Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina to Italian parents. From ages 3-16 he lived in New York City, where he was exposed to Bach and Rachmaninoff (from his Hungarian piano teacher), traditional tango and Gershwin (from his bandoneon teacher, with whom he began studying at nine), and Ellington and Calloway (from the ‘hood). At 13 he met the dashing French/Argentinian singer, Carlos Gardel, who had made tango into a craze in the US. Astor was so proficient on the bandoneon that Gardel invited him to join his band, but father, Vincente deemed the boy too young. Gardel and his band died in a plane crash in 1935. Piazzolla is said to have quipped, “If my father hadn’t been so careful, I’d have been playing the harp instead of the bandoneon!”

Piazzolla reinvented a folk genre (traditional tango) as an art form, not dissimilar from what Duke Ellington did to jazz, what the Beatles did to rock and roll, what Bob Dylan did to folk music. He was a consummate musician on an instrument no one’s heard of (the bandoneon, a clunky accordion with buttons instead of keys), a courageous and stubborn artist of absolute integrity. He managed a long and prolific career, fighting artistic and political criticism from his homeland, constantly experimenting and growing artistically. - Jeff Meshel (https://www.jmeshel.com/115-astor-piazzolla-tango-zero-hour/)

We will be joined by the fabulous London tango band, The Romano Viazzani Ensemble