Aníbal Troilo with Francisco Fiorentino

If you go to any milonga with traditional music, you will probably hear at least one tanda of Troilo. If you do, there is a high chance that Francisco Fiorentino will be a singer.

Francisco Fiorentino started his career as a bandoneonist, not as a vocalist. In 1928 he joined the orchestra of Francisco Canaro. The orchestra leader realized that Fiorentino is a talented singer. Since then, for several years Fiorentino did both playing and singing in orchestras of Juan Carlos Cobián, Roberto Firpo, Pedro Maffia, Juan D'Arienzo, Roberto Zerrillo, Minotto Di Cicco and Francisco Canaro.

In 1937 Fiorentino joined the orchestra of Troilo and stayed working with him until 1944. This was the top period in his career. Afterwards, he created his own orchestra lead by Astor Piazzolla, but it did not turn out to be a success. For more detailed biographical and discographical information please go to:

Todo Tango - Francisco Fiorentino (available only in Spanish)

I split the recordings of Troilo with Fiorentino into 2 groups: early (from 1941 till 1942) and late (from1942 till 1944). It is much easier to build consistent tanda if you stick to songs from one period only. More experienced DJs can obviously mix them.

Songs from early period are very rhythmic and fast (65-70 beats per minute). They are full of syncopations. A tanda of songs from this period will never fail. Both beginners and advanced dancers will enjoy it and the energy in the room will go up! From this period comes the famous recording of En Esta Tarde Gris.

Songs from late period are very melodic and slow (58-65 beats per minute). If played in milonga, some of them can be challenging for less experienced dancers. You can use tanda of recodings from that period after a tanda of milonga, when you want to calm down the dance floor and bring more emotions.

Song examples:

Early period:

En Esta Tarde Gris, canta Francisco Fiorentino, 1941
Bailan Gaston Torelli y Noelia Hurtado

Tinta Roja, canta Francisco Fiorentino, 1941
Bailan Paulina Cazabon y José Luis Gonzalez

El bulín de la calle Ayacucho, canta Francisco Fiorentino, 1941
Bailan Javier Rodriguez y Andrea Misse

Late period:

Malena, canta Francisco Fiorentino, 1942

Cada Vez Que Me Recuerdes, canta Francisco Fiorentino, 1943

Sosiego en la noche, canta Francisco Fiorentino, 1943

Aníbal Troilo - Overview

 

Aníbal Troilo´s orchestra is put by most experienced dancers and DJs in top 4 of the best and most important  formations in the history of tango (together with d´Arienzo, di Sarli and Pugliese). I´m actually quite surprised that I have not written about it before. :) I feel that this orchestra is recently  becoming more popular and is now "in fashion".

Troilo formed his first own band in 1938. Before he played with many famous and influential tango musicians: the violinists Juan d'Arienzo, Julio de Caro, Alfredo Gobbi and Elvino Vardaro, the pianist Osvaldo Pugliese, the bandoneonists Ciriacio Ortiz, Juan Maglio, Luis Petrucelli.

Troilo had been recording between 1938 and 1971. The most famous recordings come from the 40ies: instrumentals and those with singers Francisco Fiorentino & Alberto Marino. But there is more to discover. Recordings with singer Floreal Ruíz (1944-1948) are very good and danceable. Some of the instrumentals from the 50ies can be also used in milongas. The rest of the recordings are very interesting, but mostly only for listening.

The orchestra of Troilo is one of the few that has a large selection of  tangos, valses and milongas. Valses are very popular and can be heard frequently in regular milongas, festivals and marathons. Milongas are good and danceable, but for some reason they are not regularly  played. As a dancer,  I don´t enjoy them much and I don´t use them as a DJ. The floor usually gets pretty empty when you hear them. :
 

If you are a tango DJ or a music collector you should definitely get the 16 CD collection "Obra Completa en RCA". Most of you will need  only the first 7 CDs (recordings up to 1948). Later recordings are less interesting from dancing perspective. The covers of those CDs look like the following:

For more detailed biographical and discographical information please go to:
Todo Tango - Aníbal Troilo

In the next post I will start from presenting Troilo´s work with Francisco Fiorentino. As a teaser, you´ll find a few of my favorite songs below...

En Esta Tarde Gris, canta Francisco Fiorentino, 1941

Tinta Roja, canta Francisco Fiorentino, 1941

Lagrimitas De Mi Corazón, cantan Edmundo Rivero y Floreal Ruiz, 1948

Juan d'Arienzo - Overview

The orchestra of Juan d'Arienzo is one of the most important (if not the most important) in the tango music history. I'm pretty sure that very few people would disagree with it. As per music survey I have carried out in February 2012, Juan d'Arienzo is the most frequently played orquesta in Buenos Aires (considering tango, milonga and vals all together).

D'Arienzo recored with many singers, but in my opinion there are 2 big names: Alberto Echagüe and Hector Maure. We can obviously find a lot of good songs recorded with other singers, but in general they are less interesting and for that reason they are not so frequently played in milongas.

Concerning instrumental recordings: in my opinion in all periods (1935 till 1975) we can find very good songs that can be played in milongas.

In the history of tango music you will not find many orchestras that would have a great selection of tangos, valses and milongas. D’Arienzo is certainly one of them. All 3 genres are play frequently in milongas both in Buenos Aires and Europe. Other orchestras that have wide selection of danceable and popular tangos, valses and milongas are Francisco Canaro, Anibal Troilo, Edgardo Donato.

The big entrance of d'Arienzo happened in 1935. But he did record quite may songs before that, in 1928. Between the singers at that time we had Carlos Dante and Francisco Fiorentino (that will become famous with other orchestras later on). From dancing and dj-ing perspective songs from that period are not really interesting.

Click the link below if you want to see the timeline of d'Arienzo's orquesta with the musicians set-up in different periods.
D’Arienzo – Orchestra’s Members

For detailed biographical information please go to:
Todo Tango - Juan d'Arienzo

For the best discographical information please go to:
Discography of Juan d'Arienzo