Monday, January 27, 2014

Tanda of the Week 05 / 2014 - Florindo Sassone instrumentals



1. Florindo Sassone - "La guitarrita" 1951
2. Florindo Sassone - "Don Esteban" 1948
3. Florindo Sassone - "Maipo" 1951
4. Florindo Sassone - "La trilla" 1951

http://open.spotify.com/user/anttiveikko/playlist/0Q0tt30UkupU5ebencEJiAI recommend everybody that are interested in what's going on in the Dj's head to have a look at SuperSabino's tango blog, which includes numerous interviews from Dj's around the world. Also my interview can be found there.

http://www.deezer.com/playlist/768308711Another interesting thing on the blog is how SuperSabino has compiled some statistics of favorites and dislikes of the Dj's interviewed. The "Orchestras or singers not tolerated" post lists De Angelis, Varela and Sassone as the most disliked by the Dj's. 

When you read the individual interviews you might find more of the reasons for why some orchestra might be considered "not tolerated". A few things to remember are that a lot of artists had long careers and while someone might not stand or want to play for example Osvaldo Pugliese from 1950s and beyond, the same person might be a lot more accepting for Pugliese pre 1950s (although personally I was very suprised to see names like Troilo, Rufino, Fiorentino and Berón on this list). I believe part of the hate that this weeks featured orchestra Florindo Sassone gets is exactly because of this. At least for me there is a clear difference in the style of Sassone's recordings depending on the time of recording. I am also aware that it is said that Sassone gets hate in Buenos Aires for imitating Carlos Di Sarli. Then again Jorge Palacio phrased his view and praised Sassone's style in the following manner in his article of Sassone in TodoTango:

"Little by little he was shaping a style of his own, a rare blend of Osvaldo Fresedo's and Carlos Di Sarli's, but he achieved something which had nothing of the two of them but it was all Florindo Sassone's. It is notable how an artist can be influenced by other artists and in spite of that being able to reach a personality absolutely his own."


What I've heard played in milongas from Sassone has been the late 50's and 60's recordings which has been available in good quality and I can totally understand the hate actually even from the Di Sarli comparison reason. For me the earlier Sassone had more edge and a personal style but later ends up sounding more like a watered down Reader's Digest version of Di Sarli.

I have not yet been able to find the late 40's and early 50's recordings in a quality that I'd be comfortable playing in a milonga apart for some songs. So for example I'd gladly play the songs in this tanda, especially "Maipo", if I could find them in great quality. "La Trilla" is the only one in good quality. Even the "Archivo RCA: Florindo Sassone" compilations turned out to be ripped from earlier bad quality releases instead of actual original shellacs as I was hoping.

I'm totally aware of how way too challenging for dancing almost all of the vocal songs (with Roberto Chanel, Jorge Casal and others. Great singers but....) are and therefore I'm more a fan of these few great instrumentals of Sassone. In general I believe that the early fifties was a great time for instrumentals. For example I can't stand much of early 50's vocal D'Arienzo although I love the instrumentals. For further proof listen to this playlist of mine of the instrumental tangos from 1952.

So... the point of this long post is... Yes Sassone deserves a lot of the hate. Yes there are still some good recordings from Sassone in my opinion. And... where can I find "Maipo" in good quality?

This is what happened in this Dj's head today.

Ps. I can't be 100% sure on the recording dates of the songs of the tanda.

2 kommenttia:

  1. Interesting article. I didn't know so many people hate Sassone. I thought the hate was mostly reserved for DJs that play Sassone at milongas! :)

    "And... where can I find "Maipo" in good quality?"

    Here: https://tango.info/00828766933321-1-3 :)

    Again, Well Done for this great blog, Antti.

    ReplyDelete