A Beginner's Guide to D'Arienzo By Emily

Juan D’Arienzo is one of the most important names in tango history. His music is highly danceable, and it’s hard to imagine a milonga where it won’t be heard. Since he made around 1,000 recordings in his 50-year career, it is not easy to find a small selection of CDs to represent his music. The four disks selected here, however, all have my seal of approval.
The best jumping off point is D’Arienzo’s music from the late 1930s to early 1940s. His music of this period carries a very distinctive rhythm – its mission: to lure dancers to the floor. The piano has a very important role, particularly when played by Rodolfo Biagi, another famous tango musician, who was D’Arienzo’s pianist until he went off to form his own orchestra in 1938.

“Sus Primeros Exitos Vol.1” in the Tango Argentino Series collects almost all of D’Arienzo’s most classic instrumental works from 1935 to 1939. I remember hearing this CD played repeatedly by a group of street tango performers in a flea market in Buenos Aires for nine hours every Sunday. All the tracks are “super-classics”, but especially strong are “9 De Julio”, “La Cumparsita”, “La Viruta” and the famous milonga “Milonga, Vieja Milonga”. If you only want to own one or two D’Arienzo CDs, this should be one of them.

If you prefer music with singing, try “Sus Primeros Exitos” or “Tango Bravo”, also in the Tango Argentino series. Vocals tend not to play the key role in D’Arienzo’s music (very different from Di Sarli’s lyrical pieces, where the vocals almost always carry the whole melody, dominating the flow of the song). The melody of D’Arienzo’s music typically comes from an interplay of voice, piano and violin, making the singer as just one of a trio of elements embellishing the rhythm.

D’Arienzo worked with several tango singers. Héctor Mauré is certainly one of the most important. Although D’Arienzo and Mauré worked together for less than four years, they together created several of tango’s most classic songs. “Sus Primeros Exitos” features such greats as “Amarras”, “Dime Mi Amor”, “Infamia”, “Uno” and “Tango Brujo”.

“Tango Bravo” collects the classic songs of D’Arienzo with Alberto Echagüe and Armando Laborde – possibly the orchestra leader’s two favourite singers. Both Echagüe and Laborde recorded more than a hundred pieces with D’Arienzo. Since the album collects recordings made from 1938 to 1954, it offers a taste of D’Arienzo’s pieces from a period when his music became more dramatic than in his earlier days. Again, most pieces are extremely popular, but with the standouts (in my view) being “Trago Amargo”, “Corrientes Y Esmeralda”, “Mandria”, “Olvídame” and a vals called “En Tu Corazón”.

For milonga lovers, I recommend “Milongueando Con Juan D'Arienzo 1935/1962” released by Euro Records. Since D’Arienzo music’s style is very rhythmical, his interpretation of milongas tends to up-tempo compared with most other tango orchestras. This album has an excellent selection of 21 pieces recorded between 1935 to 1962. Particularly worth listening to are “La Cicatriz”, “Meta Fierro”, “Milonga Del Recuerdo” and “Silueta Porteña”. This CD is also the perfect option for anyone who simply wants a collection of milongas.

If you are a serious collector or a DJ, then consider the “El Rey Del Compas/70 Años” collection released by Sony BMG. This series, consisting altogether of 15 CDs, collects about 300 of D’Arienzo’s recordings, in chronological order, from 1935 to 1975. You will find many beautiful pieces not released on any of the Tango Argentino or Coleccion 78 RPM series.

Exploring Fresedo by Emily

Osvaldo Fresedo may not be as famous as other orchestra leaders such as Carlos Di Sarli, but Di Sarli might well have remained unknown if Fresedo had never existed. Di Sarli’s music, especially his early pieces from the late 1920s, were very much modelled on the style of Fresedo, who first formed his own orchestra in 1918.

Fresedo’s music, especially in the 1930s and early 1940s, is characterised by soft rhythms supporting elegant melodies to evoke a totally romantic atmosphere. Many DJs, myself included, like to play his music towards the end of a milonga when dancers, possibly a little weary after dancing for a good few hours, are looking for something a little softer and less demanding.

Fresedo’s most representative pieces come from between 1933 and 1941, with many of them featuring the singing of either Roberto Ray or Ricardo Ruiz.

Ray started working with Fresedo in 1933. Ray’s way of singing – soft and delicate, almost feminine – became a benchmark Fresedo’s later lyrical tunes. “Tangos De Salon” in the Reliquias series collects the most popular pieces of Fresedo with Ray, among them such classics as “Vida Mia”, “Yo No Se Llorar”, “Canto De Amor” and “El Mareo” One rarity is “Isla De Capri”, a tangoable foxtrot rarely featured on other albums that is also noteworthy for featuring a harp to ornament the melody.

Osvaldo Fresedo con Cantores” in the Solo Tango series has many of the same tunes as “Tangos De Salon”, but it also features some songs with Ruiz. Ruiz, who had a similar tenor range as Ray, was chosen by Fresedo to replace Ray after the latter left Fresedo in 1939. Ruiz’s voice is even softer and more feminine than Ray’s – quite easily mistakable for a woman’s. The highlights of this CDs include “Mas Alla”, “Niebla Del Riachuelo”, “Rosarina Linda” and “Vida Querida”; my favourite is Ruiz singing “Despues Del Carnaval” – a piece also adored by many other Hong Kong milongeros after they watched Javier and Geraldine perform to it in Taiwan.

To hear some of Fresedo’s finest instrumental pieces, try “1933/1948”, released last year as part of the Colección 78 RPM series. This album collects many previously unreleased tunes, many of which are popular with DJs in Buenos Aires who previously only owned poor quality bootleg recordings. Fresdeo’s instrumentals are similar in style to his sung tangos, witness his recordings of “La Clavada” and “Firulete”. Also worth listening out for is the subtle sound of the vibraphone in “Mariposita”.

Since the album collects recordings made from 1933 to 1948, it also offers a taste of Fresedo’s pieces from the late 1940s when he experimented with a more grandiose and dramatic sound than in his earlier days. Adding drums and other percussion, however, is not to everyone’s taste; certainly it makes for less tranquil, more abrupt sounding style of tango. For those looking to try a disk from this period, “Y La Perdí” is recommend.

For those looking to sample Fresedo through a single CD, “Años ’33 Al ’48” in the Buenos Aires Tango Club series features something in just about all of his different styles. The album collects instrumentals and lyrical pieces with a number of different singers. Its stand-out tunes – for me at least – are “Tigre Viejo”, “Cuartito Azul” and “Buscandote”.

Editted by Simon Cartledge © 2006 Hong Kong Tango Lab