Carlos Gardel

Largaron... Carlos Gardel
Colección Musical No. 174
EMI – Odeon 4174, 1973
Impulsa la Música Argentina

As promised last week I would pay homage to the legendary Argentinian tango singer Carlos Gardel. I selected two songs from a handful of albums I have of his. The first is ¡Leguisamo Solo! from the album with the beautiful cover Legaron... Carlos Gardel, the second is Mi Buenos Aires Querido from Memorias de Carlos Gardel, an album with an ugly cover. Every major metropolitan city has its signature song it seems (New York, New York by Frank Sinatra, Aan die Amsterdamse Grachten, Oh Champs- Elysées, and so on) and Mi Buenos Aires Querido is the one for Buenos Aires. A beautiful instrumental version of this can be found on Gato Barbieri's El Pampero, recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1971. (Listen to Barbieri's version of Mi Buenos Aires Querido below as well). ¡Leguisamo Solo! was the opening number on my first mixed tape I made in 1999 consisting of Latin American music. It was then that I considered my Latin American thrift store record collection large enough to start making these tapes. I called it Just South of Texas, it was around the same time I compiled Just South of 1600, filled with Medieval music, again because I considered that (thrift store) collection large enough as well.

Carlos Gardel, the King of Tango, was born as Charles Gardes in Toulouse, France on December 11, 1890. His mother moved to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina because of the gold rush. Gardes spent his childhood in Buenos Aires and became an Argentinian citizen in 1923. In 1915 he was wounded as he was shot by, rumor has it, Che Guevara's father. On June 24, 1935, at the height of his career he died in a plane crash near Medellin, Colombia.

(source: Wikipedia)

Memorias de Carlos Gardel
Arcano DKL-3146
RCA Records, 1964
Manufactured in U.S.A.