3763 Organ grinder playing tango
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 16:33:55 EDT
From: TimmyTango@AOL.COM
Subject: Organ grinder playing tango
At the beginning of the 20th Century
Radio was just invented. The Phonograph wasn't invented as yet, but the tango
traveled
Usually by an organ grinder. And I'm told it was good luck to give the man or
his monkey a coin for good luck.
Some received a fortune to read.
Does anyone out there in tango land have any recording of an actual
Organ grinder playing a tango. I would like to get a copy
Timmy
in Cleveland
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 14:13:47 -0700
From: Ed Loomis <TangoBear@POBOX.COM>
Subject: Re: Organ grinder playing tango
Hi Timmy,
Perhaps someone on the list is aware of historical recordings of organ
grinders playing tango but I can't recall seeing any listed anywhere. There is a
1998 tango album recording by vocalist Haydée Alba where she is accompanied by
an organ grinder. It is titled "L'epoque Tango" and is produced by Playasound in
France. Go to https://www.playasound.com for more information. They were easy to
order from and the shipment arrived rather quickly. Ciao................
Ed
On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 16:33:55 EDT, TimmyTango@AOL.COM wrote:
>At the beginning of the 20th Century
>Radio was just invented. The Phonograph wasn't invented as yet, but the tango
>traveled
>Usually by an organ grinder. And I'm told it was good luck to give the man or
>his monkey a coin for good luck.
>Some received a fortune to read.
>
>Does anyone out there in tango land have any recording of an actual
>Organ grinder playing a tango. I would like to get a copy
>Timmy
>in Cleveland
>
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 18:01:41 -0400
From: Keith Elshaw <keith@TOTANGO.NET>
Subject: Organ grinder playing tango
>At the beginning of the 20th Century
>Radio was just invented. The Phonograph wasn't invented as yet, but the tango
...
As a radio broadcaster and record producer, I would hate it if people
thought the above statement was factual (sorry, Timmy!). :-)
The record was flooding the market 2 decades years before the first radio
broadcasts started without an audience with receivers to hear them.
The first records and phonograph players were manufactured in Montreal by
the inventor of the phonograph, Emile Berliner. In 1900 he sold 2,000
records. In 1901, he sold 2,000,000. His company later morphed into RCA (the
big recorder of Argentine Tango which set fire to its own Master warehouse,
creating today's woeful situation).
Interestingly, RCA was also central to the birth of commercial radio
broadcasting.
The first extended broadcast of the human voice was transmitted through the
air on December 24, 1906 from Brant Rock, Massachusetts. This was
accomplished by a Canadian engineer, Reginald Fessenden, who had worked for
Thomas Edison in his New Jersey Laboratory and later became a professor at
the University of Pittsburgh. For the next decade and more, radio was
basically only a military and scientific application.
Although RCA was initially envisioned as an international communications
company, it also quickly moved into the developing broadcasting field. RCA
made its broadcast debut on July 2, 1921 with a heavyweight boxing
championship, as Jack Dempsey defeated Georges Carpentier. The bout took
place in Hoboken, New Jersey, and was broadcast by a temporary longwave
station, WJY, with a transcript of the fight commentary telegraphed to KDKA
in Pittsburgh, for rebroadcast by that station.
Radio wasn't a real thing in people's homes until the decade of the 20's
progressed. So you could say that it was 25 years behind the record in terms
of consumer availability.
More info about these topics can be read at https://ToTANGO.net.
Cheers,
Keith
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 19:05:40 -0400
From: Michael <tangomaniac@CAVTEL.NET>
Subject: Re: Organ grinder playing tango
I wonder if the monkey danced tango.
Michael
Washington, DC
On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 16:33:55 EDT, TimmyTango@AOL.COM wrote:
>At the beginning of the 20th Century >Radio was just invented. The Phonograph wasn't invented as yet, but the tango >traveled >Usually by =
an organ grinder. And I'm told it was good luck to give the man or >his monkey a coin for good luck.
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 21:03:53 -0400
From: Ira Goldstein <eyegee@TWCNY.RR.COM>
Subject: Re: Organ grinder playing tango
>At the beginning of the 20th Century
>Radio was just invented. The Phonograph wasn't invented as yet, but the tango
>traveled
>Usually by an organ grinder. And I'm told it was good luck to give the man or
>his monkey a coin for good luck.
>Some received a fortune to read.
>
>Does anyone out there in tango land have any recording of an actual
>Organ grinder playing a tango. I would like to get a copy
>Timmy
>in Cleveland
Listening to early recordings of tango music,
the effect of the flute & violins as they were played sound very much
like organ grinder music to me.
I imagine that that sound was the expressive voice of its time,
and to me those strains are still powerfully evocative.
For example:
"Rosendo", performed by Orq. Vicente Greco in 1911,
found on "La Historia del Tango" vol.3, cd-1, track 1
or:
"El Apache Argentino", performed by Orq. Juan "Pacho" Maglio in 1913,
found on "Instrumental Tangos of the Old Guard", track 15.
--Ira
Ithaca, NY
