Pugliese 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 Pugliese, the groupings are as follows: 

• Pre La Yumba (1943-46): The style of Pugliese is often defined by its use of la Yumba. This specific sound was developed over many years. It can be helpful to split Pugliese's recording history before and after the initial recording of his famous piece. 

• Pugliesean Style (1946-1951): The 46-51 years is the period that tango musician and historian Ignacio Varchausky refers to as the Pugliesean style sound. You can hear the style of Pugliese fully formed

• Mature Sound (1951-1960): This period marks the culmination of years of musical exploration and development.  

• Stentor (1960-1961): In 1960, Pugliese started his own recording company, Stentor. These recordings are quite difficult to find and likely you have never heard them in the milonga. 

• Phillips (1961-1968): After closing Stentor, Pugliese's orchestra joins the Phillips reocord company in 1961, recording a total of 113 tracks with them.  

• Final Orchestra (1969-1990): In the latter half of the 1960's, Pugliese's orchestra was finding it increasingly difficult to find sufficient work to adequately pay all of the artists. Pugliese suggested a core group start a sextet, which would be easier to find work than the full orchestra. The group, Sexteto Tango, became a near instant success, and it became impossible for the members to be in both the sextet and the full orchestra. The group composition therefore changed in 1969. 

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.