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July 01, 2009

D'Arienzo Orchestra Resources

This Juan D'Arienzo Discography by Johan in Belgium is one of my favorite reading pastimes.

I like to see how the personnel changes, to follow the singers, and to find out who wrote the songs I love so much. Thinking of tonight's milonga, I wanted to build a tanda around "Nada Mas" sung by Echagüe. The discography helped me to rationalize the following set. Admittedly, Pensalo Bien is a little bit different than the others, but I think it will work if put in first place.

• Pensalo Bien
• Nada Mas
• La Bruja
• Mandria

D'Arienzo himself wrote some pretty killer tunes, usually with L. Rubenstein. The following, for example, were all written by JD himself.

• Callejas Solo
• Chirusa
• Paciencia
• Nada Más
• Dos Guitas
• El Vino Triste

Another fantastic document for orchestra history (not just D'Arienzo) is this Tango Orchestra Genealogy (Excel file), showing a view of orchestra personnel on a timeline. You can track band personnel in this very easily. Did you know that Ciriaco Ortiz was in D'Arienzo's first group 1928-1929, and that D'Arienzo himself played violin in it?

Check out the history of pianists in Oquesta D'Arienzo:

• Luis Visca 1928-1929
• Lido Faso 1935
• Rodolfo Biagi 1936-1938 (and we sometimes think the D'Arienzo sound owed so much to Biagi's piano - Biagi struck out on his own after 1.5 years; I guess his successors forever imitated Biagi to some degree)
• Juan Polito 1938-1940
• Fulvio Salamanca 1940 -1957
• Juan Polito 1957 - 1975

More discographies are available here: TangoDJ : Files

And Tobias Conradi's tango.info project also provides great illumination on the recording history of D'Arienzo (and other tango artists, of course).

Posted by joegrohens at July 1, 2009 11:32 AM

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