Juan D'Arienzo

- El rey del compás -

Black and white photo of Juan D'Arienzo

Background


Juan D'Arienzo was born to Italian immigrant parents 14 December 1900 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He learnt to play the violin as a child, and his first jobs as a musician were in the theatres.


Director and orchestra leader


D'Arienzo's first orchestra actually recorded several tracks in the late 1920s. But it would be in 1935, with the sharp, energetic beat of his new orchestra, that D'Arienzo kick-started the Golden Age of tango in Buenos Aires. He did not play in this orchestra - he was orchestra leader and conductor.

As was common for the tango orchestras of the era, D'Arienzo's orchestra played music by many different composers. But D'Arienzo also composed some music himself. Among his most well-known tango compositions are "Nada más" and "Paciencia".


Orchestra


Like most of the other tango orchestras we know from the Golden Age period, D'Arienzo's orchestra both played at dances and made recordings. Later, they would also perform at concerts. There are some great videos on YouTube where we can see D'Arienzo in later years, conducting his orchestra before a live TV audience. My favourite is the one with singer Mercedes Serrano performing "Nada más". It has now been restored! Click here to see it.

D'Arienzo's life

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NB Graphs and discography are work in progress, so there might be errors.

Explore D'Arienzo's music!

TANGO NOTES focuses on the music we use for dancing today. This means that the below charts and discography includes the genres tango, vals, and milonga recorded after 1927.



D'Arienzo's tango, vals, and milonga recordings

D'Arienzo recorded a few songs from other genres as well, like polca and ranchera. He also recorded in 1928.


Here's an overview of D'Arienzo's recordings, sorted by year and genre.
Hover / tap the circles to see the titles and other details about the recordings!

D'Arienzo's singers


In the below interactive "Bandoneón chart", you can see which years D'Arienzo made recordings, with which singers, and which titles.

Hover / tap the buttons to see more information!



The singers in the traditional tango orchestras weren't considered to be big stars, like singers are today. They were just another musician - and most tango orchestras employed different singers. Later, the singer would gradually get a more prominent role in the orchestras.

Hover / tap the bars to see total number of recordings D'Arienzo made with his different singers, in order of appearance.

D'Arienzo's discography with listening examples!

NB: work in progress! Most likely some errors.



COMING SOON:





◉ Click column headers to sort by title, genre, singer, etc (also on search results).

◉ D'Arienzo recorded some songs multiple times during his career. Click "TITLE" to see these songs next to each other and compare listening examples.

◉ "Also recorded..." refers to other recordings by D'Arienzo, not by other orchestras.

◉ Listen examples added so far: All re-recorded songs A-C plus a few more.

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