Buying Carlos Gardel 78rpm recordsA Concise Guide for Gardel Music Collectors©2003 by Jack Lupic |
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Introduction: Believe it or not, even after these many years, Carlos Gardel music is still a marketable commodity and sought after. The most valuable are of course, the 78 rpm records pressed during the life of Gardel. What is more important is that those first records would have been made from the original masters and and not copies of copies... In 1912, Gardel signed his first recording contract for Columbia of José Tagini and realized his first recordings on the acoustic system for the "Columbia Record" seal on seven doubles, put on sale in March 1913. Of the 15 known themes registered, the first two were: Sos mi tirador plateado, master no. 56748, (style) and Yo se hacer, master no. 56749, (cifra). The unidentified, lost 16'th theme might be the estilo "A Eduardo Newberry". To make things more interesting, collector Enrique Ruiz Daudet in a 1952 Discomanía magazine article claimed that Gardel had recorded many more songs: 44 themes on 22 records (no proof of those extra recordings has ever been found). Among unpublished titles he cited: “Mi techo de estrellas”, “Glorioso centenario”, “La tísica” y “El prisionero” and made reference to poor sales of those records. (Please note that Héctor Lorenzo Lucci is the only collector who owns a complete set of Gardel's 1913 recording. Lucci produced on C.B.S. Columbia Long Play Record Nº 20-619 "Carlos Gardel, sus primeras grabaciones. Año 1913" in 1985, 50th anniversary of Gardel's death.)
From 1913-1917, Gardel made no recordings, taking the time to tune his skills for the future. In 1917, Gardel signs a contract with and begins the Odeon series with Max Glücksmann, but his records "Disco Gardel-Razzano", are recorded in Buenos Aires and pressed in Brazil. Glücksmann would produce all of his records up to his death in 1935. The exception are the Victor 1931-35 recording, which Gardel made in Joinville, France and New York for his Paramount films (in 1929, Victor became RCA Victor so you will find both labels). According to José Razzano, Gardel also recorded some songs for the Atlanta label nothing is known about them (it is well known that Razzano, Betinotti, Francisco García Jiménez and others recorded for Atlanta label owned by Alfredo Améndola). There is also a possibility that Gardel sung in duet with Saúl Salinas. The recordings do exist but it is difficult to establish if the second voice is Gardel's. Gardel's music was also reproduced outside of Argentina by Odeón Barcelona and Odeón France. It is interesting to know that Odeon Argentina did not reproduce all of the recordings Gardel made outside of that country. Some of these non-Argentine labels, such as "Decca Odeon-Parlophone" series, were produced in the U.S. during Gardel's life. As another example, Gardel's first recording with an orchestra (acoustic) was not produced in Argentina but in Brazil since Gardel did not approve of it. As a rule though, Odeón Argentina label is prevalent with Gardel 78 rpm recordings. As an interesting example of an original, post Gardel era release, try to obtain the LP by RCA Victor (SNL1–7504) called "El gardelazo" published in 1983. This is where, for the first time, "Cheating muchachita" was published (it was discovered that same same year). Over the years, Gardel's music has been produced on 10 inch (25cm), 78rpm shellac resin (disco de pasta) discs, cassettes, CDs, Video tape and DVDs. But, there is no experience like listening to an original, scratchy Gardel record. Better yet if it's on a Victrola. If you are interested in buying post-Gardel records, the ones made un Uruguay are in many cases of superior quality than the originals and offer a more complete collection especially of the duet Gardel-Razzano of which not all were reproduced in Argentina. The Uruguayan records are the basis for the "Todo Gardel" collection by Altya. There have been many attempts to clean up his original recordings by getting rid of record noise (caused by steel needles wearing out the grooves), to have the songs play at normal speed and to clarify his voice. Some of these remastering efforts, such as at EMI Odeon in England (Gardel Inédito), have been very successful, others, such as Todo Gardel by Altya, not so great. The bad attempts not only attenuated the noise but Gardel's voice as well, making the listening experience even worse than the old scratchy records. Some publishers wanted to make Gardel sound more lively so they sped up his music. So poor Gardel ended up sounding like Donald Duck. In any case, all these efforts were successful in providing us with the greatest possible selection of Gardel's music, including the discarded versions which had either, technical, musical or vocal defects. There have been many large and small album releases after Gardel's death. Some of the more noteworthy collections are: Todo Gardel, Carlos Gardel: Su Obra Integral, Gardel Serie para coleccionistas and Vida y Obra de Carlos Gardel.
On record no. 18106 (masters 2129 and 2127), Gardel recorded: "La cabeza del Italiano" and "Poupée de Stambul". For additional scans, click here. Know what you are buying: Here we primarily focus on purchasing of the original Gardel 78rpm records and how to distinguish from the numerous post Gardel copies, which were produced in South America well into the 1960's. As such, beware of what you are buying. As happened to me, you could end up buying something that you did not want such as a 1940's record instead of 1932 one. The seller might tell you that the songs on a record are from 1932, leading you to believe that you are buying a 1932 disk. Wrong in most cases. To make it worse, master numbers were repeated later, leading to more confusion. In some cases, the later record cuts would have two songs put on the same record that were originally on different records. This can also serve as an identifier of a later copy. The master disk numeration is always important, more so than the record numbers. The initial Gardel records made by Odeón start with the 18000 series and should read: "Disco Gardel-Razzano" (red label, from 1917 to 1919), "Disco Nacional-Odeón" (1919 to 1934) and "Disco Criollo-Odeon" (1934-1936). From 1936, the records were the simple black and white "Odeon" label. The records therefore, had various colour labels: first on red label, then blue and later black and white. "Victor" and "RCA Victor" labels were used from 1931 on, and contained songs from sound tracks in Gardel films. We would assume that individual records were originally sold in a protective pouch, which should add a higher value to the record. Personally, I have not seen any pouches with the records though. I think that most people bough albums and then populated them with records. I have five such albums. The cost of an original release or re-release varies according to where you are buying it from and its quality. Expect to pay between $US20-40 for an original Gardel record and $10 for a post Gardel 78rpm record. Insist on a high resolution scan of the record. The first clue should be the label condition. If the record has been played a lot, you will see a lot of label ware. Buying via the Internet should not be your first option. You want to see what you are buying, and if possible touch it, to see and hear it to know what condition it is in. If you are buying via the Internet, as most of us will, this guide will at least give you an idea what questions to ask before the purchase. The best place to buy is eBay but again, beware. Keep in mind that the original Victrola record players used a steel needle which had to be replaced only after few uses. Needless to say (pardon the pun), the record got worn out fairly fast. As a result, most of the original records sound scratchy, some worse than others. Thus, the play quality of the record is as important as the label and the year of production. If you seriously plan to collect Gardel's old 78 rpm records, you would be well advised to obtain a copy of Gardel's discography. There are two books that serve as the reference:
You can also consult a list of Gardel Collectors and my collection on this site. Finally, we would appreciate your contributions to this page. Please write to us by clicking here. Please note that this article is: Copyright © MMIII Jack Lupic // Todos derechos reservados
Sample 78rpm record scans: various labels from 1917 on. DISCO GARDEL-RAZZANO (1917-1919)
Argentina: Disco Nacional-Odeón, Disco Criollo-Odeón, Odeón, Odeon France, Odeon Spain, Victor, RCA Victor and DECCA labels
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