This impressive compilation presents 100 of the 1,500 songs recorded by the legendary Argentinian tango canción artist during his career, among which only 970 have been released. The tracks regrouped here mostly stem from recordings made for label Odeon between 1920 and 1935, the rising part of his career that would end abruptly in a plane crash on June 24th, 1935. His debuts were made in duo with José Razzano who, after facing health issues with his throat and developing a form of immobilism, retired from the stage to − at least at first − handle the business of the greatest tango singer the Earth had ever seen. Born in Toulouse, Carlos Gardel arrived in Buenos Aires with his mother at the age of two, and became an Argentinian much later, after gaining the Uruguayan citizenship, that for a long time claimed to be his country of birth. Gardel didn’t deny this information, as he wanted to escape his military duties in France in the midst of World War I.
Many of these 100 songs, mainly tangos, a few waltzes, milongas and canciónes criollas, were featured in the dozen films in which he appeared. Some even marked his personal story. Tomo Y Obligo is the last song he performed on stage, just a few hours before his death, and Recordandote, composed by Gardel and written by Alfredo Le Pera – who was also on the plane – was only finished posthumously by his faithful guitarist Terig Tucci and José Le Pera, brother of the author. Some of these tangos also had great success in Europe through other voices, like Volver, sang by Estrella Morente in Pedro Almodovar’s film of the same name, or Adios Muchachos, popularized in France by Tino Rossi and Claude François. There’s also Madame Ivonne, the last tango recorded by Gardel in Argentina in 1933, as the end of his recording career went on in Barcelona, Paris and New York. These 100 songs carry the feeling of another era, often corrected by modern means of masterisation, at times completely re-mastered, and in other rare cases, clumsily re-orchestrated, widening the gap between playback and vocal track. But most of them still hold that unique charm that pays homage to the vocal ability and formidable expressiveness of the legendary “Zorzal criollo” (the Creole thrush), his most popular nickname. © Benjamin MiNiMuM/Qobuz