Richard Galliano is a French accordionist of Italian heritage. After a long and intense period of study, at 14, in a search to expand his ideas on the accordion, he began listening to jazz and heard records by the trumpet player Clifford Brown. The second decisive meeting took place in 1980, with the Argentinean composer and bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla.
Astor strongly encouraged Richard to create the French ?New Musette?, as he himself had previously invented the Argentinean ?New Tango?.
Some later collaboration include Chet Baker, Eddy Louiss, Ron Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Charlie Haden,
Gary Burton, Michel Portal, Toots Thielemans and Kurt Elling.

This arrangement for brass quintet (Bb Trumpet 1, Bb Trumpet 2, F Horn, Trombone, Tuba) of one of his most famous and performed pieces (with clear rhythmic references to the Piazzolla's "Libertango") is suitable for classroom, repertoire and recital.

?El Choclo? (Tango Criolo) is a very popular Argentinian tango written by Angel Villoldo and arranged here Brass Quintet. This is an advanced arrangement, gives every member a chance to shine and a lot of fun to play. To view and listen to this piece in its entirety as well as hundreds of other arrangements and transcriptions by Kenneth Abeling at the lowest prices available please visit www.lincolnmusicpublications.com Playing time: 3:00

That most sensual of ballroom dances, the tango, originated during the 1880s along the R�o de la Plata, the confluence of the Uruguay and Paran� rivers. It got started among the enslaved peoples and the lower classes, became popular and eventually spread to other countries.
The tango is closely identified with Argentina, and Argentine musician �.G. Villoldo was instrumental in developing the music of the dance. He supposedly wrote this particular tango to celebrate the proprietor of a nightclub, a gentleman whose nickname was ?El Choclo? (in English: ?The Corn Cob?!).
?El Choclo? premiered in Buenos Aires in 1903 and became one of Argentina?s most popular tangos. Dance orchestras recorded instrumental versions of "El Choclo." It achieved widespread popularity in the United States in 1952 when Lester Allen and Robert Hill provided it with English-language lyrics and a new name: ?Kiss of Fire.? A number of singers made recordings of ?Kiss of Fire? that year, the most popular of which was that of Georgia Gibbs; her ?Kiss of Fire? disc reached the top spot on the Billboard chart.
The melody for ?El Choclo? is exciting, stirring, stimulating, electrifying; in other words, perfect for a brass group. In this arrangement Horn in F has the melody throughout much of the piece, but Trumpets, Trombone and Tuba also take turns with the lead. The piece opens in the key of D minor, switches to D major (for the part of the melody that was not in the Georgia Gibbs version) and finally goes back to D minor for the recap of the main melody and a dramatic conclusion. The suggested tempo is 120 but may certainly be played faster. All notes are within the normal playing range of the five instruments. However the Tango rhythm lies mostly in the bass line, so Tuba and sometimes Trombone have frequent octave and octave-plus jumps.
Completed in 2020, performance time for ?El Choclo? runs about 2 minutes, 50 seconds. The arranger, Les Smith, will be happy to provide substitute parts (for example, treble clef baritone for trombone) at no charge; contact him directly at lessmith61@bellsouth.net. For more arrangements by Les, enter "Sweetwater Brass Press" (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus search box.