Don Flamingo

[Billy Packard]

Don Flamingo did arrangements for mandolin orchestras and perhaps smaller ensembles.
I'm guessing he did most of his work in the earlier to mid 1900's. I have two of his arrangements, La Cumparsita Tango and Prospero Tango. I have the lead mandolin part and the guitar part. I love his ideas with these two songs. I want to find more and have been unsuccessful.

Anyone out there familiar with D. Flamingo? Even better, does anyone have more of his work?

Billy

billypackardmandolin.com

[Billy Packard]

Don Flamingo did arrangements for mandolin orchestras and perhaps smaller ensembles.
I'm guessing he did most of his work in the earlier to mid 1900's. I have two of his arrangements, La Cumparsita Tango and Prospero Tango. I have the lead mandolin part and the guitar part. I love his ideas with these two songs. I want to find more and have been unsuccessful.

Anyone out there familiar with D. Flamingo? Even better, does anyone have more of his work?

Billy

billypackardmandolin.com

[pheffernan]

As a fan and teacher of Shakespeare's The Tempest, I'd be curious to learn more about this "Prospero Tango."

[Billy Packard]

As a fan and teacher of Shakespeare's The Tempest, I'd be curious to learn more about this "Prospero Tango."

At this point I don't recall where/when I got charts but it was a loong time ago..

The composer on the chart is Pasquale Taraffo who was a harp-guitar player of much renown. He lived from 1887 to 1937. There is a Wiki page but it's in Spanish and I can't figure how to make it translate. In English it doesn't come up.

(I am not a Shakespeare guy so I don't know that connection.)

But back to my quest, have you heard of Don Flamingo?

Billy

I'll send you the chart if you have an email address...

[Jeff Mando]

I don't know Flamingo, but Corleone was responsible for bringing some new interest to mandolin music in the early 70's......:cool:

[Paul Busman]

Any relation to Placido Flamingo?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi3ix6lMqvU

[Billy Packard]

Jeez,I can't get no respect!

(Great Video!)


Seriously, are there any folks with larger collections of mandolin music from the era that might include Flamingo's work, (NOT Domingo!)

Billy

[Jim Garber]

I will take a look and my sheet music but I warn it it may take some time. Cumparsita was a very popular tango. Was this published by O. Pagani. They mostly published Italian pieces for mandolin, guitar and accordion but I have some tangos that were part of their work.

Randy Osborne has some Flamingo stuff listed on his site (http://finefretted.org/html/mandolin.html):


206. Select Edition for Two Mandolins & Guitar/"Two Guitars"(Gypsy Folk Song) No.329(Guitar & Tenor Banjo; 1st & 2d Mandolin) Arr. by Don Flamingo 5 pgs. $15.00
213. Caminito (Tango Milonga) No. 312 (1st & 2d Mandolin; Guitar & Tenor Banjo) Composed by I. de Dios Filiberto & Arr. by Don Flamingo 3 pgs. 1934 $15.00
220. "Dark Eyes (Known also as 'Black Eyes') No. 330 (1st & 2d Mandolin; Guitar & Tenor Banjo; 1st Violin) Arr. by Don Flamingo 5 pgs. 1934 $15.00
283. La Cumparsita (The Masked One) Tango by G. H. Matos Rodriguez arr. by Don Flamingo for 1st, 2nd mandolins & guitar & tenor banjo 1934 3 pgs. SOLD
284. Mocosita (Sweet Darling) Tango by G. H. Matos Rodriguez arr. by Don Flamingo for 1st, 2nd mandolins & guitar & tenor banjo 1934 6 pgs. SOLD
285. Fumando Espero (Smoke Dreams) Tango by Veladomato arr. by Don Flamingo for 1st, 2nd mandolins & guitar & tenor banjo 1934 3 pgs. SOLD
460. Ay, Ay, Ay arr. by Don Flamingo 1st, 2nd Mandolins and Guitar 3 pgs. c. 1930 $10.00


I see some are marked SOLD but you can get an idea of what arrangements are out there. I probably have some but I have to check. I know I scanned the Pagani sheet music I had. Also Sheri Mignano has quite a collection of Italian-American published sheet music scanned on drop box. Do a search for her thread.

[Jim Garber]

I have a feeling that Don Flamingo might be his nom de plucque. :) I think there was a decade or two when Spanish and South American music was quite popular and mandy of the Italian composers, performers and arrangers took on Spanish sounding names. Giovanni Vicari, a virtuoso player in New York made a number of recordings of tangos and other Spanish works under the nombre of Juan Vicari.

[Jim Garber]

No need (really!) to post in multiple places. I replied to your other thread here (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?126314-Don-Flamingo&p=1517093#post1517093).

[MikeEdgerton]

I merged the two threads.

[Billy Packard]

Thanks Jim! I completely forgot about FFSI and they are fairly nearby. I have talked to Randy on the phone in the distant past and I remember him to be very serious about his business. I will follow up & thanks for looking through your collection.

I have seen the Pagani stamp on lots of older sheet music, mostly for orchestra.

I'll give Sheri a call, I haven't talked to her in a 'coons age!

Billy

[Billy Packard]

Mike, in general shall I go forward without posting in two dept.s?

[Billy Packard]

Sooo,

I just got off the phone with Randy & will visit FFSI on Saturday.

Jim G, thanks again for mentioning this source.

Billy

[Jim Garber]

Good luck on your search for Flamingo music. I think when you perform it you should stand on one foot. :)

[Billy Packard]

Jim...VF !

I have talked to Randy since last posting. He's a great guy with huge passion for his work. I will visit on 9-10.

A composer I am very interested in finding more material by is Eduardo Mezzacapo, 1832-1898. I have two pieces, a tarantella and a polka, that are very cool.

Billy

billypackardmandolin.com

[Jim Garber]

This thread (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?126459-Mezzacapo-Tristesse-scores) was just started with a piece posted by Martin Jonas.

Here are the Mezzacapo pieces from the Nakano site. You can download them from this link (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4222818/mezzacappo.zip) on Dropbox. There are 50 pieces in that archive.

There are also four pieces on IMSLP (http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Mezzacapo,_Edouardo). Not sure if they are on the Nakano bunch above.

[Billy Packard]

What a bonanza! Thanks Jim!

(I also am playing La Chant du Gondolier.)

Where you have "This thread" only blank sheets appear. Also at "this link" the first fife entries are multi-page but blank. Starting at #6 there is music.

I have to go out now in the middle of checking this out.

[Jim Garber]

Where you have "This thread" only blank sheets appear. Also at "this link" the first fife entries are multi-page but blank. Starting at #6 there is music.

Huh? I clicked "This thread" and it went to the new thread about Mezzacapo: http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?126459-Mezzacapo-Tristesse-scores

I also looked at the Nakano files at "this link" —even downloaded the zipped file and the ones you mentioned opened fine in Acrobat. They are not the clearest scans tho. In any case, I am sure you can find something in that batch of 50.

[Billy Packard]

Jim,

I don't know what else to do, when I click the Tristesse from Martin Jonas' post the round symbol goes to the download place on the menu of my iMac but when I click it only blank pages show.

Also the first five are blank at the other site but starting with #6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 there is material. After that there are only blank pages.

Any suggestions on what else I might do? I'm NOT very computer savvy, but a little bit.

Billy

[Jim Garber]

Billy:
You can PM me and I can email you the files. Maybe your Acrobat software needs to be updated, tho I doubt it. The Nakano files are pretty old so an old version should.

[Martin Jonas]

Hi Billy,

I've just seen this thread, and can contribute further on both your questions:

Don Flamingo:

I would think that was a pseudonym. It appears on a number of old arrangements, mainly Latin American dance tunes published by O. Pagani in New York. I attach three of them here, but I'm sure there are more -- these are ones I got over the years from other source, but I suggest you also check out Sheri Mignano's Dropbox download folders which have hundreds of old scans in this genre.

A few years ago, I recorded the attached (very ideosyncratic) Don Flamingo arrangement of Liszt's "Liebestraum", which I got from Jim Garber:

rb2Ridt5QnI

We play this occasionally with our mandolin ensemble -- it's fun.

I'm sure I have several other Don Flamingo arrangements lying around somewhere.

Mezzacapo:

Jim has already posted the link to the recent thread on "Tristesse". In addition, I have also recently recorded Mezzacapo's "Princesse Gavotte":

fWrTXQNE3Oo

I posted the score here (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?124035-E-Mezzacapo-Princesse-Gavotte-(with-score)).

As Jim has said, there are a few more Mezzacapo pieces at IMSLP. In addition, there are about 50 more of his compositions in the Nakano archive. A subset of archive is available for download to CMSA members only, but I don't know if the Mezzacapo pieces are included (I am not a CMSA member and have my own Nakano backup).

Martin

Edit: Just noticed that Jim has already posted a link to the Nakano scores. The link works fine for me, and has the same scores that I also have.

[Martin Jonas]

Here are two more Don Flamingo arrangements. I suspect that this was a pseudonym for Pagani's in-house arranger Flaminio Pigniolini, as that name appears on the Italian tunes issued at the same time. I would think that Signore Pigniolini became Don Flamingo for the Latin material.

Martin

[Geriteddy]

Hallo
I'd like to get the notes of •283. La Cumparsita (The Masked One) Tango by G. H. Matos Rodriguez arr. by Don Flamingo for 1st, 2nd mandolins & guitar & tenor banjo 1934 3 pgs.

Could you or anybody send it to me or give a link, where to download them. It would be very annoying, when it would not avaylable anywhere…

Thanks a lot!
Gerhard Hählen

[Jim Garber]

Something tells me that may be published by O. Pagani. Maybe Sheri has it on her dropbox link? I may have it scanned too but I am not at home at the moment.