e was born in the city of Rosario, province of Santa Fe. He was still a teen-ager when he began to sing, accompanying himself on guitar, in coteries and cafés of his hometown and neighboring places.

His voice had an excellent color with a clear diction. His songbook was an important repertory of tangos, milongas and estilos criollos with which he achieved a popular acclaim. This encouraged him to go to the capital city to find out if he would succeed there.

On Radio Mitre he made his debut in the program La matiné de Juan Manuel and appeared at the tearoom La Querencia on Avenida de Mayo. At that venue different groups of tango, folk music and Spanish singers were featured. He performed there until the orchestra leader Francisco Rotundo summoned him to sing in his orchestra.

In the mid- 1948 Floreal Ruiz split with Aníbal Troilo because Rotundo offered him an important contract. Then El Gordo, without hesitation, swapped one singer for the other and added Calderón to his ranks.

The other singer in the orchestra was Edmundo Rivero with whom he made his debut as a duo on record in March 1949 cutting the tango “Una lágrima tuya”. Later they also recorded the waltz written by Germán Videla and Carlos Montbrun Ocampo, “A unos ojos” and the Alberto Mastra’s milonga “Miriñaque”. As soloist he cut the tango “Cuando volverás” which was his first hit.

On October 26, 1949, Rivero made his last recording with Troilo, the tango “Tú”, and on the other side of the disc: with Calderón on vocals “Y volvemos a querernos”. This disc was the last one recorded by the orchestra for RCA-Victor after nine consecutive years of great hits. Since then Calderón was the only vocalist until Jorge Casal joined them in March 1950.

Regrettably the breach of contract between Pichuco and that recording company caused that several numbers recorded by them were not released. Those were “Media noche [b]”, “Tarde”, “Atenti pebeta” and “Destellos”, among others.

In November of that year Troilo returned to the recording studios in the TK label and, in February 1951 was made the last recording by Calderón: the milonga written by René Ruiz and Charrúa, “Tata no quiere”.

Thereafter he was hired as soloist by the Victor company and Radio Splendid. In both cases he was accompanied by the orchestra led by the bandoneonist Ismael Spitalnik which was lined up by young and talented players: Leopoldo Federico, Fernando Tell, Fernando Córdoba and Spitalnik (bandoneons); Alberto Besprovan (Tito), Simón Braiman and as guest artist David Díaz (violins); Alcides Rossi (double bass) and Atilio Stampone —for one year—, later Armando Cupo (piano).

The first record was in March 1952, “De vuelta al bulín” and on the other side, the Víctor Galieri’s estilo, “Ansina es la madre mía”. They also recorded “Oración rante”, “Qué querés con ese loro” and, the standouts: “Murmullos” and “Será una noche”. In sum —until May 1954—, 14 recordings.

As from 1956 he devoted to tour the interior of the country, accompanied by different guitar groups, with a songbook that included more folk songs than tangos. After some years he returned to Rosario where he lived until he died at age 59.

He’s gone but we feel like hearing him more. His career grew and developed quickly, in a very short period and at a time when the big orchestras were beginning to feel the first blows of the crisis of tango. However, the testimony of his quality as interpreter is kept in his discs, which were not many, but are enough to ponder him in his real magnitude.