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Each row is a singer; every block a year they recorded. Darker blocks = more recordings that year. Click a block to see (and play) what's inside.
Tangos the orchestra recorded that its leader also composed.
Everyone who recorded or played with the orchestra. Each card links to their page, so you can follow a singer or player to the other orchestras they featured in.
Who was in the band, and when. Each era joins to the recordings tagged to it, so lineups the corpus can't name are added over time.
Era and lineup research by Todo Tango. Endless gratitude to them for documenting who played in each orchestra, and for sharing it so generously. Go explore their wonderful work.
Led throughout by Miguel Caló on bandoneón. Each era below is a chapter of the orchestra's lineup. The ones still marked as not documented are waiting to be filled in.
Caló's earliest orchestras, from his 1928 debut lineup. In 1932 he recorded for the short-lived Splendid label, "Milonga porteña" and "Amarguras", both sung by Román Prince. Orlando Goñi passed through the piano chair, and the leader's brother Juan Caló shared the bandoneóns.
The years while Caló still played bandoneón. A remarkable run of pianists passed through, Horacio Salgán in 1935, a young Osvaldo Pugliese in 1936, Héctor Stamponi in 1937, and by 1938 Armando Pontier and Enrique Francini had arrived. In 1939 Caló put down the instrument to conduct.
The start of the legendary All-Star Orchestra. Osmar Maderna's piano, Enrique Francini's violin and the bandoneóns of Domingo Federico and Armando Pontier made this one of the great orchestras of the forties. Raúl Berón and Alberto Podestá sang.
Armando Pontier took the first bandoneón chair as the All-Star Orchestra reached its height, with Eduardo Rovira and Carlos Lazzari alongside him and Mario Lalli adding a viola.
Maderna, Francini and Pontier left to lead their own groups, and Caló rebuilt. Miguel Nijensohn returned to the piano and a young Julián Plaza emerged among the bandoneóns; Emilio Paiva added a cello.
Julián Plaza settled in as first bandoneón, leading a rebuilt orchestra over Miguel Nijensohn's piano and Emilio Paiva's cello.
Plaza still led the bandoneóns, now with a young Víctor Lavallén beside him, over Nijensohn's piano.
Orlando Trípodi took over the piano, and by 1963 Domingo Federico and Armando Pontier had returned to the bandoneóns while Enrique Francini, Hugo Baralis and a young Fernando Suárez Paz joined the violins.
A 1959 touring lineup that traveled to Brazil, built around Trípodi's piano and Lavallén's bandoneón.
The largest recorded stretch of Caló's later years. José Libertella led the bandoneóns and Aquiles Roggero the violins, with Fernando Suárez Paz and a young corps of strings, over Orlando Trípodi's piano.
A 1963 reunion that gathered the original All-Stars back around Caló, Francini and Pontier among them, for a set of recordings.
The orchestra's last lineup, ended by Caló's death on May 24, 1972. Orlando Trípodi remained at the piano, with Tomás Giannini leading the bandoneóns and Aquiles Roggero the violins.
These recordings aren't sorted into an era yet.