Orquesta Típica Florindo Sassone

The second Di Sarli

Florindo Sassone

*12.01.1912 +31.01.1982

Titles:

258

To buy

Tangos arround 1950: Archivo RCA: Florindo Sassone Vol. 1 und Vol. 2

Tangos arround 1960: Florindo Sassone - Bien milonguero 01 und 02

Lagrimas - Instrumental

Discographie

e.g. www.el-recodo.com

Style

elegant, powerful, dominated by violins

Typical

Crescendi, harp, vibraphone, glass org

Biggest hits

Volver (1947), Pescadores de Perlas (1971)

Important singers

- Jorge Casal

- Roberto Chanel

- Rodolfo Galé

- Oscar Macri

Wichtigste Musiker

- Piano/Arrangement:
Jorge Dragone, Osvaldo Requena

- Violin: Roberto Guisado (1. Geige Di Sarlis), Mario Abramovich (Gründer des Sexteto Mayor)

- Bandoneon: Pascual Mamone, Ángel Domínguez, Julián Plaza, José Libertella(Gründer des Sexteto Mayor)

Poema by Francisco Canaro went viral over a decade ago as a romantic superhit. Shortly afterwards, Canaro's Invierno was bound to end up on the playlists of hip DJs, until Merceditas by Orquesta Símbolo Osmar Maderna finally became the soul-melting secret weapon. Shortly before the pandemic, the crowd finally began to roar for Sassone's Pescadores de Perlas, wanting to indulge in romance.

Who is this Sassone, what makes his music special?

The first and often only encounter with his music is usually the powerful recordings of the great Di Sarli hits, characterised by strings, which Sassone, somewhat disconcertingly for some, orchestrates with harp, vibraphone and percussion.

But Sassone has more to offer. And even if he is not one of the top ten great orchestras of Tango Argentino, he has always been at the top of the public's favourites in the 50 years of his career.

How it all began

As a son of Italian parents from Piémont, he grew up in the Barrio Liniers of Buenos Aires, became enthusiastic about music at an early age and learnt the violin and harmony from the age of 8, so that by the age of 18 he was considered a qualified music teacher.

In the same year, 1930, he immersed himself in the musical tango (night) life in the city centre, which he could easily reach with the new Tranvía (= tram). After a year with Antonio Polito, he played with Firpo until Osvaldo Fresedo was so convinced of his talent in 1932 that he added Sassone to his line-up of violinists.

Sassone was permanently influenced by the elegant, refined way in which Fresedo treated tango. In January 1936, Sassone finally made his debut with his own sextet. With the singer Alberto Amor as frontman, better known for his successes with Biagi, Sassone had secured a slot on Radio Belgrano. This was the first step towards a secure existence, but he did not yet make it into the recording studio. From then on, he put the violin aside and restricted himself to conducting and organising, experimented with the harp and drums like Fresedo, was given a daily midday slot on the other major radio station, El Mundo, and performed in the centre of the city on Calle Corrientes in both the Cabaret Marabú and the Café Nacional, known as La Catedral del Tango.

But then, between 1940 and 1946, just in the years when the other orchestras were recording their greatest jewels, he devoted himself to activities outside the world of tango, although nothing is known about this.

Florindo Sassone was married to his wife María for decades, made recordings until 1979 and died at the age of 70 on 31 January 1982. Only a few tangos were written by him, the best known being the milonga Baldosa Floja and El Relámpago.

Strong years with Jorge Casal, the new Gardel

Every now and then, when I run my tango archive in shuffle mode, I'm struck by the fact that Gardel seems to be singing to orchestral music from the fifties. The solution to the riddle is, of course, Florindo Sassone.

In 1946, Sassone triumphed again on the Buenos Aires tango scene after many years of absence. And this despite the fact that the music had developed considerably in recent years. The large orchestras shone with sophisticated, complex music. Now the singers were at the centre of the audience's interest, and the generally calmer and slower music often wasn't arranged for dancers any more. Sassone performed impressively from the beginning of his second phase. He had succeeded in grouping strong musicians around him. His greatest trump card, however, was Jorge Casal, a young singer whose voice and way of intoning came very close to Carlos Gardel, the unrivalled.

Gardel himself avoided singing with orchestra or for dancers all his life, apart from a few exceptions. And people don't actually dance to Gardel. But in the years between 1947 and 1949, the Sassone/Casal pairing succeeds in combining the emotional power of Gardel's great hits such as Volver or Rencor with a very delicately arranged orchestral accompaniment that finely balances rhythm and melody.

Stylistically, this music varies between the sound of Di Sarli in the early 1940s and the sophisticated styles of the late 1940s by Troilo or Francini-Pontier. The harp and glass organ, typical instruments for Sassone, find their place regularly but discreetly and unobtrusively in this earlier phase. At the same time, in the few instrumentals of the period, such as Don Esteban (1948) or the strong El Relámpago or La Trilla (1951), you can hear that Sassone was already pursuing a mixture of Di Sarli and Fresedo in these earlier recordings of his creative period.

Volver - Jorge Casal - 1947

Rencor - Jorge Casal - 1949

La Trilla - Instrumental - 1951

In addition to Casal's extraordinary voice, with which Sassone recorded many Gardel hits such as El dia que me quieras, Al la luz de un candil or Mi noche triste, which were not arranged for dancing but as tango canción, Sassone engaged Roberto Chanel, who had left his nasal stamp on the orchestra of San Osvaldo Pugliese from 1943 to 1948. Although he had his own voice, he was musically one of the greats. Other important voices in the 50s were Carlos Malbran, Raúl Lavalle, who tended more towards the operatic, and Roberto Galé, who was not convincing as Jorge Casal when he tried his hand at Gardel hits such as Adiós muchachos. The orchestra's milongas, such as the thoroughly convincing Vieja postal, are, as was usual in the 1950s, very lively, a little too fast, rhythmically a little monotonous and, due to the very freely phrased vocals, musically nice, but not so attractive for dancers.

Mi noche triste - Jorge Casal - 1949

Adios muchachos - Rodolfo Galé - 1952

Vieja postal - Rodolfo Galé - 1952

Sassone's music is great, he found his own style. But he also catered to the taste of the masses without hesitation, not shying away from the popular. His anthem Bocca Juniors sings the praises of the big football club Bocca Juniors. The kitschy Tango Mambo somewhat clumsily celebrates the importance of the tango genre as a national cultural asset.

Why do we practically never dance to this music?

So far, the recordings have not been transferred in really convincing quality. Hopefully Tangotunes or TangoTimeTravel will take care of them soon. Besides, a DJ can only play a limited number of rhythmically freer or calmer tandas. And Pugliese, later Troilo, Francini-Pontier, Laurenz, Demare and many others alternatives are waiting to be pushed into the playlists.

After a somewhat quieter phase between 1952 and 1959, Sassone moved from the RCA Victor label to Odeon and now very convincingly filled the gap left by Carlos di Sarli, who had died shortly before.

Bocca Juniors - 1950 - Chanel

Mambo - Roberto Chanel - 1952

The late Sassone

Even early instrumental tangos such as Sassone's composition El Relámpago (1951) or El Chamuyo (1951) clearly follow the Di Sarli school. They are characterised by dynamic and mostly unison melodic waves played by the strings, which are brought to life by a dynamic piano that is oriented towards Di Sarli, but does not reach his class, and is also supported by the instrumental exotics harp and sometimes also glass organ or vibraphone.

Sassone had a strong band at the beginning of the 1960s, including the great pianist and arranger Osvaldo Requena and Di Sarli's exceptional violinist Roberto Guisado. Over a stable rhythmic string foundation, brute orchestral crescendos unfold from groups of instruments or even individual instruments such as the harp or piano, from very soft to very loud, from the very low to the very high notes. That was effective for the audience.

And so Sassone repeatedly had to face the accusation that he was orientating himself too much to the taste of the masses. Some of his music seems fresher than that of Di Sarli, which is also due to the fact that Sassone gives the bandoneons and small violin solos more space.

El Relampago - Instrumental - 1951

Sassone's music of the 60s and 70s has a quality of its own, but does not arouse enthusiasm in everyone. The sound continues to be dominated by powerful melodic waves in the strings over fundamentally simple rhythmic patterns, which are, however, richly varied by string pizzicato, harp runs, piano accents, massive crescendos etc. Between 1959 and 1962 in particular, the arrangements seem over-orchestrated at times due to the intrusive sound effects of vibraphone, glass organ, harp and percussion. In these years, many pieces begin almost obtrusively with a double strike of the glass organ, like a gong announcing the start of a meditation session. Much of it is really good, danceable, harmonically sophisticated and full of energy despite the somewhat sluggish rhythm. At the same time, many recordings from this period hardly differ from one another. You don't actually hear specific titles, but the Sassone sound. In addition to the singers Fontán Luna, Andrés Peyró and, for decades, Oscar Macri, we also hear the voice of Osvaldo di Santi in the early 60s, who we know primarily under his stage name Osvaldo Ramos as Juan D'Arienzo's most important singer since the mid-60s.

In the very productive phase between August 1965 and 1968, he finally produced several LPs with a total of 54 tangos, including great classics such as Don Juan, El Amenecer, A la gran muñeca, Sentimiento gaucho and La tablada. The double CD Bien milonguero brings together these titles. At a time when there was less dancing and many orchestras had long since disbanded or downsized, Sassone managed to stay on the ball. From 1960, he acted as the house orchestra for the television station Kanal 7, filling his ranks with additional string players. Similar to Mariano Mores, Leopoldo Federico or the late Fulvio Salamanca, Sassone sometimes strived for a sound reminiscent of a classical symphony orchestra that now played tangos. Over 40 musicians came together on stage for some of the pieces.

El Amanecer - Instrumental - 1966

Don Juan - Instrumental

Cascabelito - Oscar Macri - 1970

Das Sextett

At the same time, Sassone served the market with a sextet under the name Don Florindo. He thus followed a similar path to Firpo with his quartet in the 1940s or Canaro with the Quinteto Pirincho. A faster tempo (67 to 70 bpm instead of the 58-60 usual with Sassone and Di Sarli), more modest arrangements with the few instruments and the repertoire of the Guardia Vieja characterise the sound, which is still reminiscent of Sassone. This music sparkles with rhythm and energy, creating varied, elegant instrumental dance music that is unfortunately not currently available on the market. At least La cumparsita and 9 de julio can be found on YouTube.

Auf Tournee

In 1966, Sassone also travelled to tango-enthusiastic Japan with this sextet and other musicians, together with Di Sarli's former singer Mario Bustos. While tango enthusiasm in Argentina was already quite lukewarm, the concert tour through the major cities of Japan had to be extended by numerous concerts due to the great success; he stayed for over six months and even appeared on television there. At the beginning of the 70s, he also undertook another successful tour of Japan as well as several South American countries such as Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay and Brazil, where he had a large following everywhere. The highlight of these years, however, as he himself emphasised, was his performance at the Teatro Colón in 1972 together with the greats such as Aníbal Troilo, Roberto Goyeneche and Astor Piazzolla. In 1979, he recorded his last LP and in 1982, weakened by his diabetes, Sassone died at the age of 70 in his daughter's house.

9 de julio - Instrumental - 1966 - Sexteto Florindo

Inspiracion - 1972

Gloria y Eduardo
TV - Japan - 1972

Im Teatro Colon 1972

Pescadores de Perlas

And what's the story behind the super schmaltzy Los Pescadores de Perlas? Sassone's music tends towards the popular, he was orientated towards commercial success. And so it is not surprising that he, like many other orchestras, orientated himself abroad in view of the dwindling popularity of tango in Argentina. While Troilo, D'Arienzo and co. re-compiled their best-known titles under the label For Export or re-recorded them to suit contemporary tastes, Sassone took a different approach: he put the Sassone sound on international hits. These included world-famous non-Argentine tango compositions such as Celos/Jalousy or Tango Nocturno, but also classical songs such as Bizet's composition Los Pescadores de perlas from the opera of the same name or Orquídeas a la luz le la luna, which is based on Orchids In The Moonlight, a super hit from 1933. The recording session in July and August 1968 resulted in 14 numbers, and a double LP released in 1974 even brought together 24 recordings of international hits that are somewhat kitschy, dripping with schmaltz and orientated more towards film music. Pescadores de Perlas was included both times, but only the later version allows Bizet's wonderful melody lines - and us dancers - to float in seemingly weightless waves over the striding beat.

Pescadores de perlas - Instrumental 1972

Jo und Lucilla - Bregenz - 2019

Celos

Tango de las rosas