MUL 2380

Miami Dade College Interamerican Campus

Professor Monteagudo

Jazz and Other Popular Styles in America

HISTORICAL and MUSICAL EVOLUTION OF TANGO IN ARGENTINA

AND

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA: LEGENDARY NEW TANGO CREATOR AND COMPOSER

-Latin popular dances took the United States by storm by the early part of the 20th

century - Over the last 65 years or so, music from South America, the Caribbean and Mexico has enriched the popular music of the United States. - Latin American dance music has strongly affected North American pop and jazz music - Today, the category of Latin Pop has become a very strong category on the Billboard trade magazine popular music charts and the Grammy Awards ceremonies

ARGENTINA

The TANGO, a world-renown Argentinian dance, was the first of the Latin rhythms to affect American popular music.

Characteristics of Traditional Tango

a) a graceful yet sensual and “rough” dance

b) basic tango resembles closely to an old Cuban dance known as the HABANERA

Listening Example:

You-Tube Footage: “La Paloma” – solo classical guitar arrangement of this famous habanera written by SEBASTIAN YRADIER (1809-1865) performed by the classical guitarist CELINO ROMERO, 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLM5dNwxnHQ

c) The HABANERA rhythm was of extreme significance in the United States, particularly in the piano music of the old New Orleans ragtime piano players like Jelly Roll Morton. This rhythm was known among them as “the Spanish tinge”.

Mid-19th century classical piano composer, Louis Moreau Gottschalk would apply this habanera rhythm to some of his solo piano pieces.

THE HISTORY OF THE TANGO

THE BANDONEON: THE VOICE OF THE TANGO

1) An Irish sailor, with a German accordion-like instrument known as the BANDONEON (invented by Heinrich Band or Hermann Urhlig around 1840-1855), who created the distinctive sound of the tango. The bandoneon was used as a portable organ in Germany in churches that could not afford the luxury of having a monumental pipe organ or harmonium. The bandoneon proved to be an instrument that was resonant enough to fill an entire church with sound. It has 33 buttons on the left side (the bass side with lower notes) and 38 buttons on the right side (the treble side for melodies and improvisations) using the fingers to press the buttons and thumbs to hold the straps on each side with massive bellows strectching about 3 feet at maximum length.

2) Irish sailors used the bandoneon for their reels and hornpipes and introduced it to South America, where the Italian accordion players adopted it for their tango bands. A hybrid instrument for a hybrid form of music.

THE BIRTH OF THE TANGO

- Tango was born ca. 1880s in the outskirts of Buenos Aires in the fabled ARRABAL(ES).

What were the ARRABALES?

The ARRABALES were the rough and tough, low-class suburbs that were formed at the time that Argentina was just starting to become a nation.

-Tango, at its inception, was very HAPPY music. - The early tango groups of the 1880s and 1890s were usually trio formations. The instrumentation of early tango groups featured the flute, the violin and the guitar.

*NOTE: In some of the places where this early form of tango was being played, they did not accept women. Some of these early tangos were danced between men.

- During these early years, tango music became part of the entertainment and ambience of the whorehouses.

- In the higher-knotch whorehouses and bordellos, one could find a pianist playing tangos. The BANDONEON would only come into tango music about 30 years later.

- By mid-1890s-1900, tango music came closer to the prosperous downtown and CONVENTILLOS, poor working-class tenements of Buenos Aires.

- For a long time, middle and upper class described tango music as vulgar and “indecent” music, a lowly form of music favored by the ORILLEROS, dangerous men hanging around the whorehouses who were already to use their knifes in any fight and exercise any other form of violence.

- However, like a forbidden fruit, the “good families” and upper-class brought this vulgar and “indecent” music of tango into their mansions and palaces, much to their great delight behind closed doors. They had accepted this music into their lives because it garnered enormous approval and population both in Paris, Hollywood and New York.

- Le Tango, as the French would call it, was a huge success by 1910 and shortly after in 1913 in New York through the dancing couple of Irene and Vernon

Castle. - By the early 1920s, tango music becomes a big hit in Hollywood through the

acting of Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926), who danced the tango in his movie The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)

- Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, the popularity of tango reached other countries like Italy, Germany and England

Note: Traditional Tango derives from three musical forms which are the following: a) Spanish flamenco b) Cuban habanera and contradanza c) Tango brasilero

Note: All of these 3 musical forms of which traces can be heard in TANGO all have a syncopated, two beat-rhythmic pattern in common.

EARLY TANGO DANCING

Charateristics of Early Tango Dancing

a) aggressive b) sensual c) with “violent” dance movements suggestive of knife fights and sexual stimulation like the CORTE (sudden halt or stop), the QUEBRADA (twist) and REFALADA (glide).

CARLOS GARDEL (ca. 1890-1935)

In the 1920s, a form of tango called TANGO-CANCION (tango-song) became very popular. In this form of tango, the music has a more romantic, nostalgic, dramatic feel with a more inspired melancholy than its much earlier livelier form. Its biggest star was the singer-actor CARLOS GARDEL. Gardel was particularly influential in making tango fashionable in Europe and in the USA. A year before his untimely and tragic death in an airplane crash at an airport in Medellin, Colombia in 1935 at the age of 45, he was introduced to a 13

year-old bandoneon prodigy who had taught himself to play Bach preludes and fugues, Mozart and Rachmaninoff solo piano preludes on this extremely difficult

and beastly instrument. This young boy was destined to become one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed musicians of all time and virtually a one-man crusade for his own innovative music known as NEW TANGO. That young boy was the extraordinary master bandoneonist-composer-arranger-musical innovator ASTOR PIAZZOLLA.

GARDEL’S MUSIC

a) With Gardel, the style of tango called TANGO-CANCION (tango-song) reached its highest musical peak.

b) In tango-canciones, the lyrics for at least decade or more (1880s and 1890s) almost exclusively dealt with the life in the whorehouses and all the activities that took place inside and outside.

c) By the time Gardel arrives on the scene, his tango-canciones dealt with a variety of topics including lost or unrequited love, lives of European immigrants in Argentina, the plight of the working poor and those who fell through the cracks emotionally as well as economically.

DVD Footage: Carlos Gardel Movie Clips from the 1930s Singing Some his world- renowned Tangos 1) El Dia Que Me Quieras 2) Volver 3) Golondrinas 4) Soledad

THE RISE OF THE TANGO BIG BANDS (1930s-1950s)

- Through the radio and in live dances at big ballrooms, these great tango big bands filled the rooms with their huge front line of bandoneons, violins and cellos and piano. - Some of the great tango big band leaders were Anibal Troilo, Francisco Lauro (El Tano Lauro), Osvaldo Pugliese, Miguel Calo, Alfredo Gobbi, etc.

ANIBAL TROILO (1914-1975)

- bandoneon master and composer - leader of one the most successful and exciting traditional tango

orquestras (orquesta tipica de tango) - professional spanned close to four decades until his death in 1975

You-Tube Footage:

“Quejas de Bandoneon” – performed by Anibal Troilo and his Tango Big Band – performed and recorded 1972, live from a concert at the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires, Argentina

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1ijfLrTQGg&feature=related

OSVALDO PUGLIESE (1905-1995)

- pianist and tango bandleader-composer with a career spanning seven decades

“La Yumba” – performed live at the Teatro Opera de Buenos Aires by pianist- bandleader OSVALDO PUGLIESE y su Orquesta Tipica - 1985

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSNsIUZUlnU

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA: ARGENTINA’S MUSICAL ICONOCLAST AND NEW

TANGO CREATOR

What is an ICONOCLAST?

A person who attacks cherished beliefs or institutions which he or she thinks are wrong or foolish (based on error or superstition)

“I have to tell the most absolute truth. I could make it a story of angels but that would not be the true story. Mine is one of devils mixed with angels, and some

miserliness. One must have a bit of everything to move forward in life.”

Astor Piazzolla

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA (1921-1992)

-born March 11, 1921 in Mar del Plata and raised in Buenos Aires the Piazzolla family moves to New York when Astor was about 4 years old his father found a small bandoneon at a pawn shop and bought it for his young son as a present for his birthday -During his 9-year stay, he studied classical piano with a piano student-disciple of the great Russian composer, Sergei Rachmaninoff and continued to figure out in a mostly self-taught and extraordinarily gifted way how to master the bandoneon like he was mastering the piano and realized that it was similar to piano playing in the coordination between both hands

-It was in New York in 1934, that he meets the legendary singer-entertainer- actor, Carlos Gardel and would appear in cameo appearances and play the bandoneon for the movie soundtracks in his movies and until Gardel’s untimely death the following year in an airplane crash in Medellin, Colombia. Gardel hired Piazzolla in New York. Piazzolla was the only musician in New York who played the bandoneon.

-At 17, Astor moves back to Buenos Aires and begins to work with the orquesta tipicas of traditional tango music, he was particularly through the 1940s with bandoneon player-leader Anibal Troilo’s group but soon Piazzolla became something of a musical rebel and Troilo was less than amused with Piazzolla’s inserting modernistic chords in the orchestra’s arrangements and would beg him to stop putting to many “interesting” twists in the music in any part of his arrangements. -Eventually in 1946, Piazzolla forms his own group, and extremely bored with traditional tango music by this time he begins to make his own rules as he continues to receive modern classical music training from Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera and a piano disciple of the great Polish classical pianist, Artur Rubinstein. -From 1943-1953, he writes much neo-classical art music for solo instruments, chamber groups and symphonic works as well as playing his brand of tango in his more “popular groups” -In 1952-1953, one of his symphonic works won a major prize plus a full-year package to receive composition master classes in Paris from the legendary French composition and music theory teacher, NADIA BOULANGER (1887-1979) -During his year association with Boulanger, he continued to improve his compositional skills and writing new works but Boulanger eventually would explain to him that he had to find his own identity as a composer. In her professional and well-respected opinion, she felt that although his works were good, they did not sound like Piazzolla but like the music of the modern classical composers like Paul Hindemith, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Sergei Rachmaninoff. -Boulanger reacted favorably by telling him that she loved tango music and insisted that Piazzolla play a tango piece on the piano, and when he finished she said “There it is – this is Astor Piazzolla, you can throw away all this other music you have written and the tango is the way to go”. Later, he admitted that he was

ashamed of his background as a tango musician who had played in bars, nightclubs and whorehouses of Buenos Aires. It was through Boulanger’s encouragement and support that Piazzolla decided the following year in 1955 to create a new way of playing the tango, NEW TANGO by forming his first significant group, the OCTETO BUENOS AIRES. -By the 1950s, traditional tango was dying and had become a relic of sorts by 1956 and rock ‘n roll music begins to be the rage in Argentina and by the 1960s, the Beatles were the big stars in that country. -Piazzolla felt that tango had to evolve from its old ways and needed new directions musically -In 1955, Piazzolla founded his first New Tango group, the Octeto Buenos Aires. These first years of New Tango were not easy ones for Piazzolla. Many Argentinians in Buenos Aires and New York felt that Piazzolla committed sacrilege and destroyed tango music with his modern musical concepts and endured many threats to him and his family including a couple of assassination attempts.

-In 1960, he forms his Quinteto Tango Nuevo group. This would be the format that would be associated with Piazzolla for the rest of his life (with the exception of 3- year stint in the earlier part of the 1970s with 9-member group that added full drum set and extra violin plus 2 cellos and later in 1974-1978 with an Electronic Octet that featured Hammond B-3 jazz organ, synthesizers and drum set plus cellos and violins, electric guitar, double bass, electric and acoustic piano) - in 1967-1968, alongside his longtime partner, the Uruguayan poet and writer Horacio Ferrer, they write a two-part New Tango opera called Maria de Buenos Aires. At the time, Piazzolla had started a long 7-year live-in love affair with a pretty young tango singer and guitarist, Amelita Baltar (b.1941) and she was the main protagonist and singer of the opera. It received some success but many mixed reviews for the most part. - Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer wrote many songs together (about 80 or so), many of them were specifically tailored for the singing style of and for Amelita Baltar. Their biggest hit together was the very famous Balada para un loco (1969). Within five days after its initial single release to the public, it sold over 250,000 copies in 5 days. It was the best-selling hit single in tango music history. It is considered the Latin song counterpartner to the Beatles’ A Day In the Life and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. - in 1971, he premiered his New Tango oratorio, El Pueblo Joven, in a spectacular performance in Germany. -After disbanding this Electronic Octet group in late 1977, he forms his most awesome New Tango Quintet of all. This group literally catapulted Astor Piazzolla to world-class status of which he was slowly but surely attaining beginning in the late 1960s through his work providing musical soundtracks for many foreign films from 1978-1988, the Astor Piazzolla Quintet had an intense and hectic touring schedule crossing the four corners of the globe. -As Piazzolla was enjoying the highest point of his career, he suffers a heart attack in

November 1988. -Piazzolla forms a Sextet in 1989 and tours with this group for about a year and decided to disband the group. He would continue to make appearances with symphony orchestras playing his New Tango symphonic works. -On August 4, 1990, Piazzolla suffers a terrible stroke that left him bedridden in intensive care for almost two years and dies on July 4, 1992.

NEW TANGO CHARACTERISTICS

a) dissonant harmonies borrowed from jazz and 20th century contemporary composers like Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen, Ginastera, Hindemith, Bartok, Schoenberg and Stravinsky b) the heavy rhythmic accents found in composers like Bela Bartok (a Piazzolla favorite) c) walking bass “tango style” d) jazz chord and scale vocabulary (i.e. he was a big fan of the great jazz composer Duke Ellington) e) improvisation (from time to time creating a sort of TANGO JAZZ) f) the use of modern classical techniques (i.e. prepared piano, percussive violin playing on the opposite side of the bridge of the instrument, upright bass percussive hand slaps, polytonality, bi-tonality, etc.)

THE MUSIC OF ASTOR PIAZZOLLA

“I have a hope that my music will be heard in the year 2020 – and in the year 3000, too.”

Astor Piazzolla

“I am a tango man, but my music makes people think. It is for people who love tango and for people who love good music. All ballet companies in the world are

dancing to my works. The jazz people love and enjoy what I do (Piazzolla himself

made records with two great jazz musicians, the baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan (1927-1996) and a live recording at the Montreux Jazz Festival with

vibraphonist Gary Burton (born 1943)) and chamber groups are commissioning me to write works for them.” (a notable example would be the Kronos Quartet)

Astor Piazzolla

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA (bandoneonist-composer-arranger) With his NEW TANGO QUINTET, NEW TANGO SEXTET and with chamber orchestra

1) ADIOS NONINO (1959)

Piazzolla wrote this piece a sort of a REQUIEM (music in memory of someone, a loved one who passed on) and was dedicated to his father Victor Pantaleón Piazzolla, the man he adored so much in this world, who died in mid-1959. The word Nonino in Italian means “grandfather”. Astor’s two children, Diana and Daniel used to call his father “Nonino”. If one asks an Argentinian that knows anything about Piazzolla’s music to name a composition by Piazzolla, this title comes up frequently in the responses.

DVD Footage: Adios Nonino – performed by Astor Piazzolla and his New Tango Quintet, live at the Montreal Jazz Festival, Canada, July 4, 1984

2) BUENOS AIRES HORA CERO (Midnight in Buenos Aires)

Piazzolla wrote this piece initiallyin 1963 with the second edition of his New Tango Quintet. This new versión is with his last group, his NEW TANGO SEXTET complete with an extra bandoneon player, Daniel Binelli live in Bristol, England. Complete with “prepared piano” passages in which the piano player reaches inside playing the strings, random dissonant note clusters and phrases, with the cello imitating police and ambulance sirens from a distance, these musical features add to the eerie and haunting effect of the sensation of nighttime (midnight) in the city of Buenos Aires

DVD footage: “Buenos Aires Hora Cero” ("Zero Hour" or "Midnight in Buenos Aires") – recorded for the BBC Broadcasting Corporation, Bristol, England in 1989 by Astor Piazzolla and his NEW TANGO SEXTET

3)LA SERIE DEL ANGEL (1962-1965)

Piazzolla wrote this famous 4-part suite for his New Tango Quintet and the last 3 parts of the suite were to remain staple pieces of his concert repertoire for the rest of his life and remain among Piazzolla’s most played numbers by classical artists today.

a) You-Tube Footage: “La Milonga del Angel” (The Angel’s Milonga) – 2nd movement from his 4-part suite LA SERIE DEL ANGEL – performed by Astor Piazzolla and his New Tango Quintet, live performance in Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1985

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVF9eB3RGN8

b) DVD Footage: “La Muerte del Angel” (Death of the Angel) - 3rd movement from

Piazzolla’s 3-part suite LA SERIE 3rd movement “La Muerte del Angel” – performed by Astor Piazzolla and his New Tango Quintet, live at the Montreal Jazz Festival, Canada, July 4, 1984

c) DVD Footage: 4th and final movement “Resurreccion del Angel” (The Angel’s Resurrection) – from Piazzolla’s 3-part suite LA SERIE DEL ANGEL - performed by Astor Piazzolla and his New Tango Quintet, live at the Montreal Jazz Festival, Canada, July 4, 1984

4)CUATRO ESTACIONES PORTE~NAS (1964-1970)

Like a much earlier musical genius Antonio Vivaldi, Piazzolla wrote a 4-part suite based on the seasons of the year of his beloved Buenos Aires.

Note: A porte~no(a) is a descriptor for people, places, events, stories, etc. exclusively from the city of Buenos Aires

a)“Verano Porte~no” (Summer in Buenos Aires) – performed by Astor Piazzolla and his New Tango Quintet, live in Japan, 1984

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0gDqDXpUW0

b) DVD Footage: “Oto~no in Buenos Aires” (Autumn in Buenos Aires), live at the Montreal Jazz Festival, Canada, July 4, 1984.

c) “Invierno Porte~no” – performed by Astor Piazzolla and his New Tango Quintet, 1985

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9arbQmGLmSc&feature=relmfu

Other 1960s works

a) “Revirado” – studio performance 1967 – Astor Piazzolla and his NEW TANGO QUINTET

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9_Wiy0ks-I&feature=relmfu

b) “Revolucionario” – live performance – Astor Piazzolla and his NEW TANGO QUINTET – live studio performance ca. 1968-1969

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz_RYL7Pb_c

5) SERIE SILFO Y ONDINA (1969)

Astor Piazzolla wrote this 4-part suite for his NEW TANGO QUINTET at a time in his life where he actually believed that the Gods Silpha and Ondine, gods of air and water brought him good luck and protection.

“Soledad” – 1st movement from the suite SERIE SILFO Y ONDINA – performed by Astor Piazzolla and his NEW TANGO QUINTET, live in Lisbon, Portugal, fall 1987

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAnVmAHMnGA (at 1:07:20 mark)

“Tangata” – 3rd movement from the suite SERIE SILFO Y ONDINA – performed live for German television – Astor Piazzolla and his New Tango Quintet, 1985

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ9HKAJgpgY

SONGS BY ASTOR PIAZZOLLA and HORACIO FERRER

a)“Los Pajaros Perdidos” – sung by Jose Angel Trelles accompanied by ASTOR

PIAZZOLLA and his OCTETO ELECTRONICO, live performance, ca. 1975-1976 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l09SBRG-tEo

b) “Las Ciudades” – sung by AMELITA BALTAR (b.1941) – accompanied by Astor Piazzolla and large orchestra, 1972

c) “Chiquilin de Bachin” – same personnel and date as #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvixyUKX-fY

d) “Balada para un Loco”

- This was Piazzolla’s biggest hit as a songwriter. It was written in 1969 with lyrics by Uruguayan poet Horacio Ferrer (b. 1933). It was originally sung by Amelita Baltar with Astor Piazzolla and chamber orchestra. After just 5 days of release into the world market, it sold over 250, 000 singles – still the record for the most sold single song in tango history!

BALADA PARA UN LOCO Las tardecitas de Buenos Aires tienen ese que se yo, viste? Salgo de casa por Arenales, lo de siempre en la calle y en mi... Cuándo, de repente, detras de un árbol, aparezco yo Mezcla rara de penultimo linyera y de primer polizonte en el viaje a Venus. Medio melón en la cabeza, las rayas de la camisa pintadas en la piel, dos medias suelas clavadas en los pies y una banderita de taxi libre levantada en cada mano. Parece que solo vos me ves, Porque paso entre la gente y los maniquíes me guiñan, los semáforos le dan tres luces celestes y las naranjas del frutero de la esquina le tiran azahares. Y así, medio bailando y medio volando, me saca el melón, me saluda, te regalo una banderita y te digo:

(Cantado)

Ya sé que estoy piantao, piantao, piantao... No ves que va la luna rodando por Callao, que un corso de astronautas y niños, con un vals, me baila alrededor... ¡Bailá! ¡Vení! ¡Volá!

Ya sé que estoy piantao, piantao, piantao... Yo miro a Buenos Aires del nido de un gorrión y a vos te vi tan triste... ¡Vení! ¡Volá! ¡Sentí!... el loco berretín que tengo para vos.

¡Loco! ¡Loco! ¡Loco! Cuando anochezca en tu porteña soledad, por la ribera de tu sábana vendré con un poema y un trombón a desvelarte el corazón.

¡Loco! ¡Loco! ¡Loco! Como un acróbata demente saltaré, sobre el abismo de tu escote hasta sentir que enloquecí tu corazón de libertad... ¡Ya vas a ver!

(Recitado)

Y asi diciendo,te convido a andar en mi ilusión super-sport Y vamos a correr por las cornisas ¡con una golondrina en el motor!

El manicomio nos aplauden: "¡Viva! ¡Viva!", los locos que inventaron el Amor, y un ángel y un soldado y una niña nos dan un valsecito bailador.

Me salgo a saludar la gente linda... Loco, pero tuyo, ¡qué sé yo!: provoco campanarios con la risa, y al fin, te miro y canto a media voz:

(Cantado)

Quereme así, piantao, piantao, piantao... Trepate a esta ternura de locos que hay en mí, ponete esta peluca de alondras, ¡y volá! ¡Volá conmigo ya! ¡Vení, volá, vení!

Quereme así, piantao, piantao, piantao... Abrite los amores que vamos a intentar la mágica locura total de revivir... ¡Vení, volá, vení! ¡Trai-lai-la-larará!

(Gritado)

¡Viva! ¡Viva! ¡Viva! Loca ella y loco yo... ¡Locos! ¡Locos! ¡Locos! ¡Loca ella y loco yo

LAS CIUDADES

Recitado: Y entonces fue que dijimos, señor, dános la gracia de levantar ciudades iguales a los arboles, que llegan a estar maduros antes de quedarse secos...Génesis, Capítulo 1972, versiculo primero del futuro testamento.

Ciudades, fundadas para odiar Ciudades, tan altas, ¿para qué? Ciudades, cada vez de pie Ciudades, al polvo volverán

Ciudades, fundadas para odiar Ciudades, tan altas, ¿para qué? Ciudades, cada vez de pie Ciudades, al polvo volverán

Si aquí la estrella no se ve jamás y aquí la tierra y sierra y sol se van y reinará la soledad total Que escrita fue la destrucción final

Ciudades, fundadas para odiar Ciudades, tan altas, ¿para qué? Ciudades, cada vez de pie Ciudades, al polvo volverán

Qué lindo será reconstruir Querido, besáme hasta engendrar un hijo Con vuelo de albañil en paz Qué lindo me nacé una ciudad Qué calle me sangra por los pies Qué fuente parió mi corazón con fe? Y en cada charco habrá un pichón de mar Y en cada fragua un inventor de sol Y en cada puerta la inscripción astral Y en cada triste un aprendiz de Dios

Ciudades, ciudades ¿qué seran? Ciudades, sentí su anunciación Ciudades ya empiezo a construir Ciudades, del polvo volverán...

Ciudades, ciudades ¿qué serán? Ciudades, sentí su anunciación Ciudades ya empiezo a construir Ciudades, del polvo volverán...

RARE LIVE PERFORMANCE –

ORIGINAL CONJUNTO 9 PERFORMANCE – live in Teatro Colon, Argentina

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA y SU CONJUNTO 9 – June 21, 1972

(featuring on violin Antonio Agri)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhfsmpuy1Pw

1) FUGA Y MISTERIO

2) ADIOS NONINO

1983 REUNION PERFORMANCE

Of the 1971-1972 – PIAZZOLLA Y SU CONJUNTO 9

LIVE AT THE TEATRO COLON, BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA, JUNE 11, 1983

1) VARDARITO (Dedicated to the Argentine violinist of the last name Valdaro)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdpJstXceK8

2) FUGA Y MISTERIO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka3YLi5SVVE

3) VERANO PORTENO (Conjunto 9 arrangement-version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym7hoID7jF0

4) BUENOS AIRES HORA CERO (Conjunto 9 arrangement- version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD8jMFcYTa4

5) CONCIERTO DE NACAR (for Conjunto 9 plus Chamber Orchestra) – 1st movement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIfqNpyMj1M

6) LIBERTANGO (1974) and LIBERTANGO SUITE (1974-1975)

You-Tube Footage: “Libertango” – performed in studio performance – performed and recorded 1974, Rome, Italy or Paris, France with his OCTETO ELECTRONICO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqr6K0ZCVWU

Note: The rest of the LIBERTANGO SUITE recorded 1974 in studio either in Paris or in Rome. Other movements: MEDITANGO-TRISTANGO-NOVITANGO- VIOLENTANGO-AMELITANGO-UNDERTANGO

SUITE TROILEANA (1975)

Piazzolla wrote this 4-movement work as a requiem and farewell for his old boss who had succumbed to a massive heart attack in May of 1975, arguably the most famous tango big band leader, bandoneonist-composer ANIBAL TROILO (1914-1975). Piazzolla and Troilo were dear friends to the very end even though Troilo would wink with a smile when other bandleaders would say that what Piazzolla was playing should not be called tango but something else, even when the other bandleaders would call it outright noise. This particular movement is to evoke Troilo’s love for the instrument, and for Piazzolla, it is a vehicle to express his innermost thoughts and feelings over the loss of his great friend and musician. The other three movements are titled Escolaso (a form of gambling, Troilo liked gambling), Whiskey (his favorite hard liquor drink) and Zita (Troilo’s wife, the love of his life)

3 movements from SUITE TROILEANA performed by ASTOR PIAZZOLLA And his OCTETO ELECTRONICO IN CONCERT

1) You Tube Footage: “BANDONEON” (1st movement of the suite) –

performed by ASTOR PIAZZOLLA and his OCTETO ELECTRONICO, live and in concert, late 1975

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd-vkuMRoT0

2) You-Tube Footage: “Whisky” – same personnel, performance and date as #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZQ_YwcpoIw

3) You-Tube Footage: “ZITA” (named after Troilo’s wife)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAFFCaWfTyA

CLASSICAL GUITAR DUO FROM BRAZIL

ASSAD BROTHERS

Assad Brothers play Piazzolla

“Bandoneon” and “Whisky” from Piazzolla’s Suite Troileana – live performance, ca. 1996

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMralHad8Ng

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA: FILM SCORES

Throughout his life he wrote many film scores (close to 50 or 60) for mostly mediocre or inferior French, Italian or Argentine art films Perhaps his three most significant film scores were for the movie 12 Monkeys (1982) and two later films done in with collaboration with the Argentine film director FERNANDO “PINO” SOLANAS (born 1936), EL EXILIO DE GARDEL (Tangos) (film music recorded in one day at a recording studio in Brussels, Belgium, November 1984 and the film itself premiered the following year) and SUR (film music recorded September 1987 and the film was premiered the following year 1988)

MUSIC FOR THE MOVIE 12 MONKEYS

SUITE PUNTA DEL ESTE (1981-1982) 1) Introduccion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4xRYFRo4Ac

2) Coral - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6UVDe3gNCA 3) Fuga - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2-3SUoCIXw&feature=relmfu

TANGOS, EL EXILIO DE GARDEL (1984-1985)

Listening Examples from Piazzolla’s music for the film TANGOS, EL EXILIO DE GARDEL (1984-1985) – recorded and mixed by Astor Piazzolla and his New Tango Quintet, Nov. 4, 1984, Brussels, Belgium

1) Tanguedia I - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAnVmAHMnGA (at the 5:50 mark in the video) – live in Lisbon, Portugal – Astor Piazzolla with his New Tango Quintet, fall 1987

2) Duo De Amor 3) Tanguedia II 4) Tanguedia III (Milonga Loca)

SUR (1988)

Listening Examples from Piazzolla’s music for the film SUR (1988)

“Regreso al Amor/Vuelvo al Sur” (Musica de Astor Piazzolla/Letra de Fernando “Pino” Solanas) Vuelvo al Sur, como se vuelve siempre al amor, vuelvo a vos, con mi deseo, con mi temor. Llevo el Sur, como un destino del corazon, soy del Sur, como los aires del bandoneon.

Sueño el Sur, inmensa luna, cielo al reves, busco el Sur, el tiempo abierto, y su despues.

Quiero al Sur, su buena gente, su dignidad, siento el Sur, como tu cuerpo en la intimidad.

Te quiero Sur, Sur, te quiero.

Vuelvo al Sur, como se vuelve siempre al amor, vuelvo a vos, con mi deseo, con mi temor.

Quiero al Sur, su buena gente, su dignidad, siento el Sur,

como tu cuerpo en la intimidad. Vuelvo al Sur, llevo el Sur, te quiero Sur, te quiero Sur...

Song from the film Sur (1987)

e) “Vuelvo al Sur/Regreso al Amor” (The lyrics in this one exception are by Argentine film director, Fernando “Pino” Solanas, maker of the movie Sur

THE LAST TANGO (1988-1992)

NEW TANGO SEXTET (late 1988-early 1990)

Piazzolla started a new group, the NEW TANGO SEXTET adding DANIEL BINELLI (born 1946) another bandoneon virtuoso, replacing the violinist Fernando Suarez Paz with his long-time musical partner and friend, the cellist JOSE BRAGATO and pianist GERARDO GANDINI. The purpose of this new group was to try to write darker and heavier new tangos; darker and heavier than ever before. Even though they made 5 recordings, including 3 live recordings, one in Lausanne, Switzerland concert, another live in Argentina, and yet another in Amsterdam plus 1 or 2 studio recordings, Piazzolla within a little over a year.

1) PRELUDE AND FUGUE FOR TWO BANDONEONS (1989)

This work brings certain musical aspects of Piazzolla’s music to full circle. His love and adoration for the music of JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH goes back to his very first piano lessons with Bela Wilda, a disciple of Rachmaninoff, in the early and 1930s and it never diminished. Clearly, and with his new tango harmony and

language, Piazzolla never forgot the Baroque master and truly delivers a masterpiece of a performance here live in Amsterdam.

You-Tube Footage: “Prelude and Fugue for 2 Bandoneons” – performed by Astor Piazzolla and Daniel Binelli and the NEW TANGO SEXTET – live in Amsterdam, June 1989

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfZ3fdnKJ0Q

2) LUNA (THE MOON)

One of Piazzolla’s richest, darkest and strikingly beautiful pieces, it stands among the best of his later compositions.

You-Tube Footage: “Luna” – performed by the Astor Piazzolla and his NEW TANGO SEXTET, live in Amsterdam, June 1989

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xea4yaBmSq8

Other Works performed by Astor Piazzolla

1) You-Tube Footage: “Amelitango” (1974) – performed by Astor Piazzolla and his Octeto Electronico (Electronic Octet), live 1975

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXXOqMzuZr0

2) “Moderato Tangabile” – Astor Piazzolla with his OCTETO ELECTRONICO and Chamber Orchestra, live in Italy, 1978

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWTheChvFUE

PIECE FROM THE FILM TANGOS, EL EXILIO DE GARDEL (1985)

3)DVD Footage: “Tanguedia” (1984-1985) – performed by Astor Piazzolla with his NEW TANGO QUINTET, live in Lisbon, Portugal, fall 1987.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAnVmAHMnGA (at the 5:50 mark in the video)

4) “Mumuki” – performed by Astor Piazzolla and his New Tango Quintet, live in Lisbon, Portugal, fall 1987.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAnVmAHMnGA (at the 10:51 mark of the concert)

5) “Contrabajisimo” (composed 1983-1984) (dedicated to his bass player Hector Console) – performed live in concert by Astor Piazzolla and his New Tango Quintet at live performance in Lisboa, Portugal , September 1987. As the huge walked toward the cemetery to pay their final respects to Piazzolla on July 5, 1992, this particular piece was played throughout the cemetery as they were about to lay Piazzolla in his final resting place. A more moving gesture could not have been made for the great NEW TANGO CREATOR and MASTER ASTOR PIAZZOLLA. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAFFCaWfTyA (at 21:40 mark of video)

6) “Escualo” (Shark) – performed by Astor Piazzolla and his New Tango Quintet – live in Utrecht, Netherlands - http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=7GxUqV1_6zM&feature=related

7) DVD Footage: “Chin Chin” (1979) – recorded live at the Montreal Jazz Festival, Montreal, Canada, 1984 - played the Astor Piazzolla and his NEW TANGO QUINTET featuring jazz pianist and 10-year member of the QUINTET, PABLO ZIEGLER, same location and date as #3 8) DVD Footage: CONCERTO FOR BANDONEON and ORCHESTRA (COMPLETE) (1979) – performed by Astor Piazzolla, bandoneon and orchestra, 1985

VERSION #2 – LIVE PERFORMANCE OF THE CONCERTO FOR BANDONEON and ORCHESTRA – ASTOR PIAZZOLLA with the SINFONICA NACIONAL (1982)

a) 1st movement - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJLrlh86OHo

b) 2nd movement - http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=M8mf1PEda4c&feature=relmfu

c) 3rd movement - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1QxEurOe4A&feature=relmfu

– performed by ASTOR PIAZZOLLA (bandoneon) - with the Sinfonia Nacional

live performance, ca. 1982