Piazzolla Reviewd by Hugo Read

Reviews of Astor Piazzolla Recordings

by Hugo Read

How would you describe Tango Nuevo? Well, on the top of what is almost definately Piazzolla's best album, Zero Hour, is written:

New Tango = Tango + Tragedy + Comedy + Kilombo(Whorehouse)

This seems as good a description as any to me. To get a hold on a music that is so individual and passionate is no easy task. The basic feel of the music is always tango, but the compositions are almost theatrical works, combining elements of classical music and jazz alike. Underneath this however, one finds a droning and intoxicating rhythm, and often an underlying theme that keeps coming back in slightly differing forms, on different instruments. The end result is just about the most interesting and passionate music that I've ever come across, music that demands to be heard.

To review Piazzolla exhaustively would be an impossible and meaningless task, as he appears on recordings dating from the thirties, in the best traditional tango bands of the time, right through to his great seminal works at the end of his life, which abrubtly stopped with a stroke at the end of 1989. The end of his life was his most musically interesting, and it is such a shame he was taken away from the world just as he was artistically peaking. The New Tango Quintet of the eighties, and the New Tango Sextet which only started (and finished) in 1989, were the forms best lent to his musical expression, and with these bands he created his greatest music, reaching a level of intensity, creativity and passion previously unheard.

It is the key works of this period that are reviewed here, all the albums being from the late eighties. Since his death in 1992, Piazzolla's recordings have become increasingly popular, and late concert recordings are being released at a fairly steady rate. The order of reviews is not chronological, but rather of importance. This is of course subjective, and infact doesn't always reflect my own opinion, but the opinion of Piazzolla lovers in general.

Astor Piazzolla: Zero Hour

Recorded in May 1986.
Original and current release: American Clavé, 1986. AMCL 1013. Also released on: Pangaea PEA 461156 1.

The New Tango Quintet

Astor Piazzolla: Bandoneon
Fernando Suarez Paz: Violin
Pablo Zeigler: Piano
Horacio Malvicino: Guitar
Hector Console: Double Bass

Playlist

Tanguedia III (4.39)
Milonga del Angel (6.30)
Concierto para Quinteto (9.00)
Milonga Loca (3.05)
Michelangelo '70 (2.50)
Contrabajissimo (10.18)
Mumuki (9.32)

"This is absolutely the greatest record I've made in my entire life. We gave our souls to this record." - Astor Piazzolla

Zero Hour is considered to be Astor Piazzolla's greatest recording by himself, tango officionados and reviewers alike. For what it's worth this is a sentiment I wholly share: the version of the quintet on this album being the best for my money, with Pablo Zeigler and Fernando Suarez Paz's beautiful, taut, emotional playing being ideal foils for Piazzolla's bandoneón.

No one track stands out for special mention, as all the late masterpieces and late versions of earlier masterpieces on this album are faultless. One point of interest is that the track zero hour itself was written after the album was finished, and to get on disc this piece and other very late and quite brilliant masterpieces written in the last couple of years of his active life, one has to turn to live recordings, as they unfortunately never made it onto a studio album. However, this disk is the one to go for if you are considering a first buy; it is a complete and classic work of art:- Quintessential Piazzolla.

Astor Piazzolla: La Camorra - La Soledad de la Provocación Apasionada

Recorded in May 1988.
Original and current release: American Clavé, 1989. AMCL 1021

The New Tango Quintet

Astor Piazzolla: Bandoneón
Fernando Suarez Paz: Violin
Pablo Zeigler: Piano
Horacio Malvicino: Guitar
Hector Console: Double Bass

Playlist

La Camorra I (9.23)
La Camorra II (7.01)
La Camorra III (9.01)
Soledad (7.50)
Fugata (3.15)
Sur: Los Sueños (2.56)
Sur: Regresso al Amor (6.19)

La Camorra runs a very close second as Piazzolla's best work. Along with Zero Hour one could consider this pair of albums as his studio recording highlights. It is the same version of his New Tango Quintet, playing with the same faultlessly executed tight passion. The one difference that could be sited is that some of La Camorra was commissioned for a film, and though this is not to take away from the music overall, the individual compositions of Zero Hour are more memorable. However, it must be said that this is a very small point, and the album is still capturing a genius at the height of his power; La Camorra II and La Camorra III being particularly excellent.

Astor Piazzolla: Tristezas de un Doble A

Recorded live in Vienna, November 1986.
Released in 1987, and again in 1991, on messidor 15970-2

The New Tango Quintet

Astor Piazzolla: Bandoneon
Fernando Suarez Paz: Violin
Pablo Zeigler: Piano
Horacio Malvicino: Guitar
Hector Console: Double Bass

Playlist

Tristezas de un Doble A (22.01)
Tanguadin (4.30)
Biyuya (6.08)
Lunfardo (4.58)
Tangata (7.45)

This is primarily a recording for hard-core Piazzolla lovers. It must be said the opening piece (all twenty-two minutes and one second of it) is probably the most taxing and dissonant concoction our man has come up with. I don't find it as stikingly passionate and beautiful as the really great recordings; though the piece has great moments, it seems to lack a little in continuity. However, the other four pieces on this offering pretty much add up to twenty-two minutes in total as well, and they're all great - classic Piazzolla, so you get half a CD of top drawer music, which is well worth it if you find a cut price CD. The last piece, Tangata is truly exceptional, a real power-house, and for a maniac as myself it's well worth the full price of a CD for its small but perfectly formed seven minutes and fourty-five seconds by itself!

All reviews on this page by Hugo Read: [email protected]

A Piazzolla Rememberance by Cliff Furnald

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