Osvaldo Fresedo

Historical background

Born into a wealthy family whose upper-class clientele shaped his style, Osvaldo Fresedo began recording as early as 1922 and reached his golden years between 1933 and 1939 with singer Roberto Ray, a partnership remarkably consistent in style throughout. Michael Lavocah sees Ray as the true prototype of the "orchestra singer" (cantor de orquesta) — the first to sing with a big orchestra without putting on the airs of a man of the street — opening a lineage that would run through Roberto Maida and on to Francisco Fiorentino.

The refined, polished Fresedo-Ray style evokes the "Palm Court" version of tango from a grand hotel rather than the working-class neighbourhood where the genre was born. After Ray left in 1939, Lavocah notes an increasingly affected style, and interest in the orchestra declines sharply — with the notable exception of its very first acoustic-era sextet from the 1920s, whose stripped-down rhythmic energy often surprises those who only know Fresedo from his "sweet and lovely" period.

Source: Michael Lavocah, Tango Masters: Tango Stories, Musical Secrets, chapitre 16 « Osvaldo Fresedo: sweet and lovely ».