RELEASE NOTES RODOLFO BIAGI 1927-1948
The present restoration project contains the complete 136 studio recordings which «Rodolfo Biagi y su orquesta típica» have recorded at Odeon between their debut in 1938 and 1948. We also added as a bonus the two early piano solo recordings which Rodolfo Biagi made in 1927 at Victor because they are of an historic interest. Of these 136 recordings, 110 are tangos, 7 are milongas and 18 are valses, there are no otros ritmos, apart from the 1927 estilo contained on the solo record. The vals «Tu melodía» is present as take 2 and 3 and is counted here only once. In the summer of 1948, the orchestra stopped recording and came back to the studio only in spring 1950. The 1950-1962 era will be covered by a future TTT release.
In the 1920s and early 1930s, Rodolfo Biagi had been a member of various bands, amongst others Juan Maglio «Pacho» and Juan Canaro. He also accompanied Carlos Gardel on some recordings. It’s in 1935 that Rodolfo Biagi joins the orchestra of his friend Juan D’Arienzo and replaced Lidio Fasoli on the piano. He recorded 71 sides with Juan D’Arienzo at RCA Victor and impregnated the orchestra with his nervous and rhythmic style. In 1938 Biagi and D’Arienzo split and he set up his own orchestra signing at the concurrent label Odeon. Both orchestra leaders are rigorously focused on aspects of danceability, especially in their early recordings, which earned them critics qualifying their music as being too simplistic, monotonous and serving always on the same musical ideas. But there is a strong conceptual difference in style between Biagi and D’Arienzo. Biagi has a very unpredictable and irregular style, not only in the distribution of his beats but also while bringing in some unexpected chords, even sometimes dissonant, in his piano arrangements. D’Arienzo on the other hand is very regular and reliable. Check for instance Biagi’s own composition of «Indiferencia» recorded once with D’Arienzo in the 1930s and once with his own orchestra in 1942. Especially the ending part contains a triplet in Biagi’s own recording whereas with D’Arienzo it’s a plain regular ending. Another unusual experience is the ending section of «Equipaje» which seems to start again with a variation of the introduction. «Lisón» in turn, is full of triplets, rendering it quite challenging for dancing.
The singers of the orchestra during the 1930s and 1940s were (in order of appearance and with number of recordings): Teófilo Ibáñez (8), Andrés Falgás (11), Jorge Ortiz (38), Alberto Lago (5), Alberto Amor (30), Carlos Acuña (12) and Carlos Saavedra (7). There is a total of 23 instrumental recordings.
On several recordings, Jorge Ortiz touches the microphone, most noticeable on «Copas, amigas y besos» at 1’07’’, resulting in a strong distorted impact sound. We have left all these artefacts in the transfers because they are actually in the recording and contribute to the emotional experience of the singer.
DISCOGRAPHY
At the Odeon label, the record numbers follow a sequential numbering scheme. Biagi’s number space starts with 5600 and stops in 1948 with record 5670. As the numbering is continuous per orchestra one can easily identify missing records. In this case, as every record has an A and B side, the sum should be 145 record sides and not 136 as in our album. As a matter of fact, the missing record numbers (9 tracks), 5653-AB, 5659-AB, 5668-AB, 5669-AB and the B-side of 5635 are all re-issues of previously published titles, as you can see in detail in our attached new Biagi
discography. The explanation for these numerous contemporary re-issues might be that Odeon considered Biagi as a commercial success and needed to reproduce sold out titles already back in the 78-rpm era which is quite uncommon.
The peak of recordings of the orchestra can be set between 1939-1946, with an average of around 8 records per year. It drops to barely 1 record each in 1947 and 1948. In 1949, there are no recordings at all. We have seen this dip with other orchestras, both at Odeon and RCA Victor. It can be explained by a decline of tango culture. In this postwar time new foreign music was pushing massively on the Argentine market.
Another curiosity in the Biagi discography is the presence of the two takes of «Tu melodía», 5651-B, take 2 and take 3. At Odeon, when there is only the matrix number, it means take 1. If there is a little 1 added after the matrix number it means take 2, a little 2 means take 3, etc. We noticed on the other side of record 5651, «Me quedé mirándola», that there is a technical problem mainly with the piano microphone. The A-side, «Me quedé mirándola», exists only as take 2, whereas the B-side, «Tu melodía», has been published both in take 2 and take 3. As you can hear, take 3 has acceptable signal quality whereas take 2 still contains the technical problem. We also have the impression that this problem affected a bit the records before 5651. This could be explained with spare parts supply of the German Odeon equipment (Georg Neumann/Telefunken) being rather difficult in May 1945, during the end of WWII.
We also added in the discography the 54 recordings made after 1950, though this information is not yet fully assessed. Our discography can be found in the download archive of our website and attached to the album folder.
PITCH
The record label Odeon adopted the new international standard pitch of 440Hz relatively late in the end of 1943 (see also our previous release notes of the albums «Lucio Demare» and «Pedro Laurenz»). The last Biagi record with the older A4=435Hz concert pitch is record 5641-AB «Adiós te vas | Prisionero» from August 1943. The following record 5642-AB «Si la llegaran a ver | Lonjazos» made on 1943-12-07, is in the new concert pitch of A4=440Hz.
We also recognised on Odeon records, as compared to RCA Victor, a higher amount of wow and flutter for which we had to compensate in our transfers. These are small vibration-like fluctuations in tonality on some pitches, caused maybe by the motor of the lathe cutter during the recording process.
As always, we have analysed all recordings of the present album individually to determine the exact speed for our transfers, with a particular attention to isolated piano tones. The percussive piano playing of Biagi in the higher register of the piano produced sometimes more unreliable pitches which rendered the selection of notes for analysis more severe.
The pitch information is extremely important for us and also for you so you can enjoy these recordings in the intended tonality and tempo.
PHONO PREAMPLIFICATION
Our collection of Rodolfo Biagi contains most of the time 4-6 copies of the same record. Therefore we were able to select systematically the best preserved record for our transfers resulting in very low distortion and background noise. Preamplification was very straight forward and we didn’t need to compensate for record wear as it is often the case. We particularly love how the vibrato of the bandoneons is now rendered to the full!
FORMATS
This edition is available in the formats: 24bit-96kHz FLAC, 16bit-44.1kHz CD quality both AIFF and FLAC and as 320kbps CBR MP3. The files originate all from our high-resolution digital master and therefore should all sound the same. The only difference is bit depth, sampling rate and codec.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Age Akkerman, Amsterdam & Omar Facelli, Montevideo for their continuous support and help for the project.
