Biography
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Born
12 January 1912
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Born In
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Died
31 January 1982 (aged 70)
In 1930 he made his professional debut with an outfit led by Antonio Polito that played on Radio Belgrano. The following year he made a great move by joining the Roberto Firpo Orchestra as violin player. But with Osvaldo Fresedo is when Sassone would find his way of feeling tango. That would mark him forever.
In 1935, after he split with "El Pibe de la Paternal", Florindo put together his first orchestra, debuted on January 1, 1936 on Radio Belgrano and played at the café Nacional and the Marabú cabaret, with Alberto Amor on vocals. Time later he switched to Radio El Mundo where at noon he had a show with a large orchestra that included percussion, harp and other exotic instruments.
In 1940 he withdrew from his activity on radio and music to devote himself to personal businesses until 1946 when he returned and put together a unpretentious line-up, with juvenile musicians, to perform at cafés and neighboring venues.
In 1947 he reassembled his orchestra, and returned to radio activity to great acclaim and started to compete with the big names. He came back to the most important Buenos Aires sceneries and ballrooms.
But in fact, beyond his recognized capabilities, the role of the vocalist Jorge Casal was essential for this phenomenon. This young singer appeared in the show business milieu introduced by Sassone. He was a boom, surprising people in and out of his environment due to the brilliance of his voice and his well-controlled dynamics. Furthermore, he was impressively good-looking.
Just like other leaders, he had to add another singer to his orchestra, and once again, he was not mistaken, he hired Roberto Chanel.
The years went by, television was already consolidated and Florindo was one of the first conductors that appeared before the TV cameras. In 1960 he even had a program, in which he was the main star.
In 1962, the orchestra was lined-up with an exceptional team: Osvaldo Requena on piano; in the bandoneon section were playing Pastor Cores, Carlos Pazos, Jesús Méndez and Daniel Lomuto; on violins, Roberto Guisado, Claudio González, Carlos Arnaiz, Domingo Mancuso, Juan Scafino and José Amatriali; and Enrique Marcheto was on double bass.
In 1966 he traveled to Japan where he appeared at the most important cities on a tour that lasted several months. On that occasion he included Mario Bustos as vocalist. Six years later he returned to that country, but this time with another vocalist: Luciano Bianco.
He traveled to Colombia and Venezuela in 1975 and, in Caracas, he performed along with an Argentine artistic delegation. On that occasion his vocalists were: Oscar Macri and Rodolfo Lemos. Later came a tour of Porto Alegre (Brazil) and Asunción, capital of Paraguay.
Other vocalists in his orchestra, besides the above mentioned -Amor, Casal, Chanel, Bustos, Luciano Bianco, Macri and Lemos- were the singers Carlos Malbrán, Raúl Lavalle, Rodolfo Galé, Andrés Peyró, Ángel Díaz, Fontán Luna, Osvaldo Di Santi, Zulema Robles and Gloria Díaz.
Florindo Sassone has not left an outstanding oeuvre as composer, but we can highlight among his most successful numbers: the milonga "Baldosa floja" with the collaboration of Julio Bocazzi and the tango "El último escalón", with Javier Mazzea, both with lyrics by Dante Gilardoni. Also are his: the instrumental tangos: "El relámpago", "Cancha" and with Mazzea's lyrics, "Rivera Sud", "Bolívar y Chile", "Tango caprichoso", "Esquina gardeliana", among others.
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