New Info On Les Loups

Yesterday we received interesting new info on Les Loups from one of our readers. As much of this info is new to us, we have decided to publish it here as quoted from the source.

Our messenger, Johan of tangoteca@telenet.be, informs that the recordings by Les Loups as listed in the online-discography might be extended with recordings by tango vocalists recording for Victor, as the duo is listed as accompaniement with female singer Rosita Quiroga in a session from May 2nd, 1928. - Johan stated:

"Roberto G. Miglio wrote a set of 4 books "El Tango y Sus Intérpretes" with discographies of many tango singers. In the discography of Rosita Quiroga he mentions that for 2 recordings she was accompanied by Les Loups ("Les Loups, con guitarra hawaiana"). Unfortunately, I never could obtain these recordings (a vals "Mis Pobres Ilusiones" and a tango "Mal rumbeada") both recorded on 02-05-1928. We know from your discography that Les Loups were present in the Victor recording studios on that day !"

It would be much helpful, if some of our readers can confirm this info and perhaps supply further details regarding the possible participation by Les Loups with other recording vocalists for Victor, audio examples, discographical data, scans of records etc. would be much appreciated.

Johan further writes about the first recording by Augustín Magaldi of 'Guitarra que llora' with lyrics by Enrique Cadicamo and Oscar Alemán/Gastón Bueno Lobo credited as composers from August 25, 1928 refering to the above mentioned work by Roberto G. Miglio:

"Miglio doesn't give much accompaniment details in the Magaldi discography, but many times it has been said that in the first recording with lyrics of "Guitarra que llora", Magaldi was accompanied by Oscar Aleman (Les Loups are not mentioned as such). Recording date: 25-08-1928. The record, 80944-B, just mentions "solo con guitarras" - as was usual in these days. As the "many sources" may just be copying from each other I leave it open if it was Alemán or not...- (it has been claimed that it was "una revolucionaria versión en la que utilizó una guitarra hawaiiana", but the version I have just sounds like a "plain" guitar... - as far as I know, the hawaian guitar was Lobo, not Alemán)"

The conclusion drawn here seems a reasonable consideration, however, it would be great to have a copy of the recording to compare with other recordings featuring Les Loups.

Johan also has a question on the discography of Les Loups regarding the August 8, 1928 session, he wrote:

"A question on the discography : could it be that the recording date for the record n°47014 "ca 8 Aug 1928" is an error ? Victor switched from the 79/80xxx numbers to the 47xxx numbers somewhere mid november 1928. From the disc number early 1929 seems more likely (unless there was a long time between recording and actual editing - which would have been unusual at that time)".

Again a very reasonable consideration with new info on Victor's switch of serial numbers November 1928, which speaks in favour of the suggested recording date as later than the one stated in the online-discography. We had the recording dates of all listed Les Loups sides from a discography elaborated by Guillermo Oliver, but many of these data were only approximate. Can someone supply the exact dates for the listed session, then it would be much appreciated.

Finally, Johan discusses the session featuring Trio Victor when 'Amante sonador' and 'Recondita' were recorded. In the online disco it is stated that it is not confirmed that Les Loups participated as accompaniment with Elvino Vardaro as soloist. The recording date is stated as 1929, however, Johan wrote:

" Both the record and master number indicate 1930 as the recording year (e.g. Orq. Típica Víctor recorded "Mejorando Lo Presente" on 29-04-1930, master number 60174, issued on record n° 47408) - there are more examples of april and may 1930 recordings with record and master numbers in that range). Reason to doubt, as you wrote, that Alemán and Lobo (already touring in Europe ?) were still part of the Trío Víctor."

The conclusion drawn here again seems reasonable, at least we know that Les Loups left Argentina February 1929 as part of Harry Flemming's company for a tour of Europe. But then, who are the accompanying guitarists with Vardaro? From the audio forwarded to us from Johan it is not possible to conclude, if it were Alemán & Lobo playing - or some other staff musicans at Victor, the way of accompanying early tango soloists already had found a common scheme at the time of the recording, we assume.

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Thanks a lot, Johan, for providing the above quoted info. We urge readers of the blog to comment and forward further details, if possible.

Jo