Alberto Echagüe

Alberto Echagüe was born Juan de Dios Osvaldo Rodríguez Bonfanti on March 8, 1909, in Rosario, Argentina, and died on February 22, 1987, in Buenos Aires. He was a renowned tango singer and composer, best known for his long partnership with Juan D’Arienzo’s Orquesta Típica. Echagüe possessed a distinctive, powerful baritone voice with a characteristic rough quality (“reo” in Argentine music circles) that conveyed lyrical meaning and emotional depth. He began his career on Buenos Aires radio in the early 1930s, initially performing with Ángel D’Agostino’s orchestra before joining D’Arienzo’s ensemble around 1938. He became D’Arienzo’s most important and commercially successful vocalist, in a partnership that continued intermittently until 1975, with a particularly successful reunion beginning in 1944. Beyond D’Arienzo, Echagüe also recorded with pianist Juan Polito, performed with the orchestras of Rodolfo Biagi and Juan Sánchez Gorio, and led his own ensemble (with bandoneonist Alberto Di Paulo) from 1957. As both singer and composer, he wrote several tangos including “Gladiolo” and “Tus cartas como tardan.” He remains remembered as one of tango’s most authentic and beloved vocalists.