51/2025 Osvaldo Pugliese instrumental tanda 1949-1950 / TangoSparks
"Pugliese was finally “unchained” in 1949 for studio works, channeling his renewed freedom into music with extraordinary intensity."
Welcome to this week's tanda!
Improving your music collection might seem like a journey with no end, but it's always very satisfying when you can find some new songs in better quality than before. It's good to take it step by step, a few tracks or an album at a time.
One of the latest high quality sources for tango music has been the TangoSparks online store, with several collections of Osvaldo Pugliese and recently also Miguel Caló. I was excited to get my hands on their first release of Pugliese instrumentals from 1949 to 1950.
What is TangoSparks?
TangoSparks is a project dedicated to delivering the definitive sound of tango music to DJs, collectors, and devotees.
Frank Jin is the founder and artistic lead of TangoSparks, overseeing both creative vision and technical restoration. Based in Beijing, he studied at NYU and has lived in Argentina, Europe, and the US, dedicating over 15 years to tango music and culture.
TangoSparks transfers and post-production happens at the Frank Jin Studio and you can read more about their methodology here.
Osvaldo Pugliese and TangoSparks
This will be the third tanda of Osvaldo Pugliese's music from the TangoSparks collections.
- 31/2025 Pugliese & Vidal - TangoSparks 1.03 album
- 47/2025 Pugliese & Morán - TangoSparks 1.02 album
- 51/2025 Pugliese instrumentals 1949-1950 - TangoSparks 1.01 album
The TangoSparks store also includes a compilation of Pugliese instrumentals from 1951-1952, and the two compilations Pugliese & Morán 1951-1952 and Pugliese & Morán 1953-1954.
I'm hoping I can feature those compilations early next year!
Osvaldo Pugliese instrumental tanda
I struggled a bit creating this tanda from the limited collection of 10 instrumentals recorded between 1949-05-04 and 1950-10-24. The selection has great songs like Pugliese's amazing arrangement of "Canaro en Paris" and a few songs that could make a much lighter tanda. But out of this collection I think the following songs make the most consistent tanda.
"De Floreo" is one of my absolute favorites and I often pair it with something else from the early 1950s. But I like this tanda as well with the monumental "Malandraca" as the final song. The tanda is a great peek into the time when "Pugliese was finally “unchained” in 1949 for studio works, channeling his renewed freedom into music with extraordinary intensity."
Osvaldo Pugliese - De Floreo 1950-03-29
Osvaldo Pugliese - Pinta Brava 1949-08-22
Osvaldo Pugliese - Catuzo 1949-12-07
Osvaldo Pugliese - Malandraca 1949-05-31
Listen to the tanda below as a YouTube playlist. Remember that the songs on the playlist are not from the TangoSparks release or of the same quality.
More tandas from Osvaldo Pugliese
More instrumental tandas on Tanda of the Week
