The
Astor Piazzolla Edicion critica being undertaken by the Argentine branch of
Sony/BMG aims to reissue many of
Piazzolla's original recordings, in CD form, with their original artwork and sequencing. The original notes by
Piazzolla himself are on one side of a square sheet folded in quarters and serving as the booklet; additional notes, a biography, and the original cover artwork are on the other side. All the notes are in Spanish only, probably a mistake given
Piazzolla's international popularity, but Spanish readers will enjoy
Piazzolla's elegant and just slightly tongue-in-cheek commentary. The best thing about the series is that most of the albums included have long been unavailable in their original forms. The present disc,
Nuestro Tiempo, was reissued by
Sony in Japan as part of its six-disc
Piazzolla series, but the original LP may well be hard to find even in Argentina.
Nuestro Tiempo dates from 1962, early in the career of
Piazzolla's
Quinteto Tango Nuevo or
New Tango Quintet, and as much as any other release it shows
Piazzolla hitting his stride and fully exploring the modern tango-classical fusion idiom that has been his legacy. Like others in the series, the album presents a vision of
Piazzolla somewhat different from the one formed as he achieved worldwide renown in his old age. There are three vocal selections featuring singer
Hector de Rosas, one of them with a text by
Piazzolla's late daughter
Diana. Unlike on some of the earlier
Piazzolla releases, the progressive idiom penetrates these as well; they seem like precursors to
Piazzolla's 1968 tango opera
Maria de Buenos Aires. Most of the instrumental pieces, with the major exception of
La Muerte del angel (track 2) and its associated
Introduccion al angel, are not among the big
Piazzolla hits, but the consistently experimental quality of the material is compelling throughout, with echoes of
Bartok and
Stravinsky and of forward-edge American jazz in addition to
Piazzolla's usual French influences. The pure, rarefied gloom of the mature
Piazzolla is here only in a few spots, but that is just one aspect of his output. Sample the grim opening, quartal harmonies, and dissonant antiphony in the quizzically titled (even for
Piazzolla)
Imagenes 676, for instance. This piece appears on no other
Piazzolla album, and it suggests how completely
Piazzolla's classic pieces rested on a foundation of true experimentation. The whole album is strongly recommended, even for those planning to buy just a few releases in this series. The album includes four bonus tracks from another 1962 LP by vocalist
Roberto Yanes, with
Piazzolla and his group serving as accompanists; these are intriguing in that they show
Piazzolla's ability to play it straight even at this late date, but they're not really of a piece with the rest of the music.~James Manheim
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