55 years without "the romantic violin of tango" of Alfredo Gobbi
His musical and stylistic ideas led him to become one of the most important composers of instrumental tango.
Tomorrow will be the 55th anniversary of the death of Alfredo Gobbi, recognized as "the romantic violin of tango", whose musical and stylistic ideas led him to become one of the most important composers of instrumental tango.
Gobbi was an artist admired by his peers, among them Ástor Piazzolla, Eduardo Rovira and Aníbal Troilo, who dedicated a composition to him.
Owner of an enormous versatility, throughout his life he stood out in his facets as composer, violinist, arranger, pianist and orchestra conductor. He marked a path in the evolution of tango and his music was a source of inspiration for many. His works are still being discovered to this day.
"There is no more valuable recognition than that of colleagues; in an interview it was Piazzolla himself who defined him as 'the father of us all'," double bass player and researcher Ignacio Varchauvsky, who discovered Gobbi in the late 1990s shortly after putting together the El Arranque orchestra, told Télam.
"I was into tango and listened to everything. It was 'Tata' Cedrón who brought me closer to Gobbi and from that moment on I never stopped listening to him", evoked the musician who in 2018 produced and conducted "Inéditos de Alfredo Gobbi", a work where the Emilio Balcarce Orchestra School recreated never published recordings of the great violinist.
Varchauvsky described Gobbi's style as profound, often pierced by a beautiful darkness. "His orchestra calls for reflection and it has to do with the fact that all musical and stylistic decisions are at the service of expression, where nothing is played superficially, because all the time he seeks the greatest possible expressiveness," he described.
Alfredo Julio Floro Gobbi -his full name- was born in Paris in 1912. As the story goes, his parents, Alfredo Gobbi and Flora Rodríguez -known as Los Gobbi, one of the most outstanding duets of the beginning of tango-, registered him at the Uruguayan Consulate, while they were working in Europe.
His godfather was none other than the great composer Ángel Villoldo (author of "Choclo"), a pioneer in the genre and an artistic ally of the couple.
The Gobbis returned to Buenos Aires when Alfredo was less than a year old. He spent his childhood and adolescence in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Villa Ortúzar, where he began his musical studies. At the age of six he studied piano and at 10 he began his training as a violinist while working as a street vendor. He was an admirer of Julio de Caro. His professional debut was at the age of 13 as a member of trios at dances. In 1926 he composed his first tango "Perro fiel" and in 1927 he performed in the orchestra of the Teatro Nuevo, conducted by Antonio Lozzi. Later he joined the bandoneonist Juan "Pacho" Maglio's orchestra and also, among others, those of Anselmo Aieta and Mario Pardo.
In the 1930s he met the pianist Orlando Goñi, his great friend to whom he dedicated one of his pieces, and Aníbal Troilo, who accompanied him in his stylistic formation.
Gobbi played in the Vardaro-Pugliese sextet and, after its dissolution, founded another one with Pugliese himself; later he joined Pedro Laurenz's group until 1942, when he founded his first tango orchestra, with which he played at the Sans Souci on Corrientes Street.
From that moment on he began to develop his expressive and sentimental musical identity, which earned him the nickname "the romantic violin of tango".
He lived the bohemian life of Buenos Aires, especially with "Pichuco", both references in their instruments.
Gobbi died on May 21, 1965. He left 82 recordings and wonderful works such as "Orlando Goñi", "El andariego", "Cuando llora mi violín", "Camandulaje" and "El último bohemio", among many others.
"There is nothing better than Horacio Salgán's words. He always said: "I listen to his orchestra and I discover something new". He has a kind of magic, he always surprises me, that has to do with the infinity of subtleties in the interpretation and in the composition.
One thing is to talk about what it is made of and another thing is how he plays what is written. His style lies in the complexity of his compositions and arrangements and equally in the interpretation of what is written," concluded Varchauvsky.