We lost another master today… this time it was Mariano Mores. Mariano Mores was a great musician, composer, actor and showman. Many contemporaries criticized the music of his public performances as not being danceable. However, many of his compositions became well known and very danceable. Examples would include Canaro’s recordings of Cuartito Azul, and Adiós Pampa mía.  Other examples include, Troilo’s recordings of Uno, Gricel, Sin Palabras, and En Esta Tarde Gris. Also, Sting’s song Roxanne in the 2001 film, Moulin Rouge! was arranged as a tango by using Mariano More’s song Tanguera.

The following video came from the 1953 Argentine film titled, “La voz de mi ciudad.” Mariano Mores is the character that starts on bandoneón and switches to piano while playing his high energy, signature piece, “Taquito Militar.”

You will notice some swing dancing mixed into the milonga dancing in the film clip. “Tango Fusion” has been around a long time!

Taquito Militar – The Controversy

Mariano Mores created a controversy when he premiered “Taquito Militar” for two reasons. One reason being that he represented the piece as a bridge between popular music and cultural music, but it premiered to an upper class audience at Teatro Colón. The second reason being that during the public performance, Mores dedicated the song to Franklin Lucero, the Chief of Staff of General Perón’s Army. This angered both those would disliked the wealth and culture disparities in Argentina, and also those opposed the Perón regime. But Mores seemed opportunistic with his dedications, changing them regularly depending on who held wealth and power at the time. Incidentally, many milongueros have gone to their graves refusing to dance to Canaro, a friend of Mores, because he too “played for the generals.”

In the year 2000, the Legislatura de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires City Legislature) announced that Mariano Mores won the popular vote for “Best Tango Composer of the Century” and his song Taquito militar won “Best Milonga of the Century.” Perhaps the controversy has been forgotten, or at least forgiven by some portion of the population that actually voted in the poll.

You can read a biography of Mariano Mores over on Todo Tango. The article includes some direct quotes from Mores.