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LE GRAND TANGO: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF ASTOR PIAZZOLLA

Le Grand Tango:The Life and Music of Astor Piazzolla

ENCUENTROS

IDB CULTURAL CENTER May 2000 No. 36

Lecture by

María Susana Azzi

MARIA SUSANA AZZI

IDB CULTURAL CENTER

General Coordination and Visual Arts: Félix AngelGeneral Coordination Assistance: Soledad Guerra

Concerts and Lectures: Anne VenaCultural Promotion in the Field: Elba Agusti

IDB Art Collection: Gabriela Moragas

The Cultural Center of the Inter-American Development Bank, an international finan-cial organization, was created in May 1992 at the Bank’s headquarters in Washington,D.C., as a gallery for exhibitions and a permanent forum from which to showcase out-standing expressions of the artistic and intellectual life of the Bank’s member countriesin North, Central and South America, the Caribbean region, Western Europe, Israel andJapan. Through the IDB Cultural Center, the Bank contributes to the understanding ofcultural expression as an integral element of the economic and social development of itsmember countries.

The IDB Cultural Center Exhibitions and the Concerts and Lectures Series stimulate dialogueand a greater knowledge of the culture of the Americas. The Cultural Promotion in theField funds projects in the fields of youth cultural development, institutional support,restoration and conservation of cultural patrimony, and the preservation of cultural tra-ditions. The IDB Art Collection, gathered over several decades, is managed by the CulturalCenter and reflects the relevance and importance the Bank has achieved after four de-cades as the leading financial institution concerned with the development of Latin Americaand the Caribbean.

© Inter-American Development Bank and María Susana Azzi. All rights reserved.


María Susana Azzi

LE GRAND TANGO:THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF ASTOR PIAZZOLLA

Le Grand tango: The Life and Music of Astor Piazzolla was presented at the Inter-American Devel-opment Bank in Washington, D.C., on May 30, 2000 as part of the IDB Cultural Center Lec-tures Program.

The tango is a complex popular genre thatinvolves dance, music, poetry, philosophy,narrative and drama. It also joins African,American and European cultural and aes-thetic elements. The study of the tango of-fers a key to understanding the melting potthat formed Argentine society.

Between 1821 and 1932, Argentina wasthe world’s second largest recipient of im-migration (the USA being first and Canadathird). The tango would become the nationalmusic of Argentina, a metaphor for diversesonorities and plural voices, and the expres-sion of a profound emotional repertoire.

During the nineteenth century, manyleading composers introduced nationalistelements in their music, in part as a reac-tion to the dominance of German music.Mikhail I. Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar (1836)began a Russian nationalist movement inmusic, which was sustained by Mussorgsky,Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Prokofiev.The compositions of Lizst expressed theHungarian spirit, which Bartók and Kodálylater intensified. Smetana, Dvorák, andJanácek used Bohemian melodies and

rhythms. Norway had Grieg; Finland,Sibelius; and Spain had Falla, Albéniz, andGranados. By the twentieth century, En-gland had Holst and Vaughan Williams; theUSA had Copland, Gershwin, Ives, andBernstein; Brazil had Villa-Lobos; and Ar-gentina had Ginastera and Piazzolla. 1

Astor Piazzolla (1921-92) was a classicallytrained composer of modern tangos, whosemusic reflected and inspired the deepestof feelings. He often said he had threeteachers: Alberto Ginastera, NadiaBoulanger and Buenos Aires. AlthoughPiazzolla retained the tango’s essentialspirit, he wrote tangos for listeners, and heintroduced dissonance, chromatic har-mony and a wider range of rhythms. Hismusic, too complex for most conservativetangueros, was strongly resisted by the pur-ists. The story goes that in the 1950s, whenPiazzolla was conducting a symphony, amusician in the orchestra remarked, “I as-sume you have nothing to do with thisPiazzolla who plays tangos?”

Nevertheless, the audience forPiazzolla’s work is wide, and includes clas-

MARIA SUSANA AZZI

sical music lovers, jazz fans, and even rockmusicians. His compositions combine ele-ments from jazz, the tango, and classicalmusic, particularly Bartók and Stravinsky.Piazzolla achieved a rare symbiosis betweencomposed and improvised elements, whichgives his music distinct individuality andappeal.

Paquito D’Rivera described Piazzolla’smusic as a “vehicle to fuse Latin music withjazz,” and likened it to the “bebop” styleinvented by Dizzie Gillespie, Charlie Parkerand Thelonious Monk.2 Although bebopwas solidly grounded in earlier jazz styles, itwas considered revolutionary. Piazzolla’s“new tango” was in tune with a new Argen-tina, which had different issues and sonori-ties. During Piazzolla’s lifetime, BuenosAires changed dramatically, from a pequeñaaldea to a modern metropolis within a glo-bal village.

My recent book, Le Grand Tango, is thefirst full-scale biography of Astor Piazzolla.It is based on four years of research andover two hundred interviews—with his fel-low musicians, family members, friends andother associates. The book chronicles hiscareer and views his life in the context ofArgentina and the tango world. Piazzollawas an Argentine and a cosmopolitan, whofelt at home in New York, Paris, Milan,Rome, Buenos Aires, and Punta del Este.

Writing this book was a four-year adven-ture, during which I traveled to Europe,North America and Uruguay. AstorPiazzolla himself recorded more than eighthundred pieces, one fourth of his total pro-duction, and I had the extraordinary op-portunity to hear all of his recorded music.Piazzolla is recognized by the SACEM(Societé des Auteurs, Compositeurs etÉditeurs de la Musique, in Paris) as an un-usually prolific composer.

Astor Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata,Argentina, of Italian stock in 1921. Hisgrandparents had immigrated from thenorth and south of Italy: from Lucca inTuscany, and Trani in the Puglia region.Astor’s parents, Vicente Piazzolla andAsunta Manetti, were Argentines, but theymoved the family to New York when he wasfour. Consequently, Astor grew up on theLower East Side, and he learned the tangofrom listening to his father’s records ofCarlos Gardel and Julio De Caro.

Astor’s father played accordion and gui-tar; he occasionally performed in Italian festi-vals, and composed at least one tango.3 WhenAstor was eight, his father bought him a sec-ond-hand bandoneon. As he told the story,an uncle, Octavio Manetti, was visiting NewYork when they saw the squeezebox in a shopwindow, on sale for $18. When the bandoneonwas presented to him, Astor remembers, hegazed at it a long time before daring to pressthe buttons.

The bandoneon is a large, square-endedtype of German concertina, best known forits role in tango orchestras. Instead of key-boards, it has buttons: 38 buttons for theright hand and 33 for the left. Each buttoncan produce two notes, through inflatingor deflating the squeezebox. While the ac-cordion is an extroverted instrument, thebandoneon is introverted. It has a gravesonority that seems to express nostalgia andmelancholy, emotions typical of immigrantsto Argentina in the early twentieth century.It is hard to imagine a tango concert with-out a bandoneon: it is the quintessentialtango instrument.

During the Depression, the Piazzollasreturned to Mar del Plata for a few months.Astor took some bandoneon lessons withthe Pauloni brothers, learning basic tech-niques, as well as yeites tangueros (tricks of

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playing). On return to New York, Piazzollaand a friend began making frequent visitsto Harlem to listen to Cab Calloway andDuke Ellington. Years later, he recalled howthey would stand outside the Cotton Clubto hear Calloway performing.4 By this time,Astor was studying music with an Argen-tine pianist, Andrés D’Aquila, and a fewmonths later, with Terig Tucci, abandoneonist and arranger. His father senthim to a harmonica academy, and Astorplayed the bandoneon in public severaltimes.

Béla Wilda, a pupil of Sergei Rachma-ninoff, happened to live near the Piazzollafamily. Once Astor got to know her, he listenedto her playing Bach for hours. After this, helearned to play Bach and Chopin on thebandoneon.

There were many other influences inAstor’s musical development. As a boy, hewas paid $25 to play a newspaper vendorin the film “El día que me quieras” (1935),which starred the famous tango singerCarlos Gardel. Years later, Piazzolla said,“Everything gets under your skin! Myrhythm accents are even like the Jewishpopular music I heard at weddings.”5 The3-3-2 rhythmic arrangement is heard inklezmer music. This pattern resembles the3-3-2 accents—with emphasis on the first,fourth and seventh eighth notes in a 4/4bar—that derive from the milonga and thehabanera, which gave rise to the tango.

The Piazzollas finally returned to Mardel Plata in 1937, when Astor was sixteen.There he heard hours of tango music onthe radio, mainly the bands conducted byJulio De Caro, Osvaldo Pugliese, PedroMaffia, Pedro Laurenz, Elvino Vardaro,Miguel Caló, Alfredo Gobbi, and CiriacoOrtiz. These musicians had created new ar-rangements for traditional tango melodies,

adding sophisticated harmony and counter-point.

Astor continued piano studies in Mar delPlata until he was eighteen, and thenmoved to Buenos Aires, becoming abandoneonist for several tango bands. Ev-ery night he would go to the Café Germi-nal to listen to Aníbal “Pichuco” Troilo.One night Troilo was looking for a newbandoneonist, and asked him to audition.Piazzolla performed Gershwin’s Rhapsodyin Blue, and was hired on the spot.

Piazzolla worked with Troilo as abandoneonist and arranger for six years,from 1939 through 1944. They sometimesdisagreed; Troilo preferred simplicity anddanceable music, and Piazzolla was alwaystrying to incorporate intricate arrange-ments. Troilo would tell him flatly, “No, myboy, that isn’t tango.” Although Troilo’s dis-approval hurt him, Astor continued to playas he wished. Even in playing style, theydiffered: Troilo sat and held thebandoneon in the traditional manner, butPiazzolla stood and balanced the instru-ment on his leg.

In 1942, Piazzolla married Odette(Dedé) Wolff. Two children were born—Diana Irene in 1943 and Daniel Hugo in1945. Their young family led a happy, tran-quil life in Buenos Aires. Piazzolla and the“three Ds” (Dedé, Diana and Daniel) en-joyed excursions to cinemas and restau-rants. The children soon learned to respecttheir father’s need for silence while he com-posed at home.

In 1946, Piazzolla formed his first band.It should be mentioned that although heplayed in many nightspots, Piazzolla neverlost his distaste for them. He resisted thelifestyle of his peer group, many of whomlived with women who frequented the caba-rets. Piazzolla was not tempted by cabaret-

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girls, and his father had instilled in him ahorror of venereal disease.6

Indeed, Piazzolla had become an in-tensely dedicated and disciplined mu-sician. Sometimes after playing withTroilo at the Tibidabo until four in themorning, he would attend rehearsalsthree hours later with the OrquestaFilarmónica at the Colón Opera House.Piazzolla earnestly wanted to masterclassical composition. When ArthurRubinstein was visiting Buenos Aires in1940, Astor rang his doorbell and pre-sented him with one of his scores.Rubinstein suggested that he study withAlberto Ginastera, a leading Argentinecomposer who was, in fact, Piazzolla’s con-temporary.

Piazzolla became Ginastera’s first pupil,taking lessons very early in the morning.Ginastera directed Astor to analyze scoresby Stravinsky and Bartók. Bartók had sys-tematically explored Hungarian peasantmusic, but created a universal music thatreflected the influences of Liszt, Strauss,Debussy, and Stravinsky.7

Argentina underwent radical politicalchange after the election of populist JuanDomingo Perón, who served as presidentfrom 1946 to 1955. 8 A number of tangoartists openly supported Perón, but con-ductors who refused to join the Peronistparty were banned from giving radio per-formances. Although Piazzolla’s band con-tinued to perform in the city and suburbs,he dissolved it in mid-1949, almost certainlydue to political pressure.9

Perón’s government not only brokewith traditional labor politics and socialpractices, but it even promoted new stylesof entertainment and nightlife. The gov-ernment took control of radio broadcastsin 1946, and from 1951, television broad-

casting as well. For the first time in Ar-gentina, workers literally took over urbanpublic space. Public demonstrations of-ten turned into festivals, with masses ofpeople dancing and drinking in thestreets.10 Among crowds of dancingcouples, the steps of the tango becameshorter and the music louder. Perón,aware of the tango’s popularity, liked tobe photographed in the company ofmusicians and to attend an occasionaltango festival. Argentina’s economy wasslowly decaying, but few seemed to worryas long as there was money to spend.

In some ways “Peronism” contributed tothe popularization of the tango; there iscertainly a historical juxtaposition. Argen-tina became closed to the world, and yetits popular culture flourished. Perón wasauthoritarian, a manipulator, a gattopardo,whose regime broke with traditions of ev-ery kind. Perón’s policies brought radicalchange that affected everything in Argen-tina, including the performing arts.

The old Argentine economy had beenbased on agricultural exports. To incorpo-rate the working class and internal migrantsinto the political system, Argentina neededto industrialize. Perón’s totalitarian regimeintroduced the compre nacional, a policy offavoring Argentine products, with a subse-quent ban on imports. In August 1953,número vivo (live performance) was madeobligatory in every cinema. The nationalfilm industry was promoted. A regulationwas passed that—of any performing group(larger than a trio) had to be Argentines. Like-wise, 75% of the artists heard on the radiohad to be Argentine. Another regulation re-stricted the amount of recorded music onbroadcasts to only 30%, which created morejobs for Argentine performers and limited thebusiness of recording companies.

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Piazzolla’s music was well received in apopulist era, even though he was an admit-ted anti-Peronist. The 1940s became thegolden decade of the tango, and Piazzollawas its revolutionary. By the early 1950s,Piazzolla had written several classical works.He stopped playing the bandoneon for afew years, and devoted himself to writingfilm music.

In 1953, a German conductor and vio-list, Hermann Scherchen, visited BuenosAires. Scherchen had founded the BerlinSociety for New Music in 1918, and was anardent champion of twentieth century mu-sic, especially that of Schoenberg andWebern. Piazzolla took some lessons in or-chestration from him. Soon after, Piazzollacompeted for the Fabien Sevitsky Prize andwon a one-year scholarship to study withNadia Boulanger in Paris. At the same time,his wife Dedé won an award to study withAndré Lohte, an influential teacher andcritic of modern art who founded theAcadémie Montparnasse. Thus the familymoved to Paris in 1954.

To study with Nadia Boulanger was anextraordinary opportunity for Piazzolla.Her students included composers such asCopland, Harris, Thomson, Carter,Quincy Jones, Berkeley and Piston. (Alarge collection of her correspondencewith students is preser ved at theBibliothèque Nationale in Paris.) How-ever, Boulanger soon told Piazzolla thathis music was “well written, but lackedfeeling”—a verdict she handed out tomost pupils. This disheartened Piazzollagreatly, and for a while he walked thestreets and poured out his woes to friends.Boulanger soon forced him out of hismalaise by asking about the music heplayed in Argentina. When Piazzolla re-luctantly mentioned the tango, she ex-

claimed, “I love that music! But you don’tplay the piano to perform tangos. Whatinstrument do you play?” Piazzolla reluc-tantly told her he played the bandoneon.Boulanger reassured him that she hadheard the instrument in music by KurtWeill, and Stravinsky himself appreciatedits qualities. Then she persuaded Piazzollato play one of his tangos on the piano,and he chose “Triunfal.” At the eighthbar, Boulanger took him by the hands andtold him firmly, “This is Piazzolla! Don’tever leave it!”11

Piazzolla recorded his new tangos witha string orchestra drawn from the ParisOpera. The Argentine jazz pianist LaloSchifrin also featured in the group, but hesoon had to go on tour, and was replacedby Martial Solal, the greatest European jazzpianist. In Paris, Piazzolla heard, amongother bands, Gerry Mulligan and his en-semble. A baritone saxophonist and ar-ranger, Mulligan is among the most versa-tile figures in modern jazz. What Piazzollarecalled was “the happiness onstage. It waslike a party: the sax played, the drumsplayed, the whole thing passed to the trom-bone; they were happy.”12 “Swing” was aword Piazzolla used to mean rhythmic con-sciousness. “Those who don’t know whatswing means to music, cannot perform,”13

he would say. The New Grove Dictionary ofJazz explains swing as follows:

[A]lthough basic to the perception andperformance of jazz, swing has resistedconcise definition or description. Mostattempts at such refer to it as primarily arhythmic phenomenon, resulting fromthe conflict between a fixed pulse andthe wide variety of actual durations andaccents that a jazz performer playsagainst the pulse. Clearly other proper-

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ties are also involved, of which one isprobably the forward propulsion im-parted to each note by a jazz playerthrough manipulation of timbre, attack,vibrato, intonation, or other means; thiscombines with the proper rhythmicplacement of each note to produceswing in a great variety of ways.14

To free the tango from its traditionalpatterns, Piazzolla began to use novel tone-colors and rhythms, as well as dissonantharmonies to give the music more nuances.The classical tango sextet consisted of twobandoneons, two violins, double bass andpiano. Piazzolla enlarged it with a cello andan electric guitar, and in 1955, he foundedthe Octeto Buenos Aires. Never before hada tango ensemble incorporated an electricguitar. The electric guitarist was HoracioMalvicino, who recalls that he even receiveddeath threats.

In 1957, after hearing Bartók’s Second Vio-lin Concerto, Piazzolla composed Tres Minutoscon la Realidad, which is somewhat reminiscentof Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. “The overridingfeature of Stravinsky from first to last isrhythm… from the primitive (Les Noces) to thesophisticated (Rite of Spring)… [rhythm] is themainspring of his work.”15

In September 1955, Perón had finallybeen ousted from power and efforts beganto “deperonize” Argentina. This led to dras-tic changes in broadcasting and the per-forming arts. Buenos Aires in the late 1950swas not an ideal setting for Piazzolla to cre-ate and disseminate his music. Disheart-ened, he left for New York in early 1958. Afew months later, Dedé, Daniel and Dianafollowed him. They lived at 202 West 92nd

Street. Several New York agents and pub-lishers liked the music Piazzolla showedthem. They suggested tailoring it to Ameri-

can taste, and an LP was planned.16

While living in New York, Piazzolla wasable to meet and work with outstandingpopular musicians like Tommy Dorsey,Glenn Miller, Ray Noble, and PaulWhiteman. Johnny Richards, a pioneer ofprogressive jazz, asked to hear his records.Piazzolla visited Birdland on Broadway sev-eral times. An admirer of cool jazz, he feltidentified with this movement. In Argen-tina, traditional tangueros perceived hismusic as emotionally cool, although this isfar from true. Drama, passion, melancholy,and nostalgia are always present inPiazzolla’s music. He particularly admiredStan Getz, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, GilEvans, the Modern Jazz Quartet, GeorgeShearing and Dave Brubeck. In cool jazz,improvised counterpoint underwent a re-vival. Piazzolla incorporated these resourcesin his music; his musicians also had somefreedom to improvise, which has been quiteunusual in traditional tango.

On one occasion, Piazzolla attended areception for Victoria Ocampo, the grandedame of Argentine letters, at the Metropoli-tan Club in New York. Igor Stravinsky wasamong her friends. When a frail-lookingStravinsky entered the hall, Piazzolla re-membered that “it was like looking at God.”When finally introduced, he managed tostammer, “Maestro, I am a long-distancepupil of yours,”17 and Stravinsky gave hima warm handshake.

In late 1959, Piazzolla learned that hisfather had died in Argentina. After attend-ing the funeral and returning to New York,he went into complete isolation and com-posed Adiós Nonino, which became his best-known work. Piazzolla eventually wrote atleast twenty arrangements of this piece. Hisfavorites were those written for his Nonet,an electronic group of the mid-1970s, and

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for his second Quintet.18

On returning to Buenos Aires in 1960,Piazzolla started the Quinteto Nuevo Tango,consisting of bandoneon, piano, violin, gui-tar and double bass. His most productiveperiod was the 1960s, when he also devel-oped new forms. During this decade,Piazzolla’s music began to attract worldwideattention for its distinctive qualities. Thecompositions were a combination of con-trapuntal voices and instruments, each ofsignificance in itself, resulting in a coher-ent texture. Bach, the greatest master ofpolyphonic music, was perhaps Piazzolla’sgreatest model. Piazzolla composed for hissoloists, a community of musicians, as wellas for audiences. But in the end, he com-posed and performed primarily for himself.

Several explosive confrontations with thepress brought Piazzolla considerable noto-riety during these years, and his private lifewas in turmoil. Finally, in February of 1966,Piazzolla left Dedé and the children. Therupture of his marriage took family andfriends by surprise. Piazzolla did not fullyrecover his emotional stability for at leastten years.

The “Club 676” made its mark in BuenosAires. Piazzolla and his Quintet played ev-ery night. It became a lively meeting-placefor Argentine musicians and foreign visitors.Among them were the Israel Chamber Or-chestra, the Philadelphia Symphony, theVegh Quartet, the Modern Jazz Quartet,Tommy Dorsey and his band, and Brazilianstars like Mayssa Matarazzo, João Gilberto,and Os Cariocas.

The Stan Getz Quartet played at “676”in September 1965. During the eveningGetz asked a young vibraphonist, Gary Bur-ton, to play My Funny Valentine as a solo.Piazzolla marveled at Burton’s original styleof improvisation, which is quite distinct

from other vibraphone players, reminiscentof both country music and Latin styles.19

Burton also recalled listening to theQuintet: “Hearing Astor’s group was anamazing experience... Most national mu-sic remains fairly simple, with the excep-tion of jazz and tango. I bought four or fiveof his records in Argentina, because youcouldn’t find them in America. For twentyyears, I remained a fan. We met again whenhe came to see me play with Chick Coreain Paris, in 1982. He just walked up afterthe concert and said, Hello. Do you remem-ber me? And I told him I’d been listeningto his records all these years. And he said,Would you be interested in doing a projecttogether? And I said I would love to, anytime. But I didn’t hear from him after thatfor about two years. He was very excited andenergetic, and later I discovered he was likethat a lot of the time. He’d already writtenall the music. He said, When I flew home, Iwas all excited, I could just hear the music.I went ahead, I couldn’t stop, I just had todo it. He had written the whole concert.Without having a chance to talk about it.That scared me. So I was expecting a longrehearsal, a couple of days, to really get thismusic. And the first day, we rehearsed forabout two hours, and suddenly, he said,Well, it’s enough for today, let’s go eat. Andthe next day was the first concert. I wasamazed that we got through all the musicwithout getting lost, or having a problem.But we did. To me, he was warm and won-derful, he loved my playing and he con-stantly complimented me and made me feelgood about everything. There is a certainquality about very major, independentmusicians, a certain kind of charisma. Astorhad it. With Astor, I learned a sense ofdrama. The tango has this wonderful con-stant changing of mood. It goes fast, then

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slow; it’s powerful, then subtle – it’s verydramatic.”20

In 1967, Piazzolla began a collaborationwith the talented poet Horacio Ferrer.Their first major work, a short opera, wasMaría de Buenos Aires. The premiere per-formance starred the singer Amelita Baltar,who became Piazzolla’s companion for thenext seven years. In 1969 they scored anamazing hit with the song Balada para unloco (Ballad for a Madman), which becamepopular throughout Latin America. Thissong had nothing in common with the tra-ditional tango song, in theme, style, rhymeor rhythm. Its surreal, witty and very con-temporary lyrics tell a story of unusuallength. This was so far from the traditionalmodel that it drew a line forever betweenthe pre-Piazzolla and the post-Piazzollatango. Even today, traditional tangueros dis-like this song intensely. When it was pre-miered at Luna Park, the audience threwcoins disapprovingly at the singer. Four dayslater, however, 200,000 records had beensold. Piazzolla and Ferrer collaborated onseveral other modern classics. 21

In 1972-73, Piazzolla signed a contractwith the Municipality of Buenos Aires toform a Nonet, which was among the bestof his groups, only rivaled by the first andsecond Quintets. In 1974, Piazzolla ex-plored jazz fusion with Gerry Mulligan,recording Reunión Cumbre (Summit Meet-ing), one of his most successful albums.“Gerry used to laugh in disbelief when theroyalty checks came each year,” recalled hiswife Franca.22

During the 1970s, most instruments inpopular music were highly amplified, andtheir sounds often modified electronically.The Fender-Rhodes electric piano was in-troduced, and the electric bass guitar re-placed the traditional double bass. Piazzolla

was influenced by jazz-rock, particularly byChick Corea’s Return to Forever rock band,in which Corea played synthesizers andvarious electronic gadgets and pedals.Piazzolla created an Electronic Octet,which did not last long; his European au-dience preferred the acoustic sounds of hisprevious ensembles. In 1976, Piazzolla’sOctet gave a concert at Carnegie Hall spon-sored by the Argentine Embassy. But hecontinued performing more in Europeand Latin America than in the USA.

In 1976, on the day he became 55 yearsold, Piazzolla met the attractive LauraEscalada, and they remained together forthe rest of his life. In 1978, he went back tohis most successful format and establishedthe Second Quintet: bandoneon, violin,double bass, electric guitar and piano.Piazzolla was ready to embark on countlessinternational tours, in Europe, Japan, andthe Americas. He won international ac-claim, and started to make money for thefirst time in his life. He composed musicfor several European filmmakers: JeanneMoreau, Alain Delon, Nadine Trintignant,Marco Bellocchio, and Helvio Soto. He col-laborated with the Soviet dancers VladimirVassiliev and Ekaterina Maximova; Vassilievhad asked his permission to use AdiósNonino in a film he wished to make of aSomerset Maugham short story. And hewrote chamber and symphonic music.

Paul Badde gives us a beautiful descrip-tion of Piazzolla onstage: “He has becomeone with his instrument.... And so, he con-tinues to hold on to it in a double-fistedgrip, as if grasping the horns of a bull, digsdeep into the music, slams on both sidesof the bandoneon in spite of its protesta-tions, pulls it apart abruptly, pushing, press-ing and oppressing it, hangs on to the keyslike a race car driver navigating a hairpin

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bend, then lets single notes glide down hisshin—while deftly turning a page with hisleft hand—then catches them at the bot-tom and pulls them to the top with him.He sighs, breathes, whispers, cries andthinks with the thing, rests in its melodies,dreams himself into it, makes the bellowstremble by tapping the beat on the blackwood, and then looking down at it all of asudden in surprise, as if he was holding ascreaming, roaring, irrepressible life formin his hands.... He dances with the instru-ment, rides it standing still, and finallyjumps up high in the air like a kicking ponylet loose in the springtime. Triumphantly,he pulls apart the bandoneon three feetabove his head, like a brilliant magicianshowing off his last card, like a victoriousLaocoön pulling off another defeat of thedragon.... Piazzolla really has no choice: hemust play.”23

In the ‘80s, Piazzolla and Laura boughta house at Punta del Este, Uruguay, wherethey could spend the summer. Piazzollacomposed on the piano, and he reveled inthe tranquil atmosphere of a resort thatreminded him of the Mar del Plata of hisyouth. Piazzolla was intense as a musician,and just as intense was his outdoor life. Nowthat he had a chance to fish for shark, hefound that it answered a deep existentialneed. “All the rage I have inside—I take myrevenge on a shark.” He loved barbecuesand intimate dinners with friends. Releasedfrom the pressure of hectic world tours, hebicycled, shopped at the supermarket, andenjoyed Laura’s company.

In 1984 and 1985 Piazzolla had an ex-traordinary collaboration with Milva, a greatItalian singer, who could convey the dramaof his tangos. Milva remembers Piazzolla as“very serious, very professional,” and onewho gave her a “musical richness that will

remain with me all my life.” In 1986, hisQuintet performed at several jazz festivals -Ravenna, Nice, Pescara, and Montreux.Piazzolla was now constantly rubbing shoul-ders with jazz musicians he admired, likeMiles Davis, Lionel Hampton, Pat Metheny,Michel Petrucciani and Jim Hall. The Quin-tet and Gary Burton leapt across the globeto Japan. At the Sapporo jazz festival, thehighly talented guitarist Al Di Meola metPiazzolla. “Astor and I developed a relation-ship as friends and mutual admirers, onethat I’ll always treasure,” says Di Meola.24

In 1987, Piazzolla and the Quintet per-formed before an audience of 4,000 peoplein Central Park. Reviews were eulogistic. GilEvans later told him it was “one of the mostincredible concerts of my life.” 25 A few dayslater Piazzolla was at Princeton Universityto record his Bandoneon Concerto with theSt. Luke’s Orchestra, conducted by his oldfriend Lalo Schifrin.

That same year, Piazzolla attended a con-cert of the Kronos Quartet, and went back-stage to compliment the musicians. “I askedhim if I could call him in a few days,” re-calls David Harrington, founder of Kronos.“I did call him in a few days. By then he hadfinished Four for Tango, and he said: ‘shall Isend it to you?’” The Kronos Quartet de-cided to include it on their next album,Winter Was Hard, recorded in November1987.26

Piazzolla’s health deteriorated, and hecancelled his quintet. In 1988, he had qua-druple bypass surgery, performed by theambidextrous Dr. Fernández Aramburu.The operation took about three and a halfhours, and three weeks later he was given aclean bill of health.27 In 1989, he estab-lished a sextet, with two bandoneons, pi-ano, double bass, guitar, and cello. Piazzollalooked tired, and he tired easily. But as al-

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ways, he had plans. He was thinking of fu-ture tours and concerts. He had to write apiece Mstislav Rostropovich had commis-sioned. When they met, Piazzolla asked ifhe could add a bandoneon to the plannedcello-piano-guitar-percussion line-up. “Ifyou play it yourself, certainly,” repliedRostropovich.28

Piazzolla and Laura were in Paris, get-ting ready to attend the Sunday mass atNotre Dame, when he had a cerebral hem-orrhage. It was August 5, 1990. Laura andhis children, Daniel and Diana, agreed thatAstor should return to Argentina. A twenty-three month ordeal followed, until hisdeath in Buenos Aires on July 4, 1992.

Piazzolla’s international reputation hasclimbed during the years since his death.His music has been played and recordedby a wide variety of groups, including theKronos Quartet, the Assad brothers, andthe G-String Quartet. Piazzolla albums havebeen made by jazz giants like Al Di Meolaand Gary Burton, and by classical artists likeRostropovich, Daniel Barenboim, EmanuelAx, Yo-Yo Ma, Gidon Kremer, and the cel-lists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Pablo Ziegler was Piazzolla’s pianist inthe second Quintet (1978-88). He has writ-ten about the character of the tango:“Tango is the music that represents us, andit is also humor, play, dance, roguishness.It is our canyengue (street language), equiva-lent to swing plus slang. Defying and exhi-bitionist, the authentic tango expressesmugre (filth) and roña (fight). It is provoca-tion, sensuality, ease, and a quarrelsometemper. The dialect of a porteño is boastfuland humorous. A compadrito (young hood-lum of the slums) is a daring man. Comingfrom the marginal origins of tango danc-ing, the mugre and the canyengue turned intomusic. They became a note, an inflexion, a

challenge and a provocation. No matter thecontext, tango must express camorra(provocation), which is how its roots arepreserved. Piazzolla has very sophisticatedcompositions, and at the same time, theyare mugrosas. Such mugre can be felt, in spiteof the intricacy with which those tangoswere written or whether the language wascontemporary, impressionist or expression-ist. Tango has always been related with fight-ing, with roña, with guys breaking the law.One plays this music on the borderlinebetween tango and chamber music. This isperceived through the accents and themanner in which it is played. Piazzolla tookthis music toward more refined levels, keep-ing a hard-hitting, provocative edge.Whether it is transformed strictly intochamber music or reminiscence, you canhear something more solemn and distant.Astor’s music is erudite like European mu-sic, with the addition of all those elementsthat constitute the essence of tango. Thoseborderline guys started tango in the sub-urbs. During the day, wearing alpargatas(footwear of the poor), they worked deliv-ering charcoal or milk. At night they dis-guised themselves to go dancing. They puton cross-buttoned suits, slouch hats andbooted shoes. The funny way of walkingcomes from there, as if their feet were hurt-ing. It was an artificial posture: ‘Look at me,here I am.’ A caricature mimicking a well-to-do guy.”29

Violin effects, percussion, and improvi-sation come from the lower classes, but themusic is bourgeois. Piazzolla is both theproduct of a tradition and the rupture ofthat tradition. Astor Piazzolla had no po-litical banner or affiliations, but he spoketo audiences in a new language. Althoughhe never typed himself, he was a polyclassiste.For Piazzolla, the burning question was,

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“Do you or don’t you like my music?” Henever compromised his standards to caterto commercial interests. “My dream,” heonce said, “is to introduce my music andmy country’s music all over the world.”30

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ENDNOTES

1. Kennedy, 611. 2. Interview with Paquito D’Rivera, 1997. 3. Azzi and Collier, 8. 4. Astor Piazzolla in Boston Globe, 23 August 1987. 5. Azzi and Collier, 6. 6. Ibid., 26. 7. Kennedy, 61. 8. See Azzi, “The Golden Age and After” in Tango, 114-160. For a brief description of the Peronist phenomenon, see 155-57. 9. Azzi and Collier, 41-42.10. Plotkin, 93.11. Speratti, 72-73; “Convicción” 14 November 1979; interview with Horacio Ferrer, 1988.12. Azzi and Collier, 55.13. Ibid., 170.14. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, ed. Barry Kernfeld, New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1995, 1176.15. Kennedy, 853.16. Azzi and Collier, 65-66.17. Ibid., 70.18. Ibid., 77.19. See Kernfeld.20. Interview with Gary Burton, 1996.21. Azzi, in ¡Tango!, 157-9.22. Azzi and Collier, 172.23. Paul Badde, trans. Eugene Seidel. Liner notes, Astor Piazzolla y su Quinteto Nuevo Tango. Tristezas de un Doble A, Messidor CD 15970-2, in Azzi and Collier, 154.24. Azzi and Collier, 245.25. Steve Sacks, liner notes, Astor Piazzolla. The Central Park Concert, Chesky Records JD 107.26. Azzi and Collier, 254.27. Ibid., 262.28. Clarín, 20 July 1994.29. Interview with Pablo Ziegler, 1998.30. Astor Piazzolla, Clarín, 1 December 1974.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Azzi, María Susana. “The Golden Age and After” in ¡Tango! London and New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995.

Azzi, María Susana, and Simon Collier. Le Grand Tango. The Life and Music of Astor Piazzolla. Foreword by Yo-Yo Ma. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Boston Globe. “Clarín” (Buenos Aires); “Convicción” (Buenos Aires).

Kennedy, Michael, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Music. New York, 1998.

Kernfeld, Barry. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. New York, 1995.

Plotkin, Mariano. Mañana es San Perón. Buenos Aires, 1994.

Speratti, Alberto. Con Piazzolla. Buenos Aires, 1969.

CDs

Paul Badde, trans. Eugene Seidel, liner notes. Astor Piazzolla y su Quinteto Nuevo Tango.Tristezas de un Doble A. Messidor CD 15970-2.

Steve Sacks, liner notes. Astor Piazzolla. The Central Park Concert. Chesky Records JD 107.

Interviews by María Susana Azzi

Gary Burton, Buenos Aires, 12 June 1996.Al Di Meola, Buenos Aires, 9 December 1996.Horacio Ferrer, Buenos Aires, 3 June 1988.Paquito D’Rivera, Punta del Este, Uruguay, 17 January 1997.Pablo Ziegler, Buenos Aires, 2 October 1998.

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María Susana Azzi holds a degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of BuenosAires. In 1996 she joined the board of the National Academy of Tango in Buenos Aires, andin 1997 became a board member of the Astor Piazzolla Foundation. For the past ten years,Ms. Azzi has lectured on the tango in Argentina and abroad. She has delivered lectures atthe Smithsonian Institution, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Stanford University,California State at Fresno, University of Arizona, the Institute of Material Culture in St.Petersburg, Russia, the University of North Texas, Northern Arizona University, Universityof Maryland, and the School of American Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is an avidinterpreter of tango culture, having contributed more than forty articles to organizationsand journals, including the American Anthropological Association, the Buenos Aires Herald,the International Congress of Americanists, the International Council for Traditional Mu-sic (ICTM), and the National Academy of Tango. In collaboration with Simon Collier, herbook Le Grand Tango: A Biography of Astor Piazzolla, was published in 2000 by Oxford Univer-sity Press. As an expert on tango, she has been consulted by Sony Classical and interviewedon dance documentaries. Her works in progress include co-writing Tango Magic, a one-hourdocumentary, and biographies of composer Gabriel Clausi and percussionist José Corriale.

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Other publications available in the Encuentros series:

Houses, Voices and Language in Latin AmericaDialogue with José Donoso, Chilean novelist.No. 1, March 1993.

How the History of America BeganLecture by Germán Arciniegas, Colombian historian.No. 2, April 1993.

The International Year of Indigenous PeoplesLecture by Rigoberta Menchú, Guatemalan indigenous leaderand 1992 Novel Peace Prize laureate.No. 3, October 1993.

Contemporary Paraguayan Narrative: Two CurrentsLecture by Renée Ferrer, Paraguayan novelist and poet.No. 4, March 1994.

Paraguay and Its Plastic ArtsLecture by Annick Sanjurjo Casciero, Paraguayan historian.No. 5, March 1994.

The Future of DramaLecture by Alfonso Sastre, Spanish playwright.No. 6, April 1994.

Dance: from Folk to ClassicalLecture by Edward Villella, North American dancer and ArtisticDirector of the Miami City Ballet.No. 7, August 1994.

Belize: A Literary PerspectiveLecture by Zee Edgell, Belizean novelist and author of Beka Lamb.No. 8, September 1994.

The Development of Sculpture in the Quito SchoolLecture by Magdalena Gallegos de Donoso, Ecuadorian anthropologist.No. 9, October 1994.

MARIA SUSANA AZZI

Art in Context: Aesthetics, Environment, and Function in the Arts of JapanLecture by Ann Yonemura, North American curator of Japanese Artat the Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution.No. 10, March 1995.

Approaching the End of the MillenniumLecture by Homero Aridjis, Mexican poet and winner ofthe United Nations Global 500 Award.No. 11, September 1995.

Haiti: A Bi-Cultural ExperienceLecture by Edwidge Danticat, Haitian novelist and author of Breath, Eyes, Memory.No. 12, December 1995.

The Meanings of the MillenniumLecture by Bernard McGinn, North American theologian fromthe University of Chicago’s Divinity School.No. 13, January 1996.

Andean Millenarian Movements: Their Origins, Originalityand Achievements (16th-18th centuries).Lecture by Manuel Burga, Peruvian sociologist fromthe Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.No. 14, February 1996.

Apocalypse in the Andes: Contact Zones and the Struggle for Interpretive PowerLecture by Mary Louise Pratt, Canadian linguist from Stanford University.No. 15, March 1996.

When Strangers Come to Town: Millennial Discourse, Comparison,and the Return of Quetzalcoatl.Lecture by David Carrasco, North American historianfrom Princeton University.No. 16, June 1996.

Understanding Messianism in Brazil: Notes from a Social AnthropologistLecture by Roberto Da Matta, Brazilian anthropologist fromNotre Dame University.No. 17, September 1996.


The People’s Millennium: The Legacy of Juan and Eva Perón Lecture by Juan E. Corradi, Argentine sociologist from New York University. No. 18, November 1996.

Brief Notes on Ecuadorian and U.S. LiteratureLecture by Raúl Pérez Torres, Ecuadorian Poet.No. 19, March 1997.

Society and Poetry: Those Who Come Wrapped in a BlanketLecture by Roberto Sosa, Honduran poet.No. 20, May 1997.

Architecture as a Living ProcessLecture by Douglas Cardinal, Canadian architect whose projectsinclude Washington, D.C.’s National Museum of the American Indian.No. 21, July 1997.

Composing Opera: A Backstage Visit to the Composer’s WorkshopLecture by Daniel Catán, Mexican composer whose operas includeFlorencia en el Amazonas.No. 22, August 1997.

Welcoming Each Other: Cultural Transformation of the Caribbean in the 21st Century.Lecture by Earl Lovelace, Trinidadian novelist and winner ofthe 1997 Commonwealth Prize.No. 23, January 1998.

Out of SilenceLecture by Albalucía Angel, Colombian novelist and pioneerof Latin American postmodernism.No. 24, April 1998.

How Latino Immigration is Transforming AmericaLecture by Roberto Suro, North American reporter for The Washington Post,and former Bureau Chief of The New York Times in Houston, Texas.No. 25, May 1998.

The Iconography of Painted Ceramics from the Northern Andes.Lecture by Felipe Cárdenas-Arroyo, Colombian archaeologist fromthe University of Los Andes in Bogota.No. 26, July 1998.

MARIA SUSANA AZZI

Celebrating the Extraordinary Life of Elisabeth SamsonLecture by Cynthia McLeod, Surinamese novelist and authorof The High Price of Sugar.No. 27, August 1998.

A Country, A DecadeLecture by Salvador Garmendia, Venezuelan novelist, and winnerof the Juan Rulfo Short Story Prize and the National Literature Prize.No. 28, September 1998.

Aspects of Creation in the Central American NovelLecture by Gloria Guardia, Panamanian fiction writer and essayist,and senior member of the Panamanian Academy of Language.No. 29, September 1998.

Made in GuyanaLecture by Fred D’Aguiar, Guyanese novelist and winner of theWhitbread First Novel Award, and the Guyana Prize for Fiction, and Poetry.No. 30, November 1998.

True Lies on the Subject of Literary CreationLecture by Sergio Ramírez, Nicaraguan writer and former Vice-president of his country.No. 31, May 1999.

Myth, History and Fiction in Latin AmericaLecture by Tomás Eloy Martínez, Argentinean writer and author of Santa Evita.No. 32, May 1999.

Cultural Foundations of Latin American IntegrationLecture by Leopoldo Castedo, Spanish-Chilean art historian.No. 33, September 1999.

El Salvador and the Construction of Cultural IdentityLecture by Miguel Huezo Mixco, Salvadorian poet and journalist.No. 34, October 1999.


__________________________________________________________ Spanish and English versions available

The Encuentros series is distributed free of charge to university and municipal libraries through-out the IDB member countries. Interested institutions may obtain the series by contactingthe IDB Cultural Center at the address listed on the back cover.

The Female Memory in NarrativeLecture by Nélida Piñon, Brazilian novelist and author of The Republic of Dreams.No. 35, November 1999.

Le Grand Tango: The Life and Music of Astor PiazzollaLecture by María Susana Azzi, Argentine cultural anthropologist, and member ofthe board of the National Academy of Tango in Buenos Aires.No. 36, May 2000.

Columbus’s Ghost: Tourism, Art and National Identity in the BahamasLecture by Ian Gregory Strachan, English Professor at the University ofMassachusetts at Dartmouth, and author of God’s Angry Babies.No. 37, June 2000.

Talkin’ Ol’ Story: A Brief Survey of the Oral Tradition of the BahamasLecture by Patricia Glinton-Meicholas, founding president of the BahamasAssociation for Cultural Studies and recipient of a Silver Jubilee ofIndependence Medal for Literature.No. 38, July 2000.

Anonymous Sources: A Talk on Translators and TranslationLecture by Eliot Weinberger, essayist and translator of many booksby Octavio Paz, and winner of the PEN/Kolovakos Award forpromoting Hispanic literature in the United States.No. 39, November 2000.

MARIA SUSANA AZZI

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