678 In memoriam Alberto Castillo
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 10:23:43 -0300
From: SMC Administracion <adm@SMCAR.COM.AR>
Subject: In memoriam Alberto Castillo
Dear friends from Tango list
Yesterday, July 23th, a great singer passed away.
His real name was Alberto Salvador de Lucca, and he was born on december 7th
, 1914, the fifth son of italian parents , the inmigrants Salvador de Lucca
and Lucia Paola.
He had to hide from his father his performances singing tango at the local
radios, so he adopt several nicknames : Alberto Dual , and also Carlos
Duval. He continue singing with the orchestras of Julio De Caro (1934)
,Augusto Pedro Berto (1935) and Mariano Rodas (1937) .
On 1938, he left the orchestra and studied hard to end his career as
physician . But tango had still the sting on him , and one year before his
graduation he join the mytical tipica orchestra "The indians ", under the
direction of Tanturi , an odontologist and piano player.
The first record of Tanturi- Castillo appearead on january 8th ,1941.
Alberto adopted his last and everlasting nickname:Alberto Castillo.
His first hit was the vals "Recuerdo", from Alfredo Pelaia.
A year later, he graduate as ginecologist ,and place his consulting room at
his parents´ house .
Therefore, every evening, the Doctor Alberto Salvador De Lucca rush from his
"ladies consultig room" to the radio to made his live broadcasts as the
singer Alberto Castillo.
The situation get entangled when the waiting room of his consulting room
begun to be flooded with women , mostly young. There was an explanation for
this : the singer attracted a lot of fans, and soon they discovedred that
the physician De Lucca and the singer Castillo were the same person.
Castillo himself remember a funny situation , when he was attedning a lady
at his consulting room, waiting for her to undress for the consultation.
"Madam, are you ready ?" asked to the young lady who was behind a curtain .
" Yes , doctor , I already am. Are you ready, too ? " , answer the young
patient with total cheek/nerve.
abandonar la profesión para dedicarse de lleno al canto.
On June 6th, 1945 , he married Ofelia Oneto, with whom they have three
children , Alberto Jorge (ginecologist and obstetrician), Viviana Ofelia
(veterinary and agro engineer)and Gustavo Alberto (plastic surgeon).
Those were the days of a tremendous success for Castiilo, he was an
authentic popular idol.
His way to move on the stage, his way to take the microphone and swing it
from one side to other side, his always elegant attire , usually with
lighth/cream suits, his right hand near his mouth as if he was voicing as a
neswspaper vendor on the streets, his handkerchief falling from the pocket
of his suit, the neck of the shirt unbuttoned and the tie loose. Everything
was unusual, uncommon,everything caused sensation, even his improvised fist
fights with some "pitucos/cry babies" of the audience , when he sang the
theme "Que saben los pitucos !" ( the first line of the tango "Asi se baila
el tango" ), that made some of the crybabies of the audiences to give cat
calls .Castillo simply stepdown the stage, engage in a excahnge of fist
fight with the crybabies, and set up again, singing while his attire was a
bit messy by the fight :)
Some time after, he part away from Tanturi, and begun experiencing with
candombe, introducing this songs in his shows, using also balck dancers
while he sang. The first candombe hit was "Charol" (from Osvaldo Sosa
Cordero), a success in Buenos Aires and also in Montevideo . Castillo
decided to continue introducing candombe songs , including his famous and
still going on , "Siga el baile"(from Carlos Warren and Edgardo Donato).
Also "Baile de los morenos", "El cachivachero" and, among others ,
"Candonga", this last one write by himself.
Castillo was also a tango letters writer , he wrote "Yo soy de la vieja
ola", "Muchachos, escuchen", "Cucusita", "Así canta Buenos Aires", "Un
regalo del cielo", "A Chirolita", "¡Dónde me quieren llevar!", "Castañuelas"
y "Cada día canta más"; and the marchs "La perinola" and "Año nuevo".
He also appeared acting in pictures such as in 1946 with "Adiós pampa mía",
and later on 1948 "El tango vuelve a París" (joined by Anibal Troilo), "Un
tropezón cualquiera da en la vida" (with Virginia Luque), "Alma de bohemio"
, "La barra de la esquina" (1950), "Buenos Aires, mi tierra querida" (1951),
"Por cuatro días locos" (1953), "Ritmo, amor y picardía", "Música, alegría y
amor", "Luces de candilejas" (1955, 1956 y 1958 this last three , joined by
the extraordinary rumba dancer Amelita Vargas) and "Nubes de humo" (1959).
The last hit of Castillo was in 1993, when he recorded "Siga el baile" with
the argentine rock group"Los Auténticos Decadentes" and manage to capture
the youn people of the end of the XX century , as well as he managed before
with the ones of the '40 s.
I personally have the pleasure to dance at the Centro Cultural Torcuato
Tasso, last year, when he came to sing to this place. He was walking with
some difficulty, and had to be helped to step on to the stage. But, once
over the stage, he capture all the audience, and keep singing for almost one
hour without interruptions . It was an unforgettable experience, to share
the dancing with a lot of young people that came to see him .
He will be remembered as an authentic singer , one that sing for the people
to dance, and also as a kind and humble man.
He liked to start his shows saying " I belong to the people, from the people
I receive all what I am , and to the people I give all what I can "
Warm regards
Alberto Gesualdi
Buenos Aires
