KI DOJO
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Articles and Interviews
Tango outside of Argentina 4:
Romene Tango: Jean Moscopol, Titi Botez, Maria Tanase, Christian Vasile and Gion
(transl. E.Marseglia)
This time we will go to Romania, directly to its capital, Bucarest, which was called between 1930-’45 the “Paris of the East”. We met there already (see our previous article “Russian tango”) the musician Pjotr Konstantinowitsch Leschenko in his nightclub "Leschenko" and maybe he was an example to a future generation of romene artists to confront themselves with tango. Infact You will be surprised how many artists there were. Let’s start with:
Jean Moscopol (1903-1983)
This time we will go to Romania, directly to its capital, Bucarest, which was called between 1930-’45 the “Paris of the East”. We met there already (see our previous article “Russian tango”) the musician Pjotr Konstantinowitsch Leschenko in his nightclub "Leschenko" and maybe he was an example to a future generation of romene artists to confront themselves with tango. Infact You will be surprised how many artists there were. Let’s start with:
Titi Botez (1901-1957)
Between 1930 and 1945, the golden years of Tango in Rumania, Titi Botez was one of the most popular singers. Because of his emotional style and warm vibrant voice he was dubbed "the eternal lover". He appeared with all the major figures of the eastern and mid-European entertainment scene,
releasing records in Bucharest, Berlin, Vienna and Budapest. He also appeared in a number of Rumanian films. His greatest successes were with songs composed by Petre Andreescu.
Maria Tanase (1913-1963)
Maria Tanase, the daughter of a horticulturalist, was born in the suburbs of Bucharest in September 1913. The traditions of the countryside were still strong in these suburbs, the local inhabitants being mainly farmers and seasonal workers. Maria's father employed a workforce of young women who knew all about running a garden for its produce, whether vegetables, fruits or flowers. Coming as they did from all over Rumania, these women brought the diverse folk traditions of their hometowns and villages with them. The young Maria was eager to learn each new song that she heard and her first repertoire was an impressive collection of these very songs. Tanase's career as a singer began on the stages of the Rumanian capital: in opera houses, in the Baraseum Theatre, and in music hall acts and revues. At her début on Bucharest Radio in February 1938, Maria sang “Cine iubeste si lase” (La Malédiction d’amour). In addition to her talents as a singer and her strong sense of dramatic presentation, she could improvise and render original interpretations. She introduced Rumanian folk music to audiences in the USA and was received with acclaim for her performance at the Rumanian pavilion at the New York World Exhibition of 1939. Maria Tanase died tragically of cancer in 1963 at the age of 49. It was a day of national mourning and tens of thousands of workers left their factories to accompany "Maria of the Songs" to her final resting place.
Cristian Vasile (1908-1985)
And not to be forgotten was the so-called ³last troubadour² Cristian Vasile, the great “enemy” of the musician Zavaistoc, another important personality of Rumanian music. The greatest success of Vasile was the song “Zaraza”, the name of a wonderful gypsy woman, but that will be another story to tell in the future.
Gion (1910-??)
About the enigmatic Gion, however we were only able to discover that he was a widely acclaimed coffee house singer in the Rumanian town of Sinaia in the early thirties.
We would like to thank Uli Schumann (see Links) for his kind permission for the use of this material.
