Historias de Tango


On June 15^th, Horacio Salgán turned 85, being still entirely devoted to his musical activities. Salgán learnt harmony with Amelia Weygand, counterpoint with Marcoli, and piano with Vicente Scaramuzza, Raúl Spivak, Alejandro Borosky and Pedro Rubeone. He started his career playing at cinemas and then in groups that were not very successful. When Roberto Firpo stopped playing to start directing his legendary orchestra, Salgán replaced him. After that, he also joined the groups of violinist Elvino Vardaro and bandoneonist Juan Caló. He was also an organist at El Mundo radio station. Horacio Salgán formed his first group in 1944, but it broke up in 1947. Then, in 1950 he constituted a new orchestral formation, which lasted until 1957. To be part of their groups, he always chose from the best musicians. Some of the artists that played with him were bandoneonists Abelardo Alfonsín, Ernesto Baffa, Armando “Pajarito” Calderaro, Roberto Di Filippo, Leopoldo Federico, Marcos Madrigal, Juan Miguel “Toto” Rodriguez and Ismael Spitalnik; violinists Víctor Felice and Mauricio Mise; and contrabass player José Ángel Alegre. His vocalists were the unfairly forgotten Carlos Bermúdez, Edmundo Rivero, Ángel “Paya” Díaz, Horacio Deval and Roberto Goyeneche. In 1957, Salgán joined guitarist Ubaldo de Lío, and formed a union which is still present. In 1960 he created the Royal Quintet, which was originally formed by De Lío, Enrique Mario Francini in violin, Pedro Laurenz in bandoneon and Rafael Ferro in contrabass. During the career of this quintet, some of his original musicians changed: Ferro was substituted by Enrique “Kicho” Díaz, who was replaced by Omar Murtaugh; Antonio Agri took Francini’s place; Laurenz was replaced by Leopoldo Federico, who was substituted by Néstor Marconi. When Federico joined the Quintet, it is renamed New Royal Quintet, which is now formed by De Lío, Néstor Marconi in bandoneon, Oscar Giunta in contrabass and Hermes Peressini in violin. As an author, Salgán is responsible for many exceptional pieces, such as “Del uno al cinco” (“From one to five”) which was the first tango he composed in 1935, “A fuego lento” (“On slow fire”), “Grillito” (“Little crcket”), “La llamo silbando” (“I call her whistling”), “Don Agustín Bardi”, “Tango del eco” (“Echo tango”), “Motivo de vals” (“Waltz motive”) with lyrics by Carlos Bahr, “A una mujer” (“To a woman”), “Homenaje a Pedro Laurenz” (“Homage to Pedro Laurenz”). He also was a remarkable musical arranger, since he improved in a huge way the interpretative mode, and gave tango a different shade, that didn’t make it lose its character but gave it another quality. He knows how to dive into the musical piece, decipher its secrets, discover the intention of its meaning and, from that point, create like a gifted goldsmith. Some of the best arrangements he made are the ones for “Mala junta” (“Bad company”), by Julio de Caro and Pedro Laurenz; “Tierra querida” (“Beloved land”), by Julio de Caro and Pedro Maffia; “Mi refugio” (“My shelter”), by Juan Carlos Cobián; and “El choclo” (“The sabot”), by Ángel Villoldo. As Luis Adolfo Sierra rightly said in his memorable book Historia de la Orquesta Típica (Typical Orchestra History): “Undoubtedly, Horacio Salgán is one of the most important personalities of modern Tango. And it is when the pianist, the composer, the musical arranger and the director meet at the same creative effort, that this remarkable tango musician reaches his true dimension.”



Carlos A. Manus
June 2001

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