Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla transformed the Tango by blending jazz-infused solos and riffs with orchestrated classical music, influencing a new generation of Tango composers, including the elastically generative Tango trip-hop collective Gotan Project. As part of the free concerts in Central Park series in New York City, Piazzolla performed live with a quintet on September 6, 1987.
Digitally remastered for CD in 1994 and dripping with sticky romance, passion, emotion, possibility, and the infinite threads that music invokes and inspires, this live album highlights Piazzolla's stunning bandoneón (a square-built button accordion) virtuosity. Eleven captivating compositions capture this genius and humble musician's distilled essence and breath-taking range.
Before launching into "La Camorra," Piazzolla explains, in English, Spanish, and Italian,
"This is the new music of Buenos Aires, the new Tango…we started this music in 1954. My name is Astor Piazzolla. I was born in Argentina. I was raised in New York, and my parents come from Trani, Italia. This strange instrument you see here many people say it is an accordion. It's not an accordion; it's a bandoneon. It's an instrument that was invented in Germany in 1854 to play religious music in a church. It started in church, and then a couple of years later, they took it to the whorehouses in Buenos Aires. And now we are taking it to Central Park. It's a nice tour for this instrument."
My favorite song, a ridiculously solipsistic task of choosing, has always been "Mumuki," inspired by the term of endearment for his wife, Laura.
