Argentina
SINATRA IN ARGENTINA (1981)
Frank Sinatra’s one and only visit to the Argentine came in August 1981. Enrico Ortega, a popular Argentinian singer who in his youth, similarly to skinny Sinatra (FS: „When I’d take a shower the water would miss me on both sides“), was nicknamed „Parlito“ („the small one“), was in charge of bringing The Voice to Argentine and served as tour manager. Sinatra had been very popular in Argentina for several years, and quite a few of his albums had seen a special Argentinian release, often with Spanish cover titles.
Having played a week at Sun City in the South-African „homeland“ of Bophutatswana from July 24 to 30, Sinatra flew into Buenos Aires on August 4 for five concerts at the Luna Park, commencing on August 6. Each show started with an orchestral performance of roughly 35 minutes before Frank took the stage. The orchestra for Sinatra‘s part of the show was conducted by Vincent Falcone jr., who was also featured on piano. Under his influence as Frank’s regular conductor (1978-83), and because the band didn’t carry a string section, the up-tempo arrangements sounded much jazzier than usual, and both Charles Turner (trumpet) and Tony Mottola (guitar) played solos within special instrumental sections of Sinatra’s show. As a result, musically, these shows had Sinatra on top of his ‚harvest‘ game, re-filled with confidence following the world-wide success of his Reprise album „Trilogy“ that had been released in March 1980. From Buenos Aires, Sinatra moved on to Brazil, to perform at Sao Paolo’s Maksoud Plaza.
The final concert at Luna Park on August 10 was recorded, to be broadcast on a TV special entitled “La Voz en Argentina” throughout the country, plus Chile, Paraguay and Venezuela. This must rate among the finest ever Sinatra live concerts captured for screening, beautifully photographed throughout. The audience‘s response, whom Sinatra would address through an interpreter, was absolutely electrifying, and as a result, watching the video today is pure joy, seeing Sinatra perform, on some Main-Event-like center stage, amidst a crowd of very enthusiastic followers. The highlights of the performance, at least to my ears, are a lovely duet with Tony Mottola’s guitar on „As Time Goes By“, and an especially kicking brassy version of „Pennies From Heaven“ featuring a superb saxophone solo by Al Klink. Playing tenor saxophone and woodwinds, Klink had joined Frank in the Columbia studio as early as 1950 and on a few subsequent dates, then become one of his „regulars“ during Falcone’s tenure.
All the Argentinian shows were sell-outs and reportedly earned the singer $ 2 million – for the organizers, however, and especially for Ortega, it turned out to be bankrupcy, due to some heavy losses the Argentinian currency was subject to at the world-wide Stock Markets at the time. Implicitly, this also had to do with the non-democratic military Junta that ruled the country since 1976, and once the media „were at it“ following the controversy about Sinatra’s preceeding concerts in Apartheid territory, the singer had to face severe criticism, in the U.S. as well as abroad, for performing in a country that was „under dictatorship“, as a newspaper columnist bluntly put it. Sinatra shrugged off such comments, saying that he was but playing for the people.
Bernhard Vogel
.
List of concerts:
06.08.1981 Buenos Aires, Luna Park
Orchestra conducted by Vincent Falcone jr.
featuring Vincent Falcone jr. (piano), Gene Cherico (bass), Al Klink (tenor sax), Charles Turner (triumpet), Robert Alexander (trombone), Irv Cottler (drums), Tony Mottola (guitar).
Song programme not documented
07.08.1981 Buenos Aires, Luna Park
Orchestra conducted by Vincent Falcone jr.
featuring Vincent Falcone jr. (piano), Gene Cherico (bass), Al Klink (tenor sax), Charles Turner (triumpet), Robert Alexander (trombone), Irv Cottler (drums), Tony Mottola (guitar).
Song programme not documented
08.08.1981 Buenos Aires, Luna Park
Orchestra conducted by Vincent Falcone jr.
featuring Vincent Falcone jr. (piano), Gene Cherico (bass), Al Klink (tenor sax), Charles Turner (triumpet), Robert Alexander (trombone), Irv Cottler (drums), Tony Mottola (guitar).
Song programme not documented
09.08.1981 Buenos Aires, Luna Park
Orchestra conducted by Vincent Falcone jr.
featuring Vincent Falcone jr. (piano), Gene Cherico (bass), Al Klink (tenor sax), Charles Turner (triumpet), Robert Alexander (trombone), Irv Cottler (drums), Tony Mottola (guitar).
Song programme not documented
10.08.1981 Buenos Aires, Luna Park
Orchestra conducted by Vincent Falcone jr.
featuring Vincent Falcone jr. (piano), Gene Cherico (bass), Al Klink (tenor sax), Charles Turner (triumpet), Robert Alexander (trombone), Irv Cottler (drums), Tony Mottola (guitar).
Orchestral Overture/Fly Me To The Moon/The Song Is You/The Best Is Yet To Come/Come Rain Or Come Shine/I've Got You Under My Skin/Strangers In The Night/The Lady Is A Tramp/My Kind Of Town/I Get A Kick Out Of You/I've Got The World On A String/These Foolish Things/Instrumental: A Day In The Life Of A Fool (Tony Mottola, guitar)/As Time Goes By (with Tony Mottola)/Instrumental (Charles Turner, trumpet)/Theme from New York New York/Pennies From Heaven/My Way.
Note: If you have any additions/corrections to the above, please feel free to contact me atbernhard.vogel@deutsche-sinatra-society.de
© The Main Event
& The Author
2005.
Argentina
From Wikipedia
, the free encyclopedia.
Argentina is a country in southern South America, situated between the Andes in the west and the southern Atlantic Ocean in the east. It is bordered by Paraguay and Bolivia in the north, Brazil and Uruguay in the northeast and Chile in the west. The country is formally named República Argentina ('"Argentine Republic"), while for purposes of legislation the form Nación Argentina ("Argentine Nation") is used.
The name Argentina is derived from the Latin argentum (silver). The origin of this name goes back to the first voyages made by the Spanish conquerors to Río de la Plata. The survivors of the shipwrecked expedition mounted by Juan Díaz de Solís found indigenous people in the region who gave them silver objects as presents. The news about the legendary Sierra del Plata – a mountain rich in silver – reached Spain around 1524. Since then, the Spaniards named the river of Solís, Río de la Plata (River of Silver).
Europeans arrived in the region with the 1502 voyage of Amerigo Vespucci. Spanish navigator Juan Díaz de Solís visited what is now Argentina in 1516. Spain established a permanent colony on the site of Buenos Aires in 1580, although initial settlement was primarily overland from Peru. The Spanish further integrated Argentina into their empire by establishing the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776, and Buenos Aires became a flourishing port. Buenos Aires formally declared independence from Spain on July 9, 1816. Argentines revere Gen. José de San Martín, who campaigned in Argentina, Chile, and Peru as the hero of their national independence. Following the defeat of the Spanish, centralist and federationist groups waged a lengthy conflict between themselves to determine the future of the nation. National unity was established, and the constitution promulgated in 1853.
Two forces combined to create the modern Argentine nation in the late 19th century: the introduction of modern agricultural techniques and integration of Argentina into the world economy. Foreign investment and immigration from Europe aided this economic revolution. Investment, primarily British, came in such fields as railroads and ports. As in the United States, the migrants who worked to develop Argentina's resources—especially the western pampas—came from throughout Europe.
From 1880 to 1930 Argentina became one of the world's 10 wealthiest nations based on rapid expansion of agriculture and foreign investment in infrastructure. Conservative forces dominated Argentine politics until 1916, when their traditional rivals, the Radicals, won control of the government. The Radicals, with their emphasis on fair elections and democratic institutions, opened their doors to Argentina's rapidly expanding middle class as well as to groups previously excluded from power. The Argentine military forced aged Radical President Hipólito Yrigoyen from power in 1930 and ushered in another decade of Conservative rule. Using fraud and force when necessary, the governments of the 1930s attempted to contain the currents of economic and political change that eventually led to the ascendance of Juan Domingo Perón (b. 1895). New social and political forces were seeking political power, including a modern military and labor movements that emerged from the growing urban working class.
The military ousted Argentina's constitutional government in 1943. Perón, then an army colonel, was one of the coup's leaders, and he soon became the government's dominant figure as Minister of Labor. Elections carried him to the presidency in 1946. He aggressively pursued policies aimed empowering the working class and greatly expanded the number of unionized workers. In 1947, Perón announced the first 5-year plan based on the growth of industries he nationalized. He helped establish the powerful General Confederation of Labor (CGT). Perón's dynamic wife, Eva Duarte de Perón, known as Evita (1919-52), played a key role in developing support for her husband. Perón won reelection in 1952, but the military sent him into exile in 1955. In the 1950s and 1960s, military and civilian administrations traded power, trying, with limited success, to deal with diminished economic growth and continued social and labor demands. When military governments failed to revive the economy and suppress escalating terrorism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the way was open for Perón's return.
On March 11, 1973, Argentina held general elections for the first time in 10 years. Perón was prevented from running, but voters elected his stand-in, Dr. Héctor Cámpora, as President. Perón's followers also commanded strong majorities in both houses of Congress. Cámpora resigned in July 1973, paving the way for new elections. Perón won a decisive victory and returned as President in October 1973 with his third wife, María Estela Isabel Martínez de Perón, as Vice President. During this period, extremists on the left and right carried out terrorist acts with a frequency that threatened public order. The government resorted to a number of emergency decrees, including the implementation of special executive authority to deal with violence. This allowed the government to imprison persons indefinitely without charge.
Perón died on July 1, 1974. His wife succeeded him in office, but a military coup removed her from office on March 24, 1976, and the armed forces formally exercised power through a junta composed of the three service commanders until December 10, 1983. The armed forces applied harsh measures against terrorists and many suspected of being their sympathizers. They restored basic order, but the human costs of what became known as "El Proceso," or the "Dirty War" were high. Conservative counts list between 10,000 and 30,000 persons as "disappeared" during the 1976-83 period. Serious economic problems, mounting charges of corruption, public revulsion in the face of human rights abuses and, finally, the country's 1982 defeat by the United Kingdom in an unsuccessful attempt to seize the Falklands/Malvinas Islands all combined to discredit the Argentine military regime. The junta lifted bans on political parties and gradually restored basic political liberties.
On October 30, 1983, Argentines went to the polls and chose Raúl Alfonsín, of the Radical Civic Union (UCR), as President. He began a 6-year term of office on December 10, 1983. In 1985 and 1987, large turnouts for mid-term elections demonstrated continued public support for a strong and vigorous democratic system. The UCR-led government took steps to resolve some of the nation's most pressing problems, including accounting for those who disappeared during military rule, establishing civilian control of the armed forces, and consolidating democratic institutions. However, failure to resolve endemic economic problems, and an inability to maintain public confidence undermined the effectiveness of the Alfonsín government, which left office 6 months early after Peronist candidate Carlos Saul Menem won the 1989 presidential elections.
President Menem imposed peso-dollar parity (convertibility) in 1991 to break the back of hyperinflation and adopted far-reaching market-based policies. Menem's accomplishments included dismantling a web of protectionist trade and business regulations, and reversing a half-century of statism by implementing an ambitious privatization program. These reforms contributed to significant increases in investment and growth with stable prices through most of the 1990s. Unfortunately, widespread corruption in the administrations of President Menem and President Fernando de la Rúa (elected in 1999) shook confidence and weakened the recovery. Also, while convertibility defeated inflation, its permanence undermined Argentina's export competitiveness and created chronic deficits in the current account of the balance of payments, which were financed by massive borrowing. The contagion effect of the Asian financial crisis of 1998 precipitated an outflow of capital that gradually mushroomed into a 4-year depression that culminated in a financial panic in November 2001. In December 2001, amidst bloody riots, President de la Rúa resigned, and Argentina defaulted on $88 billion in debt, the largest sovereign debt default in history.
A legislative assembly on December 23, 2001, elected Adolfo Rodríguez Saá to serve as President and called for general elections to elect a new president within 3 months. Rodríguez Saá announced immediately that Argentina would default on its international debt obligations, but expressed his commitment to maintain the currency board and the peso's 1-to-1 peg to the dollar. Rodríguez Saá, however, was unable to rally support from within his own party for his administration and this, combined with renewed violence in the Federal Capital, led to his resignation on December 30. Yet another legislative assembly elected Peronist Eduardo Duhalde President on January 1, 2002. Duhalde differentiating himself from his three predecessors quickly abandoned the peso's almost 12-year-old link with the dollar, a move that was followed by currency depreciation and inflation. In the face of rising poverty and continued social unrest, Duhalde also moved to bolster the government's social programs.
In the first round of the presidential election on April 27, 2003, former President Carlos Menem (Justicialist Party (PJ)) won 24.3% of the vote, Santa Cruz Governor Néstor Kirchner (PJ) won 22%, followed by Ricardo Murphy with 16.4% and Elisa Carrió with 14.2%. Menem withdrew from the May 25 runoff election after polls showed overwhelming support for Kirchner. The runoff election was not held and Mr Kirchner took office as President on May 25, 2003.
© Sinatra - The Main Event | Online since 1999
This Website is dedicated to Thelma Bowers –
"You hold the world on a string, sitting on your rainbow"