Juan d'Arienzo (December 14, 1900 – January 14, 1976) was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

tango musician, also known as ''"El Rey del Compás"'' (''King of the Beat''). He was a violinist, band leader, and composer. He was the son of Italian immigrants and used more modern arrangements and instrumentation; his popular group produced hundreds of recordings. His first memorable performance was in 1919 at the Nacional theater during the comic play by Alberto Novión, ''El cabaret Montmartre''. He received the nickname Rey del Compás (King of the Beat), from Príncipe Cubano, at the Florida cabaret when he was replacing Osvaldo Fresedo. He said: "Mine was always a tough orchestra, with a very swinging, much nervous, vibrant beat. And it was that way because tango, for me, has three things: beat, impact and nuances. An orchestra ought to have, above all, life. That is why mine lasted more than fifty years. And when the Prince gave me that title, I thought that it was OK, that he was right." His music is played often at milongas in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

. His recordings were accompanied by singers: Alberto Echagüe, Armando Laborde, Héctor Maure, Jorge Valdez, Alberto Reynal, Antonio Prieto, Carlos Casares, Carlos Dante, Enrique Carbel, Francisco Fiorentino, Horacio Palma, Héctor Millán, Mario Bustos, Juan Carlos Lamas, Libertad Lamarque, Mercedes Serrano, Raquel Notar, Osvaldo Ramos, Roberto Lemos and Walter Cabral. He recorded more than 1000 tangos, milongas and fast valses, wrote lyrics for 3 tangos, composed 46 tangos. He is interred in the La Chacarita Cemetery in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Filmography

Juan D'Arienzo participated in several movies: * ''Una ventana al éxito'' (1966) * '' La voz de mi ciudad'' (1953) * '' El cantor del pueblo'' (1948) * '' Yo quiero ser bataclana'' (1941) * '' Melodías porteñas'' (1937) * '' ¡Tango!'' (1933)

Notes

1900 births 1976 deaths Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine film score composers Argentine male film score composers Argentine tango musicians Musicians from Buenos Aires Burials at La Chacarita Cemetery 20th-century Argentine composers 20th-century Argentine male musicians {{Argentina-musician-stub