Miguel 's best recordings are what you find when you look up chemistry. He had the ring, the bounce, the push ... but - (he was a bandoneónist) - he also had the delicate touch that is refined Tango. Credit the players for this, of course, along with the arrangements and the recording producer. Listen to any one of his songs once, and you think you've heard it a hundred times before - because he nailed it. And he chose fabulous songs (several of which Tanturi also recorded. It's fascinating to compare them).
Caló's recordings with Raúl Berón singing are classic; just as pleasing to the ear because of better technical quality are those featuring Alberto Podestá. Many like singer Raúl Iriarte's recordings with Caló but care must be taken to weed out the songs that are grating on the nerves (and there are some).
Young Miguel is first noticed when he joins the Fresedo orquesta in 1926. He formed his own first band in 1929.
When his main singers and side-men (first pianist Héctor Stamponi and later Osmar Moderna, Francini and Pontier, the famous composer Domingo Fedrico) left in 1945, his sound was never nearly as good again.
The best recordings of the Caló orchestra are outstanding. No special event milonga is complete without Caló. What I wouldn't give to have Miguel and his early-40's line-up alive today as young men in the studio.
