Nuevo Tango

Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles. In 1992, American music critic Stephen Holden described Piazzolla as "the world's foremost composer of tango music".

Astor Piazzolla, the great Argentine composer and bandoneon player, was born exactly a century ago in 1921. Fascinated by the music of Bach, Mozart and Chopin, Piazzolla wanted to compose great classical music. From Alberto Ginastera he received lessons in orchestration, composition and conducting, as well as in literature and poetry. Following his studies with Ginastera, Piazzolla received a scholarship to study in Paris with the renowned pianist and composer Nadia Boulanger. Under her guidance, he began to conceive of and perfect his own style of composition.

Pianist and composer Håkon Skogstad releases his new album, 8 Concepts of Tango, the sequel to Norwegian Grammy-awarded Visions of Tango from 2021. The album is the third installment of Skogstad’s tango trilogy, where the aim has been to develop a new musical style in the wake of Astor Piazzolla. On 8 Concepts of Tango, Skogstad performs in the company of seven hand-picked musicians - all experts in the Argentine tango/classical music segment.

Despite the deceptive titling format on the CD, this is a CD by Latvian violinist Gidon Kramer, not featuring the playing of Astor Piazzolla. All but four of the songs on the album are compositions by Piazzolla, but performed by Kremer and his group, along with Piazzolla's guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad. The album is definitely in tribute to the leader of the nuevo tango, as the lengthy liner notes describe in three languages.

Inspired by a general love of the tango, and more specifically the tango of Astor Piazzolla, on the part of Yo-Yo Ma, the Soul of the Tango album is a masterful work of the nuevo tango, played by Ma's cello and many of Piazzolla's former associates. Piazzolla's old guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad even showed up to work on a pair of tracks arranged by Sergio: the Tango Suite (consisting of Andante and Allegro). The sheer beauty of one of Piazzolla's tangos is generally enough to warrant the purchase of an album involving them. An album such as this one, where all of the songs (save one: Tango Remembrances, where Ma plays along with outtakes from Piazzolla's recording of The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night album) are compositions by Piazzolla is even better. Add to this the masterful playing of Ma, and the surprising facility in which the cello fits into the tango, and you've got what could become a classic album, if only it weren't on the classical label from Sony.