On a day like today, 50 years ago, the bandoneonist, composer and orchestra director Ciriaco Ortiz died, who stood out for his enormous interpretative quality and his incomparable phrasing, a trait that placed him among the great protagonists of the history of tango.
He lived 75 years and throughout his intense career he recorded more than 300 pieces. He composed several songs, the most popular was "Atenti pebeta", a tango written by Celedonio Flores and sung in a memorable version by Edmundo Rivero.
"He produced the almost prodigious feat of someone not from Buenos Aires being able to pull out of the fueye, fiorituras and cabriolas that few good tango players from Buenos Aires ever achieved", Aníbal Troilo once said about his virtuosity.
Ángel Ciriaco Ortiz Barrionuevo -his real name- was called Ciriaquito. He was born in the city of Córdoba and grew up in a night club located halfway between the Mercado Norte and the Mercado Abasto, owned by his father, also a bandoneon player and author of the waltz "Viaje a Argüello". There he met Carlos Gardel, a regular visitor when he was in Córdoba.
He was educated among serenatas, chayas, chacareras and tangos, and in that mixture of rhythms and traditions he was forged into one of the most important bandoneons of the genre.
In 1925 he was summoned by the record company RCA Victor to join his own orchestra. For two years he performed on Radio Cultura and then continued on Radio El Mundo, where he played for 20 years.
He put together his first orchestra with Eliseo Ruiz on piano, Marcos Larrosa and Juan Ríos on violins and Nicolás Di Massi on second bandoneon. His debut was at the Gaumont cinema theater.
Los Provincianos, his second orchestra, was integrated by figures such as Aníbal Troilo and Horacio Molino (bandoneons), Elvino Vardaro and Manuel Núñez (violins), Orlando Carabelli (piano) and Manfredo Liberatore (bass).
In 1927 he appeared for the first time in the programs of Radio Cultura, as a member of a trio with the guitars of Spina and Menéndez. He later collaborated in the Vardaro-Pugliese sextet in 1931 and in 1937 he participated in the film "Así es el tango" directed by Eduardo Morera.
In 1952 and 1953, he formed a sextet to record four tangos: "Recuerdos de la pampa", "El verde", "Canaro" and "Una noche de garufa". Around 1969 he opened the venue El Viejo Almacén and a year later he died on July 9.
SOURCE: Telam