Search - Astor Piazzolla :: Tango Contemporaneo

Another Piazzolla Essential

Kurt Harding | Boerne TX | 09/30/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Earlier this year, I discovered that Sony/BMG was reissuing all Astor Piazzolla albums originally released in the 1960s by RCA Victor and CBS Columbia but long since "cut out". Tango Contemporaneo is the fifth of the Edicion Critica series of Piazzolla recordings that I have encountered and is the fifth that I have purchased and reviewed.

On this 1963 recording, Piazzolla abandons the quintet format of his previous two albums and returns to the octet format he had used in the 1950s. And with the release of Tango Contemporaneo, the listener is confronted with yet another group of essential Piazzolla recordings.

There are some tremendous pieces here, only two of which I had previously heard on an obscure and now unavailable "greatest hits" compilation. One of these, Lo Que Vendra, reworks a musical vein Piazzolla mines time and again throughout his career. This is followed by the jazzy Divagacion which features a number of instruments such as the flute which are rarely used in tango. Introduccion a Heroes Y Tumbas casts a suitably funereal musical pall and finishes with an emotional recitation from a theatrical work that was never completed. Noposepe is a jaunty musical excursion interspersed with jazzy interludes that precedes the complicated but rewarding Ciudad Triste. Sideral is a tremendous piece of work that is the only other cut I'd heard before and never tire of hearing. The CD's penultimate cut features the cat-prowl of Requiem Para Una Malandra which like the third cut terminates in a recitation, this time of a poem by Piazzolla's wife. Finally, it winds up with the album's only vocal on Recuerdo de Bohemia-Milonguita sung by longtime quintet/octet vocalist Hector de Rosas.

As with the other CDs in the Edicion Critica series, the CD comes with a fold-out that features the original liner notes, song information, commentary on the album, and a story about Piazzolla and his musical formations, all in Spanish.

Just when you thought you already owned everything you'll ever need of Piazzolla, here comes yet another CD from the archives. In this case, if you are serious about Piazzolla, then Tango Contemporaneo is one you must have. The liner notes say "El mejor regalo es un disco" (the best gift is a record). I couldn't agree more...treat yourself to this one today!"