Celedonio Flores Biography

Celedonio Esteban Flores (1896 - 1947), a.k.a. “el Negro Cele”, was a poet and a tango lyricist, maybe the most important author of the so-called tangos lunfas (songs completely written in lunfardo). In his youth, he tried to imitate the pompous writing of the famous Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío, but soon Celedonio chose the scenes, characters and language he saw and heard in his neighborhood, Villa Crespo.

            In 1920 a newspaper published one of his poems called Por la pinta; Carlos Gardel decided to compose a music for it: the result was the tango Margot, the first of the 21 lyrics of Celedonio that “El Morocho del Abasto” would record in his career.

Celedonio wrote more than 70 tango lyrics and many poems and sonnets lunfardos. Many times his writing style is defined in opposition to Pascual Contursi’s: the lyrics of Celedonio are usually humorous, sometimes sarcastic, always vigorous, unlike the sentimental and plaintive tone of Contursi.

Here the poem “Por qué canto así" that expresses the way Celedonio felt and conceived the tango. 

CELEDONIO (CIRCA 1930)

Por qué canto así

(C.E. Flores - J. Razzano)

Porque cuando pibe me acunaba en tangos
la canción materna que llamaba al sueño,
y escuché el rezongo de los bandoneones
bajo el emparrado de mi patio pobre.
Porque vi el desfile de las inclemencias
con mis pobres ojos de llorar abiertos,
y en aquella pieza de mis buenos viejos
tuvo la pobreza su mejor canción...

Y yo me hice en tangos,
me fui modelando en odio, en tristeza,
en las amarguras que da la pobreza,
en llantos de madres,
en las rebeldías del que es fuerte y tiene
que cruzar los brazos
cuando el hambre viene...
Y yo me hice en tangos,
porque es bravo, es fuerte,
tiene algo de vida,
tiene algo de muerte...

Porque quise mucho, porque me engañaron,
y pasé la vida barajando sueños...
Porque soy un árbol que vivió sin flores,
porque soy un perro que no tiene dueño...
Porque tengo odios que nunca los digo,
porque cuando quiero me desangro en besos...
Porque quise mucho y no me han querido...
¡Por eso yo canto tan triste, por eso!

THE ANTHOLOGICAL VERSION OF JULIO SOSA (1961)

Aníbal Troilo Biography

    Aníbal Carmelo Troilo (1914 - 1975), a.k.a. “el Gordo” and “Pichuco”, was a bandoneon player, composer, tango bandleader and beloved friend.

            When he was ten years old, his mother bought him his first bandoneon which Troilo would use almost his entire career. His uncle and the radio provided him the only music lessons he had and “Pichuco” learned them very fast: since 1929 he was part of many bands and tango orchestras until he formed his own típica with his distinctive sound in which important musicians, later soloists or bandleaders themselves, would participate (for example, the singers Edmundo Rivero and Roberto “Polaco” Goyeneche, the guitarist Roberto Grela and Astor Piazzolla).        

            Troilo formed a creative duo with his best friend, the poet Homero Manzi; they composed together Sur, Che, bandoneón, Barrio de tango, Discepolín, Romance de barrio, songs that tango musicians consider authentic masterpieces of the genre. After Manzi’s death in 1951, Troilo composed Responso (prayer for the dead) in his memory, a heartfelt instrumental piece in which the bandoneon notes sound like the faltering breathing of “Pichuco”.

            Astor Piazzolla, who revolutionized the genre in the 50’s, always expressed his admiration and affection for whom he considered his first maestro in tango. In 1970 they recorded two bandoneon duet pieces: that recording is a truly milestone in tango history, a warm embrace between two different styles and feelings.             

 PICHUCO'S "BREATHING"

ANÍBAL TROILO AND ÁSTOR PIAZZOLLA - VOLVER

Quinquela Martín Biography

Benito Chinchella [hispanized Quinquela by himself] Martín (1890 - 1977) is known as el pintor de La Boca, because that neighborhood, its port and its people are the main themes of his work.

            Abandoned as a baby child by his biological family, at the age of seven he was adopted by Justina Molina and Manuel Chinchella, a Genovese immigrant from whom Benito took his last name and his first occupation: loading and unloading coal from the tied up ships in Vuelta de Rocha.       

            He started to paint intuitively in his childhood. Except for some lessons in a cultural institution, Benito hadn’t any formal education; his training was self-taught, and his lifetime inspiration, the port’s life. His technique demonstrates both the heterodoxy of his painting and his art conception: since 1918, almost his entire work was painted with a palette knife.     

            Despite the early success he achieved, Quinquela never left La Boca and made many donations to the neighborhood, among others, the current school-museum “Pedro de Mendoza” next to Caminito.

            Many years before his death, he prepared his own coffin, “because a man who has lived surrounded by colors can’t be buried in a plain box”. He lies in that water-coloured coffin in which top Quinquela had painted a sailing ship. 

 QUINQUELA'S HANDS

 "ACCIDENTE EN EL PUERTO" ("ACCIDENT IN THE PORT"). ETCHING

 "CREPÚSCULO" ("TWILIGHT"). OIL PAINTING

Carlos Gardel Biography

Carlos Gardel (1887?, 1890? - 1935) is considered the creator of the tango vocal technique and the author of some of the most beautiful melodies in tango history. The people gave him some friendly nicknames that express the familiar admiration he have produced: “Carlitos”, “el zorzal criollo”, “el morocho del Abasto”, "La Sonrisa" and the ironic and humorous “el mudo” ("the mute").

A popular saying summarizes the quality of his singing: still after Gardel’s death, porteños say “Gardel cada día canta mejor” (“Gardel sings better and better each day”), as if his voice were something alive and always present among us.

He recorded between 1912 and 1935. Some of his well known songs are Mano a mano, Volver, El día que me quieras, Mi Buenos Aires querido, Melodía de arrabal, Por una cabeza, Lejana tierra mía, Golondrinas, Cuando  tú no estás, Soledad.

CARLITOS IN THE STUDIO

"EL DÍA QUE ME QUIERAS", FROM THE FILM EL DÍA QUE ME QUIERAS (1935)