A TWENTIETH CENTURY MYTH

It is curious enough that a myth so powerful as that of Carlos Gardel has grown in the twentieth century. Friends who spent time with him and followed his career as an artist are still around. In Buenos Aires you can still point out the house where he lived and the theaters where he performed. Even so, Gardel seems so eternal and to come from so far back that the history of Buenos Aires without him in unconceivable.

Maybe it is because of that myth, constructed upon his voice and his talent, that we are still researching his story, with doubts about his place of birth and anecdotes told once and again in the course of time. The one indubitable thing is his extraordinary voice, his creations and his records, which do not age.

What is certain is Gardel the artist, the man who, with his tail coat and top hat, conquered the world singing “Mi Buenos Aires Querido”.

His nationality and even his date of birth are still open to discussion among historians and researchers, who debate between two dates, December 11, 1887, in the town of Tacuarembó, Uruguay, or December 11, 1890, in Toulouse, France.

The truth is that the eyes of this little boy named Carlos Romualdo Gardés first saw the Buenos Aires in the latter days of the nineteenth century, when the city was growing, evolving in its architecture, when the genuine “porteño” music - Tango - was appearing. Even as a boy he liked to sing; in an interview he stated that his goal was to sing popular music. When he started as a singer, his models were the “payadores”, with their estilos, cifras and songs. Surely Gabino Ezeiza, José Bettinoti, Arturo de Nava, were the artists who started Gardel on the road of folk music, as shown by his 1912 recordings for Columbia Records, and with the duos he formed with Francisco Martino, Saúl Salinas and José Razzano. With Razzano he began making records, which they did from 1917 to 1925.

Precisely in 1917, a singularly important event occurred in the history of our popular music: the poet Pascual Contursi, writes the first “tango canción” (tango with lyrics) to music composed by Samuel Castriota, “Mi Noche Triste”. This work was recorded a few months later by Carlos Gardel for the Odeon label, and became the first national singer to sing a “tango canción”. This is a crucial event in the history of singing and tango, because its marks a divide between the age of the great “payadores” and their songs, and the birth of the national singer, who sings tangos as well as a “criollo” (folk) repertory. Gardel invented a manner of singing the tango because there was no model to follow, so he was the creator of a road that was to be followed by all singers in the 1920’s.

With the recording of his first tangos (“Flor de Fango”, “Milonguita”, “El Ramito”), the singer grew in importance. His repertory also included criollo songs, zambas, etilos, waltzes, pasodobles, fox-trots and shimmies, accompanied by the guitarist José Ricardo, “El Negro”, and then by one of his three best known guitar trios, Barbieri, Riverol and Aguilar. He also recorded pieces with the orchestras of Osvaldo Fresedo, Francisco Canaro, Gregor, Terig Tucci and with a piano and violin accompaniment by Rodolfo Biaggi and Antonio Rodio, among others.

On October 1st, 1924, Gardel had his first radio performance with the duo partner, José Razzano, on LOW Radio Grand Splendid station. During the 1920’s, he performed in other radio stations such as Brusa, Prieto, Argentina or Fenix. In 1926 he bought, in installments, the house located at Jean Jaures 735, where he lived since then with his mother, Berta Gardes. By then he was already known as “El Morocho del Abasto” ("the dark-haired man from Abasto"), a nickname given to him for his exploits around the well-known “Mercado de Abasto” (Produce Market), which remained with him when he started a duo with José Razzano, nicknamed “El Oriental” (the man from the eastern bank of the River Plate, i.e., Uruguay).

During the 20’s Carlos Gardel travels to Europe, visiting Paris and Spain, where he cuts records for the Odeon Label, in the French Capital and Barcelona.

THE THIRTIES: THE MOVIES AND CELEBRITY

Although Gardel had been in the movies before, playing the leading role in the silent movie titled “Flor de Durazno”, in 1917, his activity as an actor really takes off in the thirties.

In October and November 1930, his friend, the film director Eduardo Morera offers his to rehearse for several talkie shorts. The result of many of these rehearsals were the so-called “song frames”. More than 10 short films were produced where we can see and hear him sing “Viejo Smoking”, “Rosa de Otoño”, “Mano a Mano”, “Yira- Yira”, “Tengo Miedo”, “Padrino Pelao”, “Añoranzas”, “Canchero”, “El Carretero” and “Enfunda la Mandolina”, among others, where he establishes a dialogue with Francisco Canaro, Arturo de Nava, Enrique Santos Discepolo and Celedonio Flores.

In May 1931 he starred in his first feature-length movie in Joinville, France, “Luces de Buenos Aires” (Lights of Buenos Aires), that would be followed by “Espérame” (Wait for Me” (1933), “La Cosa es Seria” (It’s a Serious Thing” (1933) and “Melodía de Arrabal” (Melody of the Slums) (1933). Then would come his New York movies, “Cuesta Abajo” (Downhill”) (1934), “El Tango en Broadway” (Tango in Broadway) (1935), “Cazadores de Estrellas” (Star Hunters) (1934), “El Día que me Quieras” (The Day You Love Me) (1935) and “Tango Bar” (1935). His co-stars were, among others, Imperio Argentina, Rosita Moreno, Mona Maris and Trini Ramos.

Around that time he became friends with the author of the plot and collaborator in writing his song lyrics, the poet Alfred Le Pera.

Together with Le Pera, Gardel writes a number of songs, tangos and other types of pieces which he took with him around the world. such as “Melodía de Arrabal”, “Silencio”, “Amores de Estudiante”, “Cuesta Abajo”, “Mi Buenos Aires Querido”, “Golondrinas”, “Soledad”, “Caminito Soleado”, “Sol Tropical”, “Sus Ojos se Cerraron”, “Guitarra Mía”, “Por una Cabeza”, “Arrabal Amargo” and “Volver”, among others.
Gardel’s celebrity grew out of the movies and his singing, as he created a style which was reflected in his contemporaries and which led to the establishment of a school of singing in the future.

On June 24, 1935, in a fatal crash in Medellin, Colombia, the singer died and the myth was born. A myth generated by admiration of his magnificent voice and an attractive smiled that conquered all. More than a name, the word “Gardel” has become an adjective “you are Gardel”(meaning ‘you are the best’), “go sing to Gardel” (‘get out of here’), “I feel Gardel” (‘I feel terrific). His sound drives us to the very essence of the Argentineans, he his a fellow man that never deceives us, is always smiling in bronze, and … he sings better every day!

GABRIEL SORIA
(Member of the National Academy of Tango)