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In front of the small, somewhat crooked wooden house, Alvarado is sitting in the shade of a palm tree with two musicians; they play the son „Tic Tac“ in honor of Antonio, who has just arrived. Alvarado calls his 80 year old friend Tic Tac, because you can hear his cane from afar: tic tac tic tac.

The other two musicians are friends who happened to be passing by. A former cop who plays the tres guitar. And a rum-loving neighbor who can make music on empty bottles. Antonio sits next to it contentedly, sometimes clapping along with the rhythm.

Alvarado almost always works like this – spontaneously and surrounded by the people of his hometown. His lyrics reflect events from his everyday life. Living in Pueblo Nuevo, a district of Mella in Eastern Cuba.

The big old sugar cane factory stands in the center of the settlement and towers above everything. It looks a bit like an old cathedral with two towers. “Antonio J. Mella” is written on the chimneys, the name of the co-founder of the Communist Party of Cuba.

In this article about the third and fourth album of the miniseries “Con Saludos desde Europa” you get a little insight into the current events of the first decades of the past century, which strongly influenced the lives and formations of the tango musicians on these albums. Family connections within the tango scene and musical developments of individual musicians are mentioned, as well as the author‘s personal assessments of individual titles. The photo shows Rafael Canaro.

The third album presents recordings with Quentin Verdu, the unforgettable Alina De Silva and Auguste Jean Pesenti.

With his interpretation and the fresh arrangements of the Tango classics „Torrente“, „Malena“, „Sur“ (for me the best interpretation ever) and „Cancion desesperada“ Quintin Verdu is a pleasure to listen to and presents the skills of the French singers in an impressive way.

Unfortunately, tango lost its popularity quickly in Europe after the war and with the beginning of the 50s the musicians had to earn their living with other musical styles.

Regarding Alina De Silva: I think all of Argentina would have been willing to adopt her as an Argentinean. But this wonderful Tango singer is Peruvian and eventually died in her home country Lima. In 1925 she came to France together with her husband Alfonse de Silva and his orchestra. They lived there for about 15 years before they returned to their native country.

Well-known and less well-known tango orchestras from the late 20s to the late 40s are presented on a total of four albums entitled „Con Saludos desde Europa“. All titles were recorded in Europe. In addition to orchestras based in Europe, there are others who have only toured Europe for a short time. Some of them have been completely forgotten these days. This article provides background information on the orchestras and the musicians of the four albums. This music is also suitable for DJs when putting together tandas on a milonga.

The first album of the small series includes recordings by the orchestras of Quintin Verdu, Jose M. Lucchesi, Francisco Alongi and Rafael Canaro.

Quintin Verdu was born to Spanish parents in Algeria and came to Paris at the age of 10, where he attended the conservatory. At 21, he met Rafael Canaro and Miguel Orlando, who hired him as a pianist. He went on a European tour with Rafael Canaro until 1935 and later accompanied Tino Rossi, whom he soon left to form his own orchestra.

With their distinctive style, they were very successful until the outbreak of war. He was captured and released in 1941. His orchestra later became the house band of the famous “Olympia” in Paris. There are four tracks on this album that present the distinctive style of this orchestra.

*José Marcos *Lucchesi came to Paris from Brazil as the son of a Corsican family and, following the zeitgeist, also fell in love with the tango in the 1930s. After the war he switched to popular dance music with his works.

*Francisco Alongi *came to France from Tunisia in 1921 and became a pianist for Manuel Pizarro and later for Tano Genaro. He often accompanied the famous tango singer Rosita Barrios. In 1932 he founded his own orchestra.

Rafael Canaro, the little brother of the great Francisco, was also known as Argentina‘s tango ambassador to Europe. The recordings with Luis Scalon are from 1938 and were taken in Paris. Due to the outbreak of war, Rafael Canaro then returned to his native Argentina.

What did it sound like when a tango was recorded in the 30s or 40s of the last century? For several years Matthias Kroll has been dedicating a lot of time to  get closer and closer to the original recording in his sound restorations.Recently he has founded his own label. “Matthias Kroll Records” (MKR), which is distributed exclusively by Danza y Movimiento. In the following text Matthias Kroll himself tells how he became a tango restorer:
The Argentine Tango has a distinctive charm and once you have succumbed to it, you can usually never get away from it again. Like many, I first came into contact with it in the 90s when the Gotan Project started in Paris and hybrids like Tanghetto were played in the clubs. The free way of dancing to this music fascinated my wife and me and we had to learn it. After a longer break we got back into the milonga scene and I became more and more involved with the tango music of the past. I started to search for old recordings and to translate the lyrics. Once you are immersed in the world of the 20s/30s and 40s, there are so many forgotten tangos/texts and people to discover. Our dance style changed quite fast and we actually only dance in close embrace, where both partners feel and dance the music together as an inseparable unity.