Wednesday, July 01, 2015

A Missing Record Featuring Les Loups?

According to the Discography Of American Historical Recordings a 78 rpm Victor 80840 recorded Spring 1928 in Buenos Aires featuring female tango vocalist Rosita Quiroga has the title 'Mis pobres ilusiones' on the A side (mx BAVE-44060), while the B side (mx BAVE-44061) has the title 'Mal rumbeada'. I got curious about this Victor recording, as the A side featuring 'Mis pobres ilusiones' is a composition credited to Gastón Bueno Lobo and Oscar Alemán with added lyrics by Enrique D. Cadicamo. I tried to find further info about this composition and hoped finding the audio somewhere to evaluate the possibility of Les Loups' participation in the recording, but without result, since the recording probably is lost. Next I wrote my expert friend in early tango, Luis 'Tito' Liber for help researching further info, he sent me an answer (quoted below) which does not solve the question about the possible participation of Les Loups, but it puts some light on the circumstances of the the recordings by Rosita Quiroga in 1928.
Rosita Quiroga
Here is what Luis wrote: Roberto G. Miglio, in his book El Tango y Sus Intérpretes, has written that there are two sides of Rosita Quiroga (Victor 80840, recorded May 2nd 1928) where she would be accompanied by Les Loups, with hawaiian guitars: Mis Pobres Ilusiones (G Lobo-E. Cadícamo; O. Aleman) vals / Mal Rumbeada (E. Cadicamo; L. Viapiana; J. M. González) tango.
According to my investigation, the master of Victor 80840 no longer exists, no record collector seems to have the disc, and no modern CD compilation has these two songs. So we cannot hear them and confirm the information. But we can get closer, knowing the name of the guitarists that accompanied Victor´s star singer Rosita Quiroga in her 1928 records. The everpresent duet of guitars in her records from 1925 to 1928 (with the exception of 1927 and some records from 1928) is the excellent duo Aguilar/Pesoa. José María Aguilar (1891-1951) made the solos (a strong sound!!) and Rosendo Pesoa (1896-1951) the accompaniment. These guitarists were a kind of session musicians who played with every singer of the Victor staff. Rosendo Pesoa and José María "El Indio" Aguilar both have been the accompanying guitars of tango singers Ignacio Corsini and Agustín Magaldi, and Aguilar has been the guitarist of the great Carlos Gardel. Not outstanding, in some records of the Autumn of 1928, Quiroga´s guitarist are unknown. Maybe she had used another duet, for instance Alemán/Lobo. But in the Winter of 1928, Aguilar/Pesoa were back. So, maybe the guitar work of Les Loups had sounded very similar to them.
During those sessions of 1928, she recorded the first hit of composer Enrique Santos Discépolo: Que Vachaché. It could be possible that Rosita had introduced Les Loups, who were friends of Enrique, to the manager of the Victor Company.
Enrique S. Discépolo
To give you an impression of Rosita Quiroga and her accompanying guitarists, here is her recording of Discépelo's Que Vachaché; it was recorded in the Summer of 1928 and the Victor files has no names of the accompanying guitarists, but the duo may be the above mentioned Aguilar/Pesoa.


This famous tango by E.S. Discépolo was also recorded by Les Loups ca 30 Aug 1928 and was issued on Victor 80936 and/or 80950 (mx BAVE-44281-2). I'll insert the audio of this recording below to let you have the opportunity to determine similarities and/or differences compared to the the recording by Rosita Quiroga from about the same time.


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Jo
keepitswinging.domain@gmail.com