Search - Various Artists :: Women of Tango

This CD is a small but important addition to the outpouring of tango music reissues in the last few years. Women vocalists were certainly a part of the development of the tango but have always been overshadowed by the overwhelming skill and massive fame (and egos) of men like Gardel, and later, Piazzolla. So this album introduces us to some of the wonderful female voices of Argentina, from as recently as a slightly edgy 1981 track by Patricia Lasala and the Osvaldo Pugliese ensemble and going back to a schmaltzy 1960 recording by Elsa Rivas. One wonderful track offers us a sultry song by Blanca Mooney, accompanied by the brass and drums of an Argentine military band that shows how pliant the tango can be. This is a good addition to the collection of any real tango aficionado, but it is marred by the shameful lack of any information in the liner notes except for names and dates. For a recording that is supposed to be supplying a missing piece of the puzzle, some history would be appropriate. --Louis Gibson