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Tango By Year, the podcast

Astor Piazzolla

11 records across 8 episodes (4 play here), plus 1 chapters that mention them, in the order the music happened.

Records played, by recording year

19451961

0 of 11 heard

1945

  1. Corrientes y Esmeralda

    Francisco Fiorentino

    Fiorentino as a soloist with Piazzolla's orchestra, an interesting version of a song better known from Pugliese and D'Arienzo.

    Only in the episode

  2. Soy una fiera

    Francisco Fiorentino

    Lavocah calls it, for dancers, the most successful interpretation of Piazzolla's early orchestra, though that band was not danced to.

    Only in the episode

1947

  1. Chiqué

    A very old, much-recorded tango chosen so listeners can compare Piazzolla's own 1947 instrumental to the Troilo 1944 version he arranged.

  2. El Rápido

    From Piazzolla's only true orquesta típica (formed 1946); complex, colour-shifting arrangements built for listening, not the dance floor.

  3. Taconeando

    Chosen to demonstrate marcato en ocho — eight accents per bar instead of tango's usual four.

    Only in the episode

1948

  1. Villeguita

    Piazzolla's own composition from his own band: a modernist track with 'marcato en ocho' (counted in eight), with so many ideas that Lavocah says it is 'less complete' than Negracha.

1951

  1. ChapterThe Fight That Got Piazzolla Pulled From the Setlist

    A new tango sound started a punch-up on the dance floor.

  2. La Cumparsita

    Recorded by a short-lived orchestra Piazzolla pulled together in 1951, between dissolving his own orquesta tipica (1946-48) and working mainly as an arranger until his move to Paris in 1954.

1955

  1. Nonino

    Lavocah opens with this as the precursor to 1967's Adiós Nonino, and as the moment Piazzolla, recording his own compositions in Paris, marks the end of the dance era.

    Only in the episode

  2. Imperial

    A second, more delicate Piazzolla Paris side, played to encourage listeners to go and seek out the rest of that session.

    Only in the episode

  3. Nonino

    An instrumental closing the main 1926-1955 survey, described as a precursor to 'Adiós Nonino' and a symbol of tango moving from dance music to concert music.

    Only in the episode

1961

  1. Prepárense

    A Piazzolla quintet recording of a tango first heard in the Troilo arrangement of 1951; now he can be true to himself, with Antonio Agri on violin.

    Only in the episode

Tango By Year is Dag Stenvoll and Michael Lavocah's, published here with their permission. The audio plays from SoundCloud.