Fito Páez is the youngest of the four artists that we are profiling in this two-part article on legends of argentine music. He was born in 1963, making him a spring chicken of just 47 in 2010.

Like Charly García, Fito Páez was an early starter, forming his first band at 13 and beginning to play live just a year later. He gained notoriety as a songwriter with his 1984 album Del ’63 and as a result released another album in 1985 and yet another in 1986 in partnership with Luis Alberto Spinetta.
Fito Páez’s most interesting record is his 1987 album (yes, 1984-87 was a busy four years!) Ciudad de Pobres Corazones. It’s a dark, angry and heavily political album that was driven by the event of the assassination of his aunt and grandmother in Rosario. Despite the anger that’s evident in every line, it shows the depths of Páez’s talent as a lyricist.

A young Fito

One of the most recent albums penned by Fito Páez was El Mundo Cabe en una Canción, which won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Rock Solo Vocal Album at the Latin Grammy Awards in 2007.

Joining the ranks of legendary deceased Argentine musicians in January 2010 was “The Argentine Elvis,” Sandro.

Sandro was born Roberto Sanchez (generic name, no wonder he changed it), and began his musical career in the 1960s as an unashamed Elvis clone, complete with a dark mane of hair and pelvis thrusts. However, he didn’t become as fat or dead as Elvis (he was 64 when he died), and so in time he established himself as a credible and respected crooner and ballad singer.

The Argentine Elvis: Sandro

Two of Sandro’s biggest hits were Asi (“Like This”) and Dame Fuego (“Give Me Fire”). Track them down if you want to know what Sandro was all about, and/or get an Argentinean woman in the mood for love (or both, why limit yourself). Again like Elvis, Sandro recorded dozens of albums over his career and starred in a total of 16 films (I haven’t seen any of them, but I bet they’re really cheesy).

In 2005 Sandro was presented with a career achievement award at the Latin Grammys.

Finally, it remains only to say that not only was Sandro a legend of Argentine music, he also continues to be the answer to many a pub-quiz question, as he was the first Latin American artist to sing at Madison Square Garden in New York (in the 1970s).

Related posts:

1. Legends of Argentine Music, Part One
2. Fileteado: Buenos Aires Style Artwork
3. Murga & Foam…Carnival in Buenos Aires!

If you’ve never heard of Argentine tango singing sensation of yesteryear, Carlos Gardel, then clearly you’ve either been in Buenos Aires for less than a day and a half or you’ve been walking around with your eyes shut and your hands clamped tightly over your ears. El Zorzal Criollo (which means the “Creole Thrush” – no, I have no idea what that means either, it sounds like an STD) is just that famous in Argentina. Hey, he even has a subte station named after him!

That’s Mr. Gardel. You probably already know all about him. But how much do you know about the other legends of Argentine music: people like Charly García, Mercedes Sosa, Fito Páez and the smoldering “Argentine Elvis,” Sandro? Not much? Well don’t worry, because by the end of the second part of this article you’ll know so much that’ll you’ll be able to edit their Wikipedia pages! (*Note: this promise should not be taken seriously. Editing Wikipedia pages is a complex and dangerous business best left to the professionals.)

Ok. First Charly García. Charly was born in 1951 and formed the folk-rock band “Sui Generis” with friend Carlos Alberto “Nito” Mestre when the pair were still in their teens. Sui Generis quickly became popular with teenagers in Argentina and they had big success with their second LP, Confesiones de Invierno (“Winter Confessions”), which was released in 1973. Sui Generis then morphed into more of a rock band. They broke up in 1976 after playing huge farewell gigs at Luna Park Stadium in Buenos Aires.

Cross dressing Charly

After Sui Generis Charly García went on to form “Serú Girán,” who enjoyed huge popularity in the late 1970s. After they broke up he began a solo career (in 1982).

The ups and downs of Charly García’s various bands, his life and his career are simply too convoluted to go into at length, but check out if you can two of the most famous songs from his solo era: Yendo de la cama al living, which is a metaphorical song about repression, and Yo no quiero volverme tan loco, which is about teenage rebellion.

Charly García is still going strong today at the age of 58. He celebrated his 58th birthday with a concert in at Velez Sarfield’s Stadium in October 2009 and is still of the same tour right now.

The second of our Argentine music legends is Mercedes Sosa, who died last year (2009) at the age of 74. Described as an “electrifying voice of conscience,” she was nevertheless something of an unlikely star – a short, stout, dark-skinned woman who dressed in peasant clothing – but she possessed an amazing voice and charisma to spare.

Mercedes Sosa

Mercedes Sosa was a folk singer whose songs had always championed the poor and repressed, so in the early years of the military junta in Argentina (1976 to 1983) she became an icon. She criticized the government and held sold-out concerts that were in effect anti-regime rallies with a soundtrack. Unfortunately this led to the banning of the playing of her songs on the radio, death threats, bomb threats against her concerts, and eventually a ban on her live performances. As a result, in 1979 she was forced to leave Argentina and live in exile in Europe. She returned in 1982 however, and by this time she was simply too famous for the regime to touch. She gave a series of concerts at Teatro Colón to celebrate her return home.

After the military regime fell in 1983, Mercedes Sosa’s fame continued to grow and she toured the world, recording and performing with artists including Sting, Pavarotti and Shakira (…who definitely would have made a strange pair on stage together).

If you’d like to listen to some of Ms Sosa’s work, try the albums Romance de la Muerte de Juan Lavalle (“Ballad of the Death of Juan Lavalle”) and/or Mujeres Argentinas (“Argentinean Women”), as these are the two albums from the 1960s that really established her as an artist.

(Cont’d in Part Two with Fito Páez and Sandro.)

Related posts:

1. Legends of Argentine Music, Part Two
2. Fileteado: Buenos Aires Style Artwork
3. The Barras Bravas of Argentine Soccer

Tango is, of course, an obsession in Buenos Aires. If you’re living in San Telmo – the heart of tango territory – it’s not uncommon for locals to start a conversation with you by asking “so, are you here to learn tango?” And it’s not just the dance that’s an obsession, but everything that goes with it as well: the clothes; the milongas, and most of all, the music. Given this obsession, it’s not surprising to find elements of tango have mutated in ways that take them beyond their traditional forms. One of these mutations is ‘tango electronica,’ also known ‘electrotango.’

For the hip BA expat, tango electronica represents a more up-to-date form of tango music, and consequently one that might appeal more than the old-timey versions. If you think it sounds interesting, read on for the best ways to listen to the bleeding edge of tango music.

A little bit of history

With instruments such as the bandoneón, the double bass, the piano and the violin, the traditional tango orchestra produces a sound that is lush, melodious, complex and grandiose, with a tempo of about 120 beats per minute. These groups, usually sextets, have been creating traditional tango music for over a century, with a ‘golden age’ between 1935 and 1952.

Tango electronica, on the other hand, is a much more recent invention. Paris-based group Gotan Project were one of the first to test the idea of adding electronic elements to tango music around the year 2000, and since then many other groups have followed suit. Some groups add electronically-generated sounds to traditional tango music in a subtle way (Gotan Project are normally placed in this category), while others have made the ‘electronica’ part of ‘tango electronica’ much more dominant.

3 of the best tango electronica albums

Intrigued? Then your electrotango education should begin with the following three albums:

1. La Revancha del Tango. This is Gotan Project’s 2001 album. It’s a mix of tango and chillout sounds, creating a sexy and hip lounge favorite. It’s credited with bringing tango to an entirely new audience.

(An aside: You’ve probably heard of Gotan Project before, but did you know that ‘Gotan’ comes from a Lunfardo wordplay on ‘Tango’? Tango Project was the name of an influential tango album that was released in the 198s.)

2. Bajofondo Tango Club. This self-titled 2002 album from Bajofondo Tango Club is an excellent introduction to tango electronica. Bajofondo are an Argentinean octet who mix conventional tango music with drum ‘n’ bass, French house, and trip-hop. Tango singers both past and present are sampled. This album won a Latin Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album…even though it actually has vocals! (Guess the judges really liked it.)

Interestingly, the band Bajofondo won’t be happy to be mentioned in this company: “We don’t like the label ‘electronic tango’ because we try to make a contemporary music of Rio de la Plata from Argentina and Uruguay,” says composer Gustavo Santaolalla on the band’s website. Whatever, che!

3. Emigrante (electrotango). Another very influential tango electronica album, this one comes from the four-person group Tanghetto. Released in 2003, it was nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2004 and went platinum in Argentina in 2006. It melds acoustic and electronically generated sounds and has a theme: immigration, both to and from Argentina.

Finding live tango electronica

Albums are all well and good, but what about live tango electronica? Actually that’s a little harder to find. You can look out for gigs from bands such as Gotan Project and Bajofondo, but otherwise you’ll have to go to a milonga or a practica (wear your dancing shoes!). To hunt for one that’s likely to throw electrotango into the set list, try the www.NeoTango.info website, in particular the listings page at www.neotango.info/neotango_listings/index.htm, and the forum located at www.neotango.info/forum/index.php.

Related posts:

1. Legends of Argentine Music, Part Two
2. Buenos Aires Tango & Milonga Guide
3. Legends of Argentine Music, Part One