Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Mythical Gardel
Carlos Gardel might not figure as prominently as
Edith Piaf or Al Jolson among early 20th-century
vocalists, but the Latin songbird commands an
Argentinian cult that would put Elvis worshippers to
shame. Gardel wedded lyrics about deceit, drunken-
ness, and Buenos Aires to tango's florid guitar lines.
His presumed birthplace is Toulouse, France, where
he was born Charles Romuald Gardes in 1890,
though some sources suggest Uruguay is his native
soil. Undisputed is his upbringing in Buenos Aires'
Abasto district, where push-cart vendors and conmen
provided ample inspiration for his songs. European
audiences, won over by Gardel's charm, helped
legitimize tango in the eyes of porteño elites. Gardel
died in a plane crash in 1935, a tragedy which only
stoked his legend.
Top 10 Tango Tunes
1 La Cumparsita
2 Por una Cabeza
3 Mi Noche Triste
4 Silencio
5 El Carretero
6 Tomo y Obligo
7 Mi Buenos Aires Querido
8 Volvió una Noche
9 El Día que me Quieras
0 Guitarra Guitarra Mía
La Cumparsita
To the chagrin of
porteños, tango's most
recognizable melody,
La Cumparsita
, has its
origins in Montevideo,
Uruguay, where a
struggling architecture
student anonymously
gave the sheet music to
a local band director in
1917. It was only after the
student later heard his
composition when he was
in Paris that he under-
stood his folly - having
sold the rights to the tune
for just 20 pesos.
A poster featuring tango star Carlos Gardel
*
Casimiro Ain (1882-1940)
colossus Antonio Gades - but his
internationally screened, highly
conceptual, and controversial
1998 feature,
Tango
, helped
propel the dance's worldwide
renaissance.
)
Gotan Project
Gardel would have never
been able to seduce Europe had
the dancer Casimiro Ain not
been through Paris in 1904,
where this Buenos Aires milk-
man's son captivated audiences
with what was then an unknown
artform, which he called “tango
criollo
” (earlier tango). Ain, in a
later Paris visit, succeeded in
convincing the archbishops that
tango was not a sinful dance.
(
Carlos Saura (b.1932)
The bohemian crew of
porteños
and Parisians com-
prising Gotan Project are
practitioners of electronic tango,
which fuses sampling and beats
from hip-hop and dub with sultry
vocals and
bandoneón
. Their first
album,
La Revancha del Tango
, is
their greatest statement. Similar
to a Cockeny slang, the group's
name is derived from lunfardo's
jumbling of the word “tango.”
Spanish director and
choreographer Saura is most
famous for his
Flamenco
trilogy
of films - including 1983's
Carmen
, starring flamenco
29
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