It takes five to Tango...
A legendary Argentine quintet reaffirms its status with a brand new series of recordings
Revolucionario Quinteto Astor Piazzolla
E54 Music PIAZ001
A big hand for a new label whose inaugural product is a glorious explosion of colour and crazy invention. The present Quinteto Astor Piazzolla has been going for 20 years, but this recording will probably become their calling card: it’s the first in a series whose later releases will include hitherto-unrecorded works, but many of its numbers will be refreshingly unfamiliar even to Piazzolla aficionados. Sometimes using both hands on his bandoneon to increase the music’s complexity, he was forever pushing out the boundaries of his art-form.
It’s worth remembering that this Argentine composer’s first loves were jazz and JS Bach, and that he only took up the bandoneon to soothe his father’s nostalgia in exile; Piazzolla’s teachers were Alberto Ginastera and Nadia Boulanger, both modernists who wanted their fabulously gifted pupil to go ahead and modernise the tango. ‘Here lies the real Piazzolla,’ Boulanger told him. ‘Don’t ever abandon it.’ He went back to Argentina and formed the ensemble which would remain his preferred medium, with violin, bass, electric guitar, piano and bandoneon. The playing by this quintet – modelled on the one Piazzolla himself led – is brilliantly assured. ★★★★★