Articles in English
13 articles are available in English. The full archive (>150 articles) is in Japanese, and the whole site is also available in Spanish.
Adios Nonino: The Story Behind Piazzolla's Elegy for His FatherIn October 1959, on tour and broke, Astor Piazzolla learned his father had died. Days later, alone in a New York apartment, he wrote Adios Nonino, the elegy that became his most performed work and once moved a future queen to tears at her own wedding.Anibal Troilo: Pichuco, the Greatest Bandoneon of Buenos AiresAnibal Troilo (1914-1975), called Pichuco, led the golden age's most beloved orchestra, launched the greatest singers and a young Piazzolla, and wrote Sur and La Ultima Curda. Argentina marks National Bandoneon Day on his birthday. This is why.The Argentine Peso Blue Rate: How to Exchange Money in Buenos AiresArgentina has two exchange rates: the official rate you get at banks and airports, and the blue rate used on the street. Here is how travelers actually exchange money in Buenos Aires, from people who live here.Astor Piazzolla: The Life and Works of the Man Who Reinvented TangoAstor Piazzolla (1921-1992) turned tango from dance music into concert music and paid for it with decades of hostility at home. His life from Mar del Plata and New York to Paris and Milan, the essential works from Adios Nonino to Libertango, and where to start listening.Carlos Di Sarli: El Señor del Tango — Elegance, Bahia Blanca and a Strange SuperstitionCarlos Di Sarli (1903-1960) made the most elegant sound of the golden age: a singing piano over strings like deep water. Dancers adore him, Bahia Blanca is his monument, and Buenos Aires once feared to say his name aloud. The story of El Señor del Tango.Carlos Gardel: The Eternal Voice of Tango — Life, Death and LegendCarlos Gardel invented tango song with one recording in 1917 and died at the height of his fame in a 1935 plane crash. His disputed birth, the Abasto years, Por Una Cabeza, the films, and why Buenos Aires still says he sings better every day.El Choclo: The Tango That Named Itself After a Corn Cob and Conquered the WorldEl Choclo (1903) is one of the oldest tangos still played everywhere: written by Angel Villoldo in tango's rowdy first generation, renamed Kiss of Fire by American pop in 1952, and instantly recognizable a century later. Its story is the story of early tango.Francisco Canaro: From a Tin-Can Violin to Richer Than Anyone in TangoFrancisco Canaro (1888-1964) rose from absolute poverty with a violin made from an oil can to become tango's great empresario: thousands of recordings, the man who took tango to Paris, a founder of composers' rights in Argentina, and the subject of a proverb about wealth.La Cumparsita: The Story of the World's Most Famous TangoLa Cumparsita is the most played tango on Earth, and by tradition the last song of every milonga. It was written in Montevideo in 1917 by a seventeen-year-old student. This is the story of the melody, the lawsuits, and why the world says goodbye with it every night.Libertango by Astor Piazzolla: Meaning, History and the Recordings That MatterLibertango is Astor Piazzolla's declaration of independence: liberty plus tango, recorded in Milan in 1974. The story of why he wrote it, what the title means, how it conquered pop and classical music, and which recordings to hear first.Milonga Etiquette: The Unwritten Rules of a Buenos Aires Tango NightA milonga is a social tango night, and it runs on codes no one writes down: the cabeceo invitation by eye contact, tandas and cortinas, navigation in the ronda, and the last dance to La Cumparsita. Here is how to attend your first milonga without stepping on the culture.Osvaldo Pugliese: La Yumba, Prison and the Most Dramatic Orchestra in TangoOsvaldo Pugliese (1905-1995) built tango's most dramatic orchestra around the pounding beat of La Yumba, ran it as a cooperative, went to prison for his politics while fans laid red carnations on his silent piano, and became a name porteños still invoke for good luck.What Is Tango? The History, Music and Dance of the Rio de la PlataWhat is tango, exactly? A guide to the music and dance born in the ports of Buenos Aires and Montevideo: where it came from, why the bandoneon became its voice, what happened in the golden age, how Piazzolla changed everything, and how to start listening today.