Le Grand Tango: The Life and Music of Astor Piazzolla

Astor Piazzolla was a musical genius, a man who used the national dance of Argentina as raw material for a whole new musical genre. In Le Grand Tango, María Susana Azzi and Simon Collier vividly capture the life of this extraordinary musician--a visionary who won worldwide acclaim, but sparked
bitter controversy in his native land.
Azzi and Collier trace Piazzolla's early life from his birth in Argentina in 1921 to his childhood years on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where he first developed a talent for the bandoneon, the accordion-like instrument central to the tango. They describe his return to Argentina at age 16
and his rapid rise in the intoxicating world of tango, where he quickly earned a place with the leading dance band, and then formed his own group. But at the height of his success, Piazzolla decided to take tango music to a new level and studied composition with the legendary Nadia Boulanger in
Paris. Combining deft musical analysis and intriguing personal insight, Azzi and Collier show how he created a dramatically new style of tango music influenced by jazz and classical pieces--a tango music meant for listening, not dancing. But they also show that, in the birthplace of the tango, he
met fierce resistance. He eventually left Argentina for Europe, where he emerged as an international celebrity.
Since Piazzolla's death in 1992, his influence has only grown. Jazz giants such as Gary Burton and Al Di Meola--and classical stars Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, and Daniel Barenboim--have all recorded albums of his works. Now Azzi and Collier have given us the first biography of this astonishingly
gifted musician.

Author: María Susana Azzi, Simon Collier
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 05/25/2000
Pages: 350
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.58lbs
Size: 9.74h x 6.38w x 0.98d
ISBN: 9780195127775


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/21/2000 pg. 75
Latina 04/01/2000 pg. 36
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2000 pg. 350
Poder Hispanic 04/01/2000 pg. 76
Library Journal 04/01/2000 pg. 103
Booklist 04/01/2000 pg. 1423
Library Journal 03/15/2000

About the Author

María Susana Azzi is a board member of the Astor Piazzolla Foundation and the National Academy of Tango in Buenos Aires. This is her fourth book on the tango. She lives in Buenos Aires. Simon Collier is the author or co-author of seven books about Latin America, and is chairman of the Department of
History at Vanderbilt University. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.