Piazzolla

Astor Piazzolla

(1921-1992)

Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla was born in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina, on March 11, 1921. His grandparents had emigrated from the north and south of Italy: from Lucca in Tuscany, and Trani in the Puglia region. Thus, Astor liked to joke with Osvaldo Pugliese that he was also a “pugliese”. 

Astor’s parents, Vicente Piazzolla and Asunta Manetti, moved the family to New York when he was four years old. Therefore, Astor grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and he learned the tango listening to his father’s records of Carlos Gardel and Julio de Caro. Astor's father played the accordion and guitar. He occasionally performed in Italian festivals and he composed at least one tango. 

When Astor was eight years old, his father bought him a second-hand bandoneon. As he told the story, Octavio Manetti, one of his uncles, was visiting New York when they saw the squeezebox in a shop window on sale for $ 18. When the bandoneon was given to him, Astor remembered, he gazed at it a long time before daring to press the buttons. Astor wanted a baseball bat…. 

During the Depression, the Piazzollas returned to Mar del Plata for a few months. Astor took some bandoneon lessons with the Pauloni brothers, learning basic techniques as well as some yeites tangueros (tricks of playing). On return to New York, Piazzolla and a friend began making frequent visits to Harlem to listen to Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. Years later, he recalled how they would stand outside Cotton Club, to hear Calloway performing. 

By this time, Astor was studying music with the Argentine pianist Andrés D’Aquila, and a few months later he began lessons with Terig Tucci, a bandoneonist and arranger. His father sent him to a harmonica academy, and Astor played the bandoneon in public several times.

At that time, Béla Wilda, a disciple of Serge Rachmaninoff, happened to live near the Piazzollas. Astor got to know him, and he listened to him playing Bach for hours. This experience inspired him to learn to play Bach and Chopin on the bandoneon.

Astor continued his piano studies in Mar del Plata until he was eighteen, and then moved to Buenos Aires, becoming a bandoneonist for several tango bands. Every night he would go to the Café Germinal to listen to Aníbal “Pichuco” Troilo. One night, Troilo needed an alternative bandoneonist, so he asked Piazzolla to audition. He performed Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and was hired on the spot. Piazzolla worked with Troilo as a bandoneonist and arranger for five years, from 1939 through 1944.

Piazzolla had become an intensely dedicated and disciplined musician, and in 1946 he formed his first band. Although he played in many nightspots, he never lost his distaste for them and resisted the lifestyle of his peer group. Sometimes, after playing with Troilo at the Tibidabo until four in the morning, he would attend rehearsals three hours later with the Orquesta Filarmónica at the Colón Opera House. Piazzolla earnestly wanted to master classical composition. 

In 1954, Piazzolla moved o Paris to study composistion. with Nadia Boulanger. Copland, Harris, Thomson, Carter, Quincy Jones, Berkeley and Piston are among her disciples. Boulanger soon told Piazzolla that his music was "well written but lacked feeling" ─a verdict she handed out to most pupils. This disheartened Piazzolla greatly, and for a while he walked the streets and poured out his woes to friends. However, Boulanger soon forced him out of his malaise by asking about the music he played in Argentina. When Piazzolla reluctantly mentioned the tango, she claimed “I love that music! But you don’t play the piano to perform tangos. What instrument do you play?”. Piazzolla unenthusiastically told her he played the bandoneon. Boulanger reassured him saying she had heard this instrument in music  by Kurt Weill, and that Stravinsky himself appreciated its qualities. Then she persuaded Piazzolla to play one of his tangos on the piano, and he chose Triunfal. At the eighth bar, Boulanger took him by the hands and told him firmly: “This is Piazzolla! Don’t ever leave it!”

Piazzolla recorded his new tangos with a string orchestra drawn from the Paris Opera. The Argentine jazz pianist Lalo Schifrin also featured in the group, but he soon had to go on tour, and was replaced by Martial Solal, the greatest European jazz pianist. In Europe, Piazzolla heard, among other bands, Gerry Mulligan and his ensemble. Baritone saxophonist and arranger, Mulligan is among the most versatile figures in modern jazz. Piazzolla recalled “the happiness onstage. It was like a party: the sax played, the drums played, the whole thing passed to the trombone; they were happy”.

To free tango from its traditional patterns, Piazzolla began to use novel tone-colors and rhythms, as well as dissonant harmonies to give the music more nuances. “Swing” was the word Piazzolla used the mean rhythmic consciousness. The classical tango sextet consisted of two bandoneons, two violins, double bass, and piano. Piazzolla enlarged it with a cello and an electric guitar, and in 1955 he founded the Octeto Buenos Aires. Never before had a tango ensemble incorporated an electric guitar. The reactions were so angry that Horacio Malvicino, the electric guitarist in the Octet, recalls even receiving death threats.

Piazzolla moved to New York in 1958. There, Piazzolla was able to meet and work with outstanding popular musicians like Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Ray Noble, and Paul Whiteman. Johnny Richards, a pioneer of progressive jazz, asked permission to hear his records. Piazzolla visited Birdland, the famous club on Broadway, several times. An admirer of cool jazz, he felt identified with this movement, in which the improvised counterpoint underwent a revival. Piazzolla incorporated these resources in his music and its musicians also had some freedom to improvise, which was quite unusual in traditional tango. In Argentina, traditional tangueros perceived his music as emotionally cool, although this is far from true. Drama, passion, melancholy and nostalgia are always present in Piazzolla's music. He particularly admired Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, Gil Evans, the Modern Jazz Quartet, George Shearing, and Dave Brubeck. 

On returning to Buenos Aires in 1960, Piazzolla started the Quinteto Nuevo Tango, consisting of bandoneon, piano, violin, guitar and double bass. His most productive period was the 1960s, when he also developed new forms. During this decade, Piazzolla's music began to attract worldwide attention for its distinctive qualities. His compositions were a combination of contrapuntal voices and instruments, each of significance in itself, resulting in a coherent texture. Bach, the greatest master of polyphonic music, was perhaps Piazzolla’s greatest model. Piazzolla composed for his soloists, a community of musicians like him, but also for audiences; although, in the end, he composed and performed primarily for himself. 

Piazzolla's renown continued to grow through the 70's and 80's. He had many tours with his quintet. His music was used in many film and dance collaborations.

Piazzolla's international reputation has climbed during the years since his deathi n1992. His music has been played and recorded by a wide variety of groups, including the Kronos Quartet, the Assad brothers, and the G-String Quartet. Piazzolla music has been recorded by jazz giants like Al Di Meola, Gary Burton andPhil Woods, and by classical artists like Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Gidon Kremer and the cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others.

Adapted from "Astor Pazzolla: His Life and Oeuvre" on the website of the Astor Piazzolla Foundation.