Angel D'Agostino & Angel Vargas

Birth Names: Angel Domingo Emilio D'Agostino / José Angel Lomio
Artistry: pianist, composer / singer
Lived: 1900 - 1991 / 1904 - 1959
Aliases: Los Dos Ángeles (The Two Angels) - Vargas also had the alias El Ruiseñor de las Calles Porteñas (The Nightingale of the Buenos Aires Streets)

         

• The tango of The Two Angels remains one of the most popular in Buenos Aires
• Both were born in Argentina
• As a child D'Agostino played in a trio at a small theatre near the zoo (but were not paid as they started a fire!)
• D'Agostino quit school to pursue music, and rich families hired him to play piano during parties
• D'Agostino's created his first orchestra in 1920, both to play tango and jazz - the orchestra also played at silent movies
• Vargas started his career in the early 1930s, where he performed in an orchestra under the pseudonym Carlos Vargas
• D'Agostino and Angel met in 1932, where they had a few appearance together, but their careers were still separate
• In 1940 D'Agostino and Vargas formally established their team, and the combination of the two stands as one of the greatest of the 1940s
• Here Vargas entered the orchestra led by D'Agostino
• That orchestra achieved its magic through its simplicity and excellent repertoire
• Vargas' voice is considered to have immense sweetness and charisma
• Luis Adolfo Sierra commented on the combination of the two as '...the success of a team that managed to succeed at the time of the greatest presence of major tango figures'
• Together they recorded 94 sides together before Vargas split from D'Agostino in 1946, to pursue a successful solo career - but D'Agostino's music was never considered the same
• D'Agostino died in May 1900 alone, as he promised his friends; Angel died in July 1959 - both considered major tango artists