The educated Tanguero

Sassone (born 1912 – died 1982) is rarely heard at milongas. Why? When colleagues are asked about it, they often say that this artist is post-EDO and doesn’t belong at milongas. Is that really true?

The idea for this blog came to me today while listening to laut.fm radio this morning. Laut.fm plays music on their tango channel, featuring tandas and cortinas, and they have exceptionally good taste in music (the link is below). So I was all the more surprised when I came across the following tanda by Sassone, precisely because the pieces aren’t among the “Big 100” that you always hear at milongas. The music has a fresh and, in my opinion, quite danceable sound, so I decided to do a little more research.

On the one hand, the goal of this blog is to give tangueros a better understanding of music and dance; on the other hand, a blog should also offer subjective and personal information. So, here are my personal impressions. When I learned in the 90s that Argentine tango wasn’t just theoretical, and when I started listening to tango music from South America, Juan D’Arienzo was one of the first names I learned. I began with three CDs: one by Osvaldo Fresedo, another by Trio Hugo Diaz, and a CD with the soundtrack to “The Tango Lesson.” After watching the film several times and playing the CD even more often, it became clear to me that my favorite music would undoubtedly be by Juan D’Arienzo. I hadn’t yet understood Fresedo’s music, and while I found Trio Diaz musically fascinating, I had no idea how one could ever dance to it. The two songs I particularly liked here were the recordings of “El Flete” and “Pensalo bien”. This was mainly because of the way rhythm was handled in this music.

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In the post-EDO era, the performance styles of tango orchestras changed significantly. The orchestras became smaller, no longer primarily focused on dancers, and expanded their capabilities to encompass a broader spectrum of dynamics and emotional expression. New composers (e.g., Piazzolla) demanded this flexibility and, moreover, a new level of instrumental virtuosity. This gave rise to a new generation of tango orchestras that sought to give classical compositions a fresh acoustic dimension. However, particularly in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, these orchestras found themselves in a difficult position. On the one hand, they had to learn the tools of a modern performance style; on the other hand, with the tango renaissance, they were once again in high demand at milongas, and danceable music became a crucial factor for their financial survival.

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As a DJ, I occasionally look for rarely played orchestras, and in this search I had the opportunity to discover the orchestra of [name of orchestra], which certainly does not belong to the mainstream. Ifand Maria Lucchesi to stumble upon, which, however, seems to be gaining more and more attention among tango DJs. Lucchesi was born on March 29, 1897, in Sorocaba (Brazil) [1,2], received a solid musical education and primarily played accordion, but also piano, harmonica and guitar [3]. However, he recorded his tangos primarily in Europe, mostly in Germany, France, and Spain, sometimes under the pseudonym Leal Pescador (“The Loyal Angler,” because fishing was apparently one of his favorite pastimes) or as Jose Maria de Lucchesi. In 1942, he became a French citizen. The name of his orchestra was “José M. Lucchesi South American Orchestra“. With this orchestra, he primarily played tangos, waltzes, and paso dobles across a very wide range. Interestingly, he had his musicians (as well as Canaro’s orchestra) perform in gaucho clothing (see picture).

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