Leopoldo Federico – The unique master of the bandoneon
Welcome to a new edition of our podcast series “Music Masters Count”. I don’t need to introduce the musician whose interview I want to let you listen to today: He is my favorite bandoneon player after Pichuco, having played with all the greats of tango: Leopoldo Federico.
Leopoldo Federico was born in Buenos Aires on January 12, 1927. He studied bandoneon with Felix Lipesker, Carlo Marcucci and Osvaldo Requena. Thanks to Requena, Federico received his first engagement at the age of 17, at the Cabaret Tabaris. He literally flew home with his contract in his pocket. Because 200 pesos was an incredibly good salary in 1944. A civil servant or a bank employee did not earn as much.
Since then, this great bandoneon player and composer worked with the most famous tango musicians: Alfredo Gobbi, Osmar Maderna, Horacio Salgan, Carlos Di Sarli, Roberto Grela, Astor Piazzolla and many others, until Federico founded his own orchestra, together with the singer Julio Sosa.
In December 1998 Leopoldo Federico told me about his rich musical life as a bandoneon player and his collaborations with all these tango masters. He talked about why he likes Radio so much and prefers the Orquesta Tipica to smaller ensembles.
Our hour-long conversation was so inspiring that I want to share it with you in the next two editions of our podcast series.
Listen for yourselves to what Leopoldo Federico, this wonderful bandoneon virtuoso and great tango player, who passed away in Buenos Aires on December 28, 2014 at the age of 87, told me.
Buy the complete transcript of podcast 1 & 2 in the store
Listen also to part 2 of the interview with Leopoldo Federico:
Part of the interview with Leopoldo Federico
“The beginning, almost as we all started when we were young, some enthusiastic because the friend studied the instrument, others because of the uncle, for me it was the uncle. For me it was my uncle, who was not a musician. He passed away recently, but he had the feeling of music and tango as if he were a great musician, because he had a refined ear and looked for the things of the tango genre that we all end up liking, to select what is salvageable, right?
He started to make me realize how to distinguish the beautiful from the ugly, let’s say. We are not going to tell the good from the bad, because I don’t want to… the pretty from the ugly. And I was enthusiastic; first of all because my father played bandoneon, but he played badly without music.
And I saw that bandoneon that he had kept there, he always went… we all had the same thing because I told it to another fellow student and he said “yes, my mom didn’t want me to play it because…” she said you’re going to break it, leave it and I opened the box and I looked at it with that curiosity. And this uncle of mine, when I was getting a little older, when I was 12 years old, when I was in elementary school, he told me “Why don’t you study bandoneon? why don’t you study bandoneon?”
I used to listen to the orchestras with him, because he taught me to distinguish who Troilo was, who Di Sarli was, who Di Sarli was… When I was a kid I already knew the different personalities of each one of them, right? “
Born in the neighborhood of Once, City of Buenos Aires. Federico was an important tango bandoneon player. One of his first jobs was in 1944 in the orchestra of Juan Carlos Cobian. He was a member of the orchestras of Alfredo Gobbi and Víctor D’Amario. In 1946 he was summoned by Osmar Maderna to join his orchestra as first bandoneon. During those years, he also joined the orchestras of Héctor Stamponi, Mariano Mores, Carlos Di Sarli, Horacio Salgán,5 and the orchestra of singer Alberto Marino.
In 1952 he formed a duo with Atilio Stampone, and recorded with the singers Antonio Rodríguez Lesende and Carlos Fabri, the songs: Tierrita and Criolla linda.
In 1955 he was summoned by Astor Piazzolla to join his ensemble, Octeto Buenos Aires.
In 1959 he recorded his first album as a soloist.
In 2000, his first great-grandson Lautaro was born, and a year later, his second, Elias. On December 24, 2003, his son passed away due to liver problems. In 2005 his Orchestra won the Konex Platinum Award as the most relevant Tango Ensemble of the decade in Argentina. In 2015 he was awarded the Konex Merit Diploma post mortem.
On December 11, 2012, the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation and the Center for the Study of National Interests (CEIN) awarded him a distinction for his career.