Astor Piazzolla for Prog related

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   I'm just going to say that it can't be that this musician isn't on this site yet.

Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla was born on March 11, 1921, in Mar del Plata, Argentina. From a young age, he showed great musical talent, especially with the bandoneon, an instrument he received as a gift from his father when he was eight years old. The Piazzolla family moved to New York in 1925, where young Astor spent much of his childhood. In this city, he came into contact with various musical influences, including classical music and jazz, which would later be crucial in his development as a musician.

In 1937, the family returned to Argentina, and Piazzolla settled in Buenos Aires. At the age of 18, he joined the orchestra of Aníbal Troilo, one of the most important tango orchestras at the time. He worked as a bandoneonist and arranger for Troilo, which allowed him to perfect his musical skills. In 1946, Piazzolla formed his own tango orchestra, although his early compositions were still rooted in the traditional style.

A turning point in his career came in 1954 when he won a scholarship to study with the prestigious teacher Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Boulanger was instrumental in Piazzolla's artistic evolution, encouraging him to fuse tango with elements of classical music and jazz. Under her guidance, Piazzolla developed a style that would later be known as "nuevo tango."

Upon returning to Argentina, Piazzolla formed several ensembles that revolutionized tango. In 1955, he created the Octeto Buenos Aires, which broke with traditional conventions by incorporating elements of classical music, jazz, and rock. In 1960, he formed the first Quinteto Tango Nuevo, which would become one of his most emblematic groups. This quintet included bandoneon, violin, piano, electric guitar, and double bass. In 1963, Piazzolla embarked on a brief project to reassemble the octet, this time called Nuevo Octeto, adding new timbres such as flute, percussion, and cello. The original octet was reformed in 1964 to perform a piece from an album that showcased a synthesis of Piazzolla's career.

After this, Piazzolla returned to his quintet, and during the years 1968 to 1970, he collaborated with the Uruguayan poet Horacio Ferrer and singer Amelita Baltar (with whom he later had a romantic relationship). During these years, he recorded the albums "María de Buenos Aires," "Amelita Baltar Interpreta a Piazzolla y Ferrer," and "En Persona." In 1969, he recorded his most significant album, "Adiós Nonino" (with the quintet), and two years later, "Concierto para Quinteto," marking his last appearance with the quintet until 1979.

In the 1970s, Piazzolla continued to experiment with new formations and sounds. In 1971, he formed the Conjunto 9, which included an expanded string quartet (two violins), guitar, bandoneon, piano, and percussion. With this ensemble, Piazzolla drastically changed his sound, presenting more complex and avant-garde music. With Conjunto 9, he recorded two albums, "Música Popular Contemporánea de Buenos Aires Vol. 1" and "Vol. 2."

After the group's disbandment, Piazzolla briefly reassembled the quintet for a series of concerts in 1973. That year, he moved to Italy and recorded several albums with unstable orchestras. The most continuous formation was his 'Conjunto Electrónico,' an octet that incorporated novelties such as the synthesizer, flute, and saxophone, thus approaching jazz-rock. However, the formation was not stable, alternating between Italian and Argentine musicians. With the 'electronic ensembles,' he recorded the albums "Libertango," "Summit" (with Gerry Mulligan), "Suite Troileana/Lumière," "Persecuta," and "Mundial '78/Chador."

In 1979, Piazzolla had a double reunion: he returned to Buenos Aires and his Quinteto, renaming it Quinteto Tango Nuevo. Over the next decade, he recorded few studio albums with this formation ("Biyuya," "Tango: Zero Hour," and "La Camorra") and performed an immense number of concerts (many of which were released at the time and most appeared as posthumous albums) in South America, Europe, Japan, and the United States, where the repertoire revolved around the four seasons of Buenos Aires, the angel series, Tristezas de un Doble A, Libertango, Adiós Nonino, Escualo, Mumuki, Chin Chin, among others. Meanwhile, he continued recording many soundtracks for films, such as "El infierno tan temido," "Volver," "El exilio de Gardel," or "Sur," an album titled "Woe" with the string quartet of a Munich orchestra, as well as special collaborations for Jairo, Alberto Cortez, André Heller, Georges Moustaki. In 1983, he reunited with the Conjunto Nueve (reformed) for a special concert at the Teatro Colón.

In 1988, he disbanded his quintet after eight years and formed his Sexteto Tango Nuevo, with two bandoneons, double bass, guitar, and cello. In June, he performed at the Teatro Ópera in Buenos Aires in what would be his last concert in Argentina and began an extensive tour of the United States, Switzerland, Germany, England, and the Netherlands. This group left only four live recordings (commercially released posthumously). They were working on a studio album in New York, but Piazzolla disbanded the group in 1989, leaving only four pieces recorded: Imágenes, Milonga para tres, Buenos Aires hora cero, and Pasajes obscuras dos estrellas (the only new composition). Besides this last piece, the sextet premiered three other pieces: Luna, Sex-tet, and Preludio y Fuga.

In the last years of his career, Piazzolla suffered several health problems, including a heart attack in 1988. Despite this, he continued composing and touring. His last major work was the recording of "Five Tango Sensations" with the Kronos Quartet in 1989. On August 4, 1990, Piazzolla suffered a cerebral thrombosis that left him in a coma. He never fully recovered and died on July 4, 1992, in Buenos Aires.

Useful sites:
https://elastornauta.blogspot.com
https://quintetoastorpiazzolla.com