Despertate

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Title: "Pot-Pourri" for Flute and Guitar
Tracks: Histoire du Tango: Bordel 1900
Histoire du Tango: Cafe 1930
Histoire du Tango: Night Club 1960
Histoire du Tango: Concert d'aujourd'hui
Serenata al alba del dia (Rodrigo)
15 original tanz (Schubert)
Sonatina Op. 205 (Castelnuovo-Tedesco)
Mouvement perpetuels (Poulenc)
Roumanian Folk Dances (Bartok)
All compositions by Astor Piazzolla except where noted.
Group: Bennett/Wynberg
Musicians: Bennett (William) - flute
Wynberg (Simon) - guitar
Label: ASV
Country: England
Catalog number: CD DCA 692
Media: CD
Year of release: 1990
Studio or Live: Studio
Year of performance: 1990
Description:
Style: Duos (Guitar/Bandoneon; Guitar/Flute; Etc.)
Comments:

Title: Piazzollando
Tracks: Histoire du Tango: Bordel 1900
Histoire du Tango: Cafe 1930
Histoire du Tango: Night Club 1960
Histoire du Tango: Concert d'Aujourd'hui
Chau Paris
Muerte del Angel
Five Tango Sensations: Asleep
Fuga y misterio
Poema valseado
Libertango
Adios Nonino
All compositions by Astor Piazzolla except where noted.

Group: Ars Duo
Musicians: Cilveti (Gerardo) - violin
Coo (Jose Miguel) - guitar
Label: Ars Duo
Country: Ecuador
Catalog number: N/A
Media: CD
Year of release: 2000
Studio or Live: Studio
Year of performance: 2000
Description:
Style: Duos (Guitar/Bandoneon; Guitar/Flute; Etc.)
Comments: For further information or to purchase a copy of this CD contact: jose.coo@swissotel.com, jocoo@ecnet.ec, gerardo.cilveti@music.com

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".

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.

New at Piazzolla.Org
Gorin's Piazzolla book now in English
Piazzolla's 80th Anniversary

Listen & Watch
Audio library: listen to Piazzolla recordings
Audio Lectures about Piazzolla (CAP)
Videos of Piazzolla
150 Versions of "Adios Nonino"

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)

Very Nice Picturesssssssssssss!!!!!.

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.