The artistry of Carlos Di Sarli

El Señor del Tango, as he was named, didn’t permit anyone to film him at the piano.  When someone approached, he stopped playing.  He died in 1960 at the age of 57 with his artistic secrets.

In 1981, a group of musicians decided to form an orquesta playing the Di Sarli style.  They became Gente de Tango.  They were faced with the daunting task of notating the complete scores of Di Sarli arrangements which never existed on paper.  All Di Sarli’s arrangements were created in daily rehearsals.  The scores had to be recreated by listening to the recordings.

I first met the amateur musicians of Gente de Tango in 2005 at a rehearsal in Villa Devoto.  I refer to them as amateurs because most of them pursued careers in something other than music.  Like Carlos Di Sarli, Guillermo Durante directs the orquesta from the piano.  He is the master of the Di Sarli style.  It occurred to me recently that I should film Guillermo at the piano during a performance.

Orquesta Tipica Gente de Tango performed at Nuevo Salón La Argentina, and I was there to record Guillermo’s hands at the piano.  The salón has a grand piano on stage, and I was able to film from the left side of the keyboard.  It was the first time I watched him as he played Porteño y Bailarin, El Amanacer, Verdemar, A la gran muñeca, and Milonguero viejo.  Guillermo couldn’t understand why I wanted to film him.  It didn’t take much imagination to feel as if I was watching Carlos Di Sarli himself at the piano while filming Guillermo.  It was moving to say the least. 

Guillermo Durante has already passed the age at which Di Sarli died.  He should be sharing his expertise with young pianists so that future generations of musicians will continue to recreate the Di Sarli style for dancing.  We always will have the recordings of Di Sarli, but a live performance is very special.

New tango is nothing new

Astor Piazzolla was the legendary innovator of a new style decades ago with his Quinteto Nuevo Tango.  Someone said that there is tango before and after Piazzolla.   His music is considered tango by people who haven’t heard tango music.  Piazzolla recordings were widely available in the USA in the early 1990s before orquesta tipica recordings, so it was common to associate his music with tango.

Many years ago I attended a concert at the Ravinia Festival by Pablo Ziegler and his New Tango Quintet.  Tango dancers in the Chicago area gathered before the concert to dance on the pavement with a portable stereo.  We didn’t know what to expect, but we thought we were going to hear tango music at the concert.  Ziegler was Piazzolla’s pianist and continued his legacy.  Professionally trained musicians provided a good performance, but it didn’t deliver the product we wanted to buy.

If Piazzolla’s music comes on the radio, I turn it off or change the station.  I would never go out of my way to hear it.  It came as a complete surprise when I found myself at a concert this week where most of the program was Piazzolla.  Walter Rios was celebrating 60 years in music with a concert at Teatro Presidente Alvear.  I had heard him last month for Dia del Bandoneon in La Trastienda when he performed with other bandoneonists. I assumed that he would be performing tango at his anniversary concert.  The ensemble consisted of piano, string bass, guitar, percussion, synthesizer, cello and violin.  There is no need for lighting design and fog for an orquesta tipica, but this Piazzolla show had both.  I saw the piano played as never before–the keys were slapped and the keyboard cover was tapped to provide effects.  It was interesting to say the least.  I don’t usually leave a concert uninspired by the performance.

Horacio Ferrer, president of the Academia Nacional del Tango, says Piazzolla’s music is tango.  Nelida Rouchetto, secretary of the Fundación Casa del Tango, says that Piazzolla’s music is tango.  They have a right to their opinions, but neither one is a musician.  Julián Peralta, musician, teacher, and director of an orquesta tipica, says that neither Piazzolla (other than his orquesta tipica recordings) nor what is called electronic tango are tango.

Tango in the cabarets

There is nothing written about exactly what happened inside the cabarets of Buenos Aires.  The only way to learn about the nightlife in the cabarets is to talk to those who inhabited them–musicians and milongueros.  That’s exactly what Andrés Casak and Mariano del Mazo have done in order to gather pieces of the puzzle and tell the story of the era of cabarets in Buenos Aires from 1930-1960.

They invited Carlos Pazo, Mario Abramovich, and Alcides Rossi to share details as tango musicians in the cabarets during a conference of the Festival Buenos Aires Tango.  This included a special video presentation with  Leopoldo Federico and Alberto Podestá and clips from the film Vida Nocturna (1952) and Cuatro Corazones about the cabarets.

The city had cabarets in three zones:  along Corrientes from Calláo to Nueve de Julio, Nueve de Julio to Alem (known as ”Bajo,” the lower part of Corrientes) and La Boca.  The cabarets opened at 23 hs and closed at 4 in the morning.  Orquestas de tango had contracts for six months, so the musicians had steady work in those days.  No one under the age of 18 was allowed to enter the cabarets, but Leopoldo Federico told the story of being hired as bandoneonist at the age of 17 to play at Tabaris (Corrientes 829).

The most famous cabarets (thanks to the orquesta that performed in them)were Chantecler(on Paraná near Corrientes) where Juan D’Arienzo’s orquesta played regularly; Marabú(on Maipu near Corrientes in “Bajo“) with Carlos Di Sarli; Singapur(Montevideo 348) with Miguel Calo and Alberto Podestá; and El Avion in La Boca.

I learned interesting morsels about the cabarets.  Chantecler had a swimming pool.  The coperas drank tea instead of alcohol with the male patrons in the cabarets who bought drinks for them.  Otherwise they would have been inebriated before the night was over. The musicians were strictly prohibited from talking with the coperas whose job was to sell drinks, engage in conversation and dance with customers.  Musicians were not allowed to leave the cabaret with a copera, although what they did outside the cabaret was their own business.

Musicians got their training with the orquestas in the cabarets.  They rehearsed in the salones of the cabarets.  In some of them, the orquesta performed from a balcony where the ladder was removed so they couldn’t return to the main floor and talk with the young ladies who worked.  That never stopped them from trying.  Some musicians ended up marrying coperas. 

The first 45 minutes of music in a cabaret was like a rehearsal when they didn’t play continuously.  Nobody danced the first hour.  The cabaret was important to the success of an orquesta for it was where new compositions were performed for the first time.  If the dancers liked it, it became a hit and then it was recorded.  An orquesta played six nights a week in cabarets from April through December with the summer months off.  The musicians were very well paid.

Tango roots

Roberto Alvarez, bandoneonist and director of Orquesta Color Tango was interviewed by El Tangauta (August 2009, No. 178):

What is your opinion about electronic tango?

“I am going to make a lot of enemies with my opinion.  I see it as a fad, it doesn’t have any strength, and it is not an interesting creation, much less a renovation.  On the contrary, I think it is a disrespect to tango.  Those who make this style generally are not from the tango scene, but come from other genres to exploit the extraordinary success of our urban music in the world.  For me, the last thing tango needs is drums and a hammering rhythm.  Our style, for example, does not allow for an even rhythm where all beats are equal.  Pianist Carlos Garcia once told me that changes in tango happen naturally; one cannot set out to do something new and different.  Fortunately, today we have an extraordinary new generation.  Among those who were part of Color Tango, two true masters stand out–bandoneonist Horacio Romo and pianist Christian Zarate, who is also a great arranger and composer.  He can write for a symphonic orchestra.  Bot of them are trying to make a genuine contribution to tango.  For me, what must be done is to create a different proposal but without leaving the roots of tango, because if not, mistakes will be made.”

Day of the Bandoneon

Today marks the 95th anniversary of the birthday of Aníbal Troilo, who is considered by many as the greatest bandoneon player tango has ever had.  Pichuco was only 23 years old when he debuted with his orchestra in the cabaret Marabú located at Maipu 365. 

The national day of the bandoneon was established in 2005 and is dedicated to the bandoneon, an instrument of German origin which gives tango its unique and haunting sound.  The best instruments were made before 1942 and are in short supply these days with the growing popularity in playing the instrument.  There is a Fueye Alert to keep instruments in Argentina.  Young musicians will have to wait for old musicians to die in order to buy a instrument made by Alfred Arnold (known as Double A) or Premier.

Chicago was fortunate to have a resident bandoneonist who was invited to play tangos for dancing.  Jim Sherry ran a music store on the southside and invited Alejandro Scarpino (son of the composer/bandoneonist who wrote Canaro en Paris).  I remember making the drive from a northwest suburb to the southside of Chicago to a practica at Casa Tanguera where Scarpino provided the music for dancing.  The community of dancers was new in 1991, and there was a very small attendance.   I organized a tango event at Chicago Dance Studio in January 1992, with Alejandro Scarpino as special guest.   A large crowd came to hear him perform for ten minutes.  He eventually moved to Los Angeles which had a larger Argentine tango community.

Solo performances of Dia del Bandoneon: Leopoldo Federico, Walter Rios, Nestor Marconi, Julio Pane, and Juan José Mosalini.

Adios, maestro

I was browsing the internet yesterday morning to catch up on tango events in the city when I read “Adios, maestro” with a photo of pianist Emilio de la Peña.  I gasped and was stunned for a moment.  Yet another member of Café de los Maestros has left us. 

As I write this post I am listening to one of Emilio’s compact discs.  It’s the one I heard every Sunday morning at Tango nada más in Chicago after the milonga had ended around 4:00.  Thanks to Bob Dronski for introducing me to this master pianist’s album.  I never reached his level of playing, but I appreciated his perfection and style.  I bought a copy of Emilio’s first CD “Tango New Expresion” from Bob and played it regularly. 

I met Emilio after the awards ceremony in March 2008, when he and the other members of Café de los Maestros received certificates for their participation in the best tango album of 2006 which won a Latin Grammy.  He said he didn’t consider himself a pianist because he worked in industrial machine design most of his life.  He introduced me to his wife and children in front of the Academia del Tango and gave me his card. 

A few months later I learned that Emilio was playing solo piano at Jazz & Pop, a tiny club in downtown Buenos Aires.  I was the first to arrive and seated myself where I could watch Emilio’s hands on the keyboard.  He invited a female singer for a few numbers with him.  He played several of the arrangements I know so well from his album.  What a privilege it was to be in the room while he played.

In February I learned that Emilio was doing a series of Sunday concerts in March at Notorious.  It was the music he recorded for his final compact disc, “Este tango es otra historia,” which has been recorded but not produced as yet because he didn’t have the financial resources.  I regret not attending one of those Sunday evening concerts. 

Emilio studied piano from an early age, but had to go to work in difficult times.  Finally when he retired at 66, he dedicated himself to tango, teaching, and recording.  Last month, the city council recognized him as an outstanding personality in tango culture.  He was scheduled to perform at the Festival Buenos Aires Tango in August.  www.delapena.com.ar

Emilio may have been scheduled to appear with Café de los Maestros in London on June 26, but he suffered a heart attack last week and was hospitalized at the time of his death.  He was almost 80 years old.