Astor Piazzolla Set: book + magnet

UNMISSABLE OFFER: BOOK + MAGNET

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA (1921 - 1992) was a musical genius, a man who used Argentine folk music as a starting point to create a new musical genre. In Astor Piazzolla, María Susana Azzi captures the life of this extraordinary Italo-Argentine musician. His four grandparents were Italian, his maternal grandparents from Tuscany and his paternal grandparents from Puglia. 

María Susana Azzi traces Piazzolla’s origins from his birth in Argentina in 1921 and his childhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where he began to develop his talent for the bandoneon. She narrates his return to Argentina at the age of 16 and the success he achieved in a short time. Piazzolla soon became a first bandoneonist in Aníbal Troilo’s orchestra and then with his own orchestra. Despite his great success as a tango musician, Piazzolla decided to take tango to a new musical level and after taking lessons with Alberto Ginastera he went to study composition in Paris with the legendary Nadia Boulanger. Azzi combines astute musical analysis with insightful personal understanding to show us how, from tango, Piazzolla developed a completely different style of music. Music to listen to, not dance to – influenced by jazz, klezmer and contemporary classical music. Due to the strong resistance Piazzolla encountered in Argentina, the tango’s country of origin, his work became rather wearying. In the end, he had to leave Argentina and make his way to Europe, where he became an international celebrity. Since Piazzolla's death in 1992, his music has been increasingly appreciated. Azzi has given us a complete biography of this remarkably gifted musician.