Archive for the ‘ Pisces ’ Category

1963, February 23 – BIRTH OF CLAUDIA LEVY

Singer, Composer, Poet (Pisces) – the little girl gazed tenderly at her mother who was crying as she was strumming the piano, “He’s not coming back is he mommy?” she asked, “No darling he’s not”, she answered...”well”, said the little girl “lets tear up his tooth-brush”…somehow it was that moment of  a child’s simple vision which set her free; yes it was time to move on…the day would come when she would be grateful for the whole experience for from that day on, she began composing tango…she had fallen madly in love with a boy ten years younger and he had gone to New York on tour…in the begining, his emails were numerous and daily and then gradually more scarse…one day, she boarded a plane to New York to see him and the plane was uncommonly late; an omen…when she finally saw him, as he walked towards her, somehow she knew, “it’s over”…Claudia Levy was born in Buenos Aires; her father was jewish and her mother catholic…her mother was a lover of cinema and she would tell little Claudia all about the films’ plots; Claudia credits this early experience as seminal in developing her later love of writing lyrics…

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Early on she demonstrated precocious musical talent and her father promptly enrolled her in the Conservatory Alberto Williams where she studied classical piano…later she studied dance and mime but at a certain point she found her creative soul in tango…along the way, she has made some people angry; she was a pioneer in a new genre, “woman centered tango”, in a world that historically has been very macho…using trademark sarcasm and humor she has brought awareness to the custom, still prevalent in Argentina and other nations, of men beating their wives and in some cases even killing them…her first musical group, a duo, was called “Tangachas”…with her second group, she began making a name for herself and went on a critically acclaimed tour of  Europe…this was followed by her participation in a third group “Munecas Bravas”…her first disc “Mentime Mas” is a compilation of her own compositions and lyrics…her second disc“Escuchame Un Segondo” has received rave reviews from critics and public alike…in one of her celebrated lyrics she says,“go ahead and cry for there is no Christ to save you…cry that crying is good for you…dismount your horse and come to the light of the day for only a coward beats his wife”

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2012
02/23
CATEGORY
Clarinetist
Composers
Female
Jewish
Pisces
Recordings
Singers
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1954, February 21 – BIRTH OF RAIMUNDO ROSALES

Poet (Pisces) – from the second floor of the tenement house, young Raimundo was mersmerized by the magical scene of a serious young girl practising her tango steps in the dusty yard….the girl, Maria Nieves would grow up to be a world-famous dancer, he would grow up to be a renown poet and writer of the some of the most evocotive tangos in history…Raimundo Rosales grew up in that poor neighborhood of Saavedra in a house where four families shared one bathroom…already as a young boy he had a curious and inquisitive mind and he would write of the things he saw and the things that moved him…one day, by accident he happened to see the album “A Homero” by Susana Rinaldi, a compilation of the great Homero Manzi’s lyrics; it was a life changing experience…in 1985 he entered a lyrics contest organized by the Universidad de Belgrano and won; the celebrated Lalo de los Santos was commissioned to set his twelve poems to music…

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But the life of an aspiring writer is not easy and he has had to wear many hats…he was a maker of handicrafts selling his creations in neighborhood festivals; in the day time he wrote for the local weekly that circulated his neighborhood…his proud creation was a monthly music  magazine  “La Luna de Saavedra”; in his first issue he interviewed the legendary Roberto Goyeneche but with deep disappointment, after a ten-year run, he had to fold it…he then embarked on his metaphorical search for the holy grail in Spain but after six years he headed his soul’s voice and returned to his boyhood home in his beloved neighborhood of Saavedra…in 1997 his “Fantasma de Luna” earned him another victory in a contest sponsored by La Maga Magazine ….other awards and recognitions were to follow for his poems, many of which have been set to music….he has published three books of poems “Ciudad Malvon”, 1977, “A Pesar del Mar”, 1985, and “Todo Es Aqua”, 2004…he has taught a specialized course on the writing of lyrics at the Programa Cultural En Barrios.

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2012
02/21
CATEGORY
Composers
Pisces
Poet
Singers
Male
Saavedra
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1881, February 19 – BIRTH OF GABINO C. PENALOZA

Descending on his mule from Chilecito, Gabino Penaloza was very alone but at home among the stark, natural beauty of its cliffs and valleys…it had been a particularly wet year and the aromas of nature were strong…nearing the town of Olta the trail became more boggy and in the distant he could hear the bellowing of the river…in fact its banks had overflowed and he was forced to wait for the water level to recede…that evening at the joyous town gathering, was when he first saw the lovely, demure girl playing the piano; in the coming days they would spend much time together and fall in love…finally the water had receded and he could continue on his journey  but he promised he would return as soon as possible…but on the day of his return his beloved was no where to be found….the discovery that she was pregnant had brought great shame to the family and they had spirited her off in a hastily arranged marriage; the year was 1903…it was this crucially painful experience which was to be the inspiration of his poem “Caminito” which in time, along with “El Choclo” and “La Cumparsita” would become one of the three most beloved tangos of all time

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Gabino Corea Penaloza  (Pisces) born in La Paz and from early on he showed an inclination to poetry but at the age of 15 he moved to Buenos Aires where by day he did a number of jobs and by night he wrote poems; in time they would begin to appear in the renown “Caras and Carretas” magazine…he would frequent the cheap cafes and bars where he was friends with aspiring musicians and singers like a young Carlos Gardel and especially Juan de Dios Filiberto who would compose the music for “Caminito” and with whom Gabino would collaborate on several other tangos including two hits, “El Besito” and “El Panuelito”…he would publish three celebrated books of poems some of which would be used by a number of composers…but he had a difficult and trouble ridden life in the big city and at the age of forty-five he followed his heart  to his beloved Chilencito where with his books and poems he lived to the age of 95 haunted to the end by the memories of that beautiful girl playing piano and the son he never met.

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2012
02/19
CATEGORY
Composers
Pianist
Pisces
Poet
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1938, January 26 – Nestor Feria Records “CHUMBALE LOS PERROS”

Singer, Composer (born March 5, 1894, Pisces) – Nestor had struggle for many years and he felt he had paid his dues; he wanted to be treated with a certain amount of respect and he wasn’t getting it…in a moment of rage he told the producer at Radio Stentor to go to hell and he stomped out…walking alone now on this chilly night he was the loneliest person in the world…Now what was he to do; his career had been one of stops and starts and he was no longer a kid…out of the misty night he heard his name called,  “Nestor how are you”, it was his friend the actor Fernando Ochoa…when he told him what had happened he promptly dragged him to Radio Belgrano where they hired him on the spot…it was the begining of the resurgence of his career…he became the singing voice for the very popular variety programs sponsored by Federal Soap; important offers for stage and theaters were to follow….he was hired for his first movie “Juan Moreira” directed by Nelo Cosimi…he debuted with his own composition “En Blanco y Negro” which became a big hit…other successful compositions were to follow, “Las Carretas”, “Paginas Intimas”, “La Bata de Percal”

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Nestor Feria was born in the village of  Canelones Bolivar, Uruguay into a family with closely guarded secrets….after a quarrel his mother, with rare courage for those time, left her husband and moved to Montevideo to the neighborhood of “La Union” where Nestor was to spend formative years…as he grew Nestor, like Carlos Gardel, became spellbound by the nearby racetrack where he eventually got a job as a stable boy…young Nestor loved to sing, he sang all the time…it was the other stable hands themselves that suggested to Nestor that he pursue singing as a career…at the age of 16, he found himself singing at the Pancho Orezoli Cafe and the launching of his career…In 1945the first symptoms of lung cancer began to appear but he kept working inspite of the pain and discomfort…now he regretted never having married…he lived alone in a rented room in BuenosAires….Fernando Ochoa, his old friend, again came to his rescue…through his connections he obtained for Nestor a role in the remake of “Juan Moreira” directed by Jose Moglia Barth…immediately after the film he had a strongh desire to return to his native Uruguay and just a few weeks later he collapsed and on September the 27th at 11 am he passed away

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2012
01/26
CATEGORY
African Descent
Bandoneon
Orchestras
Pisces
Recordings
Scorpio
Special Events
Video
Wilde
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1940, December 12 – HECTOR MAURE’S 1ST RECORDING !

He dreamed of being a boxing champion and one particular evening’s match was especially  important in his promising career which everyone was whispering about but in the seventh round, a hard right which seemed to come out of nowhere, sent him to the canvass for the ten count….within a few days he received  some hard news, he was seriously injured and would not be able to box again; it is then that he decided to devote himself exclusively to singing…Hector Maurè was born on March 13, 1920 (Pisces) in the neighborhood of Palermo, Buenos Aires to a struggling Italian immigrant father and a mother from Lugo, Galicia…he had to quit school early to work to help the family make ends meet..his boxing dreams now spent, he began singing in neighborhood family celebrations and festivals…one day, encouraged by friends and not at all sure of himself, he made his debut at the Cafe Rio De La Plata where to his surprise and delight the public liked him and he got a contract for three months…other temporary gigs were to follow

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The following year he had his first break when Anselmo Aieta asked him to sing part-time with his orchesta…that same year he entered the celebrated Puloil Soap Tango Contest on Radio Belgrano…out of 5000 applicants, 10 finalists were chosen whose final test was a radio performance…Hector sang two tangos “Lo Han Visto Con Otra” and “Confesion”; by vote of the public he was finally declared the winner…his award was a six month contract and 500 pesos a month; quite a substantial sum in those days…another milestone occurred when he was one of several candidates for the then marquee orchestra of Juan D’arienzo and eventually he was selected…it is indeed with the Juan D’arienzo orchestra that he made his first recording “Flor De Mal” composed by Juan Carlos Gravis; he was to make a total of 293 recordings in his career…..on January 1, 1945 he began his career as a soloist singing on Radio Belgrano with his own orchestra..his success was breathtaking; he was in constant demand in Buenos Aires and Uruguay and even made a trip to France…he had indeed come a long way from the young promising boxer whose career had been destroyed by a hard right in the seventh round that had out of nowehere…..one evening in 1976, at his home, in the midst of a career branching on several fronts, he suddenly and unexpectedly had a heart attack and passed away; he was 56 years old.

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  • CLICK HERE - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ngqqVC18tM to hear Hector Maurè sing “Dime Mi Amor” (Tell me my love) composed by Rodolfo Sciamarella with lyrics by Manuel Romero which was a hit for both him and the Juan D’arienzo Orchestra
2011
12/12
CATEGORY
Composers
Male
Orchestras
Palermo
Pisces
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1924, December 5 – STAGE PREMIERE OF “EL CIEGO”

In the early part of the century, stage plays were the preferred method of entertainment and it was also the preferred setting to debut a new tango…a successful debut of a new tango in a stage play could mean fame and fortune for its composer…this was exactly the dream of composer Antonio Scatasso when he premiered his tango “El Ciego” in the play “Chi Lo Sa” written by Cesar Bourel which premiered at the Apollo Theater in Buenos Aires…Antonio Scatasso born February 28, 1886 (Pisces) In Naples Italy had very little education and in fact he was a rough, aggressive, uncouth person but he was also a musical prodigy…

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At the age of four his poor family had emigrated to Buenos Aires in the hope of a better life…Antonio learned to play the mandolin, the guitar and the bandoneon with almost no training of any kind; later he would also become a composer of simple and melodic tangos much beloved by the public especially theater audiences…his first professional debut, around 1907, was with the mandolin alongside violinist and future legend, Francisco Canaro…later he performed at the Cafe El Parque but this time on bandoneon which he had mastered…in 1933 he met Ignacio Corsini at the Teatro Smart; a long and productive collaboration was to ensue including memorable performance at the Radio Nacion….he was always close to the theater, toward the end of his life in management…among his numerous compositions were some great hits for some of which he not only composed the music but wrote the lyrics as well

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2011
12/05
CATEGORY
Bandoneon
Composers
Debuts
Pisces
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1970, December 3 – PIAZZOLLA RECORDS “INVIERNO PORTENO”

The story is told of a young lady present at pianist Linda Lee Thomas’s performance of “Invierno Porteno” who was so moved by the music that she burst into sobs….Inspired by Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, “Invierno Porteno” (Winter in Buenos Aires) is the second of Astor Piazzolla’s “Cuatro Estaciones Portenas” (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) which was written over a period of six years in the 1960s and which has caught the attention of world-wide audiences…in fact classical music orchestras are beginning to program “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires”, alongside those of Vivaldi’s…for example in the year 2000, renown violinist Gidon Kremer, released a highly acclaimed album called “Vivaldi and Piazzolla, Eight Seasons”…of  the four, Invierno Porteno is perhaps the most beloved of Piazzolla’s quartet…recently Japanese World champion skater, Daisuke Takahashi clinched the Grand Prix NHK Trophy with an inspired performance skating to “Invierno Porteno”

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Astor Piazzolla, an only child, was born on March 11, 1921 (Pisces) in Mar De Plata Argentina…when he was four years old, the family moved to New York City where at the age of eight, his father bought him his first bandoneon …in 1936 the family moved back to Mar De Plata and it is here that Astor began to play in a number of tango orchestras….Carlos Gardel was a friend of the family and in fact Astor played the part of a paper boy in his film “El Dia Que Me Quieras”…..one day he happened to hear Elvino Vardaro’s Sextet on the radio and his alternativeways of interpreting tango was to have a great influence on him…in 1954 he was awarded a scholarship by the French government and he went to Paris to study under Nadia Boulanger who, after hearing him play tango says to him “Here is the true Piazzolla, never let him go, do not abandon your roots”…with its elements of jazz and classical music Tango Nuevo is born

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2011
12/03
CATEGORY
Bandoneon
Composers
Orchestras
Pisces
Recordings
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1889 March 18 – BIRTH OF HECTOR BLOMBERG

Poet, Writer, Journalist (Pisces) – he flung open the door, rushed in and started grabbing  a few clothes, “where are you going son” his mother asked worriedly,“to Norway” he responded…that afternoon while walking the waterfront, deep in thought, he had suddenly stopped in front of a massive ship and had been seized by an inexplicable urge, “the ship leaves at 12 noon” the sailor on guard had told him…Hector Blomberg was gone for two years during which he visited far away lands and exotic ports of call; he returned with a suitcase full of poems…at the age of seventeen he had received his first recognition, a gold medal for his poem “Ode To Spain”…in time he would become one of Argentina’s great men of letters leaving behind an extensive collection of poetry books, historical novels, plays, newspaper articles, children’s books and several immortal tangos…being fluent in German and English he even found time to translate noted writers in those languages

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He was born in the neighborhood of Montserrat in Buenos Aires; his mother, originally from Paraguay, was herself a writer and a translator…his father was an engineer and a descendant of a long line of Norwegian sailors from whom he fell heir to his passion for the sea and for travel…sometime in the late 1920s he was introduced to singer Ignacio Corsini with whom a lifelong friendship would flourish…in collaboration with guitarist Enrique Maciel they would author a waltz “La Pulpera de Santa Lucia” which was a great hit and would launch a renowned career for Corsini; the three would collaborate on a number of other successful tango like “El Adios de Gabino Ezeiza” and “La Que Morio en Paris”…”La Pulpera de Santa Lucia” was originally on of Hector’s historical novels which continues in circulation to our very day as a collector’s item at prices many times its original cost…the kind of person Hector was, revealed itself in 1920 in a poetry contest; when it came to his attention that he would be awarded first prize, he argued with the jury that the second place designee’s entry was better than his  and really deserving of first place and in fact the order of the awards was changed

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2011
03/18
CATEGORY
Composers
Debuts
Guitarist
Jewish
Pisces
Poet
Recordings
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1907, March 16 – BIRTH OF ISABEL DEL VALLE

She was in a trance, her eyes swelled with tears, the pain of her humiliation as she returned home was almost undearable…she had gone personally to see the brothel owner La Ritana whom persistent rumors said she was Carlos Gardel’s lover…to her dismay, not only did La Ritana admit that, yes, she was his lover but that she had given as a gift to Carlitos a precious pekinese puppy; that was the very puppy that Carlos had in turn given to her…Isabella for her whole life never tired of repeating  that she was Carlos Gardel’s only real love…she claimed she was not jealous, “Jealousy, me,  never, a woman who loves a man like Carlos Gardel can never harbor undignified sentiments like jealousy” and yet not only did she go to see La Ritana but also another woman rumored to have been Gardel’s lover Mona Maris about whom she said “I got fed up with her declarations, she was only an adventure for him, the slut threw herself shameslessly on him”…Isabel del Valle was born in the neighborhood of Costitucion, Buenos Aires to a her father was a railroad manager….

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The fateful day occurred on the corner of  Sarmientos and Pellegrini Street where through her brother’s friend she met Carlos for the first time; she was fourteen years old, he was thirty four…the next day, Carlos showed up at the house with the ingredients to have Isabella’s mother prepare Valencian style rice….a long and at times tumultuous relationship ensued which to one Gardel scholar was merely a love of formal appearance with no real passion behind it….nevertheless over the years not only Isabella but the whole family became dependent on Carlos’s generosity…there was even some evidence that her brothers had blackmailed Gardel into giving them a large some of money by threatening to accuse him of child molestation as Isabella had been only fourteen years old when he began his relationship with her…Isabell had once said proudly, “yes I was fourteen but my body was already that of a real woman”…it is known that Gardel had relationships with many women but without ever apparently developing a deep love with any of them; there were even rumors that he was gay…he once said, “I never fall in love…all women are worthwhile of loving, but to have a blind adherence to one is to offend the others”

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2011
03/16
CATEGORY
Pisces
Special Events
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1925, March 15 – BIRTH OF EDOUARD PECOURT

Collector (Pisces) – during Nazis occupied Paris several times he narrowly escaped being arrested…he remembered hunger and walking for hours through the country side to reach a farmer whom it was rumored had meat to sell…his wife abandoned him leaving him to care for two young children from his meagre earning selling pens…some how, along the journey of an epic life he fell in love  with tango and his collection would eventually reach 50, 000 recordings…Edouard Percourt was born in the fabled artists’ hill of Montmartre in Paris….his father died while he was still a boy and his mother abandoned him to a tough, strict orphanage where he learned to fight to survive…his first job was as a shoe repairman working long hours and making barely enough to survive; hoping to better his lot, he went into selling pens…an Arabic woman invited him to sell  his pens at her Arabic music stand; here he was first exposed to tango; it was love at first sight, “three-minute operas” he called them…he began passionately collecting tango records which in the fiftys nobody wanted any more and he could acquire for next to nothing…

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In 1953 through tremendous personal sacrifice he purchased the old, dusty shop where he regularly bought his tango records…he renamed it “La Boite a Disques” (The Record Box)…here, located near the Louvre, in the shadow of Dali, Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh he had found his spiritual home…one day the bell on the door rang, he turned his head to see a young Astor Piazzolla walk in…their mutual love of music would bond them in a friendship for the rest of their lives…his 50,000 tango record collection includes more than 1000 recordings by Carlos Gardel and every Piazzolla original disc ever published anywhere in the world…in 1981 in New York City he met Jocelyn Howells, fell in love and married her; she was his third wife….at the age of sixty-two he did another courageous thing, he sold his shop and moved, along with his immense collection, to be with Jocelyn among the majestic evergreens just outside of  Portland, Oregon…he became a dear friend to local tangueros to whom, in his french accent, with radiance and little boy enthusiasm, he would give talks on the history of tango…he passed away at the age of 83 from brain lymphoma with his beloved Jocelyn by his side

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2011
03/15
CATEGORY
Pisces
Recordings
Special Events
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