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by Marcelo Gobello (Author)
Astor Piazzolla (11 March 1921 - 4 July 1992) was not only the great revolutionary of Tango and one of the best bandoneon instrumentalists in history, but he was also one of the most important and great composers who contributed to the musical history of the twentieth century. Astor Piazzolla, from the cradle, was an accumulation of contradictions, rarities and exceptional facts. An "extra-ordinary" being that was undoubtedly born with the mark of the chosen ones, of the greats, but who added a lot of effort, work and passion to his works. Piazzolla grew up listening to Tango in his home and Jazz outside of it. He fell in love with Bach as a child while at the same time listening to Cab Calloway or Duke Ellington live. And although he was born in a maritime city of the South Atlantic (Mar del Plata) he grew up in the most cosmopolitan city in the world at a time of turmoil and growth. In New York he received his first bandone?n but back to his native Mar del Plata he learned to play Tango; and then he went on to develop it in the place he had to go, the universal capital of tango, the city of Buenos Aires. At the age of 20 he was already a precocious genius who played the bandoneon and arranged songs for the best tango orchestra of the golden age of classical tango, that of Anibal Troilo. At 23 he already studied with Alberto Ginastera and dreamed of being a concert pianist or composing symphonies. And everything was mixed, a swirling combination from his inner being: De Caro and Stravinsky, Vardaro and Bach, Gobbi and Art Tatum, Bartok and Gil Evans, Gardel and Chick Corea, Pugliese and Miles Davis, Laurenz & Maffia and Emerson Lake & Palmer. But the new thing, the wonderful thing, is that something unique and different came out of that musical cocktail: Piazzolla's music came out, which we could classify as a genre in itself. A music that starts from the Tango, which also contains it, that brings together the musicians named above (and many more) but at the same time has its own identity and personality. Because, and this should be very clear at this point, Piazzolla did not kill Tango (as they accused him for decades), on the contrary: Piazzolla saved it, gave it new life, made it grow, evolve.
In this volume the world renowned author Marcelo Gobello (academic of the National Academy of Tango, the Porte?a Academy of Lunfardo and honorary member of the Astor Piazzolla Foundation chaired by his widow, Laura Escalada Piazzolla) makes an agile and focussed journey through the artistic (and life) trajectory of Astor, with special emphasis on the creation of the New Tango Quintet in 1960 and how he arrived at it, since it is vital and fundamental to understand and know the path of Astor well.
We must also highlight an annex dedicated to "Astor Piazzolla and the Cinema" where the most important of his production of 42 original soundtracks for films nationally and internationally is highlighted, a revealing discography and exclusive photographic material. It is a work that maintains the flame of the music and style of one of the greatest creators, instrumentalists and composers that he has created, not only for the twentieth century, but for the history of all humanity, because his music (in addition to beautiful) is eternal and infinite.
