Edmundo Rivero
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Leonel Edmundo Rivero (June 8, 1911 – January 18, 1986) was an Argentine tango singer and impresario.
Rivero was born in the southern Buenos Aires suburb of Valentín Alsina. Joining his father in some of his travels, he was exposed to the lifestyle and the music of the gauchos of Buenos Aires Province from his early days.
In his teens, Rivero moved to the Belgrano neighborhood in the city proper, and witnessed the growth of tango as a dancing phenomenon, and also as an ever more complex music form under the "ABC" of composers/directors (Arolas, Bardi, Cobián). At the same time, the themes of tango lyrics evolved from light-hearted ribaldry into complex stories on love and manly honor.
Rivero learned classic guitar and also trained as a singer; he had a deep bass-baritone voice that was one of his trademarks. He was also noted by his huge hands (due to his acromegaly).
After working as a cover singer in small venues, Rivero got his first radio appearance singing a duet with his sister Eva in Radio Cultura. He spent the early 1930s alternating radio work with dance hall gigs.
Picked up by bandleader José De Caro in 1935, his qualities attracted Julio De Caro (José's more famous brother) who then drafted Rivero. The orchestra, which incorporated non-traditional instruments, was a fixture of the Pueyrredón theatre ballroom, and Rivero gained fame—and the moniker that stayed with him forever: el feo (the ugly guy).
Even though Rivero was featured in many Argentine films in the 1930s and 1940s, the early forties were a time of uncertainty for him, and bandleaders who did request him (such as Humberto Canaro) would not retain him for long. Later, Rivero claimed that his deep voice was a handicap during this time.
In 1944, Rivero joined Horacio Salgán. His three-year tenure there left no recordings (with his Bartók influences, Salgán was too "far out" for the general tango audience) but earned Rivero the respect of avant-garde and jazz musicians. To make ends meet, Rivero also worked in a duo with fellow singer Carlos Bermúdez that recorded tangos (in a more commercial vein) for the Colombian market.
In 1947, Rivero was hired by Aníbal Troilo, who was having a stellar run of recordings with new hit songs, some of them in collaboration with lyricist Homero Manzi. During his three years with Troilo, Rivero shared the limelight with Floreal Ruiz and Aldo Calderón, and recorded 22 songs, including the mega-hit Sur, where Troilo's melody frames Manzi's elegy for a young love and also for the old barrio.
Having found fame and fortune, Rivero left Troilo in 1950 and started a solo career. For accompaniment, he would alternate between guitar quartets and orchestras for the remainder of his career. The most famous musician to follow Rivero was guitarist Roberto Grela, who was also Troilo's sideman.
Guitar-only formations were used by countryside milonga artists, early tango singers, and even Carlos Gardel in his youth, but Rivero's 1950s incursion, in a time of total dominance by big orchestras, was seen as a bold choice, which forever cemented his identification with the silent masculinity of the countryside—as opposed to the emphasis that "urban" tango put on stories of lost love.
In the sixties, Salgán and Rivero had their revenge, and recorded several tunes together. Rivero also collaborated with other artists, who noted his generosity and his devotion to music. In 1966 he appeared in the film Buenos Aires, verano 1912.
By the late 1960s, tango had become mostly "for export", since musicians and audiences were aging and became fixated on old songs and the orchestral format of the 1940s and 1950s. Most tango fans also rejected the music of Ástor Piazzolla and his followers (Rivero himself admired Piazzolla, and recorded his creations on more than one occasion.) Even major artists had trouble finding venues to play.
Fearing for tango's viability, in 1969 Rivero opened El Viejo Almacén ("The old store"), a tango club in the San Telmo district. His hospitality was enjoyed by many visitors to Buenos Aires, who went to Rivero's club to savor the tango music and dance in its full intensity. Among the recurring visitors were Joan Manuel Serrat and Camilo José Cela.
Rivero was an icon in Japan, where he toured in 1968; he got to know many Japanese musicians and dancers, and wrote tangos such as "Arigato Japón" and "A lo Megata" (honoring playboy Tsunayoshi "Tsunami" Megata, one of the top tango dancers of his age). No Japanese tourist would leave Buenos Aires without visiting one or more nights at the Almacén.
Rivero hosted a TV show in the early seventies, which featured artists from the club (such as Beba Bidart), as well as lively dialog sprinkled with lunfardo. Some of his 1960s and 1970s reunions with Troilo and Grela were televised.
In 1980, Rivero took part in Osvaldo Pugliese's 75th birthday concert.
Rivero was hospitalized in late 1985, and died from heart failure on January 18 1986, in Buenos Aires.
[edit] Selected Recordings
- Sur (perhaps the favorite tango of Argentines)
- El ciruja (an underworld saga sprinkled with heavy doses of lunfardo)
- Amablemente (a sonnet sung as a milonga—the lyrics lead to a dramatic ending)
- Pucherito de gallina
- No te engañes corazón
- Malón de ausencia
- Yo te bendigo
- Falsía
- El último organito
