Di Sarli recorded on RCA-Victor until 1948, both with his sextet (1928-1931) and with his orchestra (1939-1948). After a short break in 1949-1951, he made his comeback on the new Music Hall label, which was recording on the vinyl technology. He returned to RCA-Victor in June 1954. The final recordings were made on Polygram in November 1958, after a disagreement with RCA-Victor.
In the CD era Di Sarli was not especially well served by BMG (owners of RCA-Victor) and there was never a complete re-issue. Thankfully, Euro Records filled in a lot of the blanks. You can read my summary of the CD releases over at milonga.co.uk. Sadly, BMG have not reissued the Di Sarli catalogue in digital formats.
The recordings on Music Hall were always a bit hard to find because Music Hall went bust and they fell into a legal limbo. Now they have been released by Tangotunes.
Spotify playlists
- Carlos Di Sarli: 1928-1931 application / browser
- Carlos Di Sarli: 1939-1940 application / browser
- Carlos Di Sarli: 1941 application / browser
- Carlos Di Sarli: 1942 application / browser
- Carlos Di Sarli: 1943 application / browser
- Carlos Di Sarli: 1944 application / browser
- Carlos Di Sarli: 1945 application / browser
- Carlos Di Sarli: 1946 application / browser
- Carlos Di Sarli: 1947-8 application / browser
- Carlos Di Sarli: 1951-54 (Music Hall) application / browser
- Carlos Di Sarli: 1954-1958 application / browser
- Carlos Di Sarli: 1958 album on Polygram application / browser
and if you’d like to listen to the late instrumentals alone, without the vocal numbers:
- Carlos Di Sarli: the late instrumentals application / browser
Youtube playlist
DJ Torotango has a youtube playlist covering the years 1939-1951.
Recommended digital albums
The Tangotunes release Carlos Di Sarli, Music Hall, all 84 vinyl tunes is simply essential. Yes it feels like a lot of money, but hours of pleasure await you. Just get one.
The late recordings on Victor are available as digital releases on all the major platfoms – but not on amazon or Apple in the US. This will be down to licensing.
The Carlos Di Sarli album in the series RCA Victor 100 Años was the best selling tango album in the world. The digital version is not presently available in the United States.
EU-16010, Carlos Di Sarli y Sus Cantores 1954-1958 has been released digitally as Archivo RCA : Carlos Di Sarli Vol. 2.
EU-16023, Carlos Di Sarli con Roberto Florio y Jorge Durán has been released digitally as Archivo RCA : Carlos Di Sarli Vol. 3.
EU-16028, Carlos Di Sarli 1954/1955 has been released digitally both with the original cover and title, and as Archivo RCA : Carlos Di Sarli Vol. 1.
EU-16019, Dos maestros, dos estilos: Carlos Di Sarli y Juan D’ Arienzo
has been released digitally as Archivo RCA: La Década del ’50 – Carlos Di Sarli – Juan D’Arienzo
The Euro Records CDs covering the 1940s are also available digitally. They are good value for money, but look also at the releases on TangoTunes. Currently, these cover the years 1939-1945, and the missing years (1946-1948) are not expected imminently.