Pedro Laurenz

Historical background

Michael Lavocah calls Pedro Laurenz the true herald of the Golden Decade: if D'Arienzo made the Golden Age possible, it was Laurenz who inaugurated it. A product of the school of Julio De Caro, where he had been one of the original sextet's bandoneón players alongside Pedro Maffia, Laurenz formed his own orchestra and on 24 September 1937 - just two days after D'Arienzo had recorded El cabure and Milonga vieja milonga in the same studio - cut Arrabal, a tango written in 1934 by José Pascual, pianist of Elvino Vardaro's vanished sextet. The comparison, Lavocah argues, is no contest: from its opening notes Arrabal stands apart for its energy and invention, driven by syncopated 3-3-2 rhythms and crowned by a bandoneón variación so daring that almost no other dance orchestra dared record the piece afterwards - not Troilo, D'Arienzo or Di Sarli - only Francini-Pontier in 1946 and Pugliese; Astor Piazzolla would only attempt it in 1955, with less energy than the original.

Where D'Arienzo retreated to the guardia vieja's 2x4, Laurenz stayed loyal to the 4x4 he inherited from De Caro. His pianist, the little-known Héctor Grané, anchored the rhythm of the valses (Mascarita), while his violinist was none other than Alfredo Gobbi, still years away from leading his own band. In 1943 singer Alberto Podestá left Di Sarli - a financial step down - to join Laurenz; their second recording together, Alma de bohemio, became a landmark, with Podestá holding a note for over ten seconds while the orchestra falls silent, a device D'Agostino would not dare copy until 1947. Commercially indifferent, Laurenz cut only 28 records (56 tracks) between 1937 and 1944.

Source: Michael Lavocah, Tango Masters: Tango Stories, Musical Secrets, chapter 13 "Pedro Laurenz: the herald of the Golden Decade".