By
Néstor Pinsón
| Abel Palermo

e was born in Buenos Aires and from an early age he evidenced a strong personality. When he was a kid he sang at school events and quit his studies to work as employee at a shop while he was daydreaming to become a singer.

Still in his job, with the sobriquet Carlos Caccia, he appeared for short stints at famous venues: Tango Bar, La Armonía and at several neighborhood clubs. He was only fifteen but that did not surprise anyone by that time. There were others that had started at a young age as he did: Alberto Podestá and Roberto Rufino.

With a firm decision and much confidence in his chances he was on the road in search of a job carrying a non commercial disc he had recorded at one of the several private recording companies that were available at that time. Francisco Canaro became interested in him but the singer did not accept because his objective was becoming a soloist. The same happened with Alfredo Gobbi and so the singing place was occupied by Carlos Almada.

He had a brief appearance on LS10 Radio Libertad where he was accompanied by guitars. Some months later, in the early 1954 Gobbi insisted and this time he accepted, postponing for a time his wish to become a soloist. He was unaware, of course, that his four-year tenure with Gobbi was about to be the main stage of his career.

After several rehearsals he made his debut at the balls of the Boca Juniors club. Now he was known as Tito Landó. That name was an idea of the bandleader who, in a way, wanted to feel he was close again to a great friend of his that had early died. The latter was the bandoneon player Tito Landó, well remembered for his tenure in the sextet led by Carlos Di Sarli between 1928 and 1932, and who had split with that group to join the failed tour of Europe by Francisco Fiorentino and his orchestra.

His debut on record was in June 1954. For some months Jorge Maciel was the other vocalist but the latter quit and was replaced by Alfredo Del Río.

The orchestra appeared on LR1 Radio El Mundo and by that time he was summoned for military service in the Navy. As he was assigned to the Headquarters he was able to go on appearing on the radio all Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1.00 to 1.30 pm but, of course, with the corresponding military uniform.

They also appeared on LR4 Radio Splendid. The work was hard and they achieved a wide acclaim at the disappeared Richmond tearoom on Esmeralda Street. Furthermore they used to play at the most popular venues of that time.

A friend of Troilo’s, José Tiscornia (Chino), told us that Pichuco liked Tito Landó very much and, especially, his interpretations of “La última curda” and “Qué fácil es decir”. He praised his phrasing, his clear diction and the color of his voice that adjusted itself either to dramatic, sentimental or romantic lyrics.

Soon after his last recording with Gobbi he split with the orchestra. After a short tenure in the group headed by Celso Amato in which he met his peer Héctor de Rosas he returned to the Richmond tearoom to appear as a melodic pop singer. So he recorded two numbers —now under the stage name Rubén Cortez— accompanied by a group fronted by José Carli.

In 1962 the singer Roberto Mancini offered him to join a vocal quartet of his own and under his direction. It also included Osvaldo Ramos, Luis Tito Rivera and the guitarist Norberto Pereyra. On some occasions it also included Oscar Ferrari. They appeared on television, at several locals and also in a movie directed by the prolific Enrique Carreras, Los viciosos (1962), a pale version about the drug underworld.

Tito’s career was quickly declining. He appeared at second-rate venues, barrooms and cheap restaurants. He appeared only for the pleasure of singing.

Around the late 60s he was in the recording of a long-playing disc with the orchestra led by Mario Canaro for the Magenta label. He sang in five tracks of the record. His last recording was in Colombia in 1975 when he was hired for some appearances and was accompanied by the bandoneonist Walter Ríos. There he cut two more recordings to be added to his complete discography.