Carlos Gardel

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Carlos Gardel (1933)

Carlos Gardel (11 December 1887/1890¹ – 24 June 1935) was an enormously popular tango singer during the inter-war years, whose birth-place has been largely disputed. His death in an airplane crash at the height of his career created an image of a tragic hero on both shores of the Río de la Plata. For many music fans, Gardel embodies the soul of the Argentine Tango, a musical form and dance which evolved in the barrios of Buenos Aires and Montevideo 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 Noche Triste, Mi Buenos Aires Querido, Amores de Estudiante, Soledad, Volver, Por Una Cabeza and El Día Que Me Quieras.

A statue of Carlos Gardel outside the Abasto Market in Buenos Aires, near which he grew up.

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 100,000 copies and was a hit throughout Latin America. Gardel went on to tour through 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 Montevideo, Uruguay where his mother lived. There he was put on lit de parade while thousands of Uruguayans rendered homage to their beloved singer. After two days the singer's body travelled 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.

1 Birth-place controversy
2 Trivia
3 Films
4 References
5 External links

[edit] 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 department of Tacuarembó. This position is based on his request for the argentinian citizenship, in which he claims to be Uruguayan, and his passport, found half-burnt on his body, which says that he was born in Tacuarembo, Uruguay.

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 present is Gardel's testament, apparently written by himself. In that document, Carlos Gardel would affirm that he was born in Toulouse, France.

The debate still provokes passionate discussions in Uruguay, Argentina and France.

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.

Since Carlos Gardel had both french and Uruguayan documents and it's not possible to tell which ones were forged, it's not possible to tell where he was born either.

[edit] Trivia

In 1915 Carlos Gardel was supposedly wounded after being shot by Che Guevara's father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, as a result of a bar room brawl in the belle epoque Palais de Glace in the Recoleta district of Buenos Aires, though different version point out that he was shot either in the chest, or on the leg, and a third version contends that the Guevara who shot him was not Che's father but Roberto Guevara, a high-class boy often involved in quarrels[1].
The same plane crash that killed Gardel and Le Pera also killed two of their guitarists, Guillermo Desiderio Barbieri and Angel Domingo Riverol. Several business associates and friends of the group died as well (Clavell 1996).
Clavell (1996) states that a third guitarist, Jose Maria Aguilar, died a few days after the crash. There is a web site, however, that states that Aguilar lived several more years (until 1951), although he was permanently injured in the crash and never regained full use of his hands or sight [2] [3].

[edit] Films

Flor de Durazno (1917) (silent)

This was the first film of Carlos Gardel. Francisco Defilippis Novoa was the director, and also counted with Celestino Petray. Fuente: Julián y Osvaldo Barsky (2004), Gardel la biografía, Taurus.

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)

[edit] References

Julián & Osvaldo Barsky (2004), Gardel la biografía, Editorial Taurus.
Clavell, M. (1996), Biografía. In: Los Mejores Tangos de Carlos Gardel. Alfred Publ. Van Nuys, California.