Astor Piazzolla is regarded as one of the most important tango composers and bandoneón players. If not the best, he is surely the most revolutionary.

He was born in Mar del Plata (Argentina) in 1921 from Italian parents, but his family moved to New York when he was a child.

Although acclaimed nowadays, he was once known as the “tango killer” among orthodox tango musicians. It was not easy for them and the critics to accept this experimental tango that Piazzolla created. He managed to include jazz and classical music into what was a very traditional musical style. Apart from this, he also became very interested in classical music and compositions.

One of the best examples that show us his musical journey is described in the following anecdote between him and his composition teacher, the famous Nadia Boulanger;

When I met her, I showed her my kilos of symphonies and sonatas. She started to read them and suddenly came out with a horrible sentence: “It’s very well written.” And stopped, with a big period, round like a soccer ball. After a long while, she said: “Here you are like Stravinsky, like Bartók, like Ravel, but you know what happens? I can’t find Piazzolla in this.” And she began to investigate my private life: what I did, what I did and did not play, if I was single, married, or living with someone, she was like an FBI agent! And I was very ashamed to tell her that I was a tango musician. Finally I said, “I play in a night club.” I didn’t want to say cabaret. And she answered, “Night club, mais oui, but that is a cabaret, isn’t it?” “Yes,” I answered, and thought, “I’ll hit this woman in the head with a radio….” It wasn’t easy to lie to her. She kept asking: “You say that you are not pianist. What instrument do you play, then?” And I didn’t want to tell her that I was a bandoneón player, because I thought, “Then she will throw me from the fourth floor.” Finally, I confessed and she asked me to play some bars of a tango of my own. She suddenly opened her eyes, took my hand and told me: “You idiot, that’s Piazzolla!” And I took all the music I composed, ten years of my life, and sent it to hell in two seconds.

Nadia Boulanger made him study 18 months–”that helped me like 18 years”–just four part counterpoint. “After this,” she used to tell him, “you will write a string quartet correctly. You will learn here, you really will…”

–She taught me to believe in Astor Piazzolla, to believe that my music wasn’t as bad as I thought. I thought that I was something like a piece of shit because I played tangos in a cabaret, but 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.” 1

When he died in 1992, he left around 50 albums (apart from music for more than 50 films) and deep legacy, not only in tango, but in the Argentinean culture as a whole.

1. Taken from http://www.piazzolla.org/interv/index.html (c) 1989 Gonzalo Saavedra

Download:

• Astor Piazzolla - Fuga y misterio
• Astor Piazzolla - Adiós Nonino
• Astor Piazzolla and Guerry Mulligan - Reminiscencia
• Astor Piazzolla - Cité tango (Gotan Project Remix)

Disclaimer: Yes. The title sucks (it was the only one that came to my mind when writing this post).

I’ll never forget the first time I listened to Red hot chili peppers’ “Otherside“. I was 11 or 12, and when that dark riff sounded through the radio, it blew up my mind. Of course I didn’t know anything about music then, and it was the first time I paid attention to something that wasn’t teen pop or any other garbage like that. Since then I started to listen to a lot of alternative rock (or whatever you want to call it). Then I discovered some better songs and better bands, and my life (at least in the musical sense) was never the same. I started listening to anything I got my hands into, from dub to jazz, and from progressive rock to world music. Many years later I listened to some obscure indie songs, and well… my musical tastes changed again (as always).

Every time I talk to someone about music I love, I get the same silly responses:

“Oh, I don’t know those bands, are they in MTV?” and/or “But that’s all in English”.

Shame on me. I don’t like cumbia villera (if you don’t know what it is, consider yourself lucky), I find reggaeton very disgusting (especially the “reggae” part on “reggaeton”, because I love reggae music and its culture), and I don’t know most of the names that appear on MTV.

And yes, most of the music I love is in English. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I feel identified with all those music genres, or maybe I don’t like most of the music that is produced in my country.

But lately I was thinking in all those bands and songs from Argentina that I do like, and you probably have never heard of. That’s why I’m going to post some information and music on that.

I hope you are interested enough to listen to some good music in another language (as I’ve always been), and to expand you musical knowledge (or maybe just to show off the next time you have the chance).

Come back soon!

Winter is coming early this year. Although I like it, I’m starting to miss summer long days (when sun went down almost at 11 pm). This morning when I woke up to go to classes, I got to put on my biggest jacket before going outside (it seems that it’s going to be really cold this year, I hope it snows). Luckily, I found some Sigur Rós songs to download on my MP3 (I don’t know why I sometimes like to listen to music according to the weather), as reggae songs seemed inaccurate today.

I should reconsider the idea of having a blog if I’m not planning to update it on a regular basis, but… nevermind, I’m keeping it.

The other day I uploaded some photos of this awesome place I live in, so… here there are some others.

Classes and work are here again…

(I’m a High school teacher and also I study at the university)

This is one of the “other sides” of this interesting city I live in. Apart from the beautiful landscapes, the cold weather and the snow you have buildings, houses, people, people and people.

And for me… that’s challenging. I (well, not just me) want to lead everybody in Rio Grande into the Kingdom of God. I want to “go and make disciples“. And that is, basically, working with people.

Unlike some years ago, now I realize that you can’t be a “disciple maker” without spending time with the people you want to lead to Christ. You have to walk with them, talk to them, listen to them (yes, I know this one is hard for most of us), laugh with them, cry with them, drink their coffees and mates (this option only works here ^^) and love them.

We cannot preach the Gospel without the LOVE part. And not the “I love you because of who you’re going to be” but “I love you now, as you are” (as Kurt Cobain said… just kidding).

This photo was taken in a forest in Ushuaia, 200 kms from here (Rio Grande), while I was in our summer camp.

It’s a wonderful place. I’ll post during the next days some other photos I took there.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness“.

Genesis 1:26a (NVI)

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Romans 8:29 (NVI)

Reading i Microsiervos I stumbled across Mp3gle, a Google-like search engine for MP3s. It seems pretty useful, so I’m going to give it a try.