“If the tango had an official identity card, it would probably say ‘born in Argentina from Genoese parents’ “, so reads the introduction to the book that accompanies the disc “Xena Tango. Le Strade Del Tango Da Genova a Buenos Aires”, signed by Luis Bacalov, Roberta Alloisio and Walter Rìos, and which tells about the contribution of Genoese culture in the history of Argentine Tango. In the span of a century, in fact, until the middle of the twentieth century a constant flow of Ligurian emigrants moved towards Latin America and in particular towards Argentina, and it is precisely in Buenos Aires in the La Boca district that many Genoese settled, bringing with them traditions, culture, traditional melodies, and the dialect, which for many decades remained as the official language of the area. From the fusion of Genoese with Spanish, a language conventionally called “cocoliche” developed from which the official linguistic heritage assimilated several terms. In the course of time, the official language was also enriched by the influence of the “lunfardo”, the slang of the underworld, from which the texts of the tangos often draw, to the birth of which the Genoese popular culture has provided an essential contribution. An example of this are the rules of the tango, intense as a musical genre and as a dance, whose rules were codified in the “peringundines”, a Genoese term that indicated the dance clubs of La Boca, where it is said the first tango was danced. In short, it is difficult to ignore the influence of Genoese culture in the tango, and in this sense has moved the path of research carried out by Roberta Alloisio, who has retraced the routes that lead from Genoa to Buenos Aires, giving life with Luis Bacalov and Walter Rìos to an album of extraordinary charm, and great musical depth.
Source
Genre: tango
Tracklist
1. Milonga do Magon
2. El dia que me quieras
3. Barbon
4. Caminito
5. L’Angelo Custode
6. Sposa
7. Mi no veuggio ëse mi
8. La Madre
9. Cansòn da Cheullia
10. Paloma y Corazòn
11. Genova
12. Italiani d’Argentina
13. El Choclo
14. Rodriguez Peña
