Astor Piazzolla - The Maestro

2004-05-08T06:34:00.001-03:00

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was a composer and bandoneón player who revolutionized tango music. In 1924 Piazzolla's family moved from Buenos Aires to New York City - Astor was only three years old. They stayed there, with a brief interlude, until 1936. He listened to Cab Calloway in Harlem. Later, again in Buenos Aires, he played traditional tango on his bandoneón in Aníbal Troilo's orchestra. In 1940 he composed a piece for Arthur Rubinstein who was in Buenos Aires on a tour. Rubinstein recognized Piazzolla's talent and told him to take lessons in composing with Alberto Ginastera - and that is what he did. With Ginastera he listened a lot to Bartók and Stravinsky. In 1944 Piazzolla left Troilo - the tango scene considered this to be ingratitude and treason - but the 25-year old went his own way and created his own group. He introduced counterpoints, fugues and new harmonies into tango music. But it took Piazzolla up to the 1980s to become recognized in his homeland of Argentina. I had the chance to see him towards the end of his life in a memorable concert at Geneva's Victoria Hall. He suffered a brain haemorrhage in Paris which he never recovered from and he died in Bueno Aires in 1992.

2004-05-08T06:34:00.000-03:00

2004-05-08T06:31:00.002-03:00

La Camarro is an album recorded in 1988 in New York City - by the way, a camorra is a quarrel. Soledad is a harmonious, tonal ballad. La Camorra I is more like a traditional tango. La Fugata is some sort of chamber music. Sur: Los Suenõs and Sur: Regreso Al Amor are emotional, passionate compositions. The CD Tango: Zero Hour is more radical. It is an album which challenges traditional listening habits. This is no dancing music like traditional tango, no easy listening music, but as Piazzolla put it himself: This is "... the greatest record I've made in my entire life. We gave our souls to [it]. This is the record I can give to my grandchildren an say, 'This is what we did with our lives'." La Hora Zero was recorded in New York City in 1986 with Piazzolla's famous New Tango Quintet. Tango: Zero Hour is still avant-garde, as its title says, a reinvention of a music as if it had not existed before.

2004-05-08T06:31:00.001-03:00

2004-05-08T06:31:00.000-03:00

2004-05-07T01:52:00.001-03:00

For all I knew about the music of the world - and that was considerable - somehow the best had been saved for me. Argentine Tango was a total surprise when I encountered it in December, 1989.

The very fine Argentine bandoneonist Roberto Pansera fronted an orchestra playing the real tango while a great Copes troupe danced a show called "A Rose For Mr. Tango." It played in my town for five months, and after that first night - when my life changed - I was there nearly every night to see it.

2004-05-07T01:52:00.000-03:00

Astor Piazzolla. ...

Going on from there is a bit daunting.

After you say his name, you almost have to be very brave to continue.

Well, he was, so ...

Here I want to forget about controversy, personalities, disputes. I want to talk about music and about a very special creator of music.

2004-05-06T12:22:00.001-03:00

2004-05-06T12:22:00.000-03:00

2004-05-06T01:04:00.001-03:00

Astor Piazzolla has many facets and these facets are the mosaic stones that make up the big picture. Astor was a revolutionary and had something to offer everyone. He had excellent credentials as a tanguero and this he proved in the time that he was living in Buenos Aires prior to the 50's and playing in the band of Anibal Troilo or later with his own band. He had absorbed jazz in the time that he lived in New York City. But as he was playing tango in Buenos Aires, he became aware that his music had to be different than the others. Anibal Troilo told him on a number of occasions that his arrangements were too complicated to be played by his musicians. So he decided to be active within the domain of classical music and left tango.

2004-05-06T01:04:00.000-03:00

Astor Piazzolla has left an extraordinary treasure of music : instrumental tangos, tango songs, film music, pieces for guitar or flute, chamber and orchestral music.

2004-05-05T11:57:00.000-03:00

Title: Agri Saluda a Piazzolla
Tracks: Variaciones sobre Adios Nonino (Agri)
Los pajaros perdidos (Piazzolla/Trejo)
Marron y azul
Nonino
Fuga y misterio
Preparense
Oblivion
Años de soledad
Rio Sena
Lo que vendra
Preparense
Oblivion
S.P. de nada (Agri)
All compositions by Astor Piazzolla except where noted.

Group: Agri, Antonio
Musicians: Agri (Antonio) - violin
Rios (Walter) - bandoneon
Dominguez (Ricardo) - guitar
Cirigliano (Juan Carlos) - piano (tracks 6 12)
Nebbia (Litto) - keyboards (tracks 2 7 8)
Label: Melopea
Country: Argentina
Catalog number: CDMSE 5111
Media: CD
Year of release: 1997
Studio or Live: Studio
Year of performance: 1997
Description:
Style: Tango and New Tango Groups
Comments: Melopea label can be contacted at melopea@datamarkets.com.ar

2004-05-05T11:56:00.000-03:00

Historia del Tango Vol. 1

Tracks: El choclo (Villoldo)
Ojos negros (Greco/Porteño)
La Cumparsita (Matos Rodriguez)
La cachila (Arolas)
La maleva (Buglione/Pardo)
Mi noche triste (Castriota/Contursi)
Sentimiento gaucho (Canaro/Caruso)
Nunca tuvo novio (Bardi/Cadicamo)
Entre sueños (Aieta/Polito/Garcia Gimenez)
Quejas de bandoneon (de Dios Filiberto)
Alma de bohemio (Caruso/Firpo)
A media luz (Donato/Lenzi)
All compositions by Astor Piazzolla except where noted.

Group: Piazzolla, Astor
Musicians: Manzi (Osvaldo) - piano
Agri (Antonio) - violin
Lopez Ruiz (Oscar) - guitar
Diaz (Kicho) - bass
Piazzolla (Astor) - bandoneon and arrangements
Orchestra of 12 violins - 4 cellos - 4 violas - vibes- xilophone - bells - voice.
Label: Polydor
Country: USA
Catalog number: 314 511 638-2
Media: CD
Year of release: 1994
Studio or Live: Studio
Year of performance: 1966
Description: This and its companion CD belong here stylistically but were actually recorded and issued years later. Recorded and released in 1966 by Polydor-Argentina. Even though Piazzolla was working with the quintet by then, these recordings feature Piazzolla with a string orchestra recreating many of the traditional tangos he played 20 years earlier (now with a better sound quality). The musicians credits are from the original LPs (thanks Mitsumasa).
Style: The 'Traditional' Piazzolla (1940-1955)
Comments: - La Guardia Vieja

2004-05-04T12:10:00.001-03:00

Piazzolla: "¿Yo que toco, lambada?"

"Tóquese un tango, maestro", le gritaban. ¿Y yo que toco, lambada?". En los años 80 ya las cosas habían bajado de tenor: la discusión se limitaba al humor y en todo caso a la indiferencia. Pero no pasó lo mismo en los años '60: Piazzolla debió salir a defender a golpes de puño su música, avasallada por las fuertes críticas del ámbito del tango.

"Tuve que defenderme, pelear, discutir, pero también confieso que me divertí. Sin darse cuenta me ayudaron a forjar la fama de Astor Piazzolla", diría el músico años después. La controversia iba a propósito de si su música era tango o no, a tal punto que Astor tuvo que llamarla "música contemporánea de la ciudad de Buenos Aires". Lo más insólito es que mientras esta discusión acaparaba la atención, el tango perdía oyentes, bailarines y público a raudales y las orquestas debían achicarse o desaparecer.

Pero no era sólo eso: Astor provocaba a todos con su vestimenta informal, con su pose para tocar el bandoneón (actuaba de pie, frente a la tradición de ceñirse al fueye sentado, como Troilo). Sus declaraciones sonaban a reto. A comienzos de los años '60, Piazzolla aseguraba que Mariano Mores era una copia fiel de Francisco Canaro y cuando le preguntaban por la orquesta de Alfredo De Angelis, manifestaba: "¿No pueden estudiar y tocar algo mejor?".

Es que justamente Astor llegó adonde el tango no llegó. No sólo por su música: el público que captó el Quinteto estuvo integrado por universitarios, jóvenes y el sector intelectual, si bien estaba lejos de ser masivo. Ya tenía fama de duro y bravo, de peleador, estaba en pleno período creativo y se rodeó de los mejores músicos: Elvino Vardaro, Antonio Agri, Osvaldo Manzi, Kicho Díaz.

Excepto una solitaria vuelta al Octeto, la formación de la primera parte de los '60 fue, básicamente, el quinteto. De la mano de Adiós, Nonino, Decarísimo -dedicado a Julio De Caro, con quien había mutua admiración- y Muerte del ángel comenzó a elaborar un camino que tendría picos en su concierto de Philarmonic Hall de New York, su álbum con Jorge Luis Borges y Edmundo Rivero, el trabajo con Alfredo Alcón y Ernesto Sabato, el reigistro con el Polaco Goyeneche.

Sobre el filo de la década de los '60 protagonizó un dúo con Horacio Ferrer -prueba de ello son los temas Bicicleta blanca, Balada para mi muerte y Balada para un loco- más la cantante Amelita Baltar corporizando las canciones en placas y en vivo -incluso en el violento Primer Festival de la Canción de Buenos Aires-, pareja de Astor por aquellos años, a quien consideraba una gran voz.

Tiempo después daría otra prueba de su humor: "Como yo estaba en pleno metejón con Amelita Baltar no me daba cuenta de la voz que tenía. Dicen que el amor es ciego, y en este caso, también sordo".

2004-05-04T12:10:00.000-03:00

Astor Piazzolla: El largo trayecto de un músico que cambió el modo de entender el tango

La leyenda data de 1954 y cuenta que fue Nadia Boulanger -discípula de Ravel- la responsable de todo: "Este es el Piazzolla que me interesa. No lo abandone nunca", exclamó en París la maestra de Astor al escucharlo tocar Triunfal. Y finalmente Piazzolla se fue volcando por el tango.

Hasta ahí su carrera oscilaba entre su participación en la orquesta de Aníbal Troilo -de la que se fue a los 23 años acusado de hereje- y de la Sinfonía Buenos Aires. Iba de su propia agrupación tanguística, la orquesta del 46, de acompañar al Tano Fiore y de su amor por Bartok y Bach. Los dos mundos por igual le depararon polémica a un joven combativo Astor que empezaba a mostrar el filo de su poderoso lenguaje musical.

En una Buenos Aires moldeada por poetas, donde los anuncios de los shows de tango poblaban la doble página central de los diarios, las orquestas tenían hinchada, el rock aún no había explotado y Charly apenas gateaba; la presencia de Astor generó de entrada resquemores, envidia y admiración entre la comunidad tanguera.

Pero es recién en 1955 cuando explota todo su aprendizaje: las fugas, los contrapuntos, los elementos aprenhendidos del universo clásico. Nutrido de un potencial que ya se plasma en los tangos, Astor forma el Octeto Buenos Aires. El seleccionado de músicos -en un experiencia similar a la jazzística norteamericana de Gerry Mulligan- escogidos por Astor termina por delinear arreglos atrevidos y timbres poco habituales para el tango: la guitarra eléctrica de Horacio Malvicino es toda una novedad.

Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla, nacido el 11 de marzo de 1921, con una infancia entre Mar del Plata y New York -más en la segunda ciudad que en la primera-, con la mística de su encuentro norteamericano con Carlos Gardel -participó en el film El día que me quieras-, con su ácido humor borgeano a flor de piel, obsesivamente estudioso, comenzó a revolucionar el tango. "Nos obligó a estudiar a todos de vuelta", sintetizó Osvaldo Pugliese.

2004-05-03T22:37:00.001-03:00

2000.3.13
Tango Nuevo Master Class given by Piazzolla's Pianist Pablo Ziegler.

2000.3.13
Academic Paper on Piazzolla Presented (English / Spanish) by Carlos Kuri.

2000.3.11
Press release announcing Piazzolla Plaque installed in New York City. See the Plaque Installation, Piazzolla's Childhood home and first-time world meeting of Piazzolla fans.

2000.3.10
1st United States Academic Symposium on Piazzolla conducted at the City University of New York (CUNY)

2004-05-03T22:37:00.000-03:00

2001.9.1
Amadeus Press announces the upcoming release of "Astor Piazzolla - A Memoir", English translation of the book by Natalio Gorin.
2001.3.15
Gardel FM Piazzolla Radio special with appearance by Piazzolla.org staffers

2001.3.11
Piazzolla's 80th Anniversary celebrations in Buenos Aires.

2000.10.14 - 2000.11.26
Pablo Ziegler (Piazzolla's Pianist) offers free concert series in Argentina.

2000.3.21
Piazzolla's "The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night" re-released by Nonesuch Records.

2004-05-03T01:56:00.000-03:00

Nice pictures:

2004-05-03T01:55:00.000-03:00

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)

An Argentine who spent most of his early years in New York before returning to Buenos Aires, Astor Piazzolla is recognized the world over as the modern Maestro of the tango, a position which did not come without its share of controversy in his native country.
A virtuoso bandoneón player, Piazzolla made his mark in the thirties and forties as a tanguero in the band of Anibal Troilo, and then as the central figure in his own band. As his pieces grew increasingly more complex, he turned to classical music, and in 1954, he was granted a scholarship to study music in Paris under the legendary Nadia Boulanger. There, he realized that his destiny was not to abandon tango, but to infuse it with classical and jazz influences. During the latter half of his career he virtually resurrected and reinvigorated the tango, creating a series of emotionally complex works, experimental tango operas, and song cycles that looked back to the mythic Buenos Aires of his literary favorite, Jorge Luis Borges. Although much of his work was at first quite controversial in Argentina, today the music of Piazzolla has a world-wide following, and has attracted the attention and support of such artists as Gidon Kremer, the Kronos Quartet, and Yo-Yo Ma.

2004-05-02T12:53:00.000-03:00

An Article about the Netherland's
Royal Wedding Tango Performer :
Carel Kraayenhof

Source: De Telegraaf, 5 February 2002 (The Netherlands)

Maxima told bandoneon player Carel Kraayenhof: "I adore the tango and Piazzolla"

AMSTERDAM - It is as if the 43-year old bandoneon player Carel Kraayenhof, whose tango Adiós Nonino (Farewell Father) touched princess Maxima so deeply that she could not hide her tears, has won the Oscar in Hollywood or Gold in the Olympic Games. The telephone rings non-stop in his house in Midden-Beemster, Holland. Congratulations and faxes are pouring in and thousands of Dutch people has already tried to find full details of his group Sexteto Canyengue on his web site following his performance in the New Church.

His house is packed with flowers and until deep into the night he and his wife Thirza, who is also his manager, sat behind their computer chatting with the tens, no hundreds, of fans that Carel Kraayenhof has gained with this single performance. The four minutes in which he played Maxima's personal selection Adiós Nonino had such an impact that besides the wedding dress and the balcony scene the tango at once became the most talked about element of the wedding ceremony.

And that makes Carel and his wife Thirza intensely happy these days, because the tango and the bandoneon are their life. The talk about it with passion. Two driven, passionate people who are obsessed with this music, who sometimes had to make huge offers for it.

But now there is this triumph, following which the tango is suddenly conquering the Netherlands. They remain calm under the new situation - especially because they have been through so much on their way to this top. At least they try to, since a somewhat emotional Carel told me yesterday that the night after the performance he received an email from no other than the legendary Argentinean guitarist Oscar Lopez Ruiz, who for many years worked with Carel's idol the late Astor Piazzolla. He wrote to Carel: "I would like to congratulate you on your performance of Adiós Nonino. There a few Argentinean bandoneon players who can play this music like you did." Carel: "And that from a man who has got the tango in his blood and is at the absolute top in this field." And Carel's wife Thirza adds: "We also received an email from the widow of Osvaldo Pugliese, the world's greatest tango pianist, who said she had enjoyed Carel's play and was deeply touched that he had honoured the Argentinean tango so much during the wedding ceremony." Carel Kraayenhof says: "Their compliments mean a lot to me." For him these congratulations are, to remain with the wedding jargon, clearly his crowning glory.

What is the secret of the tango for you? I ask him. Carel says without hesitation: "The tango is the soul of an entire people. In the tango beats the heart of a country. The tango links everyone, from high to low, with each other. The tangos' lyrics are very philosophical and it is remarkable that intelligence and folk music are combined in such a special way, which is rare. The music in universal."

His passion for the tango is not only shared by his wife Thirza but also by princess Maxima. Carel says: "I found it very special that during busy schedule of her introduction tour through Holland she took the time and effort to visit me and my wife at home to discuss the music I would be playing at her wedding."

"She told me that she adores the tango and the music of Astor Piazzolla. It is music that surrounds you from cradle to grave in Argentina and includes Maxima." Kraayenhof says: "There was nothing staged about the emotions she expressed, as has been suggested. They were spontaneous, it touched her soul."

This happened around the world with millions of television viewers, as illustrated by the foreign press. The Sunday Times praised Kraayenhof's performance and other called it a highlight of the service. Kraayenhof was impressed by Maxima's personality as she spoke long and passionately with him and his wife about the tango, her fatherland and her feelings about Holland. Since he played in New Church almost everyone in Holland knows Carel Kraayenhof's name and certainly so if you say he was the man on the bandoneon. He has worked hard for today's success, as illustrated by the fact that some seventeen years ago he played on the streets to pay for his philosophy studies. A study, however, he abandoned shortly after. He was a poor but already music obsessed student. "I began to play on a harmonica," he said. "One day I was playing it in the Vondel park when my brother Jaap, who plays the violin and guitar, told me: why don't you take up the bandoneon? You can make wonderful music on it!" I told him that instrument had been at the top of my wish list for years, but where do I get one?" Jaap's words stayed with Carel. He loved those melancholy sounds that touch you to the core. "But first I bought a concertina, which is also used in Scottish and English folk music. However, an Argentinean friend I had met in Amsterdam offered to bring back a bandoneon from Buenos Aires. They are not on sale here. I really taught myself to play the 80-year old instrument he brought me. That was hard but always great fun."

"I also played it on the streets. At one time when I played outside the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam I was sent away by the police because I made too much noise. I have never understood that," he says with a smile. "Because there were also numerous motor cycles."

It did not diminish Carel's love for the instrument. In tango he could combine his love for philosophy and music in a very special way. Around that time together with singer Juan Tajes from Urugay he set up the group Tango Quatro. That was in 1985. Shortly afterwards the most important man in tango was to enter Carel's life: the late Astor Piazzolla. Carel says: "He was brought to Holland by the Argentinean Luis Aravena, who lived here. She phoned me one day and said: could you please come to Piazzolla's hotel? The bandoneon he is supposed to play this evening is faulty."

At that time Carel was the only bandoneon player in the Netherlands. Luis thought he might be able to save that evening's concert by Piazzolla by lending him his instrument. Carel says: "In his hotel room I was introduced to Piazzolla. He looked at my instrument and asked me in a very friendly way to play something on it. No, I wasn't really nervous at that time. I never have that with Argentineans, who always put me at ease. I played two tangos for the king of tango. He listened intently and then said: I assume you must have been to Buenos Aires? He loved it. That's right, I said. For Dutch television I had made a trip to Buenos Aires to report on the local music scene. Fortunately by then someone had repaired Piazzolla's bandoneon. Nevertheless that first meeting with Piazzolla was to have huge consequences, for before I left he said to me: 'I'll be in touch. I will invite you to come and play.' He promised he would provide me with work." The prospect excited Carel. "But I also thought he would probably forget. Was it just a kind remark because I had tried to help him out? However, his guitarist - the famous Oscar Jopez Ruiz - said to me at the time: 'Piazolla never says something like that unless he means it."

However, Carel - who was living in a commune in Amsterdam at the time - was flabbergasted when a flatmate called him over three months later and said:

"There's a guy called Piazzolla on the phone for you."

"It was him alright. He told me: 'In New York one of my quintets is currently accompanying a musical on the life of the author Luis Borges. The musical was called Tango Passionado and I would like you to join the show playing the bandoneon. Okay?' Of course, I said. A few days later I was on my way to New York, where I spent several months with that musical. That was a unique experience."

Carel Kraayenhof had entered the world of his idol Piazzolla in a spectacular fashion. "A very special man who worked night and day," according to Carel. "He only slept for four hours a night and often spent hours roaming the streets of wherever he was at night. He lived life to the full."

Later on Carel was also invited to Piazzolla's holiday home at Rio del Plata. "I discovered he took great interest in sharks and wrote a tango for him, Tiboronero." It was Carel's last visit to the tango master who died in 1992, now ten years ago. However, his music lives on. Carel's performance at the wedding can be seen as a tribute to Piazzolla who introduce a wide audience to the tango, an ambition Carel shares and with his television performance has certainly achieved. He has followed in his idol's footsteps.

With his current band he has toured Argentina with enormous success for Carel, who is already nicknamed the Dutch Piazzolla.

2004-05-02T03:33:00.000-03:00

"Astor Piazzolla, A Memoir"

Astor Piazzolla, brilliant, iconoclastic tango musician and composer, has become a national hero in Argentina and a cult figure for classical and jazz lovers worldwide, but only after a lifetime of controversy and struggle. His only crime was to revitalize, if not revolutionize, tango—to hear in the music possibilities that others couldn’t, or wouldn’t, imagine. He dared to compose tangos that were not for dancing, tangos of such melodic and rhythmic complexity that both worlds, classical and popular, would ultimately claim him as their own.

The outspoken, headstrong Piazzolla told his story to journalist and longtime fan Natalio Gorin in the spring of 1990 in a series of frank interviews. Less than four months later Piazzolla was silenced by a stroke, and Gorin completed the work himself, bringing out the first Spanish edition a year before Piazzolla’s death in 1992, expanding it with colleagues’ reminiscences in the second Spanish edition. The memoir quickly took its place as a key primary source on the life and loves of the composer and bandleader: those who knew Piazzolla have told Natalio Gorin that they could hear their beloved Astor in these pages. With this edition, English-speaking readers can finally hear him for themselves. Cited in the recent biography by María Susana Azzi and Simon Collier, Le Grand Tango: The Life and Music of Astor Piazzolla, this lively, frank oral history has also been translated into Italian and German.

Among the firsthand observations of others who knew Piazzolla well are those of his lyricist Horacio Ferrer, his fellow musicians, and his loving colleagues. Translator Fernando Gonzalez is an Argentine native and American popular music critic who covered Piazzolla’s career in the United States. He has annotated the Amadeus edition for the widening audience that is rediscovering Astor Piazzolla. From jazz musician Gary Burton, whose recollections appear in this volume for the first time, to Yo-Yo Ma, Gidon Kremer, and other renowned musicians who perform Piazzolla’s works on their classical programs, Piazzolla’s audience continues to grow.

Natalio Gorin has been a journalist for more than 30 years, working at several prominent publications in Argentina, including the daily Clarín, the largest newspaper in the country. His passion for tango and especially for Astor Piazzolla’s music led him into extensive investigations of the composer’s life and work. They met in 1971 and became personal friends until Piazzolla’s death in 1992. Gorin resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Translator and annotator Fernando Gonzalez is a regular contributor to The Washington Post and a columnist for Down Beat magazine. He was arts and culture writer and pop music critic for The Miami Herald and jazz and world music critic for The Boston Globe, and for many years reported on Astor Piazzolla’s career.

2004-05-01T20:02:00.000-03:00

Piazzolla FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)/Preguntas Mas Frecuentes

When and where was Piazzolla born?
Astor Pantaleon Piazzolla was born on March 11, 1921 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, only child of Vicente Piazzolla and Asunta Manetti. He died in Buenos Aires on July 4, 1992.

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Where can I read about Piazzolla? Are there books published?
Yes, there are books. You can consult the list in the books section of piazzolla.org. All the books written to date are either in Spanish or Japanese. Natalio Gorin's book has been translated to Italian, and will be published in English in 1999 (check the books section for updates). However, if you need some specific information about Piazzolla's life or work Natalio has been kind enough to offer that you contact him directly with questions at gorin@ciudad.com.ar (Spanish or English).

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Where on the Internet can one buy Piazzolla CDs?
Unfortunately Piazzolla's discography is heavily fragmented in a large number of labels and it varies form country to country. A list of possible places is here

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How can Piazzolla's work be classified?
Piazzolla's work is so rich that it cannot be classified. However it is possible to distinghish certain main styles and/or periods: orquestas tipicas, octet, quintet, sextet, classical, film music, etc.. A first attempt at classification can be found in http://www.piazzolla.org/works2/viewlist.html under "Recordings by Style".

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Was A.P. married ? Did he have children? Is there a possibility to contact them?
C.K.: The last wife of Piazzolla was Laura Escalada. Amelita Baltar, the singer that played beside him for many years, was the second wife. And the first, the mother of his children Daniel and Diana, is Dedé Wolf. They live in Buenos Aires at present. Relating to the contacts, I suggest you to use the ones that have been made public. In the messages saved in the Piazzolla Mailing List, there is a Fax number for Daniel Piazzolla. To contact Laura Escalada, one way can be through the the Fundación Astor Piazzolla Web Page where she is the director (see also here).

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Can the members of the Quintet be contacted ? Or someone who knew A.P well?
C.K.: Relating to the possibility of establishing contacts with the musicians of the Quintet, and/or others that played beside Piazzolla, it depends on their good predisposition and kindness. Before giving you the few phone numbers I know, I have to ask them for permission. In Buenos Aires there is a person that has absolutely all my trust, who was a very close friend of Piazzolla since 1954. His name is Victor Oliveros and he is the first great collector of Piazzolla’s works. We can say he has the whole music of Astor in his ears !. At present, he is the president of the Centro Astor Piazzolla (It is different that the foundation of Laura Escalada). I have a great friendship with him and can offer you to transmit him your questions (he doesn’t have either e-mail or fax and rarely answer the phone).

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Which films were made with the cooperation of Astor Piazzolla ?
C.K.: There is a lot of music composed by Astor Piazzolla for movies. Related to this there are differents periods. Until 1952 approximately, the music of movies were almost a laboratory where Piazzolla experimented all he learned while he was studying, with the excuse that a big orchestra was available for the recording of the sound track. Finally, In the 60’s, Piazzolla’s music for movies started to show his style, more tanguístico. You can find a complete catalogue of this subject here.

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What's a milonga ? And a contramilonga ? Can it be danced, just like the tango ?
a) What’s a Milonga
C.K.: With regard to the specifically musical aspect, Milonga is related to a type of music composed in 2/4 binary measure. The musicólogos used to say that it was originated in the Spanish alternative measure, then passed through the cubans guajiras up to be taken and transformed in the colonial time (1800s) by the criollo guitar player. It took part at the origin of the tango (1890), in the fast way with a strong rhythm for dancing, known as milonga campera. This one is possible to find totally renewed and with a greater musical elaboration, since 1928 when Sebastian Piana composed Milonga Triste (together with the poet Homero Manzi).
But, before we analyze the case of Piazzolla, we have to take into account something that in my judgment is of general application: the evolutionary criterion in music give us an idea that can be true technically, but is not esthetically verisimilar, For example: the idea that the milonga made an historical travel from the Spanish alternative time signature to the present milonga. I mean that the esthetic product we enjoy with MilongaTriste or Milonga del Angel, has built a sensitivity fully different to those historical references. And it requires, therefore, from the listener a fully different decodification.

Above all, we find in Astor Piazzolla's work, a development of the second class. It can be seen fundamentally in the Milonga del Angel; in the milongas composed for the movie A Intrusa (CD Original Sound Tracks - ANS Records 12013-2); or in the milonga with lyrics by J.L.Borges : Jacinto Chiclana.

Also, there is in Piazzolla, the other type of milonga, fast and exciting, that seems to have the rhythm of the dance of the early century. We can see this in El Títere, in Milonga Loca, in the middle of the atonal climax of Tristezas de un Doble A, at the minute 17:22 of the Wien Concert version. (Of course that there are more works of Piazzolla where the milonga appears).

So, in Piazzolla we have to take into account something fundamental: never his work is a simple evolution or sophistication of the traditional milonga. He takes advantages of the typical accentuation of the milonga but under his musical style, to the point of modifying and rebuilding it with harmonic, timbricos and melodic procedures that makes it fully piazzolleanas. However, they maintain the atmosphere of those milongas.

In the same way we mentioned above, that the sensitivity of an habanera is different to the milonga, in spite of its technical relationship; we have to say also that the milonga piazzolleana builds a different sensitivity more close to that established with the milonga of Sebastián Piana, which has a sung style. (Sebastián Piana - 1903: pianist, composer, director, he takes part in the renovation of the tango in the 20´s and is a creator of great works like Tinta Roja, Caserón de Tejas, etc.)

b) And a Contramilonga?
C.K.: I don’t think it is a musical form. Rather, it is a question of a poetic expression that has been created by Horacio Ferrer, that appears in one of the themes of the Operita María de Buenos Aires (by Piazzolla and Ferrer) : Contramilonga a la funerala. According to the description of the LP issue, the goblin (one of the characters), narrates the funeral that the creatures of the night attend in the first death of María. It is possible to speculate that with the expression Contramilonga, Ferrer intended to suggest the opposite of the Milonga as a poetic figure, non-musical, more tied to the life in the Operita. For example, when we observed in the operita the theme Milonga de la Anunciación, where conception is revealed to María.

c) Can it be danced, just like the tango ?
C.K.: Precisely, the milonga specified the tango as a dance and exists an argentine expression where the word milonga is used instead of "dancing". For example: to say I go to the milonga is the same as I go to dance. Anyway, the question is : what happened with the tango for dancing after Piazzolla ?

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The CD 'The rough dancer and the cyclical night' mentions the names of Laura Escalada and Vera Brandes. Who are they ? What did they mean to A.P.?
C.K.: Laura Escalada is the third and last wife of Astor Piazzolla. He married her in 1988, although their relation started in 1976.
J.L.Z. Vera Brandes founded Intuition Music in Germany in 1987. This label released in Europe the complete American Clave productions ("Tango: Zero Hour", "The rough dancer and the cyclical night", "La camorra"), the "57 minutos con la realidad" and the "Live at the BBC 1989" CDs.

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Sometimes the work of A.P. seems to be one big improvisation, like 'Tristezas de un doble A'. It would surprise me to hear that A.Piazzolla wrote every note down on a score. Did he?
C.K.: I don’t know if this is the only reference you have or maybe it is the main one. The Wien version of Tristezas de un Doble A by the Quintet. Really it was composed in 1972 for the Conjunto 9 which was the instrumental Piazzolla’s group on the 71’and 72’. In that first version the criterion was totally different and the improvisation doesn’t exist. In general, Piazzolla used to write down all his compositions. His studies with teachers which were coming from the classical music (Alberto Ginastera, Nadia Boulanger, Herman Scherchen) have determined his style of composition similar to the erudite music. The difference consider in Piazzolla is the other elements that interlace with that erudite formation. Regarding this, at the beginning (1940), when he just entered the Anibal Troilo orchestra as a bandoneonista, his musical preferences were divided between compositions of cultured music and tangos for Orquestas Típicas. In 1954 that dualism comes to a critical point, and Nadia Boulanger (his teacher in Paris at that time), made him a historical recommendation: your erudite works are well written, but "you" can be seen in your tangos. There are different ways to understand that recommendation. The more exact interpretation is not the question "what did the famous teacher mean ?", but what were the consequences?. After this episode, Piazzolla returned to the tango and his instrument, the bandoneon (abandoned since 1950). But, more than to return with docility to the tango, he changes the tango. That what before were the erudite music or the tango, now is going to be the erudite music and the tango, in the more efficient way : working the procedures of the erudite music with the flood of the tango. Without following the european musical traditions and making use of the technical constellation of the music from the tango. Then, Piazzolla manages the initial combat of his influences and that tension between the european formation and the root of the tango is not eliminated: it is transformed in esthetic identity. Thus, a new music is born, elaborated and passionate, made by a new mix and without eclecticism. Here is the place where the esthetic piazzolleana is. I return to the specific question: really there are very few themes where Piazzolla improvises, and only in live concerts, especially at some Jazz Festivals. Of course, the version of Tristezas de un Doble AA by the last Quintet (1978 - 1988: the first Quintet is considered since 1960 to 1970 approximately), is the theme better known related to this point. We can add to the list of improvisations the different versions of Chin-Chin in different concerts, specially that which took place in the Jazz Festival of Montreal in 1985 (recently issued in Japan in Video Laser) and, precisely, the version of Muerte del Angel with Gary Burton, with improvisation by him (of course, only in one part according to the concept that Piazzolla had about it). There is a wonderful version of Otoño Porteño (CD Muerte del Angel - Milan Music 51140-2) in a live recording by the Quintet in 1973, (although this group had been dissolved it was specially reformed for this concert). In this CD we can hear one of the greatest pianist that played with Astor : Osvaldo Tarantino, in an improvisation that was very long for that time. We have to point out those improvisations, as a part of a musical work, which begins to take more importance in the last Quintet. In the studio recordings it is very rare to find improvisations. One of the older and few cases are the role that the Electric Guitar played in the Octeto Buenos Aires, which was the instrumental group formed by Piazzolla in 1955. With that group he made the revolution of the tango and, also, it is considered by him the beginning of what he called Tango Contempóraneo. In this group he not only includes the Electric Guitar to the tango, played by Horacio Malvicino who has a very strong Jazz background, but it is the first time where he introduces a criterion of improvisations in the tango.

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Is "La muerte del angel" a part of the del angel-cycle or is it a work on its own ? Was it written with a special intention ? Has it been performed for a special reason?
C.K.: Some of the works that in Piazzolla have the form of Suites or Series, have been gradually assembled and were not deliberately written all together. For example : Las Estaciones Porteñas (Verano Porteño, Invierno Porteño, Otoño Porteño y Primavera Porteña). In the case of La Muerte del Angel (or Muerte del Angel : it is the same), 1962; it seems to be an integral part of a series of themes such as: Milonga del Angel (1965), Tango del Angel (1957), Resurreción del Angel (1965), and Introduccion al Angel (1962). As we can see these themes were composed in different years, but it is only related as a composition to Introducción al Angel. These two titles were written for a theater play by Alberto Rodríguez Muñoz (argentine playwright), although the original theme (Muerte del Angel) which gave the title to this play was not used. Talking about Muerte del Angel, it is composed as a Fugue in 4 voices (Subject, Response, Countersubject, Episode, Estrecho y Pedal). Although Piazzolla didn’t worry about accomplishing the academic and rigorous steps of the Fugue, except in some movements of symphonic works, nevertheless it shows the ease with which he manages this musical form. Muerte del Angel has a style close to the first fugues developed by Piazzolla (In that time the most famous was Calambre, 1960). Anyway, farther on of the technical references and besides the exceptional and fascinating violence that Piazzolla gets in Muerte del Angel, it is necessary to point out the natural conciliation that Piazzolla obtains between the tango and that musical form typically baroque. In other works or as in the famous Fuga y Misterio, we can see once again, how naturally Piazzolla takes advantage of the european traditions and submit them to the pulse of his style. It is without doubt a common characteristic we can find in the works of Piazzolla.

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If A.P. created the 'tango nuevo', who was an exemple as a creator of the 'classic' tango ? Can you recommend a certain CD ?
C.K.: It is necessary to answer this question from two points of view: A) Considering the different steps where the history of the tango can be classified and B) Reconsidering it with the other question: what produces Piazzolla in the history of the tango?
A) When talking about traditional tango, there is a generalization that includes all the tango previous to Astor Piazzolla, or in a refined way, relating to the tango before Horacio Salgán, Eduardo Rovira and Astor Piazzolla.

We can make a more rigorous classification of this history:

LA GUARDIA VIEJA (THE OLD GUARDIA 1900 - 1920): Includes the tango criollo arrabalero (suburban creole), the sung tango and the instrumental tango (fundamentally trios and quartets), until the arrival of LA ORQUESTA TIPICA, with the incorporation of the bandoneón. Musicians like: Vicente Greco, Villoldo, Arolas, etc. One of the more representative tangos is La Morocha (Saborido and Villoldo).

LA GUARDIA NUEVA (THE NEW GUARDIA: 1920 - 1940): Here, besides the tango with lyrics and with very important authors such as Discépolo, the instrumental tango began to be prominent. Relating to this two movements are established : TRADITIONALISM and EVOLUTIONISM. The first includes Juan Dárienzo, Francisco Canaro, etc and the second Julio de Caro, Francisco de Caro, Juan Carlos Cobián, Elvino Vardaro, etc. Precisely Astor Piazzolla is identified with this evolutionist line. May be you know the tango Decarísimo just composed as a homage to Julio de Caro.

LA POST-GUARDIA NUEVA (THE NEW POST-GUARDIA : 1940 - 1960) : Here appear what is known as the generation of the 40’s, whith the arrival of the most important musicians and works and conforming the influence and the more direct surrounding of Piazzolla regarding to the tango. Musicians : Osvaldo Pugliese, Aníbal Troilo, Osmar Maderna, Atilio Stampone, Leopoldo Federico, etc. Poets : Homero Manzi, Homero Expósito, Enrique Cadícamo,etc. Works : La Ulltima Curda, etc.

EL NUEVO TANGO (THE NEW TANGO : 1960 UNTIL NOW) : In this step we have to consider the focus of the point B) because the influence of Piazzolla begins to be so powerful that all seems to be divided between before and after Piazzolla.

B) When Piazzolla returns to Argentina (1955) after his studies with Nadia Boulanger, he decides to form the OCTETO BUENOS AIRES. With this group Piazzolla produces innovations that influence forever his attitude as player and composer. A new violent passion to arrange and to compose (in two years he composed and arranged more that 40 works); his decision for producing a rupture with the traditional tango, and the conviction for developing a group of musicians that come up to the same temperature musically and on stage as what he saw in Paris with the Mulligan Octet, which impressed him so much. The Octeto Buenos Aires definitively links him to the instrumental tango but not exclusively. With a formation of two bandoneones, two violins, piano, cello, electrical guitar and bass, this group becomes a proclamation of the rejection to the place of privilege that the singer had, imposed in the tango of the 40’s, and also and expulsion of the dancer (unavoidable protagonist of that tango and personage always present in the actual tango-spectacle). With the Octet, Piazzolla goes deep into chamber music criteria that show the independence of the tango with the pattern of the Orquesta Típica. Furthermore, the electrical guitar incorporates a new timbre not existing in the genre. But, since that time it is decisive in the inexorable fusion between the performance and the composition. The intensity that Piazzolla wants for his performance enters the score and intends to reach a physical palpitation. The bandoneón, his style as a player, his conception of the phrases, the unexpected treatment of the tempo, the visceral explosion that breaks the calm, is more that the excellence of the player: it affects the treatment of the score. Piazzolla considers the Octet is the start of the Contemporaneous Tango. But, the revolution that Piazzolla makes (farther on the influences that produces and a lot of subsequent imitations), is a solitary revolution. The genre can’t absorb it and doesn’t evolve: rather Piazzolla breaks the genre. When it is said a lot of times, that Piazzolla killed the tango, we feel a confuse suspicion but with some truth about it. Since Piazzolla the tango ceased to be a protector and enveloping genre, with precise limits. With Piazzolla the tango becomes "contaminated" with a lot of influences (the names linked to his esthetics seems to be its symbols: Gary Burton, Rostropovich, Gidon Kremer, Mulligan, Kronos Quarter, and of course all the young musicians of the tango). However, this interrelation of music is not eclectic due to the firmness of the style that Piazzolla gets.

It is not easy to recommend records of Piazzolla. My favorites are : The Quintet in the Philarmonic Hall of New York, the 2 records of the Conjunto 9, the suite La Camorra, the Concert in the Regina’s Theater, the Concert in the Odeón Theater, the Tangazo by the Orquesta conducted by Tilson Thomas, The Central Park Concert. Relating to this I promise to give you a classification more orientated to different periods and styles.

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Besides the famous "Fuga y Misterio", did Piazzolla write other fugues? What compositions contain passages in the form of fugues?
There are many examples (thanks Per and Martin): "Fugata" on "La Camorra", "La muerta del angel", "Preludio y fuga" on "Luna", "V-Fear" (5 tango sensations, for bandoneon and string quartet) by the Kronos Quartet with Piazzolla and also on "Tango Sensations" by Daniel Binelli and Camerata Bariloche. Other fugues are: "Primavera Porteña" (for example on "Piazzolla en el Regina"), "Fuga 9" (from the "Conjunto 9"), "Calambre", "Camorra I" also has a fugue in the middle part, and "Violentango", on the CD "Libertango" has a short fugue in the final part.

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Concerning Piazzolla's "Estaciones Porteñas" (the 4 Seasons): 1. when were they written? If not all at the same time, how were they conceived? 2. Did he refer at all to Vivaldi's stagioni-work? 3. For which instruments was it written originally? 4. Which style is predominant and capable to describe the work?
C.K.
1. Primavera Porteña (1970); Otoño Porteño (1969); Verano Porteño (1964); Invierno Porteño (1970) were not conceived as a suite. After completion Piazzolla sometimes played them as a single piece, but in general were treated independently (even in recordings).
2. There is no reference or homage to Vivaldi, just a quotation (Piazzolla in general was indifferent to the titles of his compositions, there was no attempt to tie them to a meaning in the music, humor was the most common basis for them). Even though there is a Vivaldian dialogue at the end of Invierno, and Primavera opens with a fugue, this is common to many other Piazzolla compositions and not just the 4 Seasons.

3. The 4 Seasons were originally written for Piazzolla's most important formation, the quintet (bandoneon, violin, piano, electric guitar, and bass). However, in the original Invierno the violin part was written for viola, yet in most of the interpretations the violin keeps the deep tone of the original.

4. One would have to agree on the term 'style' before a response could be given. I would not refer to style as a genre: tango, milonga, etc., or to academic conventions, for instance, "Invierno has Barroque influence". The concept of style is more like that of a 'language'. Boulez defines style as the ability to conceive a homogeneous language based on materials that are otherwise heterogeneous and rebelious. In that sense Piazzolla has reached his style in the Seasons, and this is true of the Sixties also, when the Seasons are created and Piazzolla finds his style as a composer. This is, he melds rythmic elements of Tango (present in the Seasons) with harmonic elements of European music, along with a 'temperature' and temperament that reminds us of Jazz. Even though the Seasons were not composed as suite, the fact that were composed for the quintet, adds to their 'chamber music' character and certain cyclical nature in the way the instruments go between 'tutti' and solos. In general the formal definition of cycle is the development of themes A followed by B built around A (A/B/A), but this is not the case in Piazzolla where the music needs to alternate between furious excitement and painful quiescence. The melancholy in Invierno is built around rythmic impulses, while in Verano the general thrust is interrupted by the solos, similar to Otoño where we find one of the most amazing solos for bandoneon left hand in which each note seems to be striving to escape from the main flow of the theme. And so the composition appears to build around this solo, until a final exultant violin. Primavera appears to build around a theme in the form of fugue, and is of the four, the one with the most balance between rythm and melody. We should also note that within the quintet there is extensive use of the 'playing in unison', which gives to the just 5 instruments a great power in terms of drive. Likewise, in the quintet the instruments are oftentimes used in 'percussive' fashion, even though they are not, something that has become synonimous with the Piazzolla style

2004-05-01T04:52:00.000-03:00

80th anniversary of Astor Piazzolla's birth

A number of events marked the 80th anniversary of Astor's birth. The piazzolla.org staff travelled to Buenos Aires and Montevideo to join the events honoring Piazzolla. These pages document that marvelous week in March 2001 in pictures, but of course they cannot capture the warmth felt by all those present, or the joy of friendships found through Astor's legacy. The week began with a series of small gatherings among friends, one at Natalio Gorin's home, and another at Oscar Mercuri's home. The highlights of the week took place on Sunday March 11, 2001: a reunion at famed Cafe Tortoni in Buenos Aires, where members of the piazzolla.org discussion forum met, many for the first time in person, to remember Astor on his birthdate. Following the reunion at the Tortoni the group attended the emotional event organized by the Centro Astor Piazzolla de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (CAP) at the Palais de Glace in Buenos Aires. Next day, the Quinteto de la Fundacion Astor Piazzolla opened a series of concerts at Buenos Aires's Maipo Theater. Later in the week we went to Montevideo to particpate on a special radio show (aired on Gardel FM) paying tribute to Astor and his legacy. An all-around memorable week.

2004-05-01T02:57:00.000-03:00

Astor Piazzolla + Baltazar Benitez, Cine CENSA, Montevideo, Uruguay, 1985-12-23*

Jorge Luis Borges & Astor Piazzolla circa 1965 (photo taken from Piazzolla: Musica Limite by Carlos Kuri, Corregidor 1997)

2004-04-30T20:32:00.000-03:00

Tango Concertino - Discography
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"LIVE in Olavshallen"-Trondheim -94 (TCCD 94-001)
1. Felicia (E. Saborido/C. Pacheco)...................................3'00
2. El Choclo (A. Villoldo)............................................3'56
3. Preparenze (Astor Piazzolla).......................................2'55
4. Milonga III (Astor Piazzolla)......................................6'18
5. Tanguedia (Astor Piazzolla)........................................4'30
6. Taquito Militar (M. Mores).........................................2'40
7. Soleda (Astor Piazzolla)...........................................8'10
8. Verano Porteno (Astor Piazzolla)...................................3'31
9. Knife Fight Astor Piazzolla).......................................1'50
10. La Cumparsita (G. H. Matros/E. P. Maroni/P. Contursi)..............3'55
11. Concerto para quinteto (Astor Piazzolla)...........................9'48

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Tango Concertino (1996 norske gram as ekg cd 19)
1. Taquito Militar (M. Mores).........................................3'01
2. Che Tango Che (Astor Piazzolla/Simonluca/A. Tarenzi)...............3'00
3. Hotel Victoria (Feliciano Latasa)..................................3'18
4. Milonga del Angel (Astor Piazzolla)................................6'06
5. Los Mareados (J. C. Cobian)........................................4'20
6. Caminito (J. D. Filiberto/P. B. Coria).............................2'31
7. Milonga Picaresque (Astor Piazzolla)...............................1'34
8. Oblivion (J'Oublie) (A. Piazzolla/Simonluca/A. Tarenzi/D. Mc. Neal)4'23
9. Michelángelo 70 (Astor Piazzolla)..................................3'00
10. Vamos Nina (Astor Piazzolla/Horacio Ferrer)........................4'09
11. Milonga (Frode Fjellheim)..........................................6'07
12. Balada para un Loco (Astor Piazzolla)..............................5'19

2004-04-30T12:28:00.000-03:00

Astor Piazzolla: A sad, current and conscious tango

In his last visit to Chile, in July, 1989, Piazzolla offered this interview. It is one of the last testimonies about his own musical poetics.

The tango no longer exists, he used to say. It existed many years ago, until 1955, "when Buenos Aires was a place where people wore tango, walked tango, where there was a smell of tango all over the city. But not today. Today that smell is more likely to come from rock or punk. The current tango is just a nostalgic and dull imitation of those times. The tango is like [then President Raul] Alfonsin: dying." Not Piazzolla's tango, of course: "My tango does meet the present."

That Sunday, Piazzolla was sparkling, happy, just awakened from a nap after a sumptuous dinner of seafood and "these great wines that you have," at the Mercado Central (Central Market) in Santiago. He was wearing red pyjamas, and didn't want photos taken. But he did want to talk.

He wanted to tell how he started in the art of composing, how he loved music and how he defended his; how Nadia Boulanger, his master at Paris, helped to discover that his style was in the tango, and not in the 'European-style' music he wrote until the fifties. How he was upset ("me da mucha bronca") to be known just for the 'Balada para un loco' (Ballad for a mad man). "Once a lady asked me: 'Maestro Piazzolla, beside the 'Balada...' what else have you written?' And I wanted to kill this woman..."

He wanted to tell how he was full of commissions: a string quartet, a guitar quartet, a wind quintet, all for American players. "I'm like a music supermarket," he joked. How his life could be seen as a single tango, a very 'porteno' (from Buenos Aires) and sad tango. "Not because I'm sad. Not at all. I'm a happy guy, I like to taste a good wine, I like to eat well, I like to live, so there wouldn't be any reason for my music to be sad. But my music is sad, because tango is sad. Tango is sad, dramatic, but not pessimistic. Pessimistic were the old, absurd tango lyrics.

"THEN, WHY DON'T YOU STUDY?"

When he was a boy, living in New York, he began to study the bandoneon and had the opportunity to play--at 13--with Carlos Gardel, the legendary tango singer. As an adolescent, he came back to Mar del Plata (Argentina) and after some frustrating Accounting studies, he decided to devote himself entirely to music. He was deeply in love with it and he knew that his decision was final: "The music," he said, "is more than a woman, because you can divorce a woman, but not music. Once you marry her, she is your foreverlasting love, and you go to the grave with her."

During this time he worked playing his bandoneon "in every cabaret of Buenos Aires" and also began to compose. He dared to introduce himself to the pianist Arthur Rubinstein--then living in Buenos Aires--and showed him a piece of his own. "It was such a terrible work," recalled Piazzolla, "that I said that I had composed a 'piano concerto', but I had written no part for the orchestra." Nevertheless, he insisted Rubinstein read it, and "as he played at the piano, I realized the stupid thing I had done. He played some bars and looked at me. And he suddenly says: 'Do you like music?'. 'Yes, maestro', I answer. 'Then, why don't you study?'"

The Polish pianist called his friend, the Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera, and told him that he had a young man that wanted to learn. The next morning, Ginastera, then beginning to present the works that would make him famous, had his first pupil in front of the piano; and Piazzolla, his first composition teacher.

"It was like going to your girlfriend's house," remembered nostalgic Piazzolla. "He revealed to me the mystery of the orchestra, he showed me his scores, made me analyze Stravinsky. I entered the world of 'The Rite of Spring', I learned it note by note..." The lessons lasted six years. Piazzolla began to compose "like a lunatic":

--I made myself a "self-genius". I had bad feelings about the tango, I had abandoned it. Instead, I was a composer of symphonies, overtures, piano concertos, chamber music, sonatas. I threw up a million notes per second.

--And how was the music of Piazzolla in that...?

--Wait!, wait! Now comes the story. Then I wrote and wrote, for ten years... One day, in 1953, Ginastera called to tell me that there was a Prize competition for young composers. I didn't want to enter it, because among the participants were the 'great' of the moment, but finally I sent a work called 'Sinfonietta'. When it was premiered, the critics gave me the prize for the best work of the year. And the Government of France granted me a scholarship to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris

Nothing was the same in Piazzolla's life after that moment. Because he had to go to Paris to be told by a French woman who he was.

--When I met her, I showed her my kilos of symphonies and sonatas. She started to read them and suddenly came out with a horrible sentence: 'It's very well written'. And stopped, with a big period, round like a soccer ball. After a long while, she said: 'Here you are like Stravinsky, like Bartok, like Ravel, but you know what happens? I can't find Piazzolla in this'. And she began to investigate my private life: what I did, what I did and did not play, if I was single, married, or living with someone, she was like an FBI agent! And I was very ashamed to tell her that I was a tango musician. Finally I said, 'I play in a 'night club'. I didn't wanted to say 'cabaret'. And she answered, 'Night club, mais oui, but that is a cabaret, isn't it?' 'Yes,' I answered, and thought 'I'll hit this woman in the head with a radio...' It wasn't easy to lie to her.

A "TANGUIFICATED" FUGUE

She kept asking: --"You say that you are not pianist. What instrument do you play, then?" And I didn't want to tell her that I was a bandoneon player, because I thought, "Then she will throw me from the fourth floor". Finally, I confessed and she asked me to play some bars of a tango of my own. She suddenly opened her eyes, took my hand and told me: "You idiot, that's Piazzolla!". And I took all the music I composed, ten years of my life, and sent it to hell in two seconds.

Nadia Boulanger made him study 18 months--"that helped me like 18 years"--just four part counterpoint. "After this," she used to tell him, "you will write a string quartet correctly. You will learn here, you really will..."

--She taught me to believe in Astor Piazzolla, to believe that my music wasn't as bad as I thought. I thought that I was something like a piece of shit because I played tangos in a cabaret, but I had something called style. I felt a sort of liberation of the ashamed tango player I was. I suddenly got free and I told myself: "Well, you'll have to keep dealing with this music, then."

--Nevertheless, you didn't want to abandon the tonal system, like so many composers of your generation...

--Oh yes, absolutely... --he thought for a while and recalled again his master--. Nadia didn't like contemporary music. I remember she told me once: "One of my students invited me last night to a premiere of one of his works [he was the then very young Pierre Boulez]. Fortunately in the second part they played Monteverdi!" Just this!--he laughed--. That's how she was: categorical. I was really frightened of her, because she knew absolutely everything. I was about to come back to Buenos Aires and I sent her one of the records I had made. She wrote me a very beautiful letter telling me that she had already heard my music on a radio program and that she was proud of me.

--And you, do you have students to feel proud of? Are there musicians who consider themselves to be your disciples, following your style?

--I say: Let everyone to do it for themselves. If they write like me, the worse for them. If they can follow this style of tango, this life-style that I do with music, then O.K. But my main style is to have studied. If I had not, I would not be doing what I do, what I've done. Because everybody thinks that to do a 'modern tango' is to make noise, is to make strange thoughts, and no, that's not true! You have to go a little deeper, and you can see that what I do is very elaborate. If I do a fugue in the manner of Bach, it will always be "tanguificated".

--These two elements in your music produce a strange phenomenon: it is heard on the radio, in popular programs, but also at the concert halls...

--Well, with Gershwin the same happens. Villa-Lobos [the Brazilian composer] is today so popular... Even to hear Bartok now is not a strange thing.

--Yes, but you don't hear Bartok on a popular radio program...

--But see what happens with Bartok. When in an American thriller there is a terror or violent scene, they put the 'Music for strings, piano and celesta' or Stravinsky's 'The Rite'... or Mahler. They are no longer 'contemporary', because when we talk about Bartok, we talk about the twenties...

--And how do you feel with the music written after those times?

--I don't feel a contemporary musician like me can feel Bartok, Ravel, Stravinsky or even Penderecki or Lutoslawski. But Xenakis, for instance, I don't feel him. I respect him, of course, like I do with Brown, Boulez... The other day we were rehearsing and I said: 'If we put that chord, we will sound like contemporary music', and Gerardo Gandini [the Uruguayan pianist and composer who worked with him then] protested: 'Hey, what do you have against contemporary music?'. 'Nothing,' I answered,'it's just that a strange thing would happen.' And contemporary music is a strange thing. It's like someone who is discovering a vaccine for AIDS or for cancer. It is there, but it isn't.

--You mean it is at an experimental stage?

--Yes, but the vaccine is not ready yet, can't be sold yet. For me the contemporary music is there, but it is not on the market yet.

--By the way, since you mention the market. There are a lot of contemporary composers that split music in two categories: the commercial and the non-commercial. Don't you worry about the fact that they usually put yours in the first category?

--No, absolutely not. I would be offended if they said that my music is light, trivial. My music is a popular chamber music that comes from the tango... well, there are a lot of ways to define it. If I were a composer of contemporary music, I couldn't use it for making the music I make. I can go to a poly-rhythm, to bitonal or tritonal chords, but I can't go beyond, because I must keep some swing, some sense of rhythm at the base. Then, in the 'upper', I adorn it with music.

--In the harmony is the 'audacity', then?

--In the harmony, in the rhythms, in the counter-tempi, in the beautiful counterpoint that two or three instruments can make... And you don't always have to make it tonal, you can go to atonality also. That's why Gandini and I can work together.

--Is that the reason for the problems that your music has had in Argentina, because of these 'strange' elements you introduced in tango?

--Yes, but the Presidents change, and they say nothing... Bishops change, soccer players, anything, but not the tango. The tango is to be kept like it is: old, boring, always the same, repeated.

--Was the change that you made with the tango meant to make it more European?

--No, I don't think so. Thanks to the fact that my music is very 'portena', from Buenos Aires, I can work over the world, because the public finds a different culture, a new culture.

--Don't you think that the critique that was applied to Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos would be applicable to you? I mean that he made his music more European to be liked by a European public?

--No, that is silly. I think Villa-Lobos is 100 percent Brazilian. His chamber music is excellent, and totally Brazilian. Because if Brazil has anything, it is popular music. We don't have anything like that in Argentina. They [Brazilians] make a more intuitive music, we are more 'cold', maybe.

--More rational...

--Yes... If you go to Brazil, and a 9-year-old boy takes a guitar he will never make a perfect major chord. No, a Brazilian boy makes a 9th chord, an 11th chord and with such a special swing... We don't have that. An Argentinian guy plays a zamba, a chacarera [both typical folklore songs] and comes with a G minor, D mayor 7, and good-bye. He doesn't go beyond that.

--How much of European and how much of 'Porteno' can be found in your tango? How much of Stravinsky or Bartok and how much of Gardel, to put it that way?

--A critic from the New York Times once said an absolute truth: all the 'upper thing' that Piazzolla makes is music; but beneath you can feel the tango.

2004-04-30T12:27:00.000-03:00

This is what Astor Piazzolla stressed to his friend, Natalio Gorin, while the two sat together in Punta del Este, Uruguay, collaborating on Piazzolla's memoir. Through telling interviews with Piazzolla, Gorin has completed an interesting and truthful account of Piazzolla's amazing life.

Piazzolla is best known for changing the face of traditional tango music by moving the sound of tango away from the dance floor, adding elements of cool jazz, and rejecting its tendencies towards sentimentality and bouts of morbid self-pity. Many tango traditionalists were greatly offended when Piazzolla developed his "new tango." Piazzolla stood by his compositions and later commented, "I broke the old molds: that's why they attacked me and why I had to defend myself, saying at times a word too many."

Fernando Gonzalez best conveys why Piazzolla's music was and always will be inspiring, "In Piazzolla nothing was ever lost, neither his father's tango records nor the Bach he heard through the door as a child; neither the exact counterpoint and fugue he learned with Nadia Boulanger nor the cool swing of Gerry Mulligan or the style of Pedro Laurenz."

Natalio Gorin has been a journalist - with a focus on sports reporting - for more than thirty years. He has worked for the daily Clarin, the largest newspaper in Argentina; the sports magazine Goles; the entertainment monthly Radiolandia 2000; and El Grâfico, a prestigious sports weekly for which he spent time as managing editor. His passion for music, especially for tango and most especially for Astor Piazzolla's music, led him into extensive investigations of the composer's life and work. They met in 1971 and were personal friends until Piazzolla's death in 1992. Gorin resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and frequently travels to give lectures and presentations on Piazzolla and his music.

Translator and annotator Fernando Gonzalez is a regular contributor to The Washington Post and a columnist for Down Beat magazine. He was arts and culture writer and pop music critic for The Miami Herald and jazz and world music critic for The Boston Globe, and for many years reported on Astor Piazzolla's career.

2004-04-30T11:49:00.000-03:00

S! all, first, we can focus to the Astor Piazzolla's History:
Here we go:

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was a composer and bandoneón player who revolutionized tango music. In 1924 Piazzolla's family moved from Buenos Aires to New York City - Astor was only three years old. They stayed there, with a brief interlude, until 1936. He listened to Cab Calloway in Harlem. Later, again in Buenos Aires, he played traditional tango on his bandoneón in Aníbal Troilo's orchestra. In 1940 he composed a piece for Arthur Rubinstein who was in Buenos Aires on a tour. Rubinstein recognized Piazzolla's talent and told him to take lessons in composing with Alberto Ginastera - and that is what he did. With Ginastera he listened a lot to Bartók and Stravinsky. In 1944 Piazzolla left Troilo - the tango scene considered this to be ingratitude and treason - but the 25-year old went his own way and created his own group. He introduced counterpoints, fugues and new harmonies into tango music. But it took Piazzolla up to the 1980s to become recognized in his homeland of Argentina. I had the chance to see him towards the end of his life in a memorable concert at Geneva's Victoria Hall. He suffered a brain haemorrhage in Paris which he never recovered from and he died in Bueno Aires in 1992.

La Camarro is an album recorded in 1988 in New York City - by the way, a camorra is a quarrel. Soledad is a harmonious, tonal ballad. La Camorra I is more like a traditional tango. La Fugata is some sort of chamber music. Sur: Los Suenõs and Sur: Regreso Al Amor are emotional, passionate compositions. The CD Tango: Zero Hour is more radical. It is an album which challenges traditional listening habits. This is no dancing music like traditional tango, no easy listening music, but as Piazzolla put it himself: This is "... the greatest record I've made in my entire life. We gave our souls to [it]. This is the record I can give to my grandchildren an say, 'This is what we did with our lives'." La Hora Zero was recorded in New York City in 1986 with Piazzolla's famous New Tango Quintet. Tango: Zero Hour is still avant-garde, as its title says, a reinvention of a music as if it had not existed before.

Good Day!!!!