Word: tangoes
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Indeed, the bandoneon (an instrument similar to the accordion, but more challenging to play and used almost exclusively in tango music) is not an instrument with mass appeal, and Latin-American tango music...well, let's just say that it's not suprising that Piazzolla doesn't have the same sort of following that Prince...
...passing of Argentinean bandoneon master Astor Piazzolla in 1990 received little attention beyond the tango world; there were no full-page New York Times obituaries, none of the countless magazine retrospectives that followed the deaths of Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Zappa...
However, if there was any justice in the world, the name Piazzolla would have a secure place in the pantheon of twentieth-century musical masters. And this three-CD collection of Piazzolla's American Clave recordings (Tango: Zero Hour, from 1986, The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night, from 1987 and La Camorra: La Soledad De La Provocacion Apasionada from 1989; the set is distributed through Cambridge's very own Rounder Records) serves as a beautiful testament to Piazzolla's genius, featuring almost three hours of some of the most haunting, searching, intensely emotional music of this century...
...Hanrahan, in the liner notes to this set, writes that there "are few other cases in modern music of a musician inheriting a musical tradition [tango] growing so moribund in its structure and mannerisms, and growing so stiff in its political implications and social function, who so singlehandedly transformed it into a breathing, complex, sensual and powerful music." Even such generous praise is understated; Piazzolla's impact and importance reach far beyond his work in and influence on tango, moving towards a redefinition of the depths of the emotion that can be reached through music...
From the eerie, lurching dissonance of "Tanguedia III," the first track on Tango: Zero Hour, these discs are true gems. Incidentally, Piazzolla said of Tango: Zero Hour that "[t]his is absolutely the greatest record I've made in my entire life. We gave our souls to this record." It's hard to argue: Tango: Zero Hour combines excitement and full-bodied intensity with a series of lush, mournful tunes that are as painfully beautiful as anything on vinyl...