Hometown: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lived: 1921-1992

Personnel:
Astor Piazzolla -bandoneón
Fernando Suarez Paz -violin
Pablo Ziegler -piano
Horacio Malvicino, Sr. -guitar
Hector Console -bass

Tango, like jazz, was born in the bad part of a port town. First it was the music of Buenos Aires' whorehouses and lowlife bars, the soundtrack to countless acts of violence and passion. It also articulated the longing of an immigrant population, and it eventually became Argentina's national music.

Astor Piazzolla dragged the tango into the 20th century by matching its original underworld edge with compositional sophistication. Accompanied by his New Tango Quintet, he performed that music with precision and fervid emotion. Piazzolla played the bandoneón, a button accordion with an exceptionally large bellows that is the signature instrument of tango. He was a master of the cumbersome squeezebox, able to weave intricate melodies over strident rhythms.

One of Piazzolla's innovations was to take the tango off the dance floor by breaking up the flow of his compositions with pleading balladic segments or unexpected sharp, percussive interludes. It's a cliche to refer to tango's association with carnality, but every cliche has its grain of truth; Piazzolla's music is sensual and voluptuous, but never corny or lurid. He considered this to be his finest album because of the empathy and passion with which the Quintet realized his pieces, and his own playing was at a peak. Who am I to argue with the guy?