A Tango Story
Good morning. May I speak to Emilio Balcarce?
I've called a thousand times. He's never home.
- Why don't you leave a message? - No, he doesn't know me.
Can't you call someone else?
No, it's him. Well, for me, it's him.
- Then go to his house. - To his house?
Right, and you come with me.
There it is.
That's so good. Play that again.
Did you hear that effect?
It has a mark ed syncopation.
You hear the strings...
Because...
...the violins don't come in first. They mark the beat.
The piano comes in.
Remember "subito piano" in the fifth measure of C.
Remember that.
Remember we said to begin faster?
When we formed El Arranque, we realized that...
to play what we heard on the
records required a lot of work.
There were no orchestras to go and listen to.
We realized that we were pretty much on our own.
In the '40s and '50s, there were so many orchestras.
Any musician who wanted to play...
could enter an orchestra as a 3rd violin or 4th bandoneon.
It was something natural, there weren't any classes.
When the orchestras disappeared, we lost the natural environment...
where musicians learned to play.
From this comes the need, not the "idea," but the NEED,
to create a tango orchestra school,
where we could invite the maestros to come,
so they can tell us how to play.
A musician who played with D'Arienzo's orchestra,
could come to show us how D'Arienzo played...
because he was in that orchestra.
Or a violinist who played with Francini could come...
and explain to us why that orchestra sounded the way it did.
To learn it from a record is very hard.
You can copy and reproduce many things.
But there are others, that if someone doesn't show you,
it's impossible to learn.
We have to save the oral transmission.
What do the institutions say when you ask for money?
That there isn't any.
"What's that?", they say.
They say, "How interesting!" "Sounds great!"
Maybe somebody else already thought of it.
What I think nobody realizes...
is how urgent it is.
When these men are gone...
it's all over.
And we'll realize that one day, when we're all alone.
Hello. Is Maestro Balcarce there?
This is Ignacio Varchausky. Yes, we spoke the other day.
I could try again later, but...
Do you know where? Because I'm in the neighborhood...
Do you know where he's walking?
I'll recognize him from photos.
When we started to think of who should conduct the orchestra school,
Emilio really stood out as uniquely qualified...
and, besides, he is very well-Ioved by all his peers.
We all know he played with Pugliese for 20 years,
he co-founded the Tango Sextet,
conducted the orchestras of Marino and Castillo,
he arranged music for Pugliese, Troilo, Gobbi, Basso.
Piazzolla recorded one of his tangos.
He's one of the most important figures in the history of tango.
But he also stands out for being a nice guy...
patient, unassuming.
When I called him, he was practically retired.
We're getting a little sun.
What are their names?
This one's Micky.
The fat one's Pepi.
And the most mischievous one is called Maite.
I talked to Balcarce.
What happened?
- He said no. - What do you mean "no"?
Why?
We had a cup of coffee...
and, really, he thought the idea was good...
but it would be too hard to gather so many musicians now.
It seemed impossible to him.
Maybe he's just tired, because he's retired already.
I don't know...
...he seemed interested, though, in the whole idea of an orchestra.
I have to convince him.
Good evening.
- Can we park here? - No. Not here.
We have to play right now.
- We're in a hurry. - We have a double bass...
Park over there.
We already went there. We've been driving around awhile.
There's no space.
This instrument's huge. I can't carry it two blocks.
There's room here.
Park it there. You can't park here.
- I'm going to run because... - Go ahead! Go!
Up! Up! Up!
Up!
Up! Up! Up!
The doctor started asking me a thousand questions and said:
"You know what? I don't think you are diabetic."
- What did we call him? - Chapatin.
Have you ever seen "The Kid from Apt. 8"?
Remember Dr. Chapatin?
He look ed just lik e him.
He wrote lik e this.
- His finger went up. - It was his thumb.
His finger went up, right?
He interviewed me... but things have changed.
Medicine is so different, these days.
The doctor doesn't really connect with you.
He asks what you feel, then just sends you for tests.
- Are you going to sing? - Yes.
- Stop eating, Daddy. - Why?
- You're going to accompany her. - Me? No.
Who's going to play then?
That has paper on it.
He doesn't want to. Thanks.
But why? We're all just sitting here...
Just "Desencuentro." I'll help you remember.
So you can remember a little. No? ...Phenomenal!
Excuse me!
For once she wants to sing and you won't let her?
Sorry! Sorry! I won't bother you.
She never wants to sing.
She wants to sing today and you say no.
Wait, Graciela. Are you melancholy or euphoric?
If you are melancholy, we could sing "Chiquilin de Bachin".
No, I don't want to sing "Chiquilin de Bachin."
No, sing "Desencuentro."
I don't know if I remember.
- These are delicious. - They're sweet.
Not yet.
I'm trying...
I don't know if I'll be able to.
Something off-hand.
You're disoriented and you don't know...
Which trolley you must tak e to go on.
In this failed encounter with Faith,
you want to cross the sea, but you cannot...
the spider you saved, bit you. What can you do?
The man you helped, hurt you and so it goes.
And this whole shouting carnival has trampled
the brotherly hand that God extended.
What a failed encounter!
Emilio is incredible.
Getting to know him is lik e...
...getting to know the history of tango.
He started his career at 16, conducting an orchestra...
and playing the bandoneon.
Then throughout his career he played the violin...
at first conducting, then playing and arranging for others.
He composed "La Bordona"! An incredibly successful career...
With Pugliese he toured many places:
Europe, Asia and then with The Tango Sextet...
he travelled all over the world...
even to Siberia.
She sings well, doesn't she?
Ask for a tip.
I couldn't find funding for the school anywhere...
and the economic situation in the country was getting worse.
I started to believe it was never going to happen.
Really, it wouldn't happen.
Then something happened which seemed like a sign.
"REDEMPTION" by Alfredo Gobbi
With Alfredo Gobbi, we feel a special connection.
One day, we were rehearsing
and Nelida Rouchetto from The Tango House...
showed up with a cassette of unreleased material by Gobbi...
playing on the radio in 1964.
Among the tangos was "Redemption".
It was a real find, a gem.
We liked it so much, and since he never got to record it,
we decided to do it, but exactly as Gobbi played it with his orchestra.
So we started to transcribe it.
But it's a big job, to pick out note by note, every instrument.
It was weird.
We were at the piano, playing the tango a little,
and we felt something strange... I don't know...
we felt a kind of presence.
As if Gobbi himself was there with us.
The next day, Nelida Rouchetto called, excited, almost crying...
because she had found, among a bunch of papers,
the complete arrangement for "Redemption" by Gobbi.
I almost burst into tears, too. It was incredible.
It was as if Gobbi, watching from a cloud, sent us this material.
She told me that Mario De Marco, the main bandoneon player...
and arranger of Gobbi's orchestra,
had given her this material before he died.
He told her to save it and tak e care of it...
for when the orchestras returned.
And that's how it went.
After 3 years of knocking on doors, we had the funding.
It came from the Secretary of Culture of Buenos Aires.
But the orchestra had to be set up in a week.
So I organized a meeting with very important musicians:
Julián Plaza, Leopoldo Federico, Carlos García,
Ernesto Franco, Horacio Cabarcos, and Emilio, of course.
Suddenly I was at the meeting table with all these giants...
and they were all expecting something.
Where do we start? Where do we start?
And why?
We are trying to get the original arrangements.
Otherwise, we can transcribe what's necessary with Ramiro.
I believe we can get quite a few.
At the first rehearsal, we can just start playing...
That won't be possible right away.
We need to get the musicians ready.
The orchestra is ready. We have 12 musicians.
But are they ready?
Who is going to tell them how to play and in which style first?
- That's why we are here. - We have to organize that.
Emilio was very worried about which tango to start with.
It could be Pichuco...
Pugliese is too complicated.
Or D'Arienzo, Fresedo, anyone we agree on,
and start with that one.
We can't start with all of them.
You are very worried because you don't know how to start.
I see it this way: I wouldn't think about Pugliese, Troilo.
Start with your music, your arrangement.
You are a very well respected man within tango...
and when you compose, you know what tango is.
Once you put the orchestra together, then it'll become clear,
You'll have the base.
OK, we have the orchestra, but what do we start with?
With one of your arrangements.
La Bordona!
La Bordona! La Bordona!
All the other maestros practically jumped out of their chairs saying...
"La Bordona! It's got to be, La Bordona!"
It was a composition by Emilio,
very important in tango's history and also very symbolic.
I saw it as a symbol of Emilio's comeback...
conducting a tango orchestra again after fifty years...
with young people again and with his tango, La Bordona.
As we only had one week to put the orchestra together...
I chose to form it by invitation.
I called musicians who already played their instruments well...
and who I thought had the right profile to form this orchestra...
because this was not an instrument school...
but rather a school of styles.
We would study with the original arrangements...
the styles of the finest orchestras of the '40s and '50s.
If this pilot work ed well, then in the second year we could...
arrange open auditions...
and invite musicians from all over the country.
From the beginning, besides Emilio, we had two assistants.
Ramiro Gallo playing violin and Horacio Romo on bandoneon.
These musicians were very young...
but had ample professional experience playing tango...
and would be excellent guides for their sections.
They would act as mirrors for the other musicians.
No, on F.
Let the chord end. It's got to vibrate.
The first F trails from before.
If it just cuts there,
it doesn't work.
Great.
Does anyone have stuff there? Water is leaking in.
This project is not just for us.
We are preserving what we have for future musicians.
Practice is cancelled due to rain.
Press here.
- You closed it. - No, you did.
- Close it. - Let go.
- You are pulling it open. - No, look.
Press here.
I have to push the other. Now it closes.
Do you like to play?
I'm not ever going to play it.
Before I was born, my dad said...
...that I'd be a boy and that I'd play the bandoneon.
It was lik e something imposed.
You play it.
Have a seat.
The melody. You see?
My son could perhaps be a musician.
He's very young now...
but next year he'll start at the conservatory. We'll see then.
So far, he wants to play the piano.
Maybe that's better. We could play together.
And if he plays the bandoneon, I can send him as a replacement.
Lik e this...
I'm going to have to start throwing things out.
Why?
I've got two of some things.
Lik e this. What do I need this for?
Which?
No! This is nice. I already put this aside.
Leave it here.
I have some arrangements.
I'm going to mak e a copy of these, Maestro.
Can I borrow these to copy?
- Then you'll return them? - Of course.
It's interesting, to k eep the published sheet music,
k eep it together with the arrangements you did.
That is why I want these.
- And this? - "Si Sos Brujo" for Francini-Pontier.
I never even thought that these could be useful.
Archive.
You're leaving me empty-handed.
Look! Do you know when that's from?
I've got 5 compositions in that publishing house.
- Look at this picture. - I only have that one left.
- Just that one. - What a sweet photo!
- How tender! - It's very tender.
What year is it from?
It should be there...
1939! June '39.
21 years old.
I was younger.
Interpret it in such a way...
that you can concentrate on fortes and pianos. JOSE "PEPE" LI BERTELLA Guest Maestro.
For example, the attack... JOSE "PEPE" LI BERTELLA Guest Maestro.
Then it gets forte, and then...
now you try it.
You don't need to play it so broad at the beginning.
Then, once you understand... but it's perfect.
- Excellent! - Indeed.
We are going to do this many times...
so play it softly this time.
Very nice.
What you're doing now, which to me is extraordinary,
describes Buenos Aires today.
It resembles the music and rhythm of Piazzolla...
because of its strength, vigor and urgency.
This was also present at other times in Argentina.
Before, the way to mak e it sound more "Buenos Aires"...
was to "dirty it up" a little, like Troilo used to say.
Give it some slides, a bullying attitude.
Almost every orchestra used to do it.
I don't mean you have to play yesterday's music.
You should feel what happened yesterday...
and then mak e your own music with the rhythm we're living.
This isn't the same Buenos Aires as 40 years ago.
All the important conductors and composers...
played first with other orchestras and conductors.
Even Astor Piazzolla, who's the greatest icon...
of the renovation in tango,
played in Anibal Troilo's orchestra for many years.
And Troilo was lik e a super tango school.
So the idea behind the Orchestra School...
isn't only about preserving the past...
it's about preserving the future, as well.
Remember last year, during a rehearsal, we had a visit from
Wynton Marsalis, the trumpet player?
Now that Ramiro recorded the CD with his quintet...
Wynton played as an invited guest on the CD.
He brought it to show you.
Tell us if this is an expression of Buenos Aires.
It has to be, in some way.
My name is Pedro Pablo Pedroso Baltazar.
I come from Havana, Cuba, my birthplace.
I came to Buenos Aires because of a woman.
Then came tango.
The woman left, but tango stayed.
Tango saved me from abandoning the violin.
I had a work visa, everything.
I had all my papers in order but didn't have a job.
I'd given up on trying to mak e a living with my violin.
I thought I'd do whatever...
The violin was put aside in my new plan for survival.
And when the violin started to sound again...
...it played tango.
What a memory!
There's no way.
Tango arrived by way of the immigrants...
They lived in tenement houses, called "conventillos."
From these places sprouted the basis of the mix...
of what would later become tango.
Each one contributed his part and his nostalgia.
And they moved between the dance and their sadness.
Being far from home and not belonging to any one place...
can bring people to do things much sadder than tango.
But we'll leave it there.
- Good luck, my friend. - A pleasure, thank you.
The orchestra is yours.
Whenever you say, Maestro.
- Quick tempo? - Yes, let's move it.
That's it!
- I don't know it. - Don't worry. Practice the form.
And the marcato, how's that?
That's the way.
Five months after starting the orchestra...
we had an opportunity to record a CD.
On one hand this was great...
but on the other, we felt a lot of pressure...
because we had to record 12 tangos in six different styles.
Those of Juan D'Arienzo, Osvaldo Pugliese,
Osvaldo Fresedo, Leopoldo Federico, Carlos Di Sarli, Anibal Troilo...
as well as the tangos by Emilio himself.
We had to play the styles as accurately as possible...
to prove that the Orchestra School project work ed.
- Don't ask any more of me. - More? No! ...A little more.
That was great!
And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we finish...
Just tak e a look at it and give it back.
Thursday I'll have copies for everyone.
Here I am, coming out of the maestro's ear.
Is it on sale?
Yes, we have just 40 for sale and 40 for the press.
Tomorrow it'll be on the street.
- Those are going to sell out. - They'll give us a copy, right?
What happened to me here?
He looks like a mutant.
He's also a mutant.
This is a night of glory for all tango-Iovers.
We were invited to play on the first day of Spring...
at a neighborhood party.
It was a dance organized by the University of Tango.
That was the debut of the Tango Orchestra School.
That very night, I remember, I told Emilio some exciting news.
We had received a big invitation to play in a festival abroad.
Emilio was very excited, and also quite nervous.
Six maestros were to travel with us as guests directors...
and each one would take his own repertory, arrangements.
Emilio said there wouldn't be enough time...
to rehearse so much new music.
That it was too much. That we wouldn't be ready.
But... it was a chance to travel.
- You don't like heights? - I don't lik e elevators.
That's Montmartre.
Argentina is that way, 11,027 km away.
Now, an apocalyptic view of the orchestra before the debacle.
The show starts in 5 minutes. 5 minutes, thank you.
5 minutes, Maestro!
How are you, Maestro Plaza?
We are filming the backstage of Buenos Aires Tango.
Are you going to warm up now?
Imagine having one of these cameras when you went on tour...
with Pugliese, right?
It would have been nice, to have this kind of thing, no?
With this shirt, Maestro, you upstaged us all!
I didn't know you were all using black shirts.
Maestro!
You were together for many years, right?
I was with him for over 30 years.
10 with Pugliese and 22 with the Sextet.
The basic step...
Things went so well during the first year that we got funding...
to carry on a second year of the Orchestra School,
and this time we could have open auditions...
even for international students.
In Paris, Gustavo Beytelmann,
a great Argentine musician, living in Paris...
introduced us to his Belgian bandoneon pupil: Eva Wolff.
She came to the hotel with her bandoneon to audition.
I'm a little nervous.
Pretend we're at a party.
Her fingers look like they might break. So tiny.
OK, enough.
- That's enough for today, maestro. - No more tango.
All I want is... rock and roll. All I want is rock and roll!
Paris was incredible, great...
But Emilio told me he isn't hearing well.
That he's missing details at the rehearsals.
That's why he was joking around about retiring.
I don't know what's going to happen.
He was deaf when he wrote the 5th Symphony.
But he used that little horn.
He had several horns. Ever tried using them?
A little horn?
He's a natural actor.
Who knows? Try to go completely deaf,
so you can compose your best pieces.
Imagine the 6th.
You can compose a new "Bordona" and we can say:
"When he composed this, he was completely deaf."
What do you think?
He doesn't lik e it.
- No, I'm considering it. - You are?
You have to tak e it out to compose.
Does it have a battery?
It goes lik e this.
It doesn't come out.
You can't see it from here.
But when I put it up loud, it goes... eeeee.
The feedback!
Yeah, I heard it.
If you put your hand...
Yeah!
I want to stay active, not sit in a chair...
because that's no good.
But one day I'll have to do just that...
and I'll have to be happy in a chair.
Don't say that, Maestro.
I try to do everything I can...
But many details slip by. You both really help, but...
And I really thank you.
But there are details I miss. Besides...
...your memories are still fresh.
When we play, we notice some detail to correct.
If I don't go by that place again soon, I'll forget it.
That happens to me, too.
Not to you, right?
Sometimes, but... not that much.
We are constantly in a race against time.
There's a lot of information that can be codified...
so as to set a starting point for how tango should be played.
We're working on a manual of orchestra styles,
but it's not easy because the maestros that know the styles
because they played with those orchestras...
and helped invent the styles...
may not know how to pass on their knowledge.
They know how to play. For them, it's natural...
...lik e talking.
Sometimes they come and show us how to play...
without giving us a more precise technical explanation.
Don't hit it any harder. I've brok en a few already.
Recently, Alcides Rossi came by, he was double bass player for
the orchestras of Troilo, Gobbi and Pugliese.
We ask ed him to play "La Yumba" in Pugliese's style,
which is a very particular style.
He took the double bass and said: "It goes lik e this."
"But, no, how? Show us again!"
And we had to watch him, tak e a mental picture...
and try to translate it so anyone could understand.
We noticed that what he did with his wrist,
rubbing the bow upwards on the string...
generated this difference in style.
Instead of simply passing the bow over the string,
he drags it upwards on "La Yumba",
and that little noise mak es all the difference.
Are you ready to give the conference, maestro?
Now, thanks to codified information,
we can show it to any double bass player in the world.
The intention of this workshop is, without being too technical...
You're enjoying this, huh?
Without being too technical, to show with musical examples
the differences between tango styles.
Let's concentrate on the four beats that tango has.
It has a natural accent on the first and third counts.
Pugliese's style gives to those first and third beats...
a very exaggerated accent.
This is called "Yumba," by onomatopoeia.
"Yum" being the accent, and "ba" the unaccented.
I'm going to say all these silly things.
Let's hear it, please.
The bandoneons will play first without these accents...
and you'll see how it loses all the tango flavor.
Then they'll add the accents for "La Yumba."
Without the accents, it's just staccato.
And now the real way, guys.
That's it.
For this last example, we have a little gem:
The percussive use of the violin.
We very often hear weird sounds in tango...
and many of them originate from the violin, small as it is.
Not only Piazzolla used these weird violin sounds.
These sounds were invented by Julio de Caro back in the '20s.
But Piazzolla used these sounds extensively.
We'll start with something called the "cicada."
Now, one called the "drum."
And now, the "whip."
And now, the violins playing all these noises together.
Maestro, what happened?
Don't you use your hearing aid anymore?
- It doesn't work. - No?
It gives me what I don't need.
I don't need more volume. I need clarity.
This is a serious problem...
and it concerns me more each day.
I'm going to do new tests now.
I heard Salgan had a similar problem.
- Who? - Salgan.
He says he's playing and then in one octave on the piano,
he hears one tone lower.
When I'm playing the bandoneon...
and I have to suddenly change chords,
I'm lik e... it's totally different.
That's what happens to Salgan.
- He plays the piano and... - Your position changes...
with the piano, too, as if you played,
a much lower note.
That's what happens to him, so he wants to stop playing.
- He wants to what? - To stop playing.
I haven't been able to solve it yet.
They say I need to use an aid in both ears, but...
if a favorable result existed,
I should've felt it in one ear already.
But it doesn't improve with this system.
I have to find another way, which I don't think exists.
What did he say?
That he wants to quit.
What did he say?
Just that. He wants to quit.
He feels uncomfortable because,
he can't differentiate sounds at rehearsals.
And so,
he's afraid of becoming a decorative figure.
But it's not lik e that.
I asked him if that was really the problem...
or if he was tired and wanted to be with his family.
He said it wasn't that.
He feels he's not helping the project...
and doesn't want to become a decoration.
That's not true because he's very important at rehearsals.
I think I convinced him to go on.
But...
one day he'll retire. That day will come.
But not today. Today we go to the Colón.
We'll just play it to there.
It's OK.
Ready?
Are you nervous?
Of course, we are.
I think Ignacio is more nervous than I am.
Because he says, "With this guy, you can't do anything."
When I started this project 5 years ago,
everyone lik ed it but they all said the same thing:
You'll do it "si sos brujo."
Which means "you need magic to do this."
That's perfect because "Si Sos Brujo"
is also the name of a tango by Emilio which he's
playing today in the Colón.
That's so great! For me, it closes a little circle.
Being at the Colon with Emilio, celebrating him...
I hope he can feel...
not only how much we respect him as a teacher,
but also how much we love him.
Maestro Emilio Balcarce!
And now...
We have a surprise for Maestro Emilio Balcarce.
We invite to the stage the maestros Julián Plaza,
Victor Lavallén, Roberto Alvarez,
and Mauricio Marcelli.
For all of you..."La Yumba!"
What a row of bandoneons!
This very intense work by the kids of the Orchestra School,
Ignacio, the coordinator,
and the enthusiasm I put into it...
not only means the orchestra is alive, but also that I'm alive.
Having lived many years doesn't mak e you alive.
Some people give up, and do nothing.
I'm alive because I'm doing things.
And perhaps I'm contributing something
so the tango can continue with all the strength
our music deserves.
Things went well. For how long? You never know.
That's the question.
And this question is decided by the years.
Nothing else but the years.
Because I could go on forever.