Osvaldo Pugliese

Historical background

Formed in 1939, Osvaldo Pugliese's orchestra kept the same core line-up until 1968 — almost thirty years — run as a collective in which everyone, Pugliese included, took a share of the income proportional to their contribution. A lifelong communist, Pugliese spent several years in jail in the 1950s for his political beliefs; his musicians, who stayed devoted to him, would place a red carnation on his piano keyboard in his absence — a gesture that became part of the orchestra's legend.

Pugliese named his own sound "yumba": a powerful attack from the whole orchestra on beats 1 and 3, driven by piano and double bass, relentlessly alternating hard, intense passages with softer moments — a contrast Michael Lavocah considers even more extreme than Troilo's. The piece La yumba (1946), followed by Negracha (1948) and Malandraca (1949), sums up this vision, which Pugliese himself humbly described as simply carrying forward the legacy of Julio De Caro.

Source: Michael Lavocah, Tango Masters: Tango Stories, Musical Secrets, chapitre 3 « Osvaldo Pugliese: passion, purity and a red carnation ».