Here I want to forget about controversy, personalities, disputes. I want to talk about music and about a very special creator of music.
For all I knew about the music of the world - and that was considerable - somehow the best had been saved for me. Argentine Tango was a total surprise when I encountered it in December, 1989.
The very fine Argentine bandoneonist Roberto Pansera fronted an orchestra playing the real tango while a great Copes troupe danced a show called "A Rose For Mr. Tango." It played in my town for five months, and after that first night - when my life changed - I was there nearly every night to see it.
I had to learn this dance. I had to learn everything about tango.
I went down to the music store on a search. "Argentine Tango? Well, we have this CD ... Tango: Hora Zero by Astor Piazzolla." I took it home.
I didn't know you couldn't dance to it. I danced.
I didn't know Piazzolla was a pariah to many for "killing Tango." I had tango music. I could feel tango.
I've made love with it moving me, cried tears I don't understand and tears I do while listening to it.
This music brought me to love the bandoneon, the soul of the Argentino, and maybe in some ways myself.
There is a lot to say about Piazzolla. I've collected, read, listened, questioned people who knew him. His passion is so compelling. I love Maria De Buenos Aires - the operetta that puts his music and the Tango sensibility in an enlightening context. (I like the version of the production Copes mounted in Brazil in 1988 with Marconi playing bandoneon).
But there is not much to say that means anything.
How dare I speak when I could be listening to his music?
You see? I have Tango: Hora Zero on as I write - and it says everything that there could possibly be to say if one loves truth in all it's complexity and mystery.
Bless you, Astor Piazzolla. You were right. There is room for everybody else and their way and their opinions, but they couldn't take us where you did.
Astor Piazzolla became, internationally, the best-known Argentine musician / composer in our time. (You can hear 150 different recorded versions of his best-known composition, ADIOS NONINO, at Piazzolla.org. This is a beautiful site you should see.
About his life
