Ricardo Francia: The Musician Who Brought Fernando Tell to Japan

Ricardo Francia

Ricardo Francia appears in the Club de Tango archive in a single paragraph: the musician in Japan who invited the bandoneonist Fernando Tell there in 1961.

At a glance

  • Described in 2000 by Jorge Fernández "Jorfer" as a double bassist of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional
  • Met the bandoneonist Fernando Tell at the 1961 carnival dances and arranged his invitation to Japan
  • Led a tango orchestra in Japan, with which Tell recorded an LP of tangos after arriving in mid-1961

Fuente original: «Fernando Tell» (Jorge Fernández «Jorfer», Revista Club de Tango, 2000 (artículo sobre Fernando Tell)) · Resumen en español ↓

The page that used to stand at this address was not about Ricardo Francia at all. It was an article by Jorge Fernández, who signed as “Jorfer”, about the bandoneonist Fernando Tell, published in Revista Club de Tango in 2000. Ricardo Francia appears in it in one paragraph, as the friend who opened the door to Japan for Tell. That paragraph is all the archive says about him, and we have not found an independent biography that adds to it. This page sets out what the article reports, places it in the story of Tell’s Japanese years, and is clear about what remains unconfirmed.

Ricardo Francia – Oblivion · Uploaded to YouTube by “Victor Francia Tango”, not an official release. The player loads from YouTube only after you click.

What the archive says about Ricardo Francia

Jorfer describes Francia as a double bassist (contrabajista) of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, Argentina’s national symphony orchestra. Tell met him in 1961, while playing the carnival dances with the orchestra of Osvaldo Fresedo. Francia then travelled to Japan. Through Mrs Makiko Yamamoto, whom Jorfer identifies as the wife of an Admiral Yamamoto of the Japanese naval command, he arranged an invitation for Tell. Tell arrived in the middle of 1961. Francia was waiting for him, took him into his own orchestra, and together they recorded an LP of tangos.

The article gives no dates of birth or death for Francia, no title for the LP and no name for his orchestra. It does not say how long he stayed in Japan or what he did afterwards.

Fernando Tell before Japan

The rest of the article explains why Tell was worth inviting. Born in María Susana, a small town in the province of Santa Fe, he received his first bandoneon and first lessons from Esteban Lombardo, then played for two years in the Rosario orchestra of José Sala. In Buenos Aires he worked with Miguel Padula, with Edgardo Donato and, in 1945, with Antonio Rodio. That year, when the singer Francisco Fiorentino left the orchestra of Aníbal Troilo, Astor Piazzolla called Tell to play beside him. Two years with Francini–Pontier followed, and then Troilo hired him; Tell stayed until 18 July 1959. Disheartened, he left music for a business of his own, but within a year he was back, which is how he came to meet Francia.

Néstor Pinsón’s biography of Tell on Todotango gives his full name, Fernando Vicente Tell, and his dates: born on 22 January 1921 in María Susana, died on 29 March 1995 in Rosario.

Tell’s Japanese years

According to Jorfer, Tell’s reputation travelled fast in Japan. A manager presented him as a soloist in a tango café in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, and he went on to play in shows, cafés and on the national radio and television network. In 1961 he was hired by the Orquesta Típica Tokio; he led a trio with Japanese musicians on guitar and double bass and played bandoneon with Japanese orquestas típicas such as Pampa and Porteña. In 1963 a one-week engagement at the Mikado, which Jorfer calls Tokyo’s most important nightclub, ran for two months. The label King Record then let him record three LPs, the first of which was also issued in Argentina. In November 1963, homesick, he returned to Buenos Aires.

Pinsón’s account agrees in outline but differs in dates. He writes that Tell left for Japan in 1960, after contacting a Japanese journalist, and stayed about three years, with some eighty recordings, three LPs for King Record and a session with the Orquesta Típica Tokio. He does not mention Ricardo Francia. A news-agency report quoted by Pinsón calls Tell one of the first Argentines to play tango in Japan. Jorfer’s version, with Francia’s invitation and an arrival in 1961, therefore remains the only one that names Francia’s role.

What we could not confirm

We looked for independent sources on Ricardo Francia and found very little. In a 1999 interview in La Nación, the singer Julia Zenko said that the arrangement of Vuelvo al Sur she was to sing with Yo-Yo Ma on a concert tour of Japan was by a Ricardo Francia. The interview gives no further details, so we cannot say whether this is the same musician. We found no reliable record of his dates, of the LP he made with Tell, or of the orchestra he led in Japan, and we have left out the claims about his career that circulate without sources.

For the history of tango in Japan, the Tell article is a small document of how personal contacts brought Argentine tango artists like Francia and Tell to Tokyo in the early 1960s, to play alongside Japanese musicians.

Sources