Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina in 1921 to immigrant Italian parents, Piazzolla spent most of his childhood with his family in New York City. While there, he acquired fluency in four languages: Spanish, English, French, and Italian. He also started playing the bandoneon, quickly rising to the status of child prodigy. While still quite young, he met Carlos Gardel, another great figure of Argentine tango. He returned to Argentina in 1937, where strictly traditional tango still reigned, and played in night clubs with a series of groups. The pianist Arthur Rubinstein (then living in Buenos Aires) advised him to study with the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. Delving into scores of Stravinsky, Bartók, Ravel, and others, he gave up tango temporarily and worked as a modernist classical composer.
At Ginastera's urging, in 1953 Piazzolla entered his "Buenos Aires" Symphony in a composition contest, and won a grant from the French government to study in Paris with the French composer and conductor Nadia Boulanger. The insightful Boulanger turned his life around in a day, as Piazzolla tells beautifully in his own words:
"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 bandoneon 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."
Piazzolla returned to Argentina in 1955, formed the Octeto Buenos Aires to play tangos, and never looked back.
Upon introducing his new approach to the tango (nuevo tango), he became a controversial figure among Argentines both musically and politically. The Argentine saying "in Argentina everything may change — except the tango" suggests some of the resistance he found in his native land. However, his music gained acceptance in Europe and North America, and his reworking of the tango was embraced by some liberal segments of Argentine society, who were pushing for political changes in parallel to his musical revolution.
During the period of Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, Piazzolla lived in France, but returned many times to Argentina, recorded there, and on at least one occasion had lunch with the dictator Jorge Rafael Videla. However, his relationship with the dictator might have been less than friendly, as recounted in Astor Piazzolla, A manera de Memorias (a comprehensive collection of interviews, constituting a memoir):
In 1990 he suffered a thrombosis in Paris and he passed away two years later in Buenos Aires.
Piazzolla's nuevo tango was distinct from the traditional tango in its incorporation of elements of jazz, its use of extended harmonies and dissonance, its use of counterpoint, and its ventures into extended compositional forms. Piazzolla also introduced new instruments that were not used in the traditional tango, including the flute, saxophone, electric guitar, electronic instruments, and a full jazz/rock drum kit.
Piazzolla played with numerous ensembles beginning with the 1946 Orchestra, the 1955 "Octeto Buenos Aires", the 1960 "First Quintet", the 1971 "Noneto", the 1978 "Second Quintet" and the 1989 "Sextet". As well as providing original compositions and arrangements, he was the director and Bandoneon player in all of them. He also recorded an album with jazz sax player Gerry Mulligan. His numerous compositions include orchestral work such as the "Concierto para Bandoneón, Orquesta, Cuerdas y Percusión", "Doble-Concierto para Bandoneón y Guitarra", "Tres Tangos Sinfónicos" and "Concierto de Nácar para 9 Tanguistas y Orquesta", as well as song-form compositions that still today are well known by the general public in his country, like "Balada para un loco" (Ballad for a madman) and "Adiós Nonino" (dedicated to his father) which he recorded many times with different musicians and ensembles. Biographers estimate that Piazzolla wrote around 3,000 pieces and recorded around 500.
He suffered a cerebral haemorrhage in Paris on 4 August 1990, which left him in a coma, and died in Buenos Aires, just under two years later on 4 July 1992, without regaining consciousness.
other albums not listed here
~ The Birth of Tango Nuevo, Vol. 1 - Sinfonia de Tango
~ Mis 30 Mejores Tangos
~ Piazzolla Interpreta A. Piazzolla (Original Album - Remastered)
~ Ensayos
~ Tiempo Nuevo
~ Se Armó
~ El Milrago - The Early Recordings, Vol. 2 (Astor Piazzolla With His First Own Orchestra, So Called 1946 Band.)
~ Tango Moderno
Cafetin de Buenos Aires
Astor Piazzolla Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
como esas cosas que nunca se alcanzan,
la ñata contra el vidrio,
en un azul de frío,
que solo fue después viviendo,
igual al mío,
como una escuela de todas las cosas
el cigarrillo
la fe en mis sueños
y una esperanza de amor.
Como olvidarte en ésta queja
cafetín de Buenos Aires
si sos lo único en la vida
que se pareció a mi vieja...
En tu mezcla milagrosa
de sabihondos y suicidas
yo aprendí filosofía
dados, timba y la poseía
cruel, de no pensar mas en mí.
Me diste en oro un puñado de amigos
que son los mismos que alientan mis horas,
José, el de la quimera.
Marcial que aún cree y espera
y el flaco Abel que se nos fue
pero aún me guía.
Sobre tus mesas que nunca preguntan
lloré una tarde el primer desengaño
nací a las penas, bebí mis años...
y me entregué sin luchar.
The opening lyrics of Astor Piazzolla's song "Cafetin de Buenos Aires" reflect a wistful nostalgia for childhood memories that are both distant and unattainable. The singer recalls how, as a child, he peered through the window of this Buenos Aires cafe, his nose pressed against the glass, watching life unfold inside. The song evokes a deep sense of longing and melancholy, fueled by the realization that these childhood memories are forever lost, and that not much else in life will truly measure up.
As the song progresses, it becomes clear that the cafe has played a crucial role in the singer's life – it has been a teacher, a confidant, and a refuge. Through the various patrons and personalities who have come and gone, he has learned life lessons, caught glimpses of the city's underbelly, and experienced love and heartache. The ebb and flow of life in the cafe's underworld has shaped his perspective, making him wiser and more resilient.
The song's refrain, "Como olvidarte en ésta queja Cafetín de Buenos Aires," roughly translates to "How can I forget you, oh dear Buenos Aires cafe?" and underscores the bittersweet relationship between the singer and this mythical place. The cafe has damaged him with its excesses and addictions, but it has also given him his most treasured possessions: memories, friendships, and a connection to his past.
Line by Line Meaning
De chiquilín te miraba de afuera,
As a child, I used to watch you from afar
como esas cosas que nunca se alcanzan,
like those dreams that are never achieved
la ñata contra el vidrio,
pressed up against the window
en un azul de frío,
in the blue of the cold
que solo fue después viviendo,
that only later became alive
igual al mío,
like my own
como una escuela de todas las cosas
like a school teaching all things
ya de muchacho me diste, entre asombros
you gave me, as a young boy, with amazement
el cigarrillo
smoking cigarettes
la fe en mis sueños
faith in my dreams
y una esperanza de amor.
and a hope for love
Como olvidarte en ésta queja
How can I forget you in this lament
cafetín de Buenos Aires
coffee shop of Buenos Aires
si sos lo único en la vida
if you are the only one in life
que se pareció a mi vieja...
that resembled my mother...
En tu mezcla milagrosa
In your miraculous mix
de sabihondos y suicidas
of know-it-alls and suicidal people
yo aprendí filosofía
I learned philosophy
dados, timba y la poseía
dice, betting, and poetry
cruel, de no pensar mas en mí.
cruel, not to think about myself anymore.
Me diste en oro un puñado de amigos
You gave me a handful of golden friends
que son los mismos que alientan mis horas,
who are the same ones who encourage me in my hours
José, el de la quimera.
José, the one with dreams.
Marcial que aún cree y espera
Marcial who still believes and hopes
y el flaco Abel que se nos fue
and skinny Abel who left us
pero aún me guía.
but still guides me.
Sobre tus mesas que nunca preguntan
On your tables that never ask
lloré una tarde el primer desengaño
one afternoon, I cried my first heartbreak
nací a las penas, bebí mis años...
I was born into sorrow, drank my years...
y me entregué sin luchar.
and I surrendered without a fight.
Contributed by Addison L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
mario luis Pola
el cantante no es Héctor de Rosas sino Alberto Fontán Luna, cantante de Astor en la década del 40. Héctor de Rosas lo fue bastante después con una formación de quinteto.
PAÑOL DOSING
maestro de donde puedo escuchar Alberto Fontán Luna? lo único que encuentro en youtube son dos canciones con Astor.
Francisco Núñez Palacios
Y el arreglo es de Piazzolla?