Argentine Tango (Tango Argentino)

Philosophy in small coins

Some years before, in his essay Les Assassins de la Mémoire —an acute study on the neo-nazi revisionism in contemporary Europe—, the French writer Pierre Vidal-Naquet transcribed lyrics of “Cambalache”, the seminal tango by Enrique Santos Discépolo. A far-fetched quotation? Maybe a feature of exotism by an intellectual in search of oxygen out of the European culture environment? According to the author´s confession, he was acquainted with Discépolo´s work by way of some Latin American friends. And he decided to include him in a book not at all connected with tango. The image of a cambalache (second-hand shop) as scenery for insolent random, of a confusion of values and desacralization seemed to him most adequate to seal his denouncing text.

That was not the first time which Discépolo´s work aroused interest in the field of thought. The Spaniard Camilo José Cela included him among his preferred popular poets and Ernesto Sábato had no doubt in identifying himself with the pessimistic philosophy of the one who wrote “Qué vachaché”: «True love got drowned in the soup». Several years before these recognitions, the lunfardo (slang) poets Dante Linyera and Carlos de la Púa defined Discépolo as an author with philosophy. Another writer from Buenos Aires, Julián Centeya, when reviewing one of his films, talked of «philosophy in small coins», and at the same time was risking an analogy —undoubtedly exaggerated— between Discépolo and... Charlie Chaplin.

Unlike other popular creators who displayed their talent in an instinctive and somewhat naïve way to be later recognized as future exegetes, Discépolo was always conscious of his contribution. It could also be stated that all his artistic renderings were articulated by common sense, a certain Discepolian air or spirit which people immediately recognizes with affection and admiration as if his work —more than once defined as prophetic— should express the common sense of the Argentines. Discépolo´s singularity keeps on disquieting either in the tango universe or outside it. While most of his contemporaries are today strange to new generations, the man who wrote and composed “Cambalache” persists, is in force. Or to say it with one of his most loved images: he keeps on biting.

Enrique grew up seeing theater guided by his brother Armando, the great playwright of the River Plate grotesque, and soon later he was attracted by popular arts. He arrived at tango after having tried with uneven success, play writing and acting. In 1917, he made his début as an actor, in the company of Roberto Casaux, a comic star of that time, and a year later he wrote together with a friend the play Los Duendes, mistreated by critics. He later improved his level with El Señor Cura (adaptation of a Maupassant´s story), Día Feriado, El Hombre Solo, Páselo Cabo and, especially, El Organito, fierce social painting sketched with his brother in the mid-20s. As an actor, Discépolo evolved from chorus member to a cast name, and his work in Mustafá, would be remembered, among many other renditions.

Although the worlds of tango and theater were not divorced in the Argentina of Yrigoyen and Gardel, Discépolo´s decision to be an author of popular songs was resisted by his elder brother —Armando had been responsible for Enrique´s education after the early death of their parents—, and it cannot be said that things had been easy for the feeble and shy Discepolín. A mild familiar influence (Santo, his father, was a noted Neapolitan musician settled in Buenos Aires) may have been the first evidence towards the combined art of sound organization and lyrics, but the revelation was not immediate. On the contrary, either the anodyne “Bizcochito”, his first composition commissioned by the playwright Saldías, or the remarkable and revulsive “Qué vachaché”, published by Julio Korn in 1926 and premiered at a theater in Montevideo where it was noisily...

She was the first singer, direct heiress of the primitive payadores. His is a unique case in the history of the woman in the tango. No one expressed as she, sang with the same cadence and the same I left with the speaker, was the female prototype -irrepetible- of the suburban.

He played naturally, as he did, and played the guitar by tone, as Juan de Dios Filiberto, his neighbor in the neighborhood of La Boca taught.

He spoke by interlacing vulgar words, with a canyengue rhythm, as he would have heard it from the men of his house, port workers, and carreros. She did it with a lisp and her voice was not powerful but it generated an intimate atmosphere as if singing for herself. This style accompanied her until her death despite the fact that she had already overcome poverty and had a very well-off economic position.

Journalist Jorge Göttling called it "The Buenos Aires Edith Piaff".

It appeared at the precise moment and was different at all.

The success came quickly, was beloved daughter of the company Victor to which he was faithful throughout his career. It began to record in 1923, the first record was a style titled "Always Creole". His first tango was "La tipa", by guitarist Enrique Maciel and lyrics by Enrique Maroni.

It was her and of course the label Victor, who inaugurated in Argentina the era of electrical recordings. The event happened on March 1, 1926, that day made four electric recordings, but by number of matrix the first and therefore emblematic in the record history of our country was "The muse mistonga", by Antonio Polito and Celedonio Flores.

It continued until 10 of February of 1931, when also registered four subjects. He practically then ended his career, he was 35 years old, although he continued to appear on radio, sporadically. He did not like performing in public.

During that very successful period (1923-1931) he managed to have much predicament in the decisions of the record label, to such an extent that his management made the great Agustín Magaldi, then an unknown singer, record in the company.

For many years the poet Celedonio Flores wrote only for her, creating 24 subjects, among which are "Boy" and "Beba" (with music by Edgardo Donato), "Audacia" (Hugo La Rocca), "Carta brava" With music by herself), "The muse mistonga" (Antonio Polito) and "Contundencia" (Mario Micchelini).

He returned to the album in March 1952 and made four songs and his farewell occurred on September 14, 1984 (32 days before his death), urged by his friend and personal doctor Dr. Luis Alposta, accompanied by guitarist Aníbal Arias and His set, recording "Campaneando mi pasado", with lyrics of Alposta and his music.

In 1970 he traveled to Osaka, Japan, for an invitation from the members of a tango rock that bears his name.

Almost always accompanied by guitarists, but at the beginning she also sang accompanied by the orchestras of Carlos Vicente Geroni Flores, Antonio Scatasso, Eduardo Pereyra, Manuel Buzón and others, all belonging to the label Victor.

Rosita Quiroga is the most genuine representative of the tango suburban, today a legend of the most rancid Buenos Aires, for many the greatest, and is revered by all who love this great paradigm called tango.

Even though he wasn't avant-garde, Aníbal Troilo was one of the 3 or 4 musicians who backed at one time, Carlos Gardel.

The son of an Italian migrant, Piazzolla is one of the most revolutionary bandoneon players and songwriters. With the Tango's New Quintet, he laid down the path towards renovating Tango.

Carlos Gardel is definitely linked to Tango's beginnings, its forms, its character. Gardel creates a genre didn't exist before: Tango singer.