Tango: Zero Hour

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Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

Astor Piazzolla called his recording Tango: Zero Hour “absolutely the greatest record I’ve made in my entire life.” The album was recorded in New York with Piazzolla and his classic New Tango Quintet, which worked with Piazzolla from 1978 to 1988 and included Fernando Suárez Paz (violin), Pablo Ziegler (piano), Horacio Malvicino Sr. (guitar), and Héctor Console (bass).

Description

Astor Piazzolla called his recording Tango: Zero Hour “absolutely the greatest record I’ve made in my entire life.” The album was recorded in New York with Piazzolla and his classic New Tango Quintet, which worked with Piazzolla from 1978 to 1988 and included Fernando Suárez Paz (violin), Pablo Ziegler (piano), Horacio Malvicino Sr. (guitar), and Héctor Console (bass). Tango: Zero Hour, produced by Kip Hanrahan, was originally released by American Clavé in 1986.

Astor Piazzolla’s nuevo tango, which incorporates classical forms and jazz elements into the traditional tango, was so controversial at its advent that Piazzolla had his life threatened on numerous occasions and was even exiled from his country. The traditional tango, born out of the bordellos of Buenos Aires in the way that jazz began in New Orleans, had been haunted by its origins for decades. Piazzolla, with his innovative style and desire to legitimize the tango and bring it to a serious musical audience, changed the face of the music forever.

Born in Mar Del Plata, Argentina in 1921, Piazzolla moved to New York with his father at an early age and lived there until 1937. At age nine he was asked by the famed tango singer/composer Carlos Gardel to appear in his movie El Dia Que Me Quieras. Upon his return to Buenos Aires, he learned to play the bandoneón, began arranging for Anibal Troilo’s orchestra (one of the main tango bands of the day), and studied with the composer Alberto Ginastera.

The year 1954 marked a pivotal point in Piazzolla’s career, when he won a scholarship to study composition with the celebrated pedagogue Nadia Boulanger in Paris. It was Boulanger who encouraged Piazzolla to develop the popular music of his heritage, to make tango a serious music. In 1955 he organized his Octeto Buenos Aires, after his studies with Boulanger and an encounter with Gerry Mulligan’s Octet. It signified the beginning of what came to be known as nuevo tango.

 Other ensembles followed, including Piazzolla’s first quintet, which worked together from 1960 to 1970. The New Tango Quintet, convened in 1978, was in a class by itself. When Tango: Zero Hour was released, the ensemble had spent nearly 10 years together and Piazzolla was at the peak of his powers. SPIN magazine called Tango: Zero Hour “extraordinary,” and The Village Voice called Piazzolla “a modern master.” Jon Pareles of the New York Times said, “To hear Mr. Piazzolla’s tangos as musical marvels is beside the point. As edgy lines and long-breathed tunes defy and embrace one another, the tangos suggest that even in the modern world, romance survives.”

The release of Tango: Zero Hour marks the third Nonesuch release featuring Astor Piazzolla. In 1988, a recording of his Concierto para bandoneón and Tres tangos was released, and in 1990, he made his last recording, of a piece commissioned by Kronos Quartet called Five Tango Sensations. (His first composition for Kronos, Four, for Tango, appears on their 1988 release Winter Was Hard.) The music of Piazzolla is also featured on two Nonesuch recordings by the violinist Gidon Kremer: Hommage à Piazzolla and El Tango.

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced by Kip Hanrahan
Associate Producer: Nancy Hanrahan
Recorded and mixed May 1986 at Sound Ideas Studio, New York City
Engineer: Jon Fausty
Assistant Engineer: Shawna Stobie
Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, New York City

Design by John Gall
Photo by Charles Reilly

Executive Producer: Scott Marcus

Nonesuch Selection Number

79469

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
ns_album_artistid
88
ns_album_id
255
ns_album_releasedate
ns_genre_1
0
ns_genre_2
0
Album Status
Artist Name
Astor Piazzolla
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
The New Tango Quintet:
Astor Piazzolla, bandoneón
Fernando Suárez Paz, violin
Pablo Ziegler, piano
Horacio Malvicino Sr., guitar
Héctor Console, bass

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
UPC
075597946925BUN
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
603497073863
  • 79469

News & Reviews

  • Congratulations to all of the Nonesuch nominees for the 65th Grammy Awards: Molly Tuttle for Best New Artist and Best Bluegrass Album for Crooked Tree with Golden Highway; The Black Keys for Best Rock Album for Dropout Boogie and Best Rock Performance for "Wild Child"; Dan Auerbach for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical; Cécile McLorin Salvant for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Ghost Song and Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals for "Optimistic Voices / No Love Dying"; Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade's LongGone for Best Instrumental Album; Brad Mehldau's Jacob's Ladder for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album; Punch Brothers' Hell on Church Street for Best Folk Album; Caroline Shaw & Attacca Quartet's Evergreen for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance; Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder's GET ON BOARD for Best Traditional Blues Album; Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) for Best Historical Album and Best Album Notes for Bob Mehr; and Astor Piazzolla: The American Clavé Recordings. for Best Album Notes for Fernando González. 

  • Nonesuch Records will release a three-LP/three-CD box set of albums from the great Argentine composer, bandleader, and bandoneón player Astor Piazzolla—originally released by American Clavé Records in the 1980s and reissued by Nonesuch more than two decades ago—on May 6, 2022. Astor Piazzolla: The American Clavé Recordings marks the first time this landmark trio of albums—Tango: Zero Hour, La Camorra: The Solitude of Passionate Provocation, and The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night (Tango Apasionado)—is being issued as a set, now remastered, and is the first time the albums have been available on vinyl since their initial release on American Clavé. The set’s liner notes include original and new notes by the albums’ producer and American Clavé founder Kip Hanrahan and an essay from journalist Fernando González, who translated and annotated Piazzolla’s memoirs and wrote liner notes for four of his albums.

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  • About This Album

    Astor Piazzolla called his recording Tango: Zero Hour “absolutely the greatest record I’ve made in my entire life.” The album was recorded in New York with Piazzolla and his classic New Tango Quintet, which worked with Piazzolla from 1978 to 1988 and included Fernando Suárez Paz (violin), Pablo Ziegler (piano), Horacio Malvicino Sr. (guitar), and Héctor Console (bass). Tango: Zero Hour, produced by Kip Hanrahan, was originally released by American Clavé in 1986.

    Astor Piazzolla’s nuevo tango, which incorporates classical forms and jazz elements into the traditional tango, was so controversial at its advent that Piazzolla had his life threatened on numerous occasions and was even exiled from his country. The traditional tango, born out of the bordellos of Buenos Aires in the way that jazz began in New Orleans, had been haunted by its origins for decades. Piazzolla, with his innovative style and desire to legitimize the tango and bring it to a serious musical audience, changed the face of the music forever.

    Born in Mar Del Plata, Argentina in 1921, Piazzolla moved to New York with his father at an early age and lived there until 1937. At age nine he was asked by the famed tango singer/composer Carlos Gardel to appear in his movie El Dia Que Me Quieras. Upon his return to Buenos Aires, he learned to play the bandoneón, began arranging for Anibal Troilo’s orchestra (one of the main tango bands of the day), and studied with the composer Alberto Ginastera.

    The year 1954 marked a pivotal point in Piazzolla’s career, when he won a scholarship to study composition with the celebrated pedagogue Nadia Boulanger in Paris. It was Boulanger who encouraged Piazzolla to develop the popular music of his heritage, to make tango a serious music. In 1955 he organized his Octeto Buenos Aires, after his studies with Boulanger and an encounter with Gerry Mulligan’s Octet. It signified the beginning of what came to be known as nuevo tango.

     Other ensembles followed, including Piazzolla’s first quintet, which worked together from 1960 to 1970. The New Tango Quintet, convened in 1978, was in a class by itself. When Tango: Zero Hour was released, the ensemble had spent nearly 10 years together and Piazzolla was at the peak of his powers. SPIN magazine called Tango: Zero Hour “extraordinary,” and The Village Voice called Piazzolla “a modern master.” Jon Pareles of the New York Times said, “To hear Mr. Piazzolla’s tangos as musical marvels is beside the point. As edgy lines and long-breathed tunes defy and embrace one another, the tangos suggest that even in the modern world, romance survives.”

    The release of Tango: Zero Hour marks the third Nonesuch release featuring Astor Piazzolla. In 1988, a recording of his Concierto para bandoneón and Tres tangos was released, and in 1990, he made his last recording, of a piece commissioned by Kronos Quartet called Five Tango Sensations. (His first composition for Kronos, Four, for Tango, appears on their 1988 release Winter Was Hard.) The music of Piazzolla is also featured on two Nonesuch recordings by the violinist Gidon Kremer: Hommage à Piazzolla and El Tango.

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    The New Tango Quintet:
    Astor Piazzolla, bandoneón
    Fernando Suárez Paz, violin
    Pablo Ziegler, piano
    Horacio Malvicino Sr., guitar
    Héctor Console, bass

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Produced by Kip Hanrahan
    Associate Producer: Nancy Hanrahan
    Recorded and mixed May 1986 at Sound Ideas Studio, New York City
    Engineer: Jon Fausty
    Assistant Engineer: Shawna Stobie
    Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, New York City

    Design by John Gall
    Photo by Charles Reilly

    Executive Producer: Scott Marcus