"A poet has said that tango is danced with the soul. For that reason, I try to achieve – with my group – that state of soul in the dancer, preparing his soul for the melody".

Osvaldo Fresedo (1897-1984) was the tango bandleader who, giving prominence to the melody, brought romance to the dance floor. Always inventive, playful and modern, he eventually rejected the conventions of the orquesta típica, incorporating vibraphone, harp and guitar into his line-up to forge a dreamy, romantic style that remains much loved.

Tango Masters: Osvaldo Fresedo takes the reader on a journey through a recording career spanning more than sixty years – the longest and the most varied of any tango musician.

Michael Lavocah is the author of Tango Stories: Musical Secrets, the guide to tango dance music. This is the sixth volume of the series Tango Masters, which explores the music of the great orchestras of tango’s Golden Age in depth.

ISBN: 978-1-9997551-6-4
256pp
Launching: 11th February 2024
£15 + postage

Recommended digital albums

For the sextet

Just starting out? This compilation is my suggestion for a single album. Includes the astonishing De puro guapo (not Laurenz’s seminal 1935 tango, but a different one). It’s available on Spotify.

Want an album that also exists as CD (if you can get one)? Try this album from RGS’s Tango Collection (RGS-1643). It’s available on Spotify

For more (much more!) of the recordings from 1926-1931, check out the youtube channel of Project Fresedo

The orchestra (1933-1948)

This album from Euro Records (EU-17034) is available, with a different cover, on Spotify.

This album from Euro Records (EU-17013) is available, again with a different cover, on Spotify

From Tango Time Travel comes this splendid re-issue of Fresedo’s complete 1930s recordings on Victor (TTT4). The team at TTT4 have not filtered off all the noise, in order to preserve the high-frequency information, so be prepared to sometimes use your tone controls.

This album from the French label ‘Le chant du monde’ (LCDM 2742309) covers the years 1939 – 1957, focussing on the 1950s (from track 8 onwards). It’s on Spotify.

Whilst we’re here: the best ever Buscándote, released in December 2021. Note that this album is most definitely not “Fresedo en Estéreo”, a 12 track album released initially as an LP in 1963.