Juan Maglio

Historical background

Juan Félix Maglio was born in Buenos Aires, in the Palermo district, on 18 November 1880. His nickname Pacho came from his Italian father, who called him pazzo, mad, on account of his character: the explanation is Maglio's own, quoted in La historia del tango : la Guardia Vieja. As early as 1899 he formed a first group, his bandoneon alongside Luciano Ríos on guitar and Julián Urdapilleta on violin, according to Horacio Ferrer's chronological survey. In 1912 he recorded for the first time, with José Bonano on violin, Luciano Ríos on guitar and Hernani Machi on flute, and success was immediate: his records sold so well that people took to asking for them simply as a Pacho. Benedetti reports that his popularity in the 1910s was such that his nickname came, above all in the country's interior, to stand for the record itself.

His output was considerable: Lefcovich's survey lists 754 recordings, and some claim close to nine hundred, Michael Lavocah reports. In 1928, recording with his bandoneon section alone, he directed the group without playing in it, and Lavocah credits the solo on En un rincón del café, cut in 1929, not to Maglio but to Federico Scorticati. Lavocah places his peak around 1927-1929 and remembers him for an unshakeable pulse, made for dancing, across the years 1926-1934. The sessions thinned out in the early thirties without his retiring, and Maglio died in 1934, aged fifty-three. His mark is read elsewhere: his tango Sábado inglés and his waltz Orillas del Plata are among the first titles Juan D'Arienzo recorded in 1935.

Source: Pesce, Del Priore and Byron, La historia del tango : la Guardia Vieja, 1977; Horacio Ferrer, El tango, su historia y su evolución, 1960; Michael Lavocah, Tango Stories: Musical Secrets, chapter 22 "Juan Maglio: the ultimate old-timer"; Benedetti, Nueva historia del tango : de los orígenes al siglo XXI, 2015.