1932, December 9 – 1st Recorded “EL HURACAN”

The composer of “El Huracan” (the hurricane) Edgardo Donato was notoriously absent minded…his daughter would tell the story of one day, when he was on a street car, that he happened to meet a friend and got into a conversation with him; they descended from the tram and continued talking…after a while he realized that his wife had been with him and that she had remained on the tram…”El Huracan” was a great hit for Edgardo, one of many among his more than 200 compositions…It was premiered at the Teatro Colón at a contest organized by the Sociedad de Beneficencia de Buenos Aires in 1932; it won second prize after the tango “Ventarron“…”El Huracan” continues to this day, to be played in milongas all over the world and has been recorded by many musicians, perhaps the most successful of all by Juan D’Arienzo…

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Edgardo Donato (born April 14, 1897, Airies), one of nine children of  an Italian immigrant musician in the field of opera, was born in the neighborhood of San Cristobal in Buenos Aires but raised in Montevideo (perhaps the only instance of a tango great going from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, it was usually the opposite)…his father was his first teacher and in fact Edgardo started his career in opera working with his father but his true love was the tango…with much trepidation, one day Edgardo mustered the courage to tell his father that he was joining the orchestra of Negro Quevedo which just happened to have on piano another future great, Enrique Delfino …Edgardo Donato was of course the composer of the immortal “A Media Luz” which he composed while riding a tram….his first hit “Julian” at the age of 24, he had actually tried to sell, in a moment of dire need, for 20 pesos but no one would buy it; he then decided to record it himself…its instant success created an immortal in tango

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• CLICK HERE – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zWebHXopm0 to hear “El Huracan” played by the Edgardo Donato orchestra…the lyrics are by Nolo Lopez…the voice is that of Alex Gutierrez; it was his first recording and a hit at the age 23

2010

12/09

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