El Último Café, by Héctor Stamponi y Cátulo Castillo, written in 1958 and performed by Juan D'Arienzo & Jorge Valdez

Nada...a beautiful song by José Dames written in Buenos Aires in 1943.  Made famous by the great Argentine orchestras of the time, including Caló and DiSarli.
Orquesta Z chose to perform a more recent arrangement by Tango Fuego from 2004 for this version, we first recorded in 2010, remastered in 2021.
Orquesta Z is an Argentine tango sexteto located in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information:  www.OrquestaZ.com

Nada - Orquesta Z (2010)

This is a rough draft of an original tango written today 1/24/2022.
Lyrics by Bendrew Jong and Cristina Bensadoun
©2022 Bendrew Jong

A tango of loneliness and lost love, borrowing Chuang Tzu's Taoist tale of dreaming he was a butterfly!

OZ 2022

Como Una Mariposa - Orquesta Z (2022)

Tu Beso (Your Kiss) - Orquesta Z (2022)
Musica: Bendrew Jong    Letra: Cristina Bensadoun

Cuantas veces he imaginado tu amor
How many times did I imagine your love?
Cuantas veces te desnude
How many times did I disrobe you?
Tu amor me ha robado la voz
Your love has stolen my voice
Como un sol al amanecer enciende el sentir
Like the rising sun ignites feeling
es difícil describer lo que al verte vi.
It is difficult for me to describe  what I felt when I saw you. 

Y…la luz llegó y la tristeza se fue.
And...the light arrived and sadness left.
Un circulo cerró.
A circle closed
Mi corazón festejó 
My heart played

Cuantas veces he imaginado tu amor?
How many times did i imagine your love?
Cuantas veces te desnude? 
How many times did I disrobe you?

Pensando en cómo te fuistes me deja triste,
Thinking of how you left leaves me feeling sad,
y sigo Imaginando tu regreso
And I continue imagining your return
Y confieso soñando tu beso.
And I confess dreaming of your kiss.

©2022 Bendrew Jong

Tu Beso - Orquesta Z (05/18/2022)

One of Juan  D'Arienzo's later arrangements with singer Jorge Valdez, recorded originally in 1958.  Orquesta Z, a San Francisco-based sexteto tipico, chose to record and perform this lovely song in 2017

OZ21-4. (17.05.08)

El Último Café - Orquesta Z (2017) como Juan D'Arienzo con Jorge Valdez (1958)

How about one more early tango I wrote for Orquesta Z in 2011 with my collaborators, Cristina Bensadoun and Cristina Bruch (Los Dos Cristinas)?  - Bendrew Jong

OZ#5 ZT#7 (11.01.09)

¿Por Qué Ahora?

Far and Away - by Gunnar Madsen (1997), arr. Bendrew Jong (2012)
When I started my architecture practice in the 70's, I lived in a sweet, large studio apartment in North Berkeley.  Sharing a common wall was a couple of UC Berkeley students, one of whom was a quirky, charming kid named Gunnar Madsen.  30 years later, while I was the artistic director of a performing arts theater in Berkeley (for fun) we invited an "a capella" group named the Bobs to perform for a couple fund-raisers...and lo and behold the founder of the Bobs was none other than Gunnar.  They had just performed for the Oscars!  And Gunnar was making a living, writing all the music for "Sex in the City"!  I didn't even know Gunnar was a musician!!!  Anyway, "Far and Away" is one of the songs Gunnar wrote for "Sex in the City" and later I arranged it as an alternative tango for Orquesta Z, my tango band!  So here it is...

OZ#9

Far and Away -Orquesta Z (2012)

Number 4 of 4 Pugliese/Maciel covers:  Esta Noche de Luna

Orquesta Z covered in 2012 four tangos sung by Jorge Maciel in the 1950's and 1960's while singing for the Osvaldo Pugliese Orchestra.

Arranged for Orquesta Z and sung by Bendrew Jong

In the 1950's, Osvaldo Pugliese, whose tango orchestra spanned 3 decades, combined with vocalist Jorge Maciel to create some of the most compelling Argentine tangos at the close of the Golden Era of tango...combining solid musical arrangements with beautiful lyrics. I've translated the lyrics so you can understand why this period of tango compares with the best of the Great American Songbook in terms of the poetry of love, but so often in tango of love lost and heartbreak. So here's the forth of four tangos I recorded in 2012 with me, Bendrew Jong, singing with Orquesta Z.

OZ#8 (12.10.29)

Esta Noche de Luna - Orquesta Z (2012)

Orquesta Z covers this well-known tango first recorded in 1942 by the Lucio Demare orchestra, with singer Juan Carlos Miranda.

Arranged for Orquesta Z in 2017 by Bendrew Jong, director and vocalist.

OZ21-5. (17.05.09)

No Te Apures, Carablanca - Orquesta Z (2017)

Fueron Tres Años - by Orquesta Z (2012)
This is a tango originally performed in 1956 by the Héctor Varela Orchestra with the wonderful singer Argentino Ledesma.  I arranged this piece in 2012 for my tango sexteto Orquesta Z in San Francisco, with me, Bendrew Jong, singing.  As the 50's were closing, an upheaval in Argentina was beginning that would lead to a military take over in the 1960's through 80's that would end tango in its tracks, as gatherings were illegal which made the dances or "Milongas" close for years.  We can only imagine what wonderful tangos were loss during these dark years.  But here's an example at the height of the Golden Era of Tango.

https://soundcloud.com/bendrew-jong/fueron-tres-anos-orquesta-z-2012

El Último Café - Orquesta Z (2017) como Juan D'Arienzo con Jorge Valdez (1958)

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