I’ve been getting into a bit of Miguel Villasboas lately, Meg and I have even played a bit in the 6:30 class, something different to the tango standards of D’Arienzo, Biagi and Di Sarli. Recently, I started searching for information on him beginning with the usual Argentine Tango sites (todotango.com etc.). I found exactly nothing. I thought this was a bit weird, some of these sites are particularly thorough in their biographies of the orchestras of the past.

So I figured he must too modern for these sites (but more than Piazzolla??? Surely not!), he certainly didn’t sound it… hmmm… then it dawned on me (call me slow if you must), maybe he’s not Argentinian, surely this could explain his absence from Argentinian based tango websites? We know the Argentinians are a fiercly patriotic bunch (this is a good thing) and hence my quest to discover more about Miguel Villasboas, they had set me the challenge, fire up Google, I’m going in.

Miguel Villasboas is in fact Uruguayan, born in Montevideo, December 30, 1936. His father was a teacher of piano and his friends were musicians, so it was inevitable his life would take a musical direction. Miguel fell in love with the rhythms and melodies of the tango greats such as D’Arienzo, and Miguel’s bands, which were mainly active in the 1950s and 60s, took these influences and made them more appropriate and modern for his time. His first performances with Quintet Miguelito, were at the ripe old age of 16! [3].

It’s interesting to note that part of the uniqueness in his interpretations of the classics, was supposedly due to the fact his bands were generally quite small, and this was purely for economic reasons [1].

In 1997 Villasboas brought his orchestra to Australia, when at the request of Uruguay’s president he ran a series of concerts for immigrants from Central and South America; he also performed for the Australian Parliament [3].

Most recently, in 2001 he toured through Japan, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile [2].

I’ve not been able to find any information on his current activities, but let’s hope, at the age of 69, he’s still getting couples out on the dance floors of Montevideo.

Sources (the few that I could find):

[1] Tango West
[2] Min-On Concert Association
[3] La Academia del Tango

Article by Ben Thoman