Posts in Tango Musicality/History
Ramiro Gigliotti's Tango Venom: You, I greet. You too. You I don't.

In the early 2000s, I ran into Ramiro Gigliotti at Salon Canning. I had met him a couple of years earlier when he came to teach in L.A. I loved his dancing, and he was very kind to me. I was already teaching in LA, and I was always looking for ways to get better in Argentine Tango.

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Carmencita Calderón - Virtual Class 10/11/2020 by Makela Tango

Carmencita’s significance as a tango dancer:

* She had 87+ years of tango dancing.

* She danced and performed with El Cachafaz one of the most important male Tango dancers.

* She performed in the first Argentinean sound movie “Tango” in 1933.

* Her dance was unique, musical. She improvised and interpreted beautifully the lead of her partner with adornments.

* Carmencita and El Cachafaz created a new tango dancing style with corridas - sentadas - quebradas (Anecdotally she also says that she is the creator of the tango skirt slit)

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Carlos Di Sarli - Virtual Class 8/30/2020 by Makela Tango

For the dancers, Carlos Di Sarli brings us lots of memories. Maybe the first class taken was playing his music. I particularly remember a performance of Osvaldo Zotto and Lorena Ermocida of Bahía Blanca at el Club Almagro in the 90s. I thought they were magnificent, and I will never forget how they expressed the music of Di Sarli with their foot work and embrace.

Carlos Di Sarli has many danceable tangos . They are simple, with a clear beat and at the same time the violins add a great sweet romantic melody. The piano is present in all the little spaces, to give us followers the opportunity to add embellishments. The almost inexistent bandoneon, appears in the moments that it is needed, given to the piece the tango flavor.

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Astor Piazzolla - Virtual Class 8/23/2020 by Makela Tango

According to himself: “I left the (Troilo’s) orchestra around 1949 - I had an attack of erudite music - and it was then when Piazzolla erudite was born. I composed symphonic music, chamber music. The orchestra of Bruno Bandini of Radio Del Estado would play everything I wrote,, everybody was playing my music, so I started feeling superior. I didn’t want to go back to tango. But I needed to pay bills so I created arrangements for Troilo, Pugliese, Fresedo.

In 1953 my maestro Ginastera suggested to enter to a competition to study with Nadia Boulanger in France Boulanger. I won. I felt I was Beethoven. (…) I learned everything I know. I discovered Piazzolla thru her. When I played Triunfal she took my hands and told me “this is you” (…) what I do is TANGO. You can find Gobbi, De Caro in my music.

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Roberto Firpo - Virtual Class 7/26/2020

One of the first cabarets was called The Armenonville - located at the Plaza Grand Bourg, in an European style chalet. In 1913 they called for auditions and Robert Firpo was selected among many other musicians. It is the beginning of the PIANO as the leading instrument in tango. The famous duo Gardel- Razzano also premiered there in 1913 while Firpo was playing.

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Ricardo Tanturi - Virtual Class w/Makela 7/5/2020

As many of you know, the orchestra of Ricardo Tanturi is my favorite, especially with singer Alberto Castillo. Así se baila el tango is my mother's favorite tango, and she always treasures her memory of seeing Alberto Castillo at the break of her concert standing next to the Club Andes Talleres Club Sport in Godoy Cruz, Mendoza where she used to live at that time…

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Angel D'Agostino - Virtual Class w/Makela 6/28/2020

In his own words: “I am a milonguero (tango dancer) (…) so I shaped my orchestras with two conceptions that I never gave up: respect for the melodic line and rhythmic emphasis to make the dancing easier. When the singer breaks into the scene and displaces the musician from the spotlight, the orchestra was structured in such a way that music and singing did not interrupt the possibility of dancing. For that, the singer had to turn into one more instrument, a privileged instrument, but not apart.”

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Women in Tango - Virtual Class w/Makela 6/21/2020

Some of the women that made history in the Tango of the beginning of the 20th century

Carmencita Calderón - DANCER (1902-2005)

Ada Falcón - SINGER (1905-2002)

Paquita Bernardo - BANDONEONIST (1900-1925)

Nelly Omar - SINGER (1911-2013)

Pepita Avellaneda - SINGER (1874-1951)

Tita Merello SINGER (1904-2002)

Libertad Lamarque - SINGER (1908-2000)

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Pedro Laurenz - Virtual Class w/Makela 6/14/2020

Played with Julio De Caro’s orchestra and Pedro Maffia - the dos PEDROS dúo (two Pedros bandoneon duet). Maffia leaves in 1926. He wrote beautiful variations for Mala Junta (1947) and Mal de Amores. Pedro Laurenz created his own orchestra in 1934. He took with him from De Caro’s orchestra: Armando Blasco (bandoneón) and Osvaldo Pugliese (piano).

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Julio De Caro - Virtual Class w/Makela 6/7/2020

While Gardel was an innovator for singing tango, De Caro was a vanguardist in the way he composed and play tango.

He, first of all, was one of the transitions to the GUARDIA NUEVA, adding sophistication and “yeites” to his compositions and performances. Future orchestra leaders such as Pedro Laurenz, Osvaldo Pugliese and Pedro Maffia passed through his orchestra. Pugliese, in particular would reach the heights he achieved by following the De Caro’s school.

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Alfredo De Angelis - Virtual Class w/Makela 5/31/2020

Pianist, leader and composer. (2 November 1910 - 31 March 1992)

He focused on the melody with a very simple rhythmic conception. His best numbers were those with vocal duos (Dante/Martel). Around 1949 the orchestra wen through a brief rhythmic period but the departure of Julio Martel at the end of 1951 marks the end of their best recording, with the exception of instrumentals (Pavadita).

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Lucio Demare - Virtual Class w/Makela 5/24/2020

Lucio Demare is born in 1906 in the neighborhood of El Abasto, in Buenos Aires, in a family of musicians. The father Domingo played the violin, his brother Lucas (important cineaste) the bandoneon, and Lucio chose the piano. At 8 he was already working playing to musicalize silent films in a cinema. He was the composer of Malena.

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Osvaldo Fresedo - Virtual Class w/Makela 5/3/2020

"I always followed my way: a music with a clean melody, full of shades, well balanced between bandoneons and violins… I want to touch people with the melody, reach their heart, but softly. [...] The first thing I use to do, is to convince each musician until they feel for real what they are going to play." Osvaldo FRESEDO

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