The Big Bosses of Tango: ANIBAL TROILO

In the present moment, May 2008

Some folks are addicted to the news, to events currently happening. Que paso?? Take my parents for instance. News on the telly, news on the radio, news articles in the newspapers. News in my country, news overseas, news from all round the world. Such are daily fodders of life for my parents, who are rivetted to news on an hourly basis.

Conversely, I am inordinately fond of documentaries and given any excuse, will consume them in large qualities like popping candies. The calm and factual voice of documentary-telling, when juxtaposed with the colourful stories unfolding infront of one´s eyes, is a fascinating combination which gives me hours of viewing pleasure. There lives a bit of the historian in everyone:)


Los Capos Del Tango: Anibal Troilo
Finally I have the opportunity to watch the DVD tango documentary "Los Capos Del Tango: Anibal Troilo". The word "Capo" is used to refer to the Head of an organised crime syndicate, a.k.a The Big Boss.

The nickname given to Troilo by his dad was "Pichuco", and affectionately, Troilo is also referred to as "El Gordo" ("Gordo" means fat). Since Anibal Troilo passed away in the month of May (18 May 1975), I though it is rather apt to feature this article during this month.


If you are a fan of tango music, you will know of the unassailable status Anibal Troilo occupies today. He is Argentina´s national hero of tango music. Troilo is known as "El Bandoneón mayor de Buenos Aires" (The greatest bandoneon of Buenos Aires).

The day of Troilo´s birth (11 July 1914) on 11 July has been dedicated as the National Day of the Bandoneon in Argentina.

The sphere of influence of Troilo´s mark goes beyond that of tango music for dancing, although Troilo was always intent on his dancing audience. His warm personality that inspired goodwill and loyalty from those that knew him, his vision in arrangement and most of all, his talent as an orchestra leader for orchestrating and elevating tango music to a complex and symphonic level made Troilo the national tango icon that he is today.

For fans of Troilo, we can enjoy the elegantly designed official website of Anibal Troilo at http://www.troilo.com.ar/ The Spanish version contains a fascinating wealth of information on Troilo, while the English and Japanese versions are in brief.


"El Bandoneón mayor de Buenos Aires"

I previously read that Anibal Troilo adored his mother above all else. So the documentary began fittingly with these words in the voice of his bandoneon:

"It is me, your bandoneon, I am talking to you Anibal Troilo, from Solera and Gallo*. The one you used to take to the movie at Corrientes and Medrano** as a boy.

The same bandoneon your old mother bought, with the coins she used to keep in the closet, and it was on her account that my plaintive tunes were sadder on the opening night of "Alma de bohemio" ".

* Solera and Gallo are streets in the barrio of Palermo in Buenos Aires. The area is also popularly known as Palermo Soho, for its resemblance to the artistic vibes of Soho, NYC.

** Similarly, Corrienties and Medrano are 2 cross streets along Avenida Corrientes, at the Subte (train) station Medrano (B line) in the barrio Almagro.


The documentary recounts that Troilo´s love affair with the bandoneon started young; he convinced his mother Doña Felisa to purchase his first bandoneon when he was 10 years old. In his youth, Troilo was influenced by 2 renowned bandoneonists, Pedro Maffia and Pedro Laurenz. The duo at the time were part of Julio de Caro´s sextet. Another major bandoneonist who shaped his style was Ciriaco Ortiz, whose orchestra Troilo played in before starting his own.

Troilo made his debut on 1 July, 1937 with his own orchestra tipica. Among his musicians was the pianist Orlando Goni while Francisco Florentino was his singer. With this pairing, the orchestra played rhythmic, very danceable music. Later on with singers such as Alberto Marino and Floreal Ruiz, the orchestra developed a more melodic style with less driving compass.

How Troilo played his bandoneon

"No hay tango viejo ni tango nuevo. El tango es uno sólo. Tal vez la única diferencia está en los que lo hacen bien y los que lo hacen mal."

Aníbal Troilo

(There is no old tango or new tango. The tango is one. Perhaps the only difference is in those who do it well and those who do it badly.)

Troilo´s stage presence is a distinctive one. He sat quite still and played with quiet and plaintive eyes, staring lost in internal conversation with his bandoneon. The classic signature look is Troilo playing with his eyes closed, head slightly tilted, double-chin pursed and rapted in phrasing the bandoneon chords. Above I have included a CD cover that captured this signature look of Troilo´s.

It was said that Troilo had a relatively understated and retrospective style. Paradoxically, his control and fine balance allowed his bandoneon music to convey poignancy, subtleness of emotions and richness of texture.

In the documentary "Los Capos Del Tango: Anibal Troilo" there was a description that I particularly liked of Troilo´s style. In an interview with the bandoneonist and arranger Pascal Mamone, he described a tremendous sweetness in the Troilo sound. He said, "There was one thing about Troilo, he would play a note... which will perforate your heart"

The description in Castellano: "Hacer una nota que te perforaba tu corazon"] - what a marvellously beautiful and poetic turn of phrase!

Pascal Mamone was borned in 1921. He was taught by his idol Pedro Maffia and later joined his orchestra in 1942.


Recommendations of "Los Capos Del Tango: Anibal Troilo"
If you are interested in knowing more about Anibal Troilo, one of the greatest celebrity of tango music, this DVD would be an excellent source of interviews and archival material. The tone in the DVD documentary is slightly academic, so I would recommend this DVD as a must for Troilo fans and lovers of tango music who are already versed in the major tango orchestras and various musicians.

For fans of old tango movies, there is even an amusing scene from "Tango Vuelve a Paris" (Tango Back in Paris, made in 1948) showing Alberto Castillo together with Anibal Troilo, in animated discussion about taking Paris by storm with their music, in the same way that Pizaro, Canaro, Arolas and Gardel had made their triumph marks before.


So far there is only 1 other DVD made in this series, Los Capos Del Tango: JUAN D´ARIENZO. I was told that the directors had planned another DVD on Osvaldo Pugliese but apparently the effort stalled in the negotiation of production rights.

Information on the DVD:
"Los Capos del Tango: Anibal Troilo" was produced for Solo Tango and contains approximately 93 mins of play in total, featuring 60 mins of material taken from interviews and visual material of Solo Tango archives. In addition, it comes with an extra 30 mins consisting of 3 musical videoclips of Troilo and his orchestra tipica. Non-Spanish speakers would be pleased to know that while the language medium used is Spanish, English subtitles are included!

"Maria de Buenos Aires" turns 40

In the present moment, Apr 2008

The coming 8 May 2008 marks 40 years of the première of "Maria de Buenos Aires", an operita work of Astor Piazzolla in collaboration with the poet Horacio Ferrer that became known around the world.

It is a surrealistic song cycle-like story told in 2 parts, recounting the life and death of Maria, who came from the slums of Buenos Aires to the city, fell to the seduction of tango and became a streetwalker. After her death, Maria was condemned to hell - of the city of Buenos Aires itself. Her shadow wanders through Avenida Corrientes, the epicenter of cinemas and theatres in Buenos Aires.

"Maria de Buenos Aires" was the first collaborative work between Piazzolla and Ferrer, the start of a partnership that left compositions from "Balada para un loco" to "Chiquilín de Bachín", "El Gordo Triste", "La ultima Grela" and many others.

The operita premièred on 8 May 1968 in the Sala Planeta, located at the streets Suipacha and Paraguay in the microcentro of Buenos Aires, with Piazzolla (bandonenon) and Ferrer (narrator): sang by Amelita Baltar and Hector de Rosas, Hugo Baralis and Antonio Agri (violins), Nestor Panik (viola), Victor Pontino (cello), Kicho Diaz (bass), Tito Bisio (vibes), Cacho Tirao (guitar) and Arturo Schneider (flute).

The operita was released in September of the same year under the recording label Trova (LP Trova TL-20/2).

It has been reported that Maria de Buenos Aires will form part of the next season of the Colon Theater, which herself will turn a century old this year.

The above has been partially sourced and translated from the publication "La Portena Tango", Buenos Aires, Issue No.45, April 2008.

Writer´s notes:
1. During his lifetime, Piazzolla struggled for recognition for his avant garde creations to be regarded as tango by the country that gave birth to him and his music. The acceptance came perhaps slowly, and not until his works shot to fame overseas before this land took their prodigal son to their embrace. Maria de Buenos Aires was one of the key works that led to his resounding success around the world, that came to know of Astor Piazzolla and tango.

2. Since my arrival in Buenos Aires almost a year ago, the grand Theater Colon has been stubbornly barracaded behind scaffoldings for renovation works.

I heard that the reopening of Theater Colon is scheduled for May 2008! Although this remains to be seen. Renovation works of heritage structures can be notoriously tricky to manage.

3. The Trova re-issue is a double CD 5013 & 5014 (1993, Argentina).

The Women of Tango

In the present moment, Oct 2007

From time to time, there are defining moments in our journey.

Today, the women of tango walked into my life. The female singers I mean.

Before today, beyond a cursory acquitance, my familiarity with the female singers of tango was sadly limited to Ada Falcon (see the section on “Yo no sé que me han hecho tus ojos" in Música del Alma). I don’t know why I never felt the urge to expand my repertoire beyond the male singers. Sometimes, things fall in place naturally when we are ready for it.

Well, earlier today I was happily shopping for tango music and chatting to the nice lady helping me in the shop. For some reason, one after another, female tango singers kept popping into the picture. Starting with Ada Falcon. Next came Azucena Maizani. Then Mercedes Simone. A while later, a record was playing and I managed to identify Libertad Lamarque singing. No mean feat since I can count on my 2 hands the number of times I have heard Libertad Lamarque.

Finally, the lady bought out a CD “Se Va La Vida – Tango Ladies, 1923-54”. It has the range of era in tango music that I like. I even liked the cover. Sadly the CD was a bit pricey so I didn’t get it.

Inspired by the appearance en masse of these grand dames of tango in a single afternoon, I came home and looked up the singers on Todotango and sampled their songs respectively. I enjoyed the write-up on the singers, the descriptions of their voice and what characterized their singing. I have added the links, you can read about Rosita Quiroga, Azucena Maizani, Mercedes Simone, Ada Falcón, Libertad Lamarque, Nelly Omar and Tita Merello.

In particular, 2 anecdotes from Todotango caught my attention. The first was a piece of “tango tabloid”☺. Many singers of bygone eras also starred in movies. The same phenomenon happened in the East. Anyway, Libertad Lamarque starred in over 20 movies in Argentina. During one shooting, a harsh argument arose between Libertad and the actress Eva Duarte. It was said that after the incident, difficulties to Libertad Lamarque’s career sprang up and she had to emigrate to Mexico. And yes. This is the same Eva who latter married a man named Juan Perón. At the time of the “fight” she was already linked with the future “El Presidente”. Read about the woman Eva Perón loved to hate in "Two Tough Dolls".

The second was a touching letter to Rosita Quiroga from Yoyi Kanematz of Japan, a lover of tango music, written in 1970 in his anticipation of Rosita Quiroga’s visit to Osaka. It holds an account of what tango music meant to the author in the last days of World War II.

Grand ladies of tango, I shall enjoy getting to know you better in the coming days.

Ah, the music!

I am slightly surprised by my response to the music in the milongas in Buenos Aires.

In Buenos Aires, I experience tango music much more strongly than I ever had before. Here in the milongas, my feelings for tango music are intensified 2-3 times over. Before one jump to the conclusion it is due to the musicality of my porteno partners, let me say that I do experience this musical high when I am simply sitting out a tanda listening to the music.

Is it due to a particular venue then? But I had the same experience at different milonga venues such as at El Beso, Salon Canning and Maipu 444 with different DJs. Of course it goes without saying these milongas have talented DJs who direct the flow & ebb of music with consummate skills.

How does it feel like? In one word, I would describe it as “overwhelming”. Literally it feels like the music is expanding inside of me like a balloon, ready to burst out from the chest. I have the same experience, the same “soaring” emotional reverberation when listening to a great operatic aria.

What surprised me most was that I felt this emotional rush frequently when listening to Jorge Duran, one of the singers of the Di Sarli orquesta. Alberto Podesta remains my favourite Di Sarli singer, for his voice’s sotto voce quality and longing hue. I was never fond of Jorge Duran. His characteristic barrel-like voice I always found too loud and rather lacking in delicacy of emotions. So imagine my surprise when time after time in the milongas here, I would be swept away when a Duran-Di Sarli tanda comes on. I don’t even own a single CD of Duran’s singing. Yet often I can identify Duran-Di Sarli’s songs with certainty. In fact, I would experience the emotional response and then come to the realisation that the singer is Duran.

A quick aside. Among the Podesta-Di Sarli songs, “Otra noche” comes close to the same dramatic intensity. Di Sarli’s “Buenos Aires”, sang by Roberto Florio, is fairly dramatic but I find Florio’s voice in the song too thin and lacks Duran’s booming richness to give the same intensity. The end result just come across as slightly hysteric.

So why do I experience tango music more intensely here?

Does it boil down simply to first-rate DJing in the milongas? Or is it the emotional energy given off by dancers? Perhaps decades of tango music have seeped into the very pores of the walls and in the air that we breathe, in this city where tango music was born. I don’t have an answer. All I know is that there is a special quality in the Buenos Aires milongas that give extra emotional intensity to tango music.

It makes the overall experience for dancing, truly larger than life.

THIS is why we come to Buenos Aires.

Intermission: Tres Esquinas (Three Corners)

In May 2007’s issue of tango magazine El Tangauta, I finally found the last piece of the puzzle of a song that has special meaning for me.

In an article on Page 40, Tres Esquinas is translated as “Three Corners’. What does the name means? I found out that Tres Esquinas was the name of a station of a train line that no longer exists today in Buenos Aires.

The song Tres Esquinas first came upon me in the tango documentary “Tango, Baile Nuestro” by Jorge Zanada. I have been dancing tango only a few months then, and have no idea what was the name of the song. The grand orquesta of Angel D’Agnostino y Angel Vargas meant nothing for a while yet. Those marvelous revelations came later. What I knew was that the song was beautiful and echoingly evocative. It occupies a special place in my heart. Until today it never fails to struck a deep chord within me.

I watched “Tango, Baile Nuestro” over and over, rewinding continuously to the scenes with clips of social dancing in Buenos Aires circa early 1980s. That is a story for another time perhaps. In one of the scenes, Tres Esquinas was the song playing when the veteran portenos danced around a big dance floor resembling a basketball court. This is of course Club Sunderland, the milonga located in the barrio of Villa Equiza in Buenos Aires. Music and its associations with our memories have great evocative powers. At any time, no sooner do I hear the melodic opening of Tres Esquinas, am I transported to another time and era.

      “Yo soy del barrio de Tres Esquinas, Viejo baluarte del arrbal…”
  (I am from the neighborhood of Tres Esquinas, old bulwark of the suburbs…”)

El Tangauta

The sweet, sweet soaring strains of violins playing the refrain followed by the echoingly notes of the piano brings an upwelling of emotions and moisture to the eyes. The tears do not fall because this song is redolent of nostalgia and not heartache. Nostalgia is a quality of longing for those times past, often tinged with regret, yes, but with the air of acceptance. Who else has any other choice but to accept the past? We look back at the past as if watching images flashing silently past on the surface of an old mirror, the fleeting images indistinct and yellow with age. The pang will always be there. The rest has dissolved into a million shimmering pieces, long since seeped away with time.


Before the turn of the twentieth century, the last train left from the Tres Esquinas station and by middle of the century, the station was demolished.

El Tangauta’s article put it well. The tango remained.


Footnote: Tres Esquinas station was located at Paseo Colon y Venezuela in today’s area of Monserrat in Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires Tango

National Geographic Feature: Buenos Aires Tango

"Inspired by his own coverage, photographer Pablo Corral Vega filmed this short documentary with Pocho Alvarez on the allure of tango. Join him at his favorite haunts in night-loving Buenos Aires."

Video: Tango de Buenos Aires

Inspirado pela sua própria reportagem, o fotógrafo Pablo Corral Vega filmou, com Pocho Alvarez, este curto documentário sobre o fascínio do tango. Acompanhe-o aos seus locais preferidos da notívaga Buenos Aires.

Photographer Pablo Corral Vega also filmed the superb National Geographic Tango issue in December 2003, titled "And Still They TANGO". This was at a time when Buenos Aires was coping with the worst of its economical woes after the crash of the Argentine peso. Since then, life may not be exactly rosy but the portenos have sprung back with their irrepressible appeptite for living.

Tango, and keep your soul alive through thick and thin.

Música del Alma

What is tango without tango music? Tango music and tango the dance is an intertwined experience for me. Tango music elicits a deep instinctive response from the inner core that will not be denied.

There are many tango songs that I enjoy dancing to, most of them from the Golden Era up to the Fifties. Among the assortment of much-loved pieces, I find the few songs listed below entrancing and worth a special mention.

Este es el rey
The opening section and refrain of this song is bold and audacious as befitting the title. Trust D’Arienzo to concoct this big, brassy exciting piece!

Ella es así
The milonga by Edgardo Donato is totally wicked and irresistible to dancing feet. Exhilarating!

Siete Palabras
Some songs wait for tango dancers to complete the picture. Such was the case for Siete Palabras by Di Sarli. Maestros Julio Balmaceda & Corina de la Rosa’s performance on the tangoaficionado website clinched it for me. The plucking notes are magic.

Champagne tango
I confess a certain preference for late Di Sarli – rich, deep and emotive. There is something very alluring and sensuous about the soaring melody of this piece. Indeed, the golden notes tingle on the palate like fine champagne. Oh, to have the grace to glide to the Champagne tango!

Tres esquinas
This song by Los Dos Angeles (Angel D’Agnostino & Angel Vargas) always conjures up scenes of the Buenos Aires social dance floor for me, in particular Club Sunderland. Vargas’ singing is a perfect counterpoint to the echoingly nostalgic tune.

Yo no sé que me han hecho tus ojos
Ever since I watched the 2003 tango documentary of the same name (I don't know what your eyes have done to me) directed by Sergio Wolf and Lorena Muñoz *, this vals has embedded itself into my mind. It is sung by late tango singer and diva Ada Falcón with music and lyrics by Francisco Canaro. The documentary traces the life of Ada Falcón, her doomed relationship with Francisco Canaro and her subsequent withdrawal from society at the height of her fame. Ada Falcón was famous for her green eyes.

When I listen to Canaro’s songs, many have a characteristic sweetness, but often it is a bitter-sweetness of heartache and broken love affairs and not the sweetness that you find in pieces, say, by Osvaldo Fresedo.

Even though I am not a particularly lyrics-driven person, the lyrics of “Yo no sé que me han hecho tus ojos” reads like an impassionate love letter, the words in the setting of the haunting tune are unforgettable given the background context. Devastating.

Yo no se que me han hecho tus ojos Translation

Yo no se si es cariño el que siento,
yo no se si sera una pasión,
solo se que al no verte una pena va rondando por mi corazón...
Yo no se que me han hecho tus ojos que al mirarme me matan de amor,

yo no se que me han hecho tus labios que al besar mis labios,
se olvida eldolor...

* Footnote: "Yo no se que me han hecho tus ojos" was awarded the Best Latin America Film Ward

Quejas de Bandoneon
This is the definitive song for me. The signature piece by Anibal Troilo incapacitates me every time I hear it, the experience is so overwhelming that it makes my insides clench tight. The full orchestra sound and powerful bandoneon swells bring to mind a grand passion/story that spans across the years. Its full intensity is interspersed with achingly sweet sections of the bandoneon. Finally, the ending comes and goes without regret.

I first heard the song in the tango documentary “Tango, baile nuestro” by Jorge Zanada. It contains a seminal performance by an old couple to Quejas de Bandoneon which is so fitting I doubt I would ever see another equal to it. I should stop trying to dance to this song, it is completely beyond me to express it.

Una nota dulce - Enero