that I don’t have it?
Tell me whose it is
your life that yesterday was mine.

Among other things your good-byes insist
on reminding me of your distant love
I ask myself if this doesn’t exist
why do you pledge so much hurt?

El Choclo

This tango is as well known as “La Cumparsita” and “Jalousie.” Every once in a while the Dos por Cuatro radio station plays “Kiss of Fire” recorded in 1952 by Louis Armstrong, his version of El Choclo with lyrics by American songwriters Lester Allen and Robert Hill adapted to the music of Angel Gregorio Villoldo composed in 1903.

I touch your lips and all at once the sparks go flying
Those devil lips that know so well the art of lying
And though I see the danger, still the flame grows higher
I know I must surrender to your kiss of fire.

Just like a torch, you set the soul within me burning
I must go on, I’m on this road of no returning
And though it burns me and it turns me into ashes
My whole world crashes without your kiss of fire.

I can’t resist you, what good is there in trying?
What good is there denying you’re all that I desire?
Since first I kissed you my heart was yours completely
If I’m a slave, then it’s a slave I want to be
Don’t pity me, don’t pity me.

Give me your lips, the lips you only let me borrow
Love me tonight and let the devil take tomorrow
I know that I must have your kiss although it dooms me
Though it consumes me, your kiss of fire.

Tango Jalousie

Tango Jalousie, composed by Jacob Gade of Denmark, is one of the most popular tunes in the world. He premiered the work during a silent movie in Copenhagen. The lyrics written and published in 1940 by Vera Bloom contributed to its popularity in the USA during World War II. I remember hearing Frankie Laine’s recording of Jealousy when I was growing up in Chicago. It has been performed by the orchestra of “Forever Tango.”  

Jealousy, night and day you torture me.
I sometimes wonder if this spell that I’m under,
Can only be a melody for I know no one but me,
Has won your heart but when the music starts:

My peace departs,
From the moment they play that lovely strain
And we surrender to all its charm again.
This jealousy that tortures me is ecstasy, mystery, pain.

We dance to a tango of love.
Your heart beats with mine as we sway.
Your eyes give the answer I’m dreaming of:
That soft word your cruel lips will never say.

Well, I fear that the music will end,
and shatter the spell it may lend.
To make me believe when your eyes just deceive,
It’s only a tango you love.

I fear that the music will end,
and shatter the spell it may lend.
To make me believe when your eyes just deceive,
It’s only a tango you love.
It’s only a tango that you love.

Bailarina de tango

This tango is probably best known for the 1951 recording by Rodolfo Biaggi’s orchestra with singer Hugo Duval. The music was composed by Oscar de la Fuente with lyrics by Horacio Sanguinetti. The Todo Tango site includes the 1973 recording by Hugo Duval. My English translation is written below the original lyrics. When I listen or dance to this tango, I can think of only one milonguera — Amanda Lucero.

De satén y color negro, la pollera.
De charol y tacos altos, los zapatos.
Dibujando garabatos,
del ritmo que se adueña
tu estampa de porteña.

Tu conoces el secreto de los tangos
y es por eso que los bailas como nadie.
Y en los brazos que te abrazas,
que mística que pasas,
danzando en el salón.

Sacerdotisa del tango,
sacerdotisa sentida.
Rito es la danza en tu vida
y el tango que tu amas
te quema en su llama.

Sacerdotisa del tango,
que en los salones de rango,
bailas en brazos de un hombre
que luce el renombre
de gran bailarín.

Of satin and color black, the skirt.
Of patent leather and high heels, the shoes.
Drawing scribbles,
to the rhythm which you take possession
your stamp as a port city woman.

You know the secret of the tangos
and that’s why you dance as no one else.
And in the arms that you embrace,
what mystical things happen,
dancing in the ballroom.

Priestess of the tango,
Priestess sense.
Ceremony is the dance in your life
and the tango that you love
that burns you in its flame.

Priestess of the tango,
that in the ballroom of status,
you dance in the arms of a man
who shows the fame
of a great dancer.

Si soy asi

I keep my clock radio tuned to 92.7FM Dos Por Cuatro so I wake to tango music and listen throughout the day while at my desk. One evening I heard this tango that caught my attention with its cheerful lyrics. I made a note of the title and then researched it on the Internet at TodoTango.com where I found the lyrics and listened to the 1964 recording by Charlo. There are those who believe that all tangos have sad lyrics. Nothing could be further from the truth. Tangos for the milonga are three-minute poems about life, love, etc. You don’t have to know lunfardo* to understand them, although they include metaphors for life. This particular tango isn’t for dancing, but it expresses the true sentiments of many men. The following is my translation of the first stanza of Si soy así. You can read the lyrics while listening to the 1933 recording by Carlos Gardel with two stanzas.

If I am so
What am I going to do?
I was born handsome
And in a hurry to love
If I am so
What am I going to do?
With women I can’t restrain myself.
For this reason I have
the hope that someday
I will play a symphony
in which your illusion dies.

If I am so
What am I going to do?
It is my destiny
that sexual attraction makes me unfaithful.
Where I see skirts
I don’t focus on their color
married, widowed or single
For me all women are pears
In the tree of love
And if I see you flirting in the street
With your porteno eyes and swiveling hips
I dress you in the camouflage of my compliment of my flower.

__________

*lunfardo: street slang that originated in the conventillos and developed in prisons so that the guards didn’t understand what the inmates were talking about. Today it is an integral part of the porteño dialect. The Academia Porteña del Lunfardo was established December 21, 1962.

Academia Portena del Lunfardo, Estados Unidos 1379

Cosas de Tango

The milonga is where I go to dance and to listen to tango. I finally understand why milongueros went where the best recordings were played for dancing. They could listen while waiting for the recordings of their favorite orchestras that inspired them to dance. They wanted to hear different recordings every night of the week.

About a month ago I heard Cosas de Tango for the first time. On my way back to my table, I asked the deejay for the title. I made a note of it, and later I went online to find the lyrics at TodoTango. Cosas de Tango was recorded January 31, 1946, with Carlos Di Sarli and Jorge Duran. The author is Rodolfo Manuel Taboada; the composer is Tito Ribero. Here is the original poem with my English translation.

La cosa fue como un tango
que nos hace entristecer,
como un tango a la deriva
que se silba sin querer.

La cosa fue como un tango,
como un tango nada mas,
el amor le dio unos versos
y el desamor el compas.

Una calle de barrio, en cualquier barrio,
una noche, una luna, un corazon.
Un tango desvelado que rezonga
su nocturno dolor de milonga.

Un maduro perfume de malvones,
dos centavos de luna en un rincon.
Un beso que se muerde, un juramento
y a los lejos el gemir de un bandoneon.

Mi pena no es mas que un tango
que ya cantan los demas,
el amor le dio unos versos
y el desamor el compas.

The thing was like a tango
that makes us sad
like a tango adrift
that whistles without desire.

The thing was like a tango,
like a tango nothing more,
the love gave it some verses
and the coldness the beat.

A street in a neighborhood, in any neighborhood
a night, a moon, a heart.
A tango kept awake which grumbles
its nightly milonga pain.

A mature perfume of geraniums,
two cents of moon in a corner.
A kiss that bites itself an oath
and far from the wail of a bandoneon.

My pain isn’t more than a tango
that the others already sing,
the love gave it some verses
and the coldness the beat.

Hernando’s Hideaway

On Sunday I went to my favorite milonga in Buenos Aires-Lo de Celia, at the corner of Humberto Primo and Entre Rios. I usually go Wednesday evenings, but decided I needed to dance on Sunday. Twenty-six year-old Viviana La Falce is deejay, and she has a more eclectic choice of recordings than the regular deejay Daniel Borelli (38) who keeps everyone satisfied with the best tango recordings.

I go to the milongas to dance, to listen to the music, and watch the dancers. I wasn’t dancing at 9:15 when I heard a very familiar tune. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, so I walked over to the bar to talk with Vivi. It sounded like a tango from the USA entitled, “Hernando’s Hideaway” and it was. Alfredo De Angelis recorded it. The title in Spanish is, “Escondite de Hernando.”

After arriving home, I browsed the internet in search of the origins of this tango. I wanted to know if “Hernando’s Hideaway” originated in Buenos Aires or the USA. My search revealed that the music and lyrics were written by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross for their Broadway musical, “The Pajama Game,” that won a Tony award in 1954. Archie Bleyer, arranger and band leader, made the most popular recording. Everyone from Doris Day and Ella Fitzgerald to Guy Lombardo and Harry Connick, Jr. made recordings of it. Hernando’s Hideaway was used in the movie, “Some Like It Hot,” with Jack Lemmon, who dressed as a woman, dances tango with Joe E. Brown.

This is the first time I’ve heard an American tango recorded by an Argentine orchestra played in a Buenos Aires milonga. Vivi informs me that “Escondite de Hernando” is being played in the milongas. You won’t hear it with lyrics, but you may recognize the tune. Just to refresh your memory . . .

I know a dark secluded place,
A place where no one knows your face,
A glass of wine, a fast embrace
It’s called Hernando’s Hideaway
Ole!

Adios Muchachos

Marge & Ed Kenyon dancing a tango with the Ray Abrams Trio at the Seagull Hotel in Miami Beach

Today is the 60^th anniversary of my birth. Tango has been a part of my life for at least fifty years. I was about ten years old when my parents were taking ballroom classes at the local park district in Chicago. Each week my sister Linda and I practiced the new steps with our dad. Tango was the favorite dance music in our home. Tango was so popular in the fifties that American orchestras were playing arrangements of Argentine tangos. New lyrics were composed for “Adios Muchachos” which I remember: “When we’re dancing and you’re dangerously near me, I get ideas, I get ideas.” Leroy Anderson composed “Blue Tango” which became an American tango favorite. “La Cumparsita,” “El Choclo,” and “Media Luz” were a few of many tangos in our family 33-1/3 rpm record collection.

In August 1960, we took a family vacation in Miami Beach. One night there was a tango contest at the Seagull Hotel where we stayed on Collins Avenue. My parents danced with four other couples and won the contest. My sister and I were so proud of them. This is the photo taken doing their solo with the Ray Abrams Trio. My life in Buenos Aires was being prepared for me long before I could have imagined it.