South American music and culture magazine

This is an edited extract from the second edition of the Bradt guide, Argentina by Erin McCloskey (2011). Continue Reading

Last month marked the seventy-sixth year since Argentine music maestro, Carlos Gardel’s, untimely death. To this day however, his name and suave, iconic image remain as popular as ever. The propensity of Gardel’s fame as a national treasure can be seen in the hundreds of images presented on shop fronts, buildings and walls. His reputation as the “king of tango” can even be spotted as far as Scotland where numerous statues have been recently erected in honour of his extensive tour of the country’s rural areas. Continue Reading

They say that every fifteen minutes, somewhere in the world, someone is playing Tango Jalousie, one of the most beloved of all tangos. Dizzy Gillespie jammed to it. The British blockbuster film “The Full Monty” includes it. Tenor Placido Domingo recorded it, as did the Boston Pops Orchestra. But it wasn’t until influential KCRW DJ Tom Schnabel handed music professor, folklorist and retired attorney Donald Cohen a Vietnamese recording of it that he realized few know its story. In his newest book Tango Voices: Songs from the Soul of Buenos Aires and Beyond, (complete with scores, lyrics, and a CD recording), readers have a chance to both hear and learn the stories behind the Danish-composed, Khanh Ly-recorded Vietnamese translation of the English lyricized tango favorite.
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