I have mixed feelings when I write about Alfredo de Angelis. When I started to dance tango and learn about tango orchestras, I did not like de Angelis at all. The first 2 things that were coming to my mind were: the music is boring and sounds as if it was recorded by someone on a cheap Casio synthesizer... I obviously changed my mind since then, but I think there's a bit of truth in what I was thinking before. Some songs sound "neutral", they are between: fast and slow, rhythmic and lyric, they don't really inspire me to dance. I'm pretty sure that de Angelis was not using Casio, but some of his late songs are not very sophisticated. A few of them sound like ballroom tango music, which is usually simpler in its form (simpler does not mean worse, it's just different, because it serves a different purpose).
After reading all the bad things that I have written above, you can ask: why do I bother and write about de Angelis. The answer is simple: it is a very important and frequently played orchestra. There are many amazing and famous songs. You probably know them very well: e.g. Pregonera, Pavadita, Volvamos A Empezar. Every time I hear the last one, I get goosebumps and feel melancholic.
Alfredo de Angelis is probably the only out of the important orchestras that is more famous for his valses than tangos. His valses are surely between the most frequently played both in Buenos Aires and in Europe. This is why I will start with them....
