It’s October, which means summer has finally arrived in San Francisco. Time for some steamy music from the Savior of Tango, Astor Piazzolla!
b. March 11, 1921 in Mar del Plata, Argentina
d. July 5, 1992 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Astor Piazzolla was a composer, bandleader and prodigy bandoneon player who changed the world of tango. His family emigrated to New York in 1924, but Piazzolla went back to Argentina in the 1930s to study music.
After running (and performing in) his own club in Argentina, Piazzolla settled in France.
Until the 1980s, Piazzolla was generally disregarded in Argentina, where his avant-garde approach to the art of tango was met with resistance. Despite this, Piazzolla’s music was enjoyed by many fans in the U.S. and France. Argentina eventually caught on, when they realized that Piazzolla’s contribution to tango had in fact saved the genre. He became known as the “Savior of Tango” and wrote over 750 works in his lifetime.
Otono Porteno:
Libertango: