Thoughts of "The King of the compass", reflected in this note, They come from interviews given in January 1974, two years before his death, magazine Seven days, and in 1969 magazine Here it is.

I was born on Cevallos and Victoria, because for me Hipólito Yrigoyen Street remains Victoria. I started playing the violin and then the piano, but first I got hooked on jazz. I got to make great seasons at Old cinema Select Lavalle, back in the 23 O 24. He was Cosentino with sax.

After continued playing jazz Verona, Real Film and us was Lucio Demare on piano. Had 20 years that boy.

Then came the time when silent films were finished but then I had a nice career. I still had time to play in the Rondalla Cauvilla-Prim. Then I walked Eugenio Nobile, great violinist.

Also played tangos always. Of the 18 years. By the year 1926 He is performing at the Paramount with Luisito Visca and Ángel D'Agostino. And there I began to develop the style that distinguished me later, that of highlighting the piano and the fourth string of the background played by Alfredo Mazzeo.

The epithet of King of the compass they put me in the Cabaret Florida, the old Dancing Florida. Osvaldo played there Fresedo, while he is performing at the Chantecler, it was the same owners. Way back 28 one he 30 I met the famous Prince Cubano, who was presenting the numbers. It was Julio Jorge Nelson, as well. That happened when I replaced Fresedo in Florida. The piano player was Juan Carlos Howard. It was in those days when Prince Cubano came with King of the Compass, the style that made.

Mine was always a stout orchestra, with a steady rhythm, very nervous, vibrant. And so because tango, for me, It has three things: compass, impact and nuances. An orchestra should have, on all, lifetime. Why mine lasted for over fifty years. And when the Prince gave me that title I thought it was fine, I was right.

Gardel worked with me at the Paramount, but he did not sing with my orchestra. He did the duet with Razzano in the intermissions. It was the time when I was jazz, Verona with. We then returned to act together at the Royal Cinema, always in the intermissions. But although he did not sing under my baton, Gardel was half my Fana and always came to see me at the cabarets where I acted. I have already 42 years of cabaret! Write down if they want: Abdullah, Ice Palace, Florida, Bamboo, Marabú, Empire, Chantecler, Armenonville. All this in 42 years. If I meet people at night!

Ours is a united orchestra: the guys have chops. We tested three or four times, and everyone knows what to do. I make some corrections and issue fixed. Sometimes I just need to print them my label, something that I care much because climb is difficult but it is kept. And I've been sixty years in this.

Today's life is something else. Everything has changed. There is no comparison. Night life, for me, it has disappeared. We were beginning to live just at four o'clock. And now at one, after departure theaters, not a soul on the streets. It is a lead, that's the truth.

Corrientes was narrow when we went out walking at five o'clock and everyone was on the street. theaters, cafés, restaurants, cabarets, everything was open and crowded. He walked one and was receiving greetings at every step. I miss everything.

Despite all that lived, I'm a very natural type, as everyone. I like to have coffee and watch the morning comes. Nothing else. At best play a game of trick to hang. That's because in Buenos Aires no roulette. If I'd be there all day. Now, when I get on a stage I'm nothing. There I become. Es mi business, and I need to feel what I am writing, and also convey to every musician what I'm feeling. One touched in cabarets all night, people danced, he enjoyed, stayed until the sun rose and musicians cramping of both target and put. There was no time to go. Today that it does not exist and that makes me sick to the cuore. Now there are dances, but it's not the same. At most they have a small show.

To me youth want me. I like my tangos because they are moved, rhythmic, nervous. That seeks youth: joy, the movement. If you play them a melodic tango and out of beat is sure you are not going to like. That is what happens. Now there are good musicians and great orchestras who believe that what they are doing is tango. But it's not like that. If no compass lack tango. They think they can impose a new style and hopefully get lucky, wahoo I still think that if there is compass no tango. As professionals I respect them all. But what they do is not tango. And if I am wrong to say I made more than fifty years I'm wrong.

I do not think so, mine is the truth. Because, even though I never went beyond the Uruguay, my music is known in Europe, in Japan. I had a thousand offers to act but to go abroad had to get on a plane and a plane not climb. It's a trauma I have and for me, justified. In the year 32 Carlitos Gardel and Leguisamo came every night at the Chantecler. They sat on a balcony upstairs and waited for me to finish. Then he went up to have a glass of champagne with them. And we were running hours chatting.

One night Carlitos told me: "Look Juancito, I think I'm going to die in a plane ». the disputed: "Stop fooling pavadas, do not say foolishness". But they were not zonceras. He sensed. That's why I never wanted to get on a plane. For example, Japan would have gone if I had not been that trauma because I invited me Emperor Hirohito himself, not like others that lead entrepreneurs.

Hirohito sent me a blank check for me to put the amount you would like just to go to Tokyo. I replied that it was not about money but tickets. I sent word to go by boat, but they were like forty days. What do I do forty days looking at the sky and water? Insisted Emperor: "I send a submarine and arrives in twenty-five '. But I did crazy because there these Japanese get into a war and I grab underwater. That's why I did not go. And I think I would have liked. This story that happened around 1957 O 1958.

That's why I never wanted to leave the country. I do not tell the Uruguay because even though I was born here I am half Uruguayan too. I spent many years there and I want very much to the East. During 38 Carrasco consecutive years acted in and around the Uruguay.

I have millions of friends. One of them is the General Peron (President, at the time, of Argentina). We know from the time we went to the Luna Park to watch the fights of Prada with Gatica. Then we met with the late Ismael Pace and Lectoure (owners Luna Park Stadium), ate a barbecue, we drank a few whiskeys and we played a good trick. I was paired with Borlenghi (Minister of the interior of Peron). over twenty years ago that I am a friend of the general.

And I'm a great optimist. A cheerful fellow, embromón. I love and make jokes all you want is to continue with my orchestra though I know I'm no longer a kid, I have to take care of myself and I can not spend so much energy as before. But nevertheless, when I get on stage, I always make a show. And not doing it for funny. I do it because I feel tango as well. It's my way of being.

modesty apart, I did resurface

The old tango, the Old Guard, had pace, nerve, strength and character. Our duty is to ensure you do not lose any of that. For having forgotten the Argentine tango was in crisis for several years. modesty apart, I did everything possible to make it resurface. In my opinion, a good share of blame for the decline of the tango corresponded to the singers. There was a time when a tango orchestra was nothing more than a mere pretext for a singer was brilliant. The musicians, including director, they were merely accompanying a more or less popular divo. To me that should not be.

Tango is also music, As has already been said. I would add that is essentially music. In consecuense, It can not be relegated to the orchestra that plays a secondary place to place in the foreground to the singer. Unlike, Tango is for the orchestras and not for the singers. The human voice is not, It should not be anything else, an instrument in the orchestra. Sacrifice everything to the singer, the movie star, it's a mistake.

I reacted against that mistake which caused the tango crisis and placed the orchestra in the foreground and the singer in place. further, I tried to restore to the tango his manly accent that had been lost through successive avatars. Le printed well in my interpretations pace, the nerve, the strength and character that gave him citizenship papers in the musical world and had been losing for the reasons stated. Fortunately, that crisis was temporary and now has reemerged tango with the vitality of its best times. My greatest pride is to have contributed to the rebirth of our popular music.

Originally published in the magazine La Maga, 13 of January of 1993.

Source: todotango.com