Tango no longer exists, he used to say. He said, it existed many years ago, back in '55, "when Buenos Aires was a place where people wore tango, walked tango, where there was a smell of tango all over the city. But not today.
That Sunday, Piazzolla was sparkling, happy, just awakened from a nap after a sumptuous dinner of seafood and "these great wines that we have," at the Mercado Central (Central Market) in San Telmo. He was wearing red pyjamas, and didn't want photos taken. But he did want to talk.
"My tango does meet the present."
Astor Piazzolla's new tango was distinct from the traditional tango in its incorporation of elements of jazz, its use of extended harmonies and dissonance, its use of counterpoint, and its ventures into extended compositional forms. Upon introducing his new approach to tango (nuevo tango), he became a controversial figure among Argentines both musically and politically. The Argentine saying "in Argentina everything may change – except the tango" suggests some of the resistance he found in his native land. However, his music gained acceptance in Europe and North America, and his reworking of the tango was embraced by some liberal segments of Argentine society, who were pushing for political changes in parallel to his musical revolution .
He always told the story about when he the french government granted him a scholarship to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris: She taught me to believe in Astor Piazzolla, to believe that my music wasn't as bad as I thought. As they thought. I thought that I was something like a piece of shit because I played tangos in a cabaret, but it came out that i had something called style. I felt a sort of liberation of the ashamed tango player I was. I suddenly got free and I told myself: "Well, you'll have to keep dealing with this music, then."
Get to know the city. And it's People!
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