Carlos di Sarli

Carlos Di Sarli (January 7, 1903 – January 12, 1960) was an Argentine tango musician, orchestra leader, composer and pianist.

Carlos di Sarli was born at 511 Buenos Aires street (now Yrigoyen) in the city of Bahía Blanca, located in Southern Argentina. He was the eighth child of the Italian immigrant Miguel Di Sarli, the owner of a gunsmith store, and Serafina Russomano, daughter of the tenor singer Tito Russomano. Baptized as Cayetano di Sarli in accordance with the solid Catholic tradition of his parents, he later changed his name to Carlos. Music played an important role in the family: Carlos' older brother Domingo was a teacher at the Williams music conservatory in Bahía Blanca, Nicolas, another older child, became a famous baritone, and Carlos' younger brother, Roque, turned into a pianist. Carlos received training in classical music in the conservatory where his brother was teaching.

In 1916, working in his father's store, he suffered an accident that cost him an eye and which forced him to wear glasses for the rest of his life. Once recovered from the accident, 13-year-old Carlos joined a company of traveling musicians, touring various provinces and playing popular music including tangos. Then he moved to Santa Rosa in the La Pampa province where a friend of his father, another Italian immigrant by the name of Mario Manara, owned a cinema and a club. He played piano there for two years, accompanying silent movies and performing early tango songs at the club. In 1919, he returned to Bahía Blanca and set up his first orchestra, playing at the Cafe Express on the corner of Zelarrayan and Buenos Aires streets, and in Cafe Moka, on O'Higgins street. The orchestra also did tours in the provinces La Pampa, Córdoba, Mendoza, San Juan and Salta. In 1923, Carlos and his younger brother Roque moved to Buenos Aires.

There, with the help of Alberico Spatola, the composer of the tango El trece and the director of the Buenos Aires police orchestra, he was able to join the band of Anselmo Aieta. In early 1924, Carlos joined an orchestra directed by the violin player Juan Pedro Castillo, and later, the trio of Alejandro Scarpino (the composer of Canaro en Paris). He accompanied the actress and singer Olinda Bozán on her recordings for the Electra label and worked as part of a sextet in the cabaret Chantecler.

Thanks to a recommendation from José Pécora, a violin player, he joined Osvaldo Fresedo's orchestra in 1926 and played at the opening night of the Fénix theater in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Flores. Fresedo became an important influence on di Sarli's music as well as a good friend. The tango Viejo milonguero, which di Sarli composed around 1927-28 was dedicated to Fresedo. It was around the same time that Juan "Pacho" Maglio and José María Rizzutti recorded the tango Meditación which di Sarli had composed around 1919 but never recorded himself.

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