Astor Piazzola was born In 1921 and he died in 1992. Piazzola was instrumental in the renaissance of the tango after World War II. Born in Mar del Plata, Argentina, he moved to New York’s lower East Side at a young age. Oddly, it was in New York, where he lived from age three to fifteen that he developed nostalgia for a country he scarcely remembered. He taught himself to play the bandoneon and was swept up in the newest craze in America: the tango of Argentina.
At the age of 13, Piazzola was invited to tour Latin America by tango superstar Carlos Gardel. Piazzolla never made the tour, in the course of which Gardel died in a plane crash. But he was soon back in Argentina, playing in the band of Anibal Troilo.
In 1954, Piazzola went to Paris on a scholarship from the French government and studied under Nadia Boulanger, mentor of Aaron Copland and Philip Glass. She recognized Piazzolla’s talent and led him back to the tango. He returned to New York, but stayed only two years before finding himself again in Buenos Aires.
In Buenos Aires, Piazzola put together his famed “Quinteto” – bandoneon, violin, piano, guitar, and double bass. The Quintet traveled all over the world, bringing the influence of jazz and contemporary “classical” music to the traditional tango. As Piazzolla himself said, “It may not be tango, but it mirrors the spirit of our city and of today’s porteño”.
Here is Khatia Buniatishvili and her sister to play Piazzola’s music for you:
