Miguel Villasboas: En Australia

26/04/2025 by Richard Stoll

In my last blog post, I talked about my love for vals and presented an international tanda in the non-tango genre. Today, I’d like to continue this theme and present a contemporary vals that has received international acclaim. We’ll hear another tanda consisting of three songs:

Campero Sunset (1997) – Miguel Villasboas
Cold Nights (1997) – Miguel Villasboas
Vibrations of the Soul (1997) – Miguel Villasboas

Here’s a purely instrumental tanda, recorded in Australia after a concert at the Sydney Opera House. I actually only bought the CD in Buenos Aires in 2014 because of the cover and, of course, because of my adopted home of Australia (I have both German and Australian citizenship and live in both countries). I very quickly realized that ‘Miguel Villasboas y su orquesta tipica’ is not just any new tango orchestra, but has considerably more depth.

The pianist and orchestra leader Miguel Angel Villasboas Rogliardo was born in Montevideo in 1936 and studied and taught music history at the IPA (Instituto de Profesores Artigas) [1]. In 1952, he founded his first orchestra, the Miguelito Quintet, right at the end of the Golden Age. He played with and alongside many of the greatest tango musicians, such as Fresedo, Calo, D’Arienzo, Castillo, and Canaro [1]. In 1964 he played with his musical idol Roberto Firpo in Uruguay [2]. In August and September 1997, he gave a series of concerts in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, during which time his CD ‘En Australia’ was also created.

Miguel Villasboas died on October 27, 2024. His musical legacy comprises approximately 600 recordings and 60 records [3].

Here are the waltzes listed above: