Salvatore Accardo Astor Piazzolla: Le Grand Tango (2009)

Yo-Yo Ma might seem like an unlikely protagonist for the tango, but this intrepid musical explorer has taken his task seriously, collaborating with experienced tango musicians. Ma even participates in a posthumous collaboration with one 1987 Piazzolla recording. Furthermore, while he's obviously the headliner here, he doesn't dominate the arrangements nearly as much as he does the billing and photography of the disc. While the result isn't your essential Piazzolla album (that would have to include more of the composer's own playing), it's an atmospheric and convincing collection, perhaps a good introduction for those who don't know the music.

Nonesuch Records releases a three-LP / three-CD box set of albums from the great Argentine composer, bandleader, and bandoneón player Astor Piazzolla – originally released by American Clavé Records in the 1980s and reissued by Nonesuch more than two decades ago. Astor Piazzolla: The American Clavé Recordings marks the first time this landmark trio of albums – Tango: Zero Hour, La Camorra: The Solitude of Passionate Provocation, and The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night (Tango Apasionado) – is issued as a set, now remastered, and is the first time the albums have been available on vinyl since their initial release on American Clavé. The set’s liner notes include original and new notes by the albums’ producer and American Clavé founder Kip Hanrahan as well as an in-depth essay from journalist Fernando González, who translated and annotated Piazzolla’s memoirs and wrote liner notes for four of his albums.

“I am a tango man, but my music makes people think. Those who love the tango, and those who like good music.” Astor Piazzolla

Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina, on March 11, 1921. His parents were poor Italian immigrants who moved to New York City in 1924, affording the young Piazzolla extensive exposure to jazz artists like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. His father also played tango records by the early masters, especially the legendary vocalist/composer Carlos Gardel, and gave Astor a bandoneon for his ninth birthday. In addition to lessons on that instrument (which encompassed American music, like Gershwin, as well as tango), Piazzolla also studied with classical pianist Bela Wilda in 1933, becoming an ardent fan of Bach and Rachmaninoff. Around the same time, the budding prodigy met and played with Carlos Gardel, appearing as a newspaper boy in Gardel's watershed tango film El Dia que Me Quieras. The teenaged Piazzolla turned down an offer to tour South America with Gardel in 1935, a fortuitous decision that kept him out of the tragic plane crash that claimed Gardel's life.

Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina, on March 11, 1921. His parents were poor Italian immigrants who moved to New York City in 1924, affording the young Piazzolla extensive exposure to jazz artists like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. His father also played tango records by the early masters, especially the legendary vocalist/composer Carlos Gardel, and gave Astor a bandoneon for his ninth birthday. In addition to lessons on that instrument (which encompassed American music, like Gershwin, as well as tango), Piazzolla also studied with classical pianist Bela Wilda in 1933, becoming an ardent fan of Bach and Rachmaninoff. Around the same time, the budding prodigy met and played with Carlos Gardel, appearing as a newspaper boy in Gardel's watershed tango film El Dia que Me Quieras. The teenaged Piazzolla turned down an offer to tour South America with Gardel in 1935, a fortuitous decision that kept him out of the tragic plane crash that claimed Gardel's life.

It's not hyperbole to say that Astor Piazzolla is the single most important figure in the history of tango, a towering giant whose shadow looms large over everything that preceded and followed him.

„Ödön Rácz ist ein grandioser Musiker, für den Virtuosität niemals Selbstzweck ist. Besonders in den Kadenzen entfaltet er die ganze Klangmacht des Kontrabasses.” WDR Das neueste Album „My Double Bass“ von Ödön Racz, das am 25. Januar 2019 erscheint, begeistert mit den Stärken und der Vielseitigkeit des Instruments und entführt die Hörer auf eine musikalische Reise von Italien nach Lateinamerika und wieder zurück. Ausgangspunkt der Reise ist das „Gran Duo
concertante“ des italienischen Kontabassisten und Komponisten Giovanni Bottesini. Begleitet wird Racz von Noah Bendix-Balgley, dem Konzertmeister der Berliner Philharmoniker. Mit Bendix-Balgley verbindet Rácz eine enge Zusammenarbeit; beide Musiker haben sich im Philharmonix-Ensemble kennengelernt. Fortgesetzt wird die Reise mit dem „Le Grand Tango“ des argentinischen Begründers des Tango Nuevo, Astor Piazzolla.

En avril 2022, nous célébrerons le printemps avec un album tout Piazzolla: Escale à Buenos Aires, avec Louise Bessette et Chloé Dominguez!

It is a meaningful sign of the times that Astor Piazzolla is arguably one of the most frequently performed composers on the contemporary musical stage, even though he probably never aimed at writing “classical” music. True, one of the fundamental encounters of his life was with composer and teacher Nadia Boulanger, who mentored many of the most important avant-garde musicians of the second half of the twentieth century. And, under her guidance, Piazzolla did attempt to express his personality through the language of Western contemporary music.