Osvaldo Pugliese (1905-1995), everybody's favorite tango musician

The tango dancers and the tango musicians agree on one thing - Osvaldo Pugliese's orchestra is great. Pugliese's musical career span almost 75 years. He ran the most long-lived orchestra in the history of Argentine tango (over 50 years).

"The toughs used to follow Pugliese like soccer fans."

"He was slight, but all steel"

This show is about Pugliese's most significant tangos, the effect of his personality on fellow Argentines, the implications of his political views on his artistic career and, of course, about his artistic disciples.

Bernardo Monk, an Argentine tango/jazz musician from Boston, will make a short appearance in this show again.

Among his students and disciples:

Beba Pugliese

Roberto Alvarez

Emilio Balcarce

Julian Plaza

Rodolfo Mederos

Daniel Binelli

Hector del Curto

etc. etc. etc.

Sources

Robert Farris Thompson's Tango: The Art History of Love contains the great essay on Osvaldo Pugliese.

Osvaldo Pugliese by Andrew Graham-Yooll, The Independent, London, Jul 31, 1995
The article dedicated to the death & mourning of the great musician

Osvaldo Pugliese by Keith Elshaw
The passionate tribute of the dancer & music connoisseur

Astor Piazzolla & Osvaldo Pugliese: Finally Together
About the landmark 1989 concert in Amsterdam

Interview with Roberto Alvarez conducted by John Trimble and Lydia Essary, 2006
Alvarez, the director of Color Tango, spend 11 years with Pugliese's orchestra as a bandoneonist & arranger

Пульезе и его последователи, Дмитрий Великов
Velikov's 3-part series about Pugliese and his followers is superb, its quality surpasses even the article in todotango.com. Unfortunately... it is in Russian.

The Osvaldo Pugliese Legacy by Alberto Paz, El Firulete, Aug 2001 [link to the reprint]
Alberto Paz (of Planet Tango, New Orleans, LA, USA) writes about the great artists' legacy and disciples.

Links

On December 5, 2005 friends and fans of Osvaldo Pugliese gathered on a diagonal alley a skip and a jump from the corner of Corrientes and Canning to celebrate the 100th birthday of Osvaldo Pugliese.

Beba Pugliese was at the piano.

Short documentary about Pugliese (in Spanish), but with the tremendously interesting historical snippets: