15/2025 Troilo, Cachirulo and how Tanda of the Week was started!

Welcome to another Tanda of the Week. In case you are new here, let me introduce myself and the blog about tandas and Argentine tango music shortly!

The humble beginnings

I started the original (and first) Tanda of the Week blog in July 2010, when I had a a fair amount of DJing experience under my belt from different music styles like hip hop and soul music, but was still very fresh as a tango DJ.

I’d only been dancing Argentine tango for a few years, and at first, I wasn’t too keen on the idea of DJing tango. But since it was really the music that got me into tango in the first place, it ended up feeling like a pretty natural next step — and a nice way to give something back to the community.

Going to Buenos Aires

While still working as a circus artist, I had just finished my 7 month tour with the national circus of Finland, and needed a change of scenery. So in early 2010 I found myself in Buenos Aires for 4 months with friends of mine from Finland. One of whom was a DJ, who helped me a great deal to get started, and he played a few sets at a small Buenos Aires milonga.

Somehow I got the opportunity to DJ there as well, and after taking hours and hours to prepare a playlist, I played my first full Tango DJ gig - EVER - in Buenos Aires of all places. Everything went great and people enjoyed the music a lot. Some of the right people heard my set and I received more invitations to DJ.

The original Tanda of the Week

So after my stay in Buenos Aires and touring internationally now as a circus artist/DJ, I started Tanda of the Week (originally on Blogspot) because I felt very inspired by DJs I heard in Buenos Aires. I wrote the blog quite actively between 2010 and 2016 sharing a total 175 argentine tango, vals and milonga tandas, some of which were from guest DJs.

While it was a very personal project, sharing tandas for a worldwide audience taught me a lot about Argentine tango and sparked some interesting conversations in the community as well. Later I would also start the Tango DJ Forum on Facebook, which seems to be still very active.

The return of Tanda of the Week

The second run for Tanda of the Week started in 2024 and the blog has recently landed on the Ghost.io platform with already a total of 35 tandas for our visitors, blog members and supporters. The aim of the blog is still to share tandas from all orchestras, playlists and articles to educate DJs and dancers about Argentine tango. This time there will be a tanda shared every Monday and the best way to catch them all is to subscribe!

Now back to Buenos Aires and this week's tanda!

One of my favorite milongas in Buenos Aires especially for the music was Cachirulo, and if I remember correctly, the song "Cachirulo" started the Aníbal Troilo tanda of Argentine tango instrumentals that was always played after the host's speech. The milonga's atmosphere and energy left a huge mark on me, and in my mind the song is one of the defining songs for instrumental Argentine tango. So much so that it was the second tango we danced at our wedding!

One of the very first tandas of Tanda of the Week back in July 2010 was also a version of this Aníbal Troilo instrumental tanda from the 1940s. I believe the classic tanda from Buenos Aires included El tamango (also 1941) instead of Cordon de oro, but you can't go wrong with any of these songs.

Cachirulo is the B-side of the Toda mi vida shellac release, recorded during the same period when Aníbal Troilo’s orchestra was putting out hit after hit — songs like Te aconsejo que me olvides and El bulín de la calle Ayacucho.

Enjoy this classic instrumental Argentine tango tanda of Aníbal Troilo and see you next week!

Performances to Aníbal Troilo's songs from the tanda

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For more of Anibal Troilo:

Anibal Troilo - Tanda of the Week

Tandas of Aníbal Troilo, the iconic Argentine bandoneón player and orchestra leader, who shaped the golden age of tango.

Tanda of the Week