FRANCISCO (Pirincho) CANARO      November 26, 1888 - November 14, 1984   Recording in the Odeon studios (May, 1930). Notice the trumpet - and that all, including singer Charlo, are gathered around one mic.   This maestro brought humour, sophistication, rhythm, showmanship, worldliness and business savvy to the great Tango party. He conquered Paris in the 1920's with stunning results; at his last big show in the 50's, he introduced Copes y Nieves to the top of the world. He composed many songs which are Tango standards (although he is rumoured to have bought songs for a few bucks and put his name on them). Canaro's music is like a glue you use in programming to stick all the parts together because it recalls the old Tango feel while capturing the sound of the Golden Era. It ranges from sophisticated large orchestras to simple quintet (Quinteto Pirincho - his formation for radio work). Canaro arguably plays the best Candombe (at least the sound that has come to us is the cleanest). Canaro had a prolific period composing between 1908-1920. Some classics of his from that time: La Tablada, Pinta Brava, Nueve Puntos (!), El Pollito, El Chumayo, Nobleza de Arrabal, Milonga Brava. He also made the most recordings of any tango orchestra leader (3,000). Across his catalogue you find quaint old-style tango, candombe and cayengue, and recordings with a drive as exciting as any. His waltzes, such as Corazon De Oro and Vibraciones De Alma are intoxicating; as are his slow milongas such as Milonga De Mis Amores. But give me the faster milongas: Milonga Brava; La Milonga De Buenos Aires; Reliquias Porteñas, San Benito De Palermo. These are the real deal. Can't live without them. A leader in many important ways, Francisco was the first person to work in the area of tango fantasia starting in 1928 (Piazzolla before Piazzolla - Astor was 7 years old at the time), elevating tango to a theatrical level it had never aspired to before him. From this period came Halcón Negro among others. To truly understand, from our era, his importance, you have to immerse yourself in the sound of the music before he came along. What a difference! He had the biggest orchestral sound, travelled the most (ambassador for Tango in Europe and North America), had the most rich and eclectic arrangements (muted trumpet, clarinet, organ). Hence my calling his music sophisticated. The lp's I have collected of Canaro's music really sound fantastic when cleaned. The cuts Todo Te Nombre (one of my great favs and one that he composed) and Mala Suerte rock (as my friend Dan Boccia says). The Maestro at work. The singer is actually better known for his work with Tanturi: Alberto Castillo.   Obviously, a large orchestra creates a different effect from a quartet or sextet. It's something akin to what happened to pop music when the Beatles shook things up with new sounds. New sounds create new perceptions, sensibilities, ideas. Francisco was the founding president of SADAIC, the Argentine composers and authors society. He had power in many aspects of his life, and all through it. Pirincho's life as an orchestra leader spanned 1916-1964.   Double Clicks A Restoration Moment Carlos Gardel had been dead 24 years when, in 1959, Fransisco Canaro took the inventive step of recording band tracks to surround old Gardel recordings. (They had recorded live together in 1930). Now, in 2003, to clean them up, we have two sets of record clicks (and noise) to eliminate - Canaro's record (I took them from lp) and the Gardel recordings within it. ("Sampling" was thus invented in the 50's, but they didn't have the ability to clean the old 78's at that time). This perhaps would have driven me crazy but for the fact that I'm used to it. LP's (and CD's) of the great hits were reproduced from 78's. A click is just a click (a sigh is just a sigh ...). Listening now to Canaro's work restored, it sounds quite remarkable. He orchestrated a subtle caress of orquesta around the bare voice and guitars of the original late-20's Gardel recordings ... letting us imagine a Carlitos of a later era. (This being done when Natalie Cole was but a child and her father was recording the music she would later sing the duets with). Here is how Mi Noche Triste sounds after taking out the double set of clicks.   Francisco Canaro (November 26, 1888 - December 14, 1964) The godfather I always warn friends not to get me talking about tango, for I can't stop once started. Of course, the most dangerous territory aside from the fascination of dancing it is the topic of the great orquesta leaders and musicians/singers. Only pick one of about 30 (or 50?) names and you'll never shut me up. I revere and I want to understand. I want to venerate. I want to illuminate perspective, if possible. Because the great musicians of Argentine Tango understood so much; created so much that not only stands the test of time in communication - but will continue to challenge and inspire for a long time to come. And all their genius shines through despite generally abhorrent audio treatment by posterity (at the hands of their record companies). Every time I talk or write about ONE of the greats, I hear a little voice in the back of my mind whispering that my reader/listener is liable to get a wrong impression. That they will think I am fixated on the person-topic of the moment as my greatest hero. Well they are! Which colour is the rainbow? You can't ask me who my "favourite" is because thay all are in this moment when I have their music in my ears. All this to say - now I'm deep in recovering Canaro recordings to include in ToTANGO 5, so I will now perhaps appear to believe he is god, I know. (Unless you keep going down this page). Just while we're talking about him, OK? I've been correctly quoted as calling Canaro "the tango dj's best friend." I pretty much dare anyone who doesn't agree to propose a replacement. Nobody else made so much accessible, danceable tango, vals and milonga music over such a long period of time. Jeez - I hate sounding exclusionary. No one is a bigger fan of the other orquesta leaders than moi. So, can I just say what I want to say and we won't think I'm an idiot for liking "one" leader so much?    ;-) Longest career (his orquesta while in Paris created the World tango sensation). Most recordings by far. Most influential. Great number of hit compositions. Blah, blah, blah. Perhaps the 2nd most famous tango composer from Uruguay (hard to top the guy who composed La Cumparsita) - but he composed the much greater number of hit tunes. (Now, moving on ...) What Francisco left us is truly breath-taking. You know this already. But there is a lot of GREAT stuff you've probably never heard. Others created new influeneces and new directions that made the great tree grow and take on fantastic dimensions. There were many roots. But, I don't know how one could not agree that Canaro was the stalk everything could sprout from. If only because of longevity and success (including making it for others when he created SADAIC) and creativity. Always he had the infectious beat; always fantastic vals and fantastic milonga to go with the best tango. But he also created fantasia in the 20's. All salon and performance and Piazzolla came long after Francisco had pushed the boundaries and made all the suggestions. OK - let's not get me started! He was wildly creative and wildly commercially successful. Better at that combination than anyone else. No mean feat. The power he accrued to himself meant that he recorded a lot and under the best conditions. Praise be!! There is no real point in playing any of the tiny, screeching sounds I have of his recordings in the 'teens. Interesting, but won't be too impressive in this circumstance. Instead, let's hear his El Acomodo from 1923. ! This is so sexy. This is the format everybody followed and developed. (We can hear why people in and visitors to Paris had gone crazy for tango only a couple of years earlier when listening to Canaro's orquesta at the end of WW1). Download the whole track (ToTANGO version).   More on Francisco Canaro Just down below is a piece from a couple of weeks ago as I was working my way through the entire Canaro catalogue. Well, here I am again wanting to talk about him and his music. I'm nearing the end now. And more than ever, my appreciation for his body of work has me kind of speechless. There's just SO MUCH GREAT MUSIC he put out. I fancifully see him in a private reflection chuckling to himself as he contemplated how history's dj's would ever figure out how to artfully represent him in the milongas of the future. How he must have laughed at picturing us struggling with the problem. It looks like I will have 541 of his recordings in ToTANGO 5 (24 hours in playing time). Of course I'm not including the really old recordings which don't sound good enough to play in a milonga. And I'm leaving out some of the rancheros and foxtrots; though good songs of those types are included to be representative. (You HAVE to hear his porteño foxtrot-milonga version of "Singing In The Rain (Cantando Bajo La Lluvia).") But that still means that I have 140 or more tandas of Canaro. How the heck do you ever get around to playing them all? Especially considering the fact that some songs just HAVE to be played regularly, thereby denying air-time to other songs? You have to be creative. Canaro's Poema seems to me to be the #1 all-time tango fav for couples. Has to be played almost every night - if not every night. So my way of accepting Francisco's challenge: I have a playlist called Canaro Poema with a few tandas using different songs around it. Every time I play Poema, I will chuckle with the great Artist as dancers hear 3 different songs every time they hear Poema. Ha! I'll be interested to see which of the other many songs that are mind-blowers dancers can't wait to hear again. I expect they'll stick out more being around Poema. By the way ... a note to new tango lovers who don't like to hear singers yet: Listen to lots of 1930's Canaro. Nobody inserted vocals into the dance with more taste and purpose. Ernesto Fama, Roberto Maida, Carlos Roldan, Ada Falcon, Nely Omar, Eduardo Adrian, Alberto Arenas, Agustin Irusta, Francisco Amor, Charlo and Carlos Gardel all gave clinics on how to sing tango and make you swoon while dancing with a singer blessing your heart. Canaro was an arrangement god of wisdom and genius. He opens all doors. All his choices were sublime.