1890, December 11 – BIRTH OF CARLOS GARDEL

Singer, Composer (Sagittarius) – as a result of a bar room argument on December of 1915, Carlos Gardel would be shot and wounded in the chest by non other than Ernesto Guevara Lynch the father of the legendary Chè Guevarra…Gardel was lucky that the bullet did not do any great damage but would remain lodged in his lung for the rest of his life…soon after that he makes a momentous decision, he records  his first tango, “Mi Noche Triste”;  up until then he had devoted himself to singing folk songs…”Mi Noche Triste” is an instant hit and it launches him on the road to the legendary status; it would be the first of 514 tangos which he would record in his brief career…in 1928 he debuts in Paris at the Theatre Femina in a benefit concert; the success would give him international recognition but it was his first full-length talking picture “Luces De Buenos Aires” which would give world stardom…in 1933 he records his last tango “Madam Yvonne ” in Buenos Aires before he leaves for another tour including a stop at the most popular radio station in the world, NBC of New York…he was never to return again alive.

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Carlos Gardel was born in Toulouse, France…his mother was a struggling laundry woman whose employer, a married man with numerous children, was Gardel’s father…when he was two years old, his mother courageously moves him to Buenos Aires in the hopes of giving him a better life…at a certain point he acquired a passport which stated that he had been born in Tacuarembo, Uruguay which created quite a bit of controversy for a while…a biographer however advanced the credible thesis that Gardel had probably acquired such a passport to avoid being drafted by the French army which during World War I began sending draft notices to its citizens all over the world…Gardel may have been gay, the evidence is not clear…the longest lasting relationship he had was with Isabel Del Valle; she was a well-developed 14 year old and he was 34 years old; they lived together for a number of years…on June 23 1935 Gardel sings his last tango “Tomo Y Obligo” (I drink and forget) on the radio, the next day he dies in Medellin, Colombia as his airplane crashes into another on its take off…in a magazine interview on January of 1974, the legendary Juan D’arienzo claims that Carlos Gardel once said to him, “Look Juancito, I think I am going to die on a plane”…perhpas his most renown composition was “Por Una Cabeza” whose popularity continues unabated to this day and has been used in films all over the world…Charlie Chaplin was to say of him “He had a superior presence of voice and person, an enormous personal sympathy that would win him the immediate affection of everyone”

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• CLICK HERE – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhtZaIVcyiQ to see Carlos Gardel sing “Por Una Cabeza” composed by Carlos Gardel with lyrics by Alfredo Le Pera who died with Gardel in the airplane wreck in Medellin

2010

12/11

CATEGORY

Argentinean
Composers
Sagitarius

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