Music - Buenos Aires - page 444

THE STARS OF TANGO
Gardel
In June 1935 a Cuban woman committed suicide in Havana, and a woman in New York and another in
Puerto Rico tried to poison themselves, all over the same man - whom none of them had ever met.
The man was tango singer Carlos Gardel, known as El Zorzal Criollo (the King of Tango) or the song-
bird of Buenos Aires, who had just died in a plane crash in Colombia.
Born in France, Gardel was the epitome of the immigrant porteño whose destitute single mother
brought him to Buenos Aires at the age of three. In his youth he worked at a variety of menial jobs and
entertained his neighbors with his rapturous singing. A performing career began after he befriended
Uruguayan-born José Razzano, and the two of them sang together in a popular duo until Razzano lost
his voice. From 1917 onward Gardel performed solo.
Carlos Gardel played an enormous role in creating the tango canción (song). Almost single-
handedly, he took the style out of Buenos Aires' tenements and brought it to Paris and New York. His
crooning voice, suaveness and overall charisma made him an immediate success in Latin American
countries. The timing couldn't have been better, as he rose to fame in tango's golden years of the
1920s and 1930s. Gardel became a recording and film star, but his later career was tragically cut short
by that fatal plane crash. Every day a steady procession of pilgrims visits Carlos Gardel's sarcophagus
in the Cementerio de la Chacarita in Buenos Aires, where a lit cigarette often smolders between the
metal fingers of his life-size statue. The large, devoted community of his followers, known as gardeli-
anos, cannot pass a day without listening to his songs or watching his films. Another measure of his
ongoing influence is the common saying 'Gardel sings better every day'. Elvis should be so lucky.
Piazzolla
Gardel may have brought tango to the world, but it was El Gran Ástor (the Great Ástor), as Argentines
like to call Ástor Piazzolla (1921-92), who pushed its limits. The great Argentine composer and ban-
doneón (small accordian) virtuoso, who played in the leading Aníbal Troilo orchestra in the late 1930s
and early 1940s, was the greatest innovator of tango. He revolutionized traditional tango by infusing it
with elements of jazz and classical music such as counterpoints, fugues and various harmonies.
This new style, known as nuevo tango , became an international hit in Europe (Piazzolla lived on
and off in Italy and France) and North America (he spent his early years and a couple of later stints in
New York). In his native land, however, it encountered considerable resistance; a saying even stated
'in Argentina everything may change - except the tango'. It took years for Piazzolla's controversial
new style to be accepted, and he even received death threats for his break with tradition.
Piazzolla was an incredibly prolific composer; it's estimated that his output includes some 1000
pieces. These include soundtracks for about 40 films; an opera that he wrote with poet Horacio Ferrer,
María de Buenos Aires ; and compositions based on texts and poems by Jorge Luis Borges.
Piazzolla's legacy lives on. Some of the greatest contemporary musicians, such as Yo-Yo Ma, have
recorded albums dedicated to El Gran Ástor (such as the 1999 Soul of the Tango - The Music of Ástor
Piazzolla ). The new wave of electronic tango often samples his music and the 2003 album Astor