When I dance, it’s not only the music, nor the lyrics of the tango, but what touches me the most is the singer’s interpretation. That’s why Edmundo Rivero is one of those singers that when I dance it, my body runs cold…
Edmundo Leonel Rivero was born on 8 June 1911. A singer, guitarist, tango composer, disseminator of lunfardo, who imposed a style with his particular voice range.
Edmundo Rivero was born in Valentín Alsina, south of Greater Buenos Aires, and grew up in the Saavedra neighbourhood. From a very young age he was attracted to guitar and, at the age of 18, he was already a well-known guitarist in the area. He began going to taverns and bars frequently until he studied singing and classical guitar at the National Conservatory of Music. He accompanied great singers, such
as the remembered Nelly Omar, Agustín Magaldi, Francisco Amor, among others.
In a duet with his sister Eva and with his brother Anibal, he performed small concerts for Radio Cultura and for the Alvear Palace Hotel, in which they performed Spanish music and classical songs.
Vinyl record “Troilo-Rivero” 1969
Tango in his particular voice
His career as a tango singer began with José de Caro. He then joined the orchestras led by Julio de Caro, Emilio Orlando and Humberto Canaro. It was in the groups of Horacio Salgán and Aníbal Troilo where he imposed his bass register and the style he contributed.
Salgán’s music and his orchestrations were revolutionary of that time, to which Edmundo Rivero’s bass voice was added, something unheard of at a time when all tango singers exhibited a tenor register. The public ended up choosing Rivero, despite the refusal of the businessmen. In 1947, Aníbal Troilo asked him to join his orchestra to replace Alberto Marino, where he remained until 1950 playing unforgettable songs like “Sur” and “El último organito”.
His voice prevailed, keeping the tone low and deepening his relationship with Lunfardo and naughty tango.
In the year 1953 he began his take-off: tours of the interior and important presentations on radio and television. In 1959, he performed in Madrid for seven months and, in 1965, he joined an artistic embassy that toured the United States for two years and also visited all the important cities of Latin America. In January of the same year he travels to Japan.
His unforgettable interpretation of “Cafetín de Buenos Aires” became a milestone.
The emblematic program Polemic in the bar used Rivero’s recording as a curtain and contributed to its massive diffusion.
the lunfardo
Edmundo Rivero became interested in lunfardo in his teens, when his uncle taught him the first words. Later, in a neighborhood watering hole, he learned the most encrypted lunfardo.
“No hay que confundir el “lunfardo” con el “reo”. El “reo” es el idioma del hombre de barrio, del orillero honrado, con el que nombra las cosas de su oficio, sus diversiones. El lunfardo es la jerga del lancero, del escruchante, del punguista, un idioma subyacente que se construye a base de metáforas, por traslaciones llenas de imaginación” (Edmundo Rivero).
On May 6, 1978, he was appointed full academician of the Academia Porteña del Lunfardo, in which he occupied the chair of Carlos Gardel.
Tango, the work that united Edmundo Rivero with Borges and Piazzolla In 1965 an album called El Tango was recorded with music by Piazzolla, lyrics by Borges, the voice of Edmundo Rivero who interprets the poems Jacinto Chiclana, El títere, A Don Nicanor Paredes and Someone says to tango. The outcome of the LP was not to Borges’s total satisfaction, annoying Piazzolla. Borges did not like Rivero’s interpretation and Piazzolla’s arrangements because they were outside the tango universe imagined by the writer. Piazzolla understood the essence of Borges’s lyrics but when it came to arranging the interpretation, he brought into play his new tango expressive tools.
In Rivero’s voice, Borges’s texts became contemporary and Piazzolla’s modern tango, traditional. With the passage of time and its difficulty in achieving it, El Tango became a cult album.
On May 8, 1969, he opened his famous tanguería “El Viejo Almacén”, on Independencia and Balcarce, in which he did not want to serve food or drinks because he thought that “when people drink or eat they do not have the recollection necessary to listen to the interpreters “.
In the years that followed until before his death, he continued with his tours, became a member of the Academia del Lunfardo and conducted a program on Radio Nacional called “Hablando del lunfardo”, until on December 24, 1885 he suffered cardiomyopathy, which left him hospitalized for a month. He passed away on January 18, 1986.
Today, 110 years after his birth, we share a tango authored by him.
En tu baraje gringo, ciudad mía,
vas perdiendo tus zarzos y tu brillo
tu malevaje está en la taquería
y apolilla en orsay tu conventillo.
Sos cadenera flor sin berretines
que currás a los cuores con tu rango;
Pero el choma que aceita tus patines
es canchero y varón, se llama tango.
Mis escoberos siempre harán candado
y en mi bobo de zurda sin falsía
aunque te dieron juego marquillado
pa’ mi valés más que una maría.
Yo seguiré scruchando en tu lunfardo
sin monseñor, ni jirafa, ni bandera
mi voz altillera será el bardo
que te cante la rima más canera.
Cuando llegue el final, si la de blanco
me lleva con el cura antes que al hoyo,
que el responso sea en lunfa, así lo manco.
Yo no aprendí el latín, de puro criollo.
y así estarás feliz, matina y será,
más contenta que santo en la leonera.