The DJ Page

The music is a very important part of dancing Tango.  Without the music there wouldn't
be this wonderful dance we all love.  Even if you aren't interested in becoming a DJ you
will want to have a collection of music to listen to at home, or in your car on the way to
and from work, at work if it is possible...  The more you listen to the music and get
familiar with it's unique sound, the better you will dance tango.

Below is a list of CDs you might be interested in.  This list will grow, and in time you will
find more information about being a DJ.

This list is in no way complete.  It is a starting point.  These are all good CDs with good
music for dancing.  If you are beginning a collection of tango music these are all good to
own.

So you want to be a DJ?

The CD List

This list should be used as a starting point only.  These are CDs I like a lot, and that I would
recommend for people beginning a collection of tango music for practice and listening.  There
are a few record labels you need to know when you begin collecting tango music.  The major
Argentine labels are BMG Argentina, a division of RCA, which publishes material from the
RCA catalog, and EMI Odeon which publishes material from the old Odeon catalog.

The BMG Argentina CDs have a characteristic look shown here:

The overall sound quality of these CDs is good, with some very good.  There are occasional
ones with poor quality sound.

Some good titles in this series are:

Juan D'Arienzo y su Orquesta Tipica, Sus premeros éxitos vol. 1                    74321 63341-2

Juan D'Arienzo y su Orquesta Tipica, Sus premeros éxitos vol. 2                    74321 63342-2

The overall quality on these two is quite good and they have a good selection of songs
from D'Arienzo's career.  This is great dance music.

Carlos Di Sarli y su Orquesta Tipica, Instrumental vol. 2                                 74321 63345-2

This has some interesting material from early in Di Sarli's career.

Osvaldo Fresedo y su Orquesta Tipica, canta Roberto Rey, Tangos de Salon    74321 41287-2

This is the best single CD of Fresedo that I have heard. The quality is decent, and the singing
of Roberto Rey is wonderful.  They make me feel like i am dancing in a 1940's movie.

Ricardo Tanturi, canta Alberto Castillo                                                          74321 41295-2

This is a very good CD with many classic tangos.  Alberto Castillo's singing is great, and this
CD has some of the best restorations of this material I have heard.

Anibal Troilo Pichuco canta Fiorentino,  Yo Soy El Tango                              74321 41293-2

Troilo's orchestra made some great dance music, and my favorite vocalist of this orchestra is
Fiorentino.  This is full of classics.

There is a new series of CDs from BMG Argentina, RCA called RCA Victor 100 Años.  They
look like this:

The sound quality is very good on every one of these I have in my collection.  Some very good
titles in this series are:

Angel D'Agostino - Angel Vargas                       74321 88808-2

This is all classic tango.  The singing of Angel Vargas is exceptional.  I love this orchestra, and this
CD has many of my favorite recordings of them.

Orquesta Tipica Victor                                      74321 86569-2

This is a very important orchestra in the history of tango.  All of this material is from before 1930,
and the restoration quality is unbelievable.  I wish everything available was this nicely restored.  This
is nice to dance to in small doses, the style is a bit antique, but has all the elements of the golden age
sound.

Julio De Caro                                                   74321 88173-2

Another very important orchestra.  De Caro started a whole school of tango that continues to this
day.  Listen to this and see where Osvaldo Pugliese got his inspiration.  If you like the modern
orchestra Orquesta Color Tango then study De Caro to see where it all came from.  The restoration
quality on this one is also exceptional.  This is also interesting to dance to in small doses.

EMI Odeon produces a series that is called Reliquias.  The CDs look like this:

The restoration quality of these tends to be good, and they have some things that are not available
anywhere else.  Some good titles in this series are:

Miguel Calo,  Al Compas del Corazon                      8374132

This is a spectacular CD, and should be in the collection of any tango dancer.  Raul Beron is the singer
and this is some of the best material he recorded with any orchestra.  Everything on this CD is danceable.

Rodolfo Biagi,  Solos de Orquesta                            7243 5 41689 2 5

Biagi played with Juan D'Arienzo in the 1930's and later formed his own orchestra.  This material is
very rhythmic, and very interesting for dancing.

Enrique Rodriguez,  Tangos con Armando Moreno   7243 5 29105 2 6

Rodriguez had a unique and very danceable sound.  Moreno was an exceptional vocalist.  There are
many classics on this CD.

EMI Odeon produces another series called From Argentina to the World.  The CDs look like this:

The restoration quality is generally good on these CDs.  In some cases they are re-packaging of material
in the Relequias series.  Some good titles in this series are:

Osvaldo Pugliese               8378572

Pugliese's sound is like no other.  There are many imitators but only one Pugliese orchestra.  This CD
has many familiar classics.

Alfredo De Angelis            8378552

This is a very good collection of recordings by this orchestra.


Euro Records, a branch of Sony-BMG  has released a new series called the Coleccion 78 RPM.  There are two
series actually, the green labels and the red labels.  The CDs look like this:

    

There are many great titles in this series.  They include many recordings that were unavailable before, and best of all
the restoration quality is generally very good.  Some outstanding titles in this series are:


Carlos Di Sarli 1928/1931  EU 17022

This is a very interesting look at the earliest recordings of Carlos Di Sarli.  The orchestra is a sexteto and the sound
is very similar to the Orchestra Tipica Victor.  This is great music to practice to, not so useful for DJing but it
is nice to hear the beginnings of Di Sarlis wonderful sound.


Edgardo Donato 1938/1942  EU 17025
Edgardo Donato 1933/1941  EU 17019

Donato's sound is tight and generally more rhythmic and these CDs contain some of his best available recordings
including a number of milongas.  To me Donato's milongas are some of the best milongas for dancing ever recorded.


Francisco Lomuto 1931/1950  EU 17001  (green label)
Francisco Lomuto 1931/1950  EU 17023  (red label)

Lomuto's sound in the early 30s was also tight and rhythmic.  His orchestra often included clarinets and these pieces
are easily confused with Canaro's orchestra.  These two CDs contain many good songs.


Sony BMG has released a series dedicated to Juan D'Arienzo.  There are 15 CDs in this series, 310 songs covering
D'Arienzos entire career.  The covers look like this:

I have the first four in the series so far.  After listening to these I am pretty sure I will end up owning all of them.
The restoration quality is amazing, there is generally no noise from the original record, and they have none of the
annoying reverb sound found in so many earlier CD restorations.  There are many recordings here that were not
previously available.  These disks are a treasure trove for D'Arienzo fans.  The CD titles are:


Juan D'Arienzo  De Pura Cepa  82876693302

This contains his early recordings.  A surprising fact is that in these first 20 recordings there are 9 vals, 3 milongas,
and 8 tangos.  All of these songs are great for dancing.  Most of these are instrumentals.


Juan D'Arienzo  El Esquinazo  82876693312

Another 20 great dancing pieces.  Again there are few recordings with vocalists, this disk does contain the first
recordings with vocalist Alberto Echague.


Juan D'Arienzo  Meta Fiero - Yunta Brava  82876693332

This disk contains many great recordings with vocalist Alberto Echague, it also has the early recordings with vocalist
Hector Maure, D'arienzo's other classic vocalist.


Juan D'Arienzo  El Rey Del Compas  82876693342

This disk is full of great tangos with vocalist Hector Maure.


The El Bandoneon label has an enormous collection of tango recordings available.  They have things from
before 1920 that are not available anywhere else, and they have good collections of the music from the golden
age of tango.  They have the classic orchestras, and also many more obscure orchestras.  Unfortunately the sound
quality of these CDs is not as good, and I don't use many things from this collection when I DJ.  When I started
to collect tango music these were the only CDs easily available, and I have many of them.  I have replaced them
with CDs from other labels where possible though to get better sound quality.  Still these CDs are often available
at a lower price that those listed above, and they do have some good material.  Their logo looks like this:

Some good CDs in this series are:

Anibal Troilo y su orquesta tipica (1941),  El Inmortal Pichuco                   EB-CD 1

This is full of classics, some instrumentals and some with Francisco Fiorentino singing.

Francisco Canaro y su orquesta tipica,  La Melodia de Nuestra Adios        EB-CD 30

This is some wonderful music from Canaro's orchestra.  These are recordings from the early 1930's and the
sound is a bit antique but nice.

Juan D'Arienzo y su orquesta tipica,  El Rey del Compas                         EB-CD 43

Many classics from the D'Arienzo orchestra.  This is all good dance music.

Carlos Di Sarli y su orquesta tipica,  El Señor del Tango                          EB-CD 38

The Di Sarli orchestra was a very important orchestra, there are many classics on this CD including some
wonderful singing by Jorge Duran.  This is all good for dancing.

Miguel Calo y su orquesta tipica,  Yo Soy El Tango                                EB-CD 34

The Calo orchestra is one of the classic orchestras of the golden age.  This CD features tangos sung by
all of the inportant vocalists to sing with Calo's orchestra.  Many classics.

Pedro Laurenz y su orchesta tipica,  Milonga de mis Amores                   EB-CD 82

Laurenz was also influenced by De Caro's work, in fact Laurenz was one of the bandoneon players in the
classic De Caro orchestra of the late 1920s.  This is all interesting material.