Francisco Canaro

Who was Francisco Canaro?

Francisco Canaro was an Uruguayan violinist and tango orchestra leader.

His parents, Italians emigrated to Uruguay, and later – when Francisco Canaro was less than 10 years old, they emigrated to Buenos Aires in the late nineteenth century. Canaro was born in San José de Mayo, Uruguay, in 1888. As a young man and found work in a factory, where an empty oil can would, in his skilled hands, become his first violin. Performing in seedy bars initially, he ultimately forged a career that spanned many decades, and his orchestra was one of the most recorded. His introduction to the tango came by orquesta típica leader Vicente Greco in 1908, and in 1912, he composed Pinta brava. Canaro composed the music for the 1915 Argentine classic, Nobleza gaucha, and later was romantically attached to Argentine actress and tango vocalist Ada Falcón, but the relationship, which began in the early 1920s, grew apart a decade later.

In 1920 Canaro discovered Azucena Maizani, who rapidly developed into a major tango star.