Tango in Depth

  The Treasure in Troilo's Cupboard Aníbal Troilo,  El Bandoneón Mayor de Buenos Aires  (1914 – 1975), is one of the cornerstones of tango music, and the pile of manuscripts found posthumously in his cupboard is a priceless treasure. The material, consisting of 489 arrangements for Troilo’s orchestra, was scanned to pdf by Javier Cohen and Juan Carlos Cuacci at EMPA,  Escuela de Musica Popular Avellaneda , from 2011 to 2014. In 2019, the originals were donated to  Instituto de Investigación en Etnomusicología  of Buenos Aires. Currently, there’s a project going on at the institute named  Arreglos inéditos de Piazzolla para Troilo  aimed at publishing the unpublished arrangements by Astor Piazzolla. The first edition just came out containing tangos Nostalgia and Lo que vendrá as well as Azabache, a milonga candombe. Azabache was Piazolla’s debut as an arranger. These are the first pages of his manuscript and the published edition; there is no orche...

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing  was the credo of  Duke Ellington ’s orchestra, and that’s what we also could say about Orlando Goñi, one of the greatest tango pianists of all time whose influence on tango music has not been properly understood. Like Rodolfo Biagi on D’Arienzo and Osmar Maderna on Caló, Goñi made a permanent impact on  Aníbal Troilo ’s music. His swinging and groovy piano texture creates a resilient basis for bandoneons and violins giving them impetus to Troilo’s rhythmic extravaganza. Let’s listen first how Goñi plays with Troilo in 1942. I would say that the recording where Goñi’s pianism shines at its best is the one of  C.T.V.  (aka  Se te ve ) recorded on January 8, 1942. The tango was composed by Agustín Bardi in the early 1930s. Anibal Troilo - 1942 - C. T. V. Here Goñi plays mainly three kinds on texture: the melody in octaves with violins and bandoneons, e.g. beginning to 0:03 and 0:07 to 0:10, marcato accompa...