Saturday, November 22, 2014

Tanda of the Week 47 / 2014 - Anibal Troilo - Instrumental milongas - DJ Antti Suniala

First World Tango Problems - pt. 2

1. Aníbal Troilo - "La trampera" 1951
2. Aníbal Troilo - "Mano brava" 1952
3. Aníbal Troilo - "De pura cepa" 1942

Bonus track: Aníbal Troilo - "Nocturna" 1961
 
http://open.spotify.com/user/anttiveikko/playlist/6e2PPD1YBfOqDRsjzKVIJuhttp://www.deezer.com/playlist/1054544201One of the finest milongas from Anibal Troilo in my opinion is his own composition "La trampera", which was recorded first in 1951 and later again in 1962 with Roberto Grela (Spotify) and also in 1969 (Spotify). I wanted to create an instrumental milonga tanda starting with "La trampera" and here's how it turned out.

"Mano brava" (by Manuel Buzon) was originally recorded with the singer Francisco Fiorentino in 1941 and in 1952 Troilo recorded an instrumental version. The second version is very identical to the vocal version, although slightly slower and ofcourse without the vocals. In fact it is without the vocal part entirely, making the song that much shorter also and the song might feel like it ends too soon.

For the third instrumental there weren't that many to choose from. It would be either "De pura cepa" from 1942... or "Nocturna" from 1961, which is a rather, may I say, "epic" milonga composed by none other than Julian Plaza.

"Nocturna", like many other compositions by Plaza such as "Payadora", is popular with modern performing orchestras and is more often a part of a tango documentary soundtrack than an actual selection of a tango DJ. However I've enjoyed dancing to the song many times when played by a live orchestras so I personally could stomach the song as the original recording by the one and only Anibal Troilo.

DJ's should note the differences in sound quality and I'd suggest editing a mono version of "Nocturna" to get rid of some of the panning of instruments for a more balanced sound when played in a milonga.

Enjoy! You can check all the other milonga tandas on TOTW here!

P.S. The unrelated picture is a tango-meme of mine and a  part of the "First world tango problems" series.



Troilo, Anibal - TOTW - Todo Tangotango.info - TangoTunes - iTunes Store

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Tanda of the Week 46 - Orquesta Tipica Victor (Instrumentals) - DJ Antti Suniala



1. Orquesta Típica Víctor - "Jueves" 1934
2. Orquesta Radio Víctor Argentina - "Barrilito"1940
3. Orquesta Radio Víctor Argentina - "El ponchazo"1941
4. Orquesta Típica Víctor - "Tango milonguero" 1940


http://open.spotify.com/user/anttiveikko/playlist/4XjpPDxSv3uAomratgwFvg
http://www.deezer.com/playlist/1044647471
This weeks tanda is from Orquesta Típica Victor. The Tipica Victor or OTV was a studio orchestra of the Victor record label and they recorded a large amount of tango music I believe in between 1925 and 1945. The orchestra was directed by great musicians like Adolfo Carabelli and although lot of the recordings were instrumental also singers like Charlo, Alberto Gomez and even Angel Vargas sang in their recordings.

"Other important names that passed through the ranks of the orchestra were: the bandoneon players Federico Scorticati, Carlos Marcucci and Pedro Laurenz; Orlando Carabelli, brother of the leader, and Nerón Ferrazzano on double bass; on violins: Antonio Buglione, Eduardo Armani and Eugenio Nobile. Cayetano Puglisi, Alfredo De Franco and Aníbal Troilo were also included in the orchestra on some occasions.

Years later, and due to commercial reasons, the label thought that only one orchestra was not enough. For that reason a number of orchestras began to appear: "Orquesta Victor Popular", the "Orquesta Típica Los Provincianos" led by Ciriaco Ortiz, the "Orquesta Radio Victor Argentina" led by Mario Maurano, the "Orquesta Argentina Victor", the "Orquesta Victor Internacional", the "Cuarteto Victor" (lined up by Cayetano Puglisi, Antonio Rossi, Ciriaco Ortiz and Francisco Pracánico) and the excellent "Trío Victor", with the violinist Elvino Vardaro and the guitarists Oscar Alemán and Gastón Bueno Lobo. The already mentioned quality of the musicians made the Orquesta Típica Victor one of the highest musical expressions of its period, and it would remain at the same level until the late thirties." - Néstor Pinsón, TodoTango


I feel that most of the OTV instrumentals that i hear in milongas are more downtempo, and while I like some of them (for example the great "Viento Norte"), I personally always found the uptempo songs more to my liking. And here if you compare "Jueves" to the same song recorded by Juan D'Arienzo in 1937 you'll notice that the high energy and uptempo style was already present in the Victor labels releases already before D'Arienzo's breakthrough.

These songs are mostly credited for "Orquesta Tipica Victor" bus as Clive Harrison pointed out in the comment section below the second and third song were recorded by "Orquesta Radio Victor Argentina". I added a bonus track on the tanda playlists, which is the super uptempo "El Enterriano" also recorded by Orquesta Radio Victor Argentina.

Enjoy!

Orquesta Tipica Victor - TOTW - Todo Tangotango.info - iTunes Store


Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Tanda of the Week 45 / 2014 - Hector Varela (valses) - DJ Antti Suniala


1. Héctor Varela / Argentino Ledesma, Rodolfo Lesica - "Como tu cariño" 1954
2. Héctor Varela / Argentino Ledesma, Rodolfo Lesica - "Igual que dos palomas" 1953
3. Héctor VarelaArmando Laborde, Rodolfo Lesica - "Patio porteño" 1952
4. Héctor Varela - "Llanto de amor" 1952


http://open.spotify.com/user/anttiveikko/playlist/7KkE35ZpCGCX5StqGu8LeJ
http://www.deezer.com/playlist/1033900741
I just recently found the great "Llanto de amor" instrumental vals from Hector Varela and here I've used it in a tanda with the earlier 50's valses with vocal duo's from Ledesma/Lesica and Laborde/Lesica. With valses DJ's play either three or four songs and I usually play only three but I'll make an exception here for Tanda of the Week.

Just a quick thought about the order of the songs. You could start with the faster "Igual que dos palomas" (2:36) but here I thought that I'll put the longest (and a bit repetitious) song "Como tu carino" (3:31) first so that by the time everybody gets on the floor in the beginning of the tanda they'll have around 2:30 or 3:00 of time to dance to the first song and the other songs follow more or less with the same duration. If I went the other way and start with the shorter "Igual..." dancers would have 1:30 or 2:00 of the first song and 3:30 of the second. These things don't make a huge difference.... but they make a small difference... and can affect the flow of the tanda or the milonga.

Also with Varela and "Llanto de amor" you could of course make a fully instrumental vals tanda as well (which I also do). But here the 4th song being the instrumental serves the purpose of refreshing the style a bit... a 4th vocal duo song might get a bit heavy for our sensitive ears and delicate souls.

Another thing for DJ's. When playing songs of different quality and clarity you can't trust your iTunes (or even Traktor Pro) for correcting volume levels etc. Keep your fingers on the volume and eq for these songs. Better yet... what I did for "Llanto de amor" (I have only this version from the Grandes del Tango 44, which could be of better quality) was to remaster it the best I could to more or less match the dynamics of the other songs.

Anyways... I hope you like the tanda. Enjoy!

Varela, Héctor - TOTW - Todo Tango - tango.info - TangoTunes - iTunes Store