With free admission, a crowd gathered to listen to the talk by the author of this unpublished and historical material by the great Argentine tango composer.
At the University Cultural Space (ECU), the book “Archivo Piazzolla” was presented, the new material from the director of the Master's Degree in Psychoanalysis of the Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Carlos Kuri. It was published by the University Press, in the context of the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth.
The book is based on original files, from clippings and programs from foreign newspapers, through unique photos, records, letters, reviews, a list of songs and Piazzolla's influence on the most important musicians in the world. “It is a work that brings together original and historical archives, which has newspaper clippings from 1931-1932 of Piazzolla in New York. A very important aesthetic design criterion was proposed to give it coherence and make up a unique book”, Kuri advanced.
The edition, launched by the UNR publishing house, has an extremely delicate design work, giving balance and aesthetics to the high content poured into it by its author, the psychoanalyst and essayist Carlos Kuri.
“That this book is published by the UNR is not a coincidence, rather it is a cultural decision that other publishers might not have made. The UNR Editora was central in this path, as was the rector Franco Bartolacci, also for betting on this project. I want to thank the corps of translators at the University for helping to translate various documents and stories,” Kuri commented.
The author defined this production as completely revealing and important in the construction of the figure of Piazzolla. On the other hand, he remembered Victor Oliveros, a famous academic of tango, a close friend of Astor Piazzolla and who was a fundamental part of the compilation process of this archive. “There is not a day that he is not missed, he had a unique smile. He was a connoisseur like few others of Ástor and it was a pleasure to listen to him ”.
Fabio Rodríguez (host of Asunto Tango, Captura de pantalla de Canal 3 y Punto de encuentro Radio UNR) was chosen to talk on stage with the author of such precious material, in the year of the centenary of the birth of the “genius of the bandoneón”. . In addition, unpublished videos of Piazzolla were shown.
Kuri remembered the precise moment when she heard the composer for the first time. “It wasn't music that I listened to much so far. It was the year 1973 and I was studying flute at Vigil. I remember that I came across a strange thing on the radio that it was difficult for me to define in a specific genre, which caught me and from that day on I did not let it go anymore ”.
The first contact with the artist was at the El Círculo theater, the day he performed three concerts in a row. “Thanks to life later I was able to meet him and have a certain friendship. At that time I was already starting to write my first book about him. I remember that I sent him what he had so far and he loved it, or at least that's what he told me. It was a book of essays, very different from the one we are presenting, which is well archived”.
The book is an unpublished production that reveals different parts of Piazzolla's work, making a compilation of his career and art. "The book comes with several surprises, including the unpublished recording of a Piazzolla show that has not been broadcast before."
An exponent without equal
Ástor Piazzolla was an Argentine bandoneon player and composer considered one of the most important musicians of the XNUMXth century and one of the most relevant tango composers in the world.
His works revolutionized the traditional tango scene with a style called new tango or avant-garde tango, incorporating elements of jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneon player, he used to perform his own compositions with a variety of ensembles. In 1992, the American music critic Stephen Holden described Piazzolla as "the most important composer of tango music in the world."
In the last ten years of his life he wrote more than 300 tangos and some fifty film musical bands, among which are: Henry IV by Marco Bellocchio, Lumière by Jeanne Moreau, Armaguedon by Alain Delon, Sur, El exilio de Gardel by Fernando Solanas. In February 1993, Piazzolla was posthumously nominated for the 1992 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles for Oblivion in the Best Instrumental Composition category.
Photographs: Ayelén Collado (ECU Communication)