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Debut of Carlos Gardel on NBC

GARDELIAN EVENT N°4 - 12/11/2019

Debut of Carlos Gardel on NBC

THE FIRST NBC RADIO SHOW IN NEW YORK

Gardel on NBC

On December 9, a friendly match between the teams of England and Spain was played in London. Gardel was filming in Paris, France. The Barcelona Football Club players, in particular Josep Samitier and Ricardo Zamora, urged him to go to the event. El Zorzal had accompanied them in the first leg of the 1928 Copa del Rey final in Santander, against Real Sociedad, which would make Barcelona the first champion of the Spanish Football League, and in August of that year Gardel was the host of the team during the first The next day we met in the hotel's music room. Rested now and after a succulent breakfast, in which we could appreciate the magnificent morning appetite of Castellano, the pianist, Gardel rubbing his hands vigorously, with the impetus of an explorer who comes to conquer new worlds, all infinitely more cordial and enthusiastic than The night before, we began to review the songs with which Gardel would debut on NBC in those same days. Mariani suggested the tango «Buenos Aires» as the rubric of the programs. This song, which seemed like a happy choice to us, found Gardel's immediate approval. 

Buenos Aires was the city most identified with the artist's career. Since his arrival with his mother from his native France, as a very tender child, it was in Buenos Aires where Gardel made his first arms. Buenos Aires, which consecrated it
later his favorite artist and baptized him with the name of El Zorzal Criollo.
When we had put together the first program and after some instructions from Gardel and Mariani, I took the piano and singing parts home with me to start preparing the orchestrations.

Gardel NBC

We had to take advantage of the meager time we had, working on eight orchestrations and a rubric, for an orchestra of thirty teachers, who had to be ready in forty-eight hours. I worked all that day, that night, the next day and part of the night. Fortunately, I completed my task just in time to take a few hours of indispensable rest.
Very early that morning—the day of rehearsals and the show—with my homework completed, I left my house exhilarated like a child, heading towards the NBC studios. We did a previous piano rehearsal. Some of Gardel's observations and corrections were duly taken into account. With great satisfaction on my part, I was able to observe that Gardel was an extremely cooperative, accessible, and easy-going artist. His observations were made in the manner of suggestions, almost timidly, fearful that his corrections might offend us.

Lucía, a small but magnificent Italian restaurant, located on 54th Street and Seventh Avenue, a few blocks from the NBC studios.

That same afternoon the orchestra rehearsals for the radio program would take place. I was quite nervous, knowing the responsibility that fell on me as the author of the orchestrations and I kept asking myself: Will you like my work? …Will you challenge my efforts? Trying to overcome my doubts, I told myself: I will know how to interpret his reaction from his gestures, from his expression... But, despite the fact that I tried to gain courage, terror tormented me and cold sweat ran down my body.

Test time has come. The professors seated before their respective lecterns; Gardel, completely master of himself, examined his songs; from his podium, Hugo Mariani, getting ready to start the rehearsal and rattling his baton, called the orchestra to order. 

NBC current entry in New York

The first piece that was rehearsed was "Buenos Aires", the song that was to serve as a signature. In front of an orchestra of that size, Gardel fearful that he would meddle too much and thus hindered his work as an interpreter, he listened to the accompaniment with great attention and some suspicion, while he sang the lyrics in a low voice. She would not tolerate anything getting in the way of her singing, and from time to time she cast angry glances in the direction of the musicians. It was obvious that the artist considered the orchestra as the opposition group... and dealing with this gang of musicians was no easy task. He was used to singing with guitars, which accompanied the singer in the simplest terms, sometimes naive, entirely subservient to the artist's fantasy or whim. Until then, Gardel had never sung with an orchestra of thirty teachers, like the one he was facing that afternoon, and very rarely with any orchestra, in which case the orchestral accompaniment had always been just a timid, timid murmur, reducing itself to filling the gaps in the melody, sometimes with true instrumental virtuosity, but generally with dull, insubstantial chatter. 

Before starting to write the instrumentations, I had taken the precaution of studying a number of Gardel's records with orchestra accompaniment. With rare exceptions, I found them inadequate. Accustomed to the aesthetics of North American instrumentation (the introduction of the microphone brought great changes in the art of orchestrating for radio and records) this Gardelian premise of musical shyness was difficult to accept. However, we could not go against the wishes of the performer too much, abruptly introducing sound combinations that he was not used to.

My aesthetic creed consists of fusing performer and orchestra into a single sound mass; that the orchestra comments on the infinite emotional gradations of the song with the same intensity that the interpreter instills in it, that it roars with the interpreter, that it implores with the interpreter and that together, interpreter and orchestra, covering the range of human emotions, reach irrepressible, as in the denouement of a drama, the vehement culmination of interpretive achievement.

That same afternoon I had the opportunity to verify that my strategy was well founded. One of the pieces that was rehearsed was Charlo's beautiful tango titled «Cobardía». The chorus begins with the words:

"I know that everything you are saying is a lie, that I am just a remorse in your life."

This is how he describes the painful via crucis of the tormented lover. A stubborn crescendo of mortifying misery reaches its climax in a strong emotional explosion, in which the instrumental forces, following the player's cumulative curve, break out into a powerful chord followed immediately by the echo, noble and resigned in harmony, which is almost a sigh of four brass instruments —two horns and two trombones, very flat— over which the interpreter announces the outcome of his immense tragedy: "I know, and yet without that lie I cannot live."

For an instant we were all galvanized by the masterful interpretation of the exalted artist, including those present who did not understand the Spanish text. We all, as one person, applauded with frantic enthusiasm. Gardel, happy for his first victory in New York, turns to me, and with the typical gesture of complete approval, consisting of putting his thumb and index finger to the right side of his upper lip, as if twirling an imaginary mustache, he announces more pure porteño accent:

—Hey, Tucci, cool, old man. Macanudo! That same night, the triumphant voice of Carlos Gardel, the Creole thrush that came to conquer new laurels through northern skies, was heard in countless millions of North American homes.

 

From Gardel's book in New York

By Terig Tucci