D'Arienzo Discography

Notes

We have tried our best to make these discographies correct and complete, but with any project of this scale there are guaranteed to be errors. If you find any, please let us know (can email us at NotasDeOro@gmail.com or by filling out the feedback form here).

Feel free to use these discographies however you see fit. We would love to hear if you find them useful. If, you do, make sure to let your friends know about this resource. Also please visit the sites provided in the references provided below. All of the people there did a lot of work to move the state of knowledge of tango history forward.   

Master Column

The Master column denotes the type of recording technology used for the original record. For many of the discographies, this is based on the work by Frank Jin and TangoSparks. Options are

• Acoustic: pre-electrical era recordings

• 78rpm: 78rpm Shellac records (coarse-groove metal)

• Micro: microgroove lacquer, or other pre-tape transitional methods

• Tape: reel-to-reel

• Tape-S: stereo tapes  

Grouping

The Grouping column is an attempt to separate the orchestra recording history into distinct periods. These separations are based on changes in orchestra composition (often a change in the Piano player causes the orchestra to sound different), change in label, change in recording technology, and large change in tone or approach. These breaks are subjective but hopefully helpful for understanding the orchestra recording arc. 

For D'Arienzo, the groupings are as follows: 

• Sexteto (1928-1930): Early period where D'Arienzo's orchestra was a Sextet

• Fasoli Piano (1935): Short period from July-December 1935 where the orchestra was recording with Lidio Fasoli as the piano player

• Biagi Piano (1935-1938): Rodolfo Biagi takes over at the keys. The beginning of Tango's Golden Age.

• Polito Piano (1938-1940): Biagi is fired and Juan Polito takes over on piano

• Salamanca Piano (1940-1945): At the beginning of 1940, the whole orchestra left. D'Arienzo convinced Héctor Varela to give him his orchestra (Varela became first bandoneon), and Fulvio Salamanca took over at the piano.

• 6 Bandoneons (1945-1950): June 1945  Salvador Alonso joins the orchestra to expand the bandoneon section to 6; a truly formidable size. Want to distinguish the orchestra styles in your head? Just remember that Di Sarli once had 8 violins, and D'Arienzo had 6 bandoneons. 

• New Bandoneon Section (1950-1953): In the middle of 1950, Varela leaves to start his own orchestra and takes all the bandoneon players but Eladio Blanco with him. The bassist Olindo Sinibaldi also left at this time. The orchestra reverts back to 5 bandoneons, with Enrique Alessio taking the lead (and also arranging the orchestra).   

• Tape (1953-1957): In the second half of 1953 the recording technology switched over to reel to reel tape.

• Polito + Tape (1957-1964): Salamanca leaves to start his own orchestra, and Juan Polito returns to the keys for round two. 

• Stereo (1964-75): Starting in 1964, D'Arienzo began recording using the new stereo technology. In this period he produced the four D'Arienzo for Export volumes, which is why this period is sometimes called the D'Arienzo for export period.  

References

The discographies presented here were built on top of the work of several people and groups who deserve mention and credit. Below is only a subset of the valuable resources available today

• The Discographies provided by TangoSparks served as an invaluable starting place. Tango Sparks delivers some of the highest quality tango sound available today.  

• Tango Time Travel Provides meticulously researched discographies of artists for select periods of their recording careers. The TTT transfers are of the highest quality and are available for purchase on their website.

• TangoTunes provides an incredible collection of high quality tango transfers and has done extensive work compiling discography information.

• TodoTango is the go-to site for anyone wanting to know about the history of tango artists and tango music. They provide Composer and Author information and provide orchestra histories which include orchestra members. 

• Gabriel Valiente's  Encyclopedia of Tango is a valuable reference for tango discographies and orchestra composition.

• Michael Lavocah's books on the tango orchestras are must reads for anyone interested in understanding tango music. The books also provide invaluable and highly researched discography information. 

• El Recodo provides artist discography information along with an extensive suite of tools useful to tango DJs and tango music lovers. Many of the discographies presented were cross referenced with information from El Recodo to check for completeness and accuracy

• Tango-DJ.at provides a vast database of tango information which has been essential for checking and validating.  Tango-DJ.at is especially useful for DJs who want to compare different versions of a given recording to select the highest quality release.