Journal article Front page, Nº 284, 4 June 1968, P. 68-69.
"One day I fell into my handsIliad, Homer; I read it in one sitting, as an adventure novel, and I liked it so much I decided to move some of its passages to the criollo sextinas. When I put a pampeana milonga music and sang to the corner bar sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, My Homer seemed terribly José Hernández. "ensconced in a fluffy" bergère "from his house Bulnes Street, Edmundo Rivero remembers his childhood in the neighborhood of Saavedra, while it is recovering from the effusivities received during his recital last week in the room of the Teatro Payró, Fervent crowds which gathered.
The 8 June 1915, in Avellaneda, Don Maximo Aníbal Rivero, a rail head, He first heard the hoarse voice of his third child, Edmundo Leonel, but he not sensed that over the years would transform into the last great interpreter of the tango, a kind of bridge between the younger generations and those who knew the suburb and bravo, perhaps, the mythological Barrio de las Ranas.
Don Maximo and his wife, Juana Duró, Moquehua left a few months after the birth of Edmundo and returned to Buenos Aires when he had just turned six. By then the family had two other sons: Hannibal and Eva.
"As Belgrano -memora Rivero-, Saavedra at the time was a summer resort. "For there also lived his uncle Justo Duarte, general accountant of the Government House, fond of music and singing, whose gatherings met poets and singers. Another maternal uncle, angel Hardcore, as anticipated Edmundo brought him into contact with literature: Strong soul, Lugones, espronceda, Nunez de Arce and, later, Edgar Allan Poe.
Mester of germanía
"When I reached my pants says the singer, while his carota figurehead caresses with a terrible hand, he was an accomplished guitarist and began to make my forays into the fledgling radios then. "Radios were called Buenos Aires, Culture, Brusa and Belgrano, the spaces were sold harsh penalties and broadcasters generously yielded microphones telling young fans: "Boys, do whatever you want". in return, teens received packages strings guitars or orders to remove goods in the shops of advertisers counted. At the beginning of the decade of the 30, Rivero had formed a duo with her sister Eva and the other with his brother Hannibal. With the first popular music transmitted on Radio Culture; the second, They interpreted in classical music guitar, "Especially Spanish", when tea at the Alvear Palace Hotel. In the morning, she attended the National Conservatory where the teacher Marcelo Urizar would reveal the secrets of Sor and Tarrega, on the way, He is taking singing lessons. But still Rivero was not an interpreter but, under his name Leonel, a simple companion Nelly Omar and Francisco Amor.
"The guitar was not only served to make my life he comments, but it was also a golden key that opened the most amazing doors. "One of them gave the funds low, the cafes and bars doubtful, frequented by brave people, respected and feared. There Rivero learned the secrets of lunfardo, a secret language that uses words, gestures. And clarifies: do not confuse the "lunfardo" with "reo". The "prisoner" is the language of man neighborhood, of the honest orillero, with naming things of his office, amusements. Lunfardo is the jargon of the lancero, of the escruchante, of the punguista, underlying language that is built based metaphors, full of imagination by translations.
"Few know -pontifica Edmundo, Academician with some pride that the word 'gayola', with which the prison is designated, comes from humble rooster, symbol of police, every agent carries on its plate. "After, It extends in morphology considerations lunfarda, incorporating terms other foreign Germanías, and the dynamics of the "green tongue". "The terms of traveling one country to another because the 'lunfas' travel", judgment. And exposes the case of "rascué", a word used by Gardel in one of his milongas, which it is nothing but the "rastaquouere" French, the "rastacueros" (drag leathers) with which the Spanish called to the braggart come more. The word traveled to France return, He changed its spelling but not its semantics. And Rivero proposes the study of another semantic lunfarda: of the signs and signs. "So far, much has been said about the meaning, and evolution of words 'lunfas', but very little it has been said about the silent language that is spoken with hands, and the eyes", notes, with a hint of reproach. And tells a story: one day she is visiting a prison ("I will always sing the garrisons") and he entertained talking to a veteran of the underworld who complained about the treatment of detainees in "leoneras", collective cells where they arrive to crowd up to over a hundred people, when its capacity is fifty. "At that moment passed another prisoner recalls the singer- and the old 'lunfa' spluttered: 'Dequerusa, Press'. I spent the index right cheek and he said 'Isolina' finger. "And translates dialogue: "Attention, passing an informant, a snitch; insurance? Yes, insurance".
The sign language is also based on a set of unwritten metaphors: passing the back of his hand across her cheek is qualify a third "pimp", "clean face", or "shaven", an element of neatness and dressing distinguishes women operators. "Clothes lying", It is a dangerous unknown, expresses walking slowly overlaps with the thumb and forefinger (a stranger comes between the two partners like clothes lying).
"Maybe sometime when a chair is vacant at the Academy of the Lunfardo, If elected, I will write a broad communication about the signs lunfardo ", the singer promises. Now in the book prepared on the physiology of the voice and issuance techniques applied to singing, He added a third which explains many of the twists and lunfardos terms used in 24 songs recorded in that dialect. But it does not mean much: "It's dangerous because it clarifies the underworld people do not like that reveal their keys." And that repeatedly received telephone calls warning him of the danger means "stoke the giles".
Here, interrupted his speech and prefers to return to the memories of his early days. "Sometimes-and squints eyes lost on the vast nose- We amused us with a friend Belgrano, Benjamín Achával, to phone, a random number to the; and if he said a woman's voice would give him a serenade. "One afternoon, after the song, a man's voice Rivero proposed to sing together: was Julio De Caro. "Instead of lifting a mine I got up an orchestra", He laughs the singer, with echoes of gargarismo. After narrating his adventures with Julio and José De Caro, Explains how, for five years, He became a clerk applied the Administrative Service of the Arsenal of War, until the temptation of bohemian life began again to remember: Emilio Karstulovic, former race car driver and owner of Radio Voice of the Air and the magazineSintonía, He proposed a program.
The day of her debut received a phone call from a fan who left his number: Carmen was Duval, Horacio woman Salgán, and she invited him to her house because her husband wanted to hear. "Music of Salgán, his orchestrations, at that time they were revolutionary -comenta Rivero- and I had a bass voice, almost unheard of in a time where all tango singers exhibited tenor. "The boldness of Salgán and the voice of his cantor prevented the afincara definitively set at a local, and had to ambulate by tearooms and cafes. Almost always the owner of the local protest after the first night: "What makes that director is not tango and to top it has a sick singer chest". "A Salgán took him with the condition that I not sing She gets nostalgic Rivero-, but he defended me. "
By then disc publishers began to have massive sales and the public eventually break the stubbornness of entrepreneurs: every night, when Edmundo sang in the flower garden, and they followed him a legion of loyal devotees. Precisely, one night 1947, Aníbal Troilo proposed join his orchestra. He remained there until 1950.
1953, for Rivero, It is the year of its launch: tours around the, succulent contracts on the radio and on television. In 1959, travels to Europe and acts in Madrid for seven months. In 1965 It is part of an artistic embassy that runs the United States; two years ago, visit all major cities in Latin America; Discover Japan in January.
When you are speaking of the eastern cities, enthusiasm multiplies in exaggerated gestures, almost threatening for those to reach their mittens. "In Japan recounts- there is a society, la 'Suivu Kai', whose translation is, approximately, 'The meeting Wednesday'. Its subsidiaries together twenty million and are called 'maniacs tango', 'Currents and Emerald', 'The crazy compass', 'Buenos Aires'. Every week its affiliates studying Castilian one hour, to understand the lyrics of our songs, Buenosaireans discuss playing styles and make fervent apologies of our singers, something like what, smaller scale, happening in our country with jazz fans. "
To explain such fervor for tango, Rivero outlines a theory: Japanese culture is so laden with symbols, a simple and sentimental art seduces Japanese. After launching a bitter reproach: "If governments realize that our music is one of the strongest media penetration abroad, perhaps our foreign relations would be made on the compass 2 by 4 ". To acknowledge the overwhelming attention received in the Land of the Rising Sun, Rivero just he composed a tango entitled "Arigato, Japanese, Arigató " (Thank you, Japan, Thank you), full of Japanese words.
But not only in the Far East tango popular causes tremors; in Bogota; the capital of Columbia, It will open shortly Carlos Gardel Square, y Rivero is invited. "I can not go he comments, I will send a tape. "Instead, He accepted the invitation of the Argentine Ambassador in Washington, Alvaro Alsogaray: from 13 of July, Edmundo offer a series of recitals there.
But, despite its popularity, not believe have direct communication with your audience. "The disc, Radio, television, are intermediate forms. Performances in nightclubs, dances, often they do not have the necessary continuity. "And preaches the need for some theaters become healthy habit practice of music hall, in the manner of the Palladium London.
While this practice, initiated by the Regina Maria Elena Walsh, become a habit, Rivero plans to open a store in San Telmo: "It will be an art gallery, a library and a small room for a small auditorium ", announces. But he refuses to serve drinks and much less food, not by Puritanism, but because "when people drink or eat recollection does not have to listen to the interpreters. It is true, But who would resist listen carefully to the last heir of Bettinoti, Ezeiza, Villoldo, to the minstrel latter end of Buenos Aires?
Source: www.elhistoriador.com.ar
