Carlos Gardel
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Carlos Gardel (11 December 1890 – 24 June 1935) was an enormously popular tango singer during the inter-war years. His death in an airplane crash at the height of his career created an image of a tragic hero in his native Argentina. For many music fans, Gardel embodies the soul of the tango, a musical form and dance which evolved in the barrios of Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the end of the 19th century.
Gardel possessed a baritone voice deployed with unerring musicality and dramatic phrasing, creating miniature masterpieces among the hundreds of three-minute tangos which he recorded during his lifetime. Together with his long-term collaborator, lyricist Alfredo Le Pera, Gardel also wrote several classic tangos, notably Mi Buenos Aires querido, Amores de Estudiante, Soledad, Volver, Por una cabeza and El día que me quieras.
Gardel began his career singing in bars and at private parties and in 1911 formed a duet with Francisco Martino, and after with José Razzano (which would last until 1925), singing a wide repertory. Gardel made the music his own by inventing the tango-canción in 1917 with Mi Noche Triste, a Pascual Contursi and Samuel Castriota`s theme, which sold a 100,000 copies and was a hit throughout Latin America. Gardel went on to tour Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia and made appearances in Barcelona, Madrid, Paris and New York. He sold 70,000 records in the first three months of a 1928 visit to Paris. As his popularity grew, he made a number of films for Paramount in France and the U.S., which were essentially vehicles for his singing and matinée-idol looks.
When Gardel and his collaborator Le Pera were killed in an airplane crash in Medellín, Colombia in 1935, millions of his fans throughout Latin America went into mourning. Hordes of people thronged to pay their respects as the singer's body travelled via Colombia, New York and Rio de Janeiro to its final resting place in La Chacarita cemetery in Buenos Aires.
Gardel is still revered from Buenos Aires to Tokyo, where people like to say that "he sings better every day." His fans still like to place a lit cigarette in the fingers of the life-sized statue which adorns his tomb. One of Gardel's favorite phrases, Veinte años no es nada (Twenty years is nothing) became a famous saying across Latin America.
Fuente: Julián y Osvaldo Barsky (2004), Gardel la biografía, Taurus.
Birth-place controversy
Regarding Gardel´s birth place, there are two main theories.One claims that Gardel was born in Uruguay, in a small town called Valle Edén, located in the Uruguayan region of Tacuarembó. This position is based on one document, newspaper interviews of the time and oral tradition.
Another position claims that Gardel was born as Charles Romuald Gardès in Toulouse, France, to an unknown father and Berthe Gardès (1865-1943), said to have brought him to Argentina at age 27 months. A French birth certificate exists; the original is reportedly owned by the estate of Gardel expert and Puerto Rican radio personality, Gilbert Mamery. The other document that the theorists presents is Gardel`s testament, written by himself. In that document, Carlos Gardel afirms that he was born in Toulose, France.
The debate still provokes passionate discussions in Uruguay, Argentine and France, although experts on Gardel tend to gravitate towards a French birth.
When asked about his nationality he would answer I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the age of 2 years and a half... It is debated that Gardel was evasive about the answer as to hide the circumstances of his birth to a single mother.
Font: Julián and Osvaldo Barsky (2004), Gardel the biography, Taurus Edition.
Films
- Flor de Durazno (1917) (silent)
- Luces de Buenos Aires (1931) (filmed in Paris)
- Esperame (1933)
- La Casa es seria (1933)
- Melodia de Arrabal (1933)
- Cuesta abajo (1934)
- El Tango en Broadway (1934)
- El Día que me quieras (1935)
- Cazadores de estrellas (1935)
Reference
Julián & Osvaldo Barsky (2004), Gardel la biografía, Editorial Taurus.External links
- [gardelbiografia] (Spanish)
- [The Uruguayan version] (Spanish)
- [Internet Movie Database entry]
- [Chronicles]
- [Carlitos]
- [Gardel Web] (Spanish)
- [Biography] (Spanish)
- [History] (Spanish)
- [Carlos Gardel's Gravesite]
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