Recorded in 1952, “Nostalgia” and “Caminito” by Emil Coleman are characteristic tangos of 1940s & 50s NYC hotel nightlife, and feature his impressive, well-gigged Orchestra. These certainly have a cinematic quality to them as the brass, strings, winds and piano drive and interplay some serious, moody romance. Pizzicato passages sneak into the drama, along with some tasteful accordion flourishes, reminding us of the essence of tangos – they are the sensual partner-dance that began to evolve in 1880s Buenos Aires from the combination of Spanish tangos and Argentine milongas.
Emil Coleman was born in Odessa, Russia in 1892 and by the 1920s was a star orchestra leader performing in the high-society hotels of New York City, most notably the Trocadero and the Waldorf-Astoria. He also recorded quite a bit for Vocalion, Brunswick, Columbia and RCA Victor labels, and had many hits on the national pop charts.
Couldn’t decide which side of this excellent tango 78 to post, so I went with both.
“Sastale Se Dve Devojke“, or “Two Girls Meet”, is a traditional Serbian-Croatian “kolo“, a circle folk dance tune. Performed by the Sloboda Orchestra, a popular 5-piece Yugoslavian tamburitza band in the 40s and 50s, it features the Director Joseph Grcevich on lead brač, a long neck lute also called a tambour or tamburitza. There are many, many styles, sizes and varieties of these instruments, both single-stringed and double-stringed. The other instruments are the 2nd brač, bass, cello, and bugaria (a Bulgarian-style tambour.) I also hear three or four voices…
The Balkan tamburitza style has evolved in Central and Eastern Europe for almost 200 years, and sometimes has a somewhat “Italian” sound, but not surprisingly: the Croatian Dalmatian coast is directly east of Italy, across the Adriatic Sea.
From 1950 on the Oakland 78rpm label, Kolo Festival.
Time Travel at 78rpms 