From "El Portal del Tango" we pay homage to a big tango man.

 

Pedro Blanco, that was his real name, was born in La Boca, in October, 1902. His mother, Rafaela Acosta, was widow of Laurenz and she had two sons: Felix and Eustaquio Laurenz, who would eventually become bandoneon players and would live in Montevideo.
Rafaela then got married to Pedro Blanco,  Pedro's father. Pedro grew up in Villa Crespo suburb and learnt from his father how to play the violin, but he liked the bandoneon better. In his house there was an authomatic bandoneon. When he was 13, in 1915, he used to play for his friends who
thought that they were standing in front of a true bandoneon player. Some years later he would be one of the best bandoneon players. In 1917 his mother moved to Uruguay, following Pedro's doctor's
advice. In Montevideo, being near his brothers, he decided to play the bandoneon. They gave the first lessons to him, and Pedro went on learning on his own, making his debut in 1920 in a quartet in a café from the Cerro de Montevideo. Two years later he played in Casanova's orchestra, a piano player who had played with Arolas.Casanova in piano, Eustaquio Laurenz and Pedro in bandoneons, Edgardo Donado and Roberto Zarrillo in violins. Pedro changed his surname by Laurenz (his brothers' surname). Some time later, with Casanova, Pedro returned to Buenos Aires. They formed a quartet with violin players Emilio Marchiano and Juan Rivera (now
Córdoba) and Godoy Cruz. In 1923 Laurenz and the violin players Marchiano and Marischi played in Roberto Goyeneche's orchestra with Enrique Pollet, one of the best bandoneon players at these times and they played in the summerhouse placed at 2500 Las Heras street, in front of San Agustín church. They also played in Cultura Radio, one of the first national radiostation. He also showed his first tango called "El Rebelde" (The rebel) composed with his mate "El Rengo" Emilio Marchiano, which did not have much consequence. Between the end of 1923 and the beginning of 1924 Pedro played in Enrique Pollet's orchestra. In 1924 the best period of his career started. The bandoneon players De Caro,  Pedro Maffia and Luis Petrucelli decided to leave the orchestra. To find their replacement, Julio thought in Americo y Emilio Bianchi, who played with Eduardo Pereyra in "Los Andes" bar, but they did not accept; so Julio talked with Enrique Pollet and invited him to play together with the second bandoneon player, who was Laurenz. Pollet did not accept, but they played together for a couple of days. Pedro Maffia changed his mind and he decided to stay with De Caro. Laurenz entered in Julio's orchestra, making his debut in Vogue's Club from Palais de Glace.It became the most important duo of bandoneons: Maffia and Laurenz. There are valuable albums of this duo.
In 1926 Maffia left De Caro's orchestra and Laurenz stayed as first bandoneon while the second player was Armando Blanco. We can not forget that some time before Laurenz and Maffia had wrote the tango "Amurado", one of Laurenz´s most famous compositions. The violin player José de Grandis, who also wrote poems, gave Laurenz the lyrics for "Amurado": he wrote the first part and Maffia wrote the second part. Laurenz was the first bandoneon player of Julio De Caro's orchestra from 1926 to 1934, its brightest period. In 1932 Julio De Caro formed another orchestra with which they played in Astro Cinema at Corrientes Street. In those concerts Laurenz played with a young boy, who would be, later on, one of tango´s greatest artists: Anibal Troilo.
The bandoneon quartet was formed by Laurenz, Blasco, Troilo and Calixto Sallago. On March, 1935 they played in Stentor Radio. They were "Los cinco Ases Pebeco": Laurenz, Maffia, Carlos Marcucci and Ciriaco Ortiz (Bandoneons) and Sebastian Piana (Piano) with glosses of Homero Manzi. The most famous singers who sang with that orchestra were: Hector Farrel, Juan Carlos Casas, Martín Podestá, Alberto del Campo, Alberto Fuentes, Alberto Podestá, Carlos Bermudez, Jorge Linares, Alfredo del Rio, Jorge Ortiz and Carlos Rivero. Some time later Laurenz was a part of  the "Real Quintet" with Horacio Salgán, Enrique Francini, Ubaldo de Lío and Rafael Ferro. In ten years they travelled three times to Japan and performed in our country, too. In 1967 Pedro recorded an album with Eduardo Walczak, José Colángelo, Rubén Ruiz and Luis Pereira. During the summer of 1970 he played in Mar del Plata with a quartet formed by Fernando Suarez Paz, Osvaldo Potenza and Julio Rodolfo. This group played in the Carnagie Hall (E.E.U.U.) on May 16th, 1970. Laurenz got married to Elsa Lacarde and they had a daughter called María Cristina (singer and actress). Pedro Laurenz died in Buenos Aires on July 7th, 1972.

Thanks to Revista Tango XXI for the material given.