Astor Piazzolla Biography

Blaz and Andrea. Two sexy tango dancers performing.

Birth name: Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla
Born: March 11, 1921 Mar del Plata, Argentina
Died: July 4, 1992 (aged 71) Buenos Aires,Argentina

Mother: Asunta Mainetti.
Father: Vicente (Nonino) Piazzolla

March 11, 1921
Astor Piazzolla is born

1925
The family relocates to New York City

1929
At 8 years old his father gives him his first bandoneon. He saw it at a pawn shop and felt nostalgic for home so he bought it for 19 dollars.

Astor studies the bandoneon for one year with Andrés DÁquila.

1931
He makes his first record, Marionette Spagnol; a non commercial phonograph disk at the Radio Recording Studio in New York on November 30th 1931.

1933
He studies with the Hungarian pianist Bela Wilda, Astor later would say "With him I learned to love Bach".

At the age of 13, he met Carlos Gardel, who invited to join his current tour. Astor's father decided he was too young to go on the tour. However Piazzolla did have a part in Gardel's movie "El Dia Que me Quieras" playing the part of a newspaper boy.

As it turned out it was lucky for Piazzolla that he didn't go along on the tour because it was this tour that Gardel and his entire band lost their lives in a plane crash.
In later years Piazzolla remarked that if his father was not so careful, he wouldn't be playing the bandoneon he'd be playing the harp.

1936
His family returns to Mar del Plata, Argentina.

Around this time he begins playing in various orchestras. This is also the time he discovers Elvino Vardaro's sextet on the radio. So moved by Elvino he came to admire him and Elvino actually became Piazzolla's violinist later on.

1938
Astor moves to Buenos Aires. He was only 17 years old.

1939
He gets to realize his dream of playing bandoneon with the Anibal Troilo orchestra which is one of the greatest tango orchestras of the time.

1941
He begins his musical studies with Alberto Ginastera

1942
He marries Dedé Wolff and from this marriage he has two children:
Diana in 1943 and Daniel in 1944.

1943
He studies piano with Raúl Spivak.

1944
He leaves Troilo's orchestra to become the leader of the orchestra which accompanies singer Francisco Fiorentino

1946
He leaves Francisco Fiorentino to form his own orchestra

1949
Longing for something more he decides to drop the bandoneon to write and pursue his musical studies.
He also studies orchestra direction with Herman Scherchen. At this time he also listens to a lot of jazz.

1950 - 1954
He composes a series of works that are very different from the tango of that time. This further defines his unique style.

1953
He presents the work "Buenos Aires" for the Fabien Sevitzky competition. Piazzolla wins the first prize.

1954
One of the prizes was a scholarship from the French government to study in Paris with the legendary Nadia Boulanger. This first day of his studies with her are summed up best 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."

Not surprisingly after this lesson Piazzolla returned to tango and the bandoneon.

While in Paris, he composed and recorded a series of tangos with a string orchestra and began to play the bandoneon while standing up with one leg on a chair. This trait characterized him on the music scene since most bandoneonists play sitting down.

1955
Piazzolla returns to Argentina.

He forms a group, the Octeto Buenos Aires, which is the beginning of the contemporary tango age.

Most of the orthodox tangueros, targeted him with very spiteful criticism. He bravely followed his path in spite of this.

1958
He disbands the octet and goes back to New York City to work as an arranger.

Between 1958 and 1960 he experimented with Jazz-Tango

1959
After the death of his father in October 1959, he writes his famous, "Adiós Nonino".

He returns to Argentina where he creates the first of many famous quintets that played nuevo tango.

1965
He makes two of his most important records:
Piazzolla at the "Philharmonic Hall New York" and "El Tango".

1966
He leaves Dedé Wolff.

1968
He begins his collaboration with the poet Horacio Ferrer where they create the famous "Maria de Buenos Aires" which is a new style called tango operita.

Around that time he begins dating the singer Amelita Baltar.

1973
He suffers a heart attack which forces him to reduce his workload.

He moves to Italy, where he begins a recording stint which lasts 5 years. His very famous work "Libertango" was the most famous work to be produced during this time.

1974
He separates from Amelita Baltar.

He records "Summit" with the great saxophonist Gerry Mulligan.

1975
Aníbal Troilo dies and Piazzolla composes the "Suite Troileana" in his memory.

1976
He meets the woman who would be his last wife, Laura Escalada.

1978
He starts the quintet that makes him renowned throughout world.

Over the next ten years his popularity grows significantly as he starts to tour in places such as Japan.

1982
He writes and dedicates "Le Grand Tango" for cello and piano, to Russian cellist, Mtislav Rostropovitch.

1985
He is named an exceptional citizen of Buenos Aires.

1986
He receives the Cesar prize in Paris for the score of the film "El exilio de Gardel".

1988
He undergoes a quadruple bypass.

1990
He suffers a stroke in Paris on August 4, 1990.

1992
He dies in Buenos Aires on July 4, 1992.