Leonel Edmundo Rivero (June 8, 1911 – January 18, 1986) was an Argentine tango singer and impresario. June 8 is the 159th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (160th in leap years), with 206 days remaining. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... January 18 is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Tango music is traditionally played by an orquesta típica, which often includes violin, piano, guitar, flute, and especially bandoneon. ... An impresario is a manager or producer in one of the entertainment industries, usually Music or Theatre. ...

Rivero was born in the southern Buenos Aires suburb of Valentín Alsina. Joining his father in some of his travels, he was exposed to the lifestyle and the music of the gauchos of Buenos Aires province from his early days. Buenos Aires (English: Fair Winds, originally Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa María de los Buenos Aires, City of the Holy Trinity and Port of Saint Mary of the Fair Winds) is the capital of Argentina and its largest city and port, as well as... Gauchos fight dramatization A gaucho is a South American cattle herder — the equivalent to the North American cowboy — on the pampas, chacos or Patagonian grasslands found in parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, southern Chile and southern Brazil (spelt gaúcho in Portuguese). ... The Buenos Aires province (IPA: , Spanish: Provincia de Buenos Aires) is the largest, wealthiest and most populated province of Argentina. ...

In his teens, Rivero moved to the Belgrano neighborhood in the city proper, and witnessed the growth of tango, both as a dancing phenomenon and as an ever more complex music form under the "ABC" of composers/directors (Arolas, Bardi, Cobián). Also, the themes of tango lyrics evolved from light-hearted ribaldry into complex stories on love and manly honor. // Location Belgrano is a leafy, northern barrio or neighborhood of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. ...

Rivero learned classic guitar and also trained as a singer; he had a deep bass-baritone voice that was one of his trademarks. He was also noted by his huge hands (due to his acromegaly). Rondo Hatton, a famous sufferer of acromegaly whose face was distorted by the disorder. ...

After working as a cover singer in small venues, Rivero got his first radio appeareance singing a duet with his sister Eva in Radio Cultura. He spent the early 1930s alternating radio work with gigs in dance halls.

Picked up by bandleader José De Caro in 1935, his qualities attracted Julio De Caro (José's more famous brother) who then drafted Rivero. The orchestra, which incorporated non-traditional instruments, was a fixture of the Pueyrredón theatre ballroom, and Rivero gained fame—and the moniker that stayed with him forever: el feo (the ugly guy).

Even though Rivero was featured in many Argentine films in the 1930s and 1940s, the early forties were a time of uncertainty for him, and bandleaders who did request him (such as Humberto Canaro) would not retain him for long. Later, Rivero claimed that his deep voice was a handicap during this time.

In 1944, Rivero joined Horacio Salgán. His three-year tenure there left no recordings (with his Bartok influences, Salgán was too "far out" for the general tango audience) but earned Rivero the respect of avant-garde and jazz musicians. To make ends meet, Rivero also worked in a duo with fellow singer Carlos Bermúdez that recorded tangos (in a more commercial vein) for the Colombian market. 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... B la Bart k (March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945) was a composer, pianist and collector of East European folk music. ...

In 1947, Rivero was hired by Aníbal Troilo, who was having a stellar run of recordings with new hit songs, some of them in collaboration with lyricist Homero Manzi. During his three years with Troilo, Rivero shared the limelight with Floreal Ruiz and Aldo Calderón, and recorded 22 songs, including the mega-hit Sur, where Troilo's melody frames Manzi's elegy for a young love and also for the old barrio. 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... Aníbal Troilo(July 11, 1914 - May 18, 1975) was an Argentine tango musician. ... Homero Nicolás Manzioni Prestera, better known as Homero Manzi (born November 1, 1907 in Santiago del Estero – died on May 3, 1951 in Buenos Aires) was an Argentine Tango writer, author of various famous tangos, among them Barrio de tango, Malena, Milonga sentimental and Sur. ...

Having found fame and fortune, Rivero left Troilo in 1950 and started a solo career. For accompaniment, he would alternate between guitar quartets and orchestras for the remainder of his career. The most famous musician to follow Rivero was guitarist Roberto Grela, who was also Troilo's sideman. 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Guitar-only formations were used by countryside milonga artists, early tango singers, and even Carlos Gardel in his youth, but Rivero's 1950s incursion, in a time of total dominance by big orchestras, was seen as a bold choice, which forever cemented his identification with the silent masculinity of the countryside—as opposed to the emphasis that "urban" tango put on stories of lost love. Milonga is a South American form of music, as dance, as the term for the place where tango is danced. ... Carlos Gardel (1933) Carlos Gardel (11 December 1890 – 24 June 1935) was an enormously popular tango singer killed in an airplane crash at the height of his career. ...

In the sixties, Salgán and Rivero had their revenge, and recorded several tunes together. Rivero also collaborated with other artists, who noted his generosity and his devotion to music.

By the late 1960s, tango had become mostly "for export", since musicians and audiences were aging and became fixated on old songs and the orchestral format of the 1940s and 1950s. Most tango fans also rejected the music of Astor Piazzolla and his followers. Rivero himself admired Piazzolla, and recorded his creations on more than one occasion. Photograph of Piazzolla playing his bandoneon. ...

Fearing for tango's viability, as even major artists had trouble finding venues, Rivero opened El Viejo Almacén ("The old store"), a tango club in the San Telmo district, in 1969. His hospitality was enjoyed by many visitors to Buenos Aires, who went to Rivero's club to savor the tango music and dance in its full intensity. Among the recurring visitors were Joan Manuel Serrat and Camilo José Cela. Street performers in San Telmo San Telmo in the map of Buenos Aires San Telmo (St Pedro González Telmo) is one of the oldest barrios (neighborhoods) of Buenos Aires, Argentina and also one of the best preserved areas of that constantly changing Argentine metropolis, with a number of colonial... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... Joan Manuel Serrat Joan Manuel Serrat Teresa (born December 27, 1943 in Barcelona) is a Spanish singer-songwriter. ... The spanish writer Camilo José Cela Camilo José Cela Trulock, Marquis of Iria Flavia (May 11, 1916 – January 17, 2002) was a Galician writer. ...

Rivero was an icon in Japan, where he toured in 1968; he got to know many Japanese musicians and dancers, and wrote tangos such as "Arigato Japón" and "A lo Megata" (honoring playboy Tsunayoshi "Tsunami" Megata, one of the top tango dancers of his age). No Japanese tourist would leave Buenos Aires without visiting one or more nights at the Almacén. 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ...

Rivero hosted a TV show in the early seventies, which featured artists from the club (such as Beba Bidart), as well as lively dialog sprinkled with lunfardo. Some of his 1960s and 1970s reunions with Troilo and Grela were televised. Lunfardo was a colorful, slangy argot of the Spanish language which developed at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century in the lower classes in and around Buenos Aires. ...

In 1980, Rivero took part in Osvaldo Pugliese's 75th birthday concert.

Rivero was hospitalized in late 1985, and died from heart failure on January 18 1986, in Buenos Aires. 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Selected Recordings

• Sur (perhaps the favorite tango of Argentines)
• El ciruja (an underworld saga sprinkled with heavy doses of lunfardo)
• Amablemente (a sonnet sung as a milonga—the lyrics lead to a dramatic ending)
• Pucherito de gallina
• No te engañes corazón
• Malón de ausencia
• Yo te bendigo
• Falsía
• El último organito

Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch, one of the best-known of the early Italian sonnet writers The term sonnet is derived from the Provençal word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning little song. ... Milonga is a South American form of music, as dance, as the term for the place where tango is danced. ...

External links

• Lyrics to A lo Megata - in English
• Biography
• Last Interview