It is coming to light more than fifty years after its creation The local concert (The local concert), a extraordinary sound document by Astor Piazzolla, recorded in July 1973 at the Diagonal Theater in Mar del Plata, his hometown. The material, which remained unpublished for more than half a century, is now released in a limited edition in double CD format, with the aim of preserving and disseminating a concert of enormous historical and artistic value.
The recording corresponds to one of the last presentations of the New tango quintetthe group founded by Piazzolla in 1960 that redefined the language of tango and marked a turning point in Argentine popular music. This concert also represents an unusual integration of the quintet, with Astor Piazzolla (bandoneon), Antonio Agri (violin), Horacio Malvicino (electric guitar), Kicho Díaz (double bass) and Osvaldo Tarantino (piano), whose participation on the piano is one of the special features of this recording.
The local concert It documents the second concert of a particularly intense day: Piazzolla offered two performances on the same day and made recordings for Argentine and Brazilian television. As mentioned in the text included in the text brochure“The activity of Astor and his quintet was truly strenuous on that unforgettable winter day,” culminating in a nighttime performance recorded directly from the console and restored today with sound restored.
The recorded repertoire includes emblematic works such as “Todo Buenos Aires”, “Lunfardo”, “Los Poseídos”, “Buenos Aires Hora Cero”, “Adiós Nonino”, “Caliente” and the full version of “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires”, which ends with a particularly intense version of “Portrait of Alfredo Gobbi”. The edition is a joint production of BoyJah Publishing and the Astor Piazzolla Foundation, an institution that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, reinforcing its mission to preserve and project the legacy of one of the great composers of the 20th century.
In July 1973, in the middle of winter in the coastal city on the South Atlantic, Astor Piazzolla gave a historic concert in his hometown of Mar del Plata. In reality, they were two concerts on the same day, in one of the city’s most emblematic cultural and entertainment venues of the 1970s: the Diagonal Theater.
The activity of Astor and his quintet on that unforgettable and cold day was truly a marathon, as he not only gave two concerts in the theater on the same evening, but also filmed a few songs for Brazilian television’s Rede O Globo and also recorded two songs in the studios of local television’s Channel 8 in the early afternoon. In the end he was completely exhausted but happy, so much so that almost at dawn, when he went to dinner with family and friends in his favorite restaurant in the port of Mar del Plata, he said: “I’ve never been so tired in my life, but I don’t think I’ve ever played so well.”
The second concert of the evening was recorded on open tape by the console and is the most wonderful gem to be found The local concert. At the beginning of the concert, Astor addressed some very warm words to his hometown: “We are very happy to be in Mar del Plata, especially me, who loves my city so much.
The ’60s were Astor Piazzolla’s golden age as a musician, composer and creator. It was this decade that his talent and creativity peaked and his style and work were forever cemented. His genius finally blossomed. All the searches, all the experiments, the studies, the nights of waking and learning, the travels, the uncertainties, the misunderstandings had finally borne fruit. Astor will form the quintet. All the groups, all the different formations that he will put together since his creation and that will be his until the end of his life. It will contribute to him, it will change him and it will always return to him.
He has done truly wonderful things with other groups, but his fundamental and essential creation will be the quintet. By founding this formation he managed to put together the best ensemble to express his music, with greater sound and orchestral benefit.
With the quintet, his music becomes more personal, more cosmopolitan, also with the addition of the electric guitar (somewhat typical of jazz and unprecedented in tango), creating a group full of lyricism and power that will become his most balanced instrumental formation and with which he will compose the most important production of his career.
Starting with the quintet, there is a definitive before and after of the music of Buenos Aires. With the quintet they played at legendary venues in the city and at the same time went on tour through the country’s provinces. Television and the press followed him: cover articles and invitations to programs helped make Piazzolla one of the cultural icons of those years. To the accusation that his music wasn’t tango, he replied with conviction and a little cheer: “It’s more tango than ever before, it’s contemporary music from Buenos Aires today.”
In June 1960, after a stay in the United States, Astor returned to Argentina with his family and, after appearing on radio and television with an orchestra of 16 musicians (where he incorporated the vibraphone as a reminder of his experiences in North America), he founded a chamber ensemble into which he could finally bring all his creativity and new ideas for tango: the Quinteto Nuevo Tango (also known in its various incarnations over time as Quinteto Tango Nuevo or simply Quinteto). by Astor Piazzolla).
This is how he expressed himself in an interview for Buenos Aires Musical (1962) about his idea of the quintet: “A group formed according to the criteria that form a chamber group: with instrumentalists with a solid and profound musical training who, at the same time, are no strangers to the spirit that nourishes the popular music of Buenos Aires.” It consisted of bandoneon, violin, double bass, piano and electric guitar. The first formation consisted of Astor on bandoneon, Simón Bajour on violin (Elvino Vardaro quickly took his place), Jaime Gosis on piano, Horacio Malvicino on electric guitar (he was later replaced by Oscar López Ruiz) and Kicho Díaz on double bass.
This formation was the basis of the Nuevo Tango Quintet in the productive and important decade of the sixties, with the very important entry (1962, who finally replaced Vardaro) of Antonio Agri, who was to be the violinist of all Astor’s groups and projects from then until 1976. A formation that is a pure synthesis: The bandoneon is tradition, the electric guitar is modernity, the violin is lyricism, the double bass is anchor and the piano is the mixture that invites improvisation. (especially in Gosis), if necessary or possible. In 1970, the great pianist Dante Amicarelli was a member for a short but fruitful period.
In October 1971, the founding of Ensemble 9, an extension of the quintet, was officially announced. (Antonio Agri on violin, Oscar López Ruiz on electric guitar, Kicho Diaz on double bass and Osvaldo Manzi on piano) to which he will add old acquaintances, such as: Jose Bragato on cello, Hugo Baralis on the violin, Jose Corriale in drums and Nestor panic in viola. With Conjunto 9 he recorded two albums for RCA: “Contemporary Popular Music of the City of Buenos Aires – Vol I and II (for the recording of the second volume the great pianist permanently joins the nonet). Osvaldo Tarantino replaces Manzi).
The life of this celebrated nonet lasts almost two years and with him he travels to Italy, where he gives important performances, including one on RAI (Italian public television), where they accompany the famous singer Mina in an anthological version of “Balada para mi muerte”, which they later recorded in the studio (with two versions of the same song – one in Italian and the other in Spanish) together with the great diva of Italian folk song.
Unfortunately, he had to disband Conjunto 9 in 1973 after failing to receive the subsidy promised by the government of the city of Buenos Aires (which Nonet had already subsidized the previous year with performances throughout the country), so he temporarily reformed the quintet.
In the winter of that year he began to give concerts again with his beloved ensemble (Agri, Diaz, Malvicino and Osvaldo Tarantino), and before his tour of Brazil he gave the historic concert at the Diagonal Theater in the city of Mar del Plata, which finally saw the light of day.
This discovery was made possible thanks to the work and commitment of Randal Irwin for BoyJah Publishing of Oregon, USA, in executive production and the Astor Piazzolla Foundation, chaired by Astor’s widow, Laura Escalada Piazzolla in artistic direction. This double CD is a wonderful testimony to the art and love for his roots of one of the greatest composers and musicians of the 20th century.
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