Posts Tagged ‘ 10 best tango poets of all time ’

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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2012
03/18
CATEGORY
Books
Composers
Jewish
Male
Monteserrat
Orchestras
Pisces
Poet
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Singers
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1885, March 8 – BIRTH OF JUAN DE DIOS FILIBERTO

Composer, Leader, Violinist, Guitarist, Harmonica (Pisces) – as a youth he was tormented, difficult, rebellious even a bully and finally he was practically thrown out of school and began working in a series of  menial jobs along the way becoming a fiery anarchist and strike organizer…one fateful evening while working at the famed Colon Theater as a mechanic’s assistant, he happened to see a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and he was stunned; it changed his life…although unrefined, course and practically illiterate,  with tremendous determination, he enrolled at the Pettizini – Sttianessi Conservatory to study music for the first time and gradually the musical genius that was prowling inside his soul began to emerge…later he earned a scholarship to the to study with Maestro Alberto Williams at the prestigious National Conservatory…his tango “Caminito”, composed in 1926, along with “La Cumparsita”, “Il Choclo” and “A Media Luz” would become one of the most universally beloved and recorded musical themes in history…

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He was born in the mythical neighborhood of La Boca, Buenos Aires to a mother who was a descendent of  native americans and a father who was Genoese…many years later he would nostalgically recall his first taste of tango as a six years old toddler at his uncles cafe “La Estrellita”…battling symptoms of tuberculosis, his friend and physician Jose Ingenieros, himself an impassioned political activist and philosopher, advised him to move to the city of Guaymallen; his stay here inspired his first tango, the first of his tangos with distinctly indigenous chords…in 1932 he formed his first orchestra which debuted at the mythical Cafe Tortoni…he dared to include unusual instruments like clarinets and flutes and nativist themes but the critizism that naturally followed was difficult for him to bear…however, it was the beginning of a long and productive  career…among his numerous compositions are great hits like “Quejas De Bandoneon”, “Malevaje”, “El Panuelito”; Carlos Gardel would record sixteen of his tangos…toward the end of his life, reflecting on his career he would say, “my music is many things but above all it is feeling…of course feeling is not enough for you have to know how to express it”

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2012
03/08
CATEGORY
Composers
Guitarist
La Boca
Orchestras
Pisces
Recordings
Violinist
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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
Male
Pisces
Poet
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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1898, January 31 – BIRTH OF MARIA LUISA CARNELLI

Poet (Aquarius) – one day while she was attending an important celebration, the tango “Se Va La Vida” was being played; it had been a great hit for composer Edgardo Donato…a colleague sitting next to Maria Luisa Carnelli mentioned that he liked the music but engaged on a long tirade about why the lyrics were inappropriate and amateurish…Maria Luisa could contain herself no longer and revealed to him that she, under the pseudonym Mario Castro, was in fact the author…the colleague was highly embarrassed and stammered an explanation but in fact the friendship never recovered…she often used pseudonyms to prevent her father from finding out what she was doing…growing up in an upper middle class family, her father was adamantly against tango; he had once discovered a daughter dancing tango and had severely disciplined her; …nevertheless Maria Luisa and her brothers would secretly listened to tango removing the horn from the Gramophone so as to keep the volume to its lowest possible level…

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She was born in the city of La Plata Argentina and already as a young girl she learned to love tango and to write poems…she became a tango lyricist in 1927 when, under the pseudonym “Mario Castro”, she wrote the lyrics for “El Malevo” composed  by Julio De Caro…just three years later  she won first prize in the celebrated Max Glucksman tango contest with “Linyera”…her “Se Va La Vida” became a hit when Carlos Gardel’s dear friend Azucena Maizani recorded it…in her career, like the legendary Homero Manzi, she would become a renown journalist and author although she once commented that she earned more from the royalties from her biggest hit “Cuando Llora La Milonga” than from the eight books she had published…she traveled to 24 countries in journalistic pursuits which was an unheard of feat for a woman in those times…she was admired for her personal valor as correspondent in the Spanish Civil where she was befriended by the mythical Martha Gellhorn (Hemingway’s 3rd wife)…she had passionate opinions about tango believing after the 1940s, it was not tango, “it is too sophisticated, contrived, too technical…it has lost its porteno soul” she would say with absolute certainty…some of her other hits were “Moulin Rouge”, “Dos Lunares” and “Primer Agua”

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2012
01/31
CATEGORY
Aquarius
Books
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Poet
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1970 January 28 – BIRTH OF CARLA ALGERI

Composer, Leader, Bandoneonist (Aquarius) – in one of life’s rare mystical moments, one day while she was strolling along Piazza San Martin her curiosity was piqued by a photo exhibit; she was astonished to see that an award-winning photo prominently on display, was in fact a photo of her with her quartet on stage….that was the same quartet with which she had half-heartedly entered in a contest and which, to her amazement, had won first place…there had been a period in her life when she had decided that her beloved tango had an ever diminishing future and she immersed herself  in engineering studies…but from the moment when as a little girl, she had happened upon an ageless bandoneonist with one foot on a water fountain, head bowed, she had developed a love for the sound of the bandoneon…from then on her childhood dream had been playing bandoneon in a Paris subway; many years would pass before she began to fulfill that dream…it was non other than Lidia Pugliese, the wife of Osvaldo Pugliese who had recommended renown bandoneonist Rodolfo Maderos as her first teacher.

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Carla Algeri, descendant of Italian immigrants, was born in the town of Burzaco, just outside of Buenos Aires to a tango tainted family whose members’ asado cookouts were grand occasions of guitar playing, singing and dancing….her grandfather Sebastian was a church organ repairman and a respected operatic barritone and great fan of Tito Schipa…on New Years Day, it was the family custom to play Osvaldo Pugliese’s classic “La Yumba” in ritual-like manner to invoke good luck…with loving support from her father, she started studying first guitar and then piano; for a time Pugliese himself was her teacher…in an act of bravado, it would be she, years late, to suggest to Maestro Maderos  to form his own orchestra…along with Carla, they debuted at the San Miguel Palace…Maderos had become a paternal figure to her and one day he encouraged her to launch a solo career…with tremendous will and sacrifice, all the while caring for her two beloved sons, she began knocking on doors; out of her devotion and talent emerged several key mentors…She would become the musical director for the show  ”Buenos Aires de Tango” with which she toured Europe and Latin America ….in Medellin, Colombia, the place of Gardel’s  fatal airplane crash, she formed a tango orchestra and a bandoneon school… in 2010 she formed her own tango orchestra which has been widely haled…she says, “from the moment I open my eyes each morning, I am certain of two things, the love for my two sons Sebastian and Nicola and my love for tango”

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2012
01/28
CATEGORY
Aquarius
Bandoneon
Composers
Recordings
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1920, January 5 – BIRTH OF FEDERICO SILVA

Poet (Capricorn) – he was so passionate about his work, that during rehearsals for one of his great hits“Que Falta Que Me Haces” with singer Alberto Podesta and the orchestra of Miguel Calò, he was such an annoyance with interruptions and suggestions that they finally had to ask him to leave; flaying arms and grumbling to himself he reluctantly left….such incidents were frequent and he would always murmur an apology and promise to contain himself…indeed it was his devotion, his sensitivity and his romantic nature that led him to produce some of the most beautiful tangos; tango like the immortal “Hasta Siempre Amor” which with the music of Donato Racciatti and the voice of Jorge Valdez was a great hit and continues to be played in milongas all over the world to this very day

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Federico Silva was born in Montevideo Uruguay and as a young boy already showed a unique curiosity and a love of literature and poetry; he learned to love tango through his father who was totally devoted to evening tango radio programs…at the age of 17, a gruff editor saw something in young Federico and gave his first break as a cub reporter for “El Pais” , Uruguay’s most important daily…starting in 1955, for 10 years he was a writer for the weekly magazine “Marcha” a high brow magazine covering music and tango.. other assignments included the magazines “Tangueando” of Montevideo and “Cantando” in Buenos Aires…his first tango was “Dejame Verte” in 1943…in 1968 he was contracted by the Victor Label to write the lyrics for a 12 piece LP for music composed by Armando Pontier and sung  by Roberto Goyeneche, out of which several notable hits emerged…he wrote biographies on Carlos Gardel, Julio Sosa and Anibal Troilo…he was the creator and talent of an immensely popular radio program “Motivos Populares” which aired for 20 years

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2012
01/05
CATEGORY
Composers
Male
Orchestras
Poet
Recordings
Singers
Uruguay
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1926, November 6 – Debut Of Tango “VIEJO CIEGO”

Composed by Sebastian Piana with lyrics by Catulo Castillo, “Viejo Ciego”  was debuted by singer Roberto Fugazot at the Nuevo Teatro, in Buenos Aires while performing in a play called ”Patadas y Serenatas En El Barrio de Las Latas”…Fugazot, born in the Reus Del Norte neighborhood of Montevideo, Uruguay, was already an excellent guitarist, singer and actor as a teenager….in his long career he would be successful as a scriptwriter and composer as well…barely in his 20s, he formed a very successful duo with singer Agustin Irusta whom he met by chance in a restaurant…later the two would form a trio with Lucio Demare, known as “Trio Argentino” which, in traditional gaucho garb, would have great success at the legendary Maipu Cabaret, in Madrid Spain…later in his life he gave up singing to devote himself to acting to the delight of his numerous fans.

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Sebastian Piana, born in the Almagro neighborhood of Buenos Aires, was in the eyes of discriminating cognoscenti, the composer of the most beautiful tangos in history…he was the son of an immigrant from Piemonte Italy who was a barber by day and musician by night….along with Adolfo Pugliese, father of future legend Osvaldo Pugliese, he would play in impromptu tango groups in the cafes around Buenos Aires to which he would take the young and impressionable Sebastian …at the age of 14 Sebastian was playing piano at silent movie houses…he composed his first tango “Sabor Popular” at the age of 17…his first major break occurred in 1922 when Carlos Gardel recorded his tango “Sobre El Pucho”…many more were to follow…he was a childhood friend of the legendary lyricist  Homero Manzi with who he would later create some of the most beautiful tangos in history

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2011
11/06
CATEGORY
Almagro
Composers
Debuts
Male
Orchestras
Poet
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Singers
Uruguay
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1907, November 1 – BIRTH OF HOMERO MANZI

He stared at the emaciated, pale, figure in the mirror…he touched his face, chuckled and said, “and to think Barbeta, that you will soon die”…like Alice in Wonderland, Homero Manzi thought “stepping through the mirror to another world”…later battling the advanced stages of cancer, his blood curdling, harrowing scream of pain would be abated by yet another injection of morphine often administered by his son Acho and he would continue writing…it was in this state that he wrote his beloved “Discepolin” for his dear friend Enrique Santos Discepolo who himself lay dieing…both men would die within months of each other; Manzi 44, Discepolo 50…oddly “Discepolin” is a poem about a man about to die, by a man about to die…on his hospital bed he would received calls from friends requesting a quick poem or a lyric and he would reach for his pen and pad and begin writing…it was thus that he wrote “Canto de Un Payador por Eva Peron”…Eva Peron was a woman he greatly admired and who herself would also lose  a battle with cancer within months of Manzi (Scorpio)…Homero Manzi’s writing were true literature whose magic lay not only in the substance but in the style as well…arqueably he was the only tango lyricist who had this quality…this would be displayed time and again in his work (over 70 tangos) most notably in his immortal “Malena”…his “Fuimos”…his “Sur”…his waltz “Paisaje” to name just a few….

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Collaborating with Sabastian Piana he revived the milonga in 14 compositions in this genre starting with “Milonga Sentimental” which they wrote for Rosita Quiroga…already as a child he demonstrated a love of writing…at age 14 he wrote his first tango to be recorded “Porque No Me Besas”…early on he also demonstrated a deep social conscious and a desire for social justice…he joined the Union Civica Radical which had been founded by the charismatic Ipolito Yrigoyen who became his mentor and almost like a father figure to him…Manzi would pay dearly for this starting with beatings from opposition thugs and later imprisonment and the losing of his teaching post at the University…he wrote the screenplays for over 20 films; the first film which he both wrote and directed was “Pobre Mi Madre Querida” which premiered in 1948…another one, ”El Ultimo Payador” was about a singer who is dieing written months before he succumbed…he once said, “I write only about the things I have lived”…above all he was an ardent nationalist and loved his people; he once criticized Carlos Gardel for allowing the Americans to produce his films…he was also a lover of women, the nights, and horse racing to which he squandered much money…he apparently had an affair with the legendary Nelly Omar…in his “El Ultima Organito” (the funeral cart) he says, “fair maidens will open their shutters at the passing of his cart and it will eventually disappear into the distance and the people will be without a voice”

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2011
11/01
CATEGORY
Argentinean
Female
Films
Poet
Recordings
Scorpio
Singers
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1910, October 30 – BIRTH OF JUAN CARLOS LA MADRID

Juan Carlos De La Madrid was Terry Malloy…in one of film history’s most famous scenes from the 1954 Academy Award winner “On The Waterfront”, Terry (Marlon Brando) says, “I could have had class, I could have been a contender, I could have been somebody”….in similar disarmingly frank, self-deprecating  language La Madrid would say about himself, “In my life, I have done all of the bad things you can imagine and in the end I am no one”…like Malloy, Juan Carlos was a boxer, a sparing partner for 3 pesos a round and a meal when he was lucky; when he wasn’t boxing he dabbled at dancing and singing tango…ten years later the celebrated Hector Maure would have a similar fate…Maure’s dreams of boxing glory were cruelly ended one evening when a left from no where sent him to the canvass for the 10 count and an injury that ended his career; he became a tango singer… La Madrid was part of Buenos Aires’ underbelly…he was a constant presence in the city’s cheap barrooms, its smoke-filled gambling dens where desperate, unshaved men crouched over roulette tables only to disappear just a few minutes later into oblivion…”Juanito” was liked by its assorted actors, the hoods, its loan sharks, the pimps, its fools and its street poets with whom he generously shared his spare change…he was proud of his ability to hold his whiskey…

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It was very much of a macho world and Juanito, a keen observer, wrote about it, “mine are men’s poems, from a man’s world”…he wrote in lunfardo, “the language of the people of the streets” he would say…his tango lyrics were real…the legendary Astor Piazzolla called him to write the lyrics for his “Fugitiva” which he recorded to great acclaim with the voice of Maria De La Fuente in 1952…Juan Carlos De La Madrid (Scorpio), was born in the neighborhood of Flores in Buenos Aires to a poor family…he had little formal education but he was curious and he loved to read….already as a child, he demonstrated the intensity and passion which would later characterize him as an adult…the roar of the sea was his palliative….to survive he tried many things including having been a journalist, a literature teacher, a book salesman, a radio and television program organizer and even a Shakespearean actor…at the certain point he began to lose his eyes sight and became immensely depressed…contemplating suicide, he recalled one of his favorite lines from Hamlet: “o, that this too solid  flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itslef into dew…how weary stale flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world”…but his indomitable spirit jolted him to continue on, “I realized that I loved living like an actor who must go on with his assigned role until the curtain comes down”….his two books of poems, “Hombre Sumado” (The Sum of Man) and “Pequena Rosa Lunfarda” are still traded among collectors

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2011
10/30
CATEGORY
Female
Flores
Poet
Recordings
Scorpio
Singers
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