Listen & Watch
Audio library: listen to Piazzolla recordings
Audio Lectures about Piazzolla (CAP)
Videos of Piazzolla
200 Versions of "Adios Nonino"
Historical
Piazzolla Biography
Interview of Piazzolla
Museum: historical Piazzolla stuff
News in the Piazzolla world
Reference
Reference to all Piazzolla CDs
Recommended recordings
FAQ: common questions about Piazzolla
Other reference materials
Updated 5/18/00
To the prestigious run of Forever Tango all over the country, including a record breaking season on Broadway, there is now the addition of spin offs and new propositions that cover the traditional and the modern. This is a well deserved recognition and quite an accomplishment for a social dance that less than fifteen years ago was doomed to die for lack of interest.
The outlook for 1999 is impressive. Forever Tango returns to San Francisco in March. A new and provocative dance concert called Tangoing has already gotten rave reviews in Los Angeles, because of the original and contemporaneous approach taken by a group of Argentine professionals residing in the US. San Francisco will have both shows playing a few blocks away from each other in April. As these are business propositions, those in the know trust that the city is ready for lots of Tango excitement and they are betting their investment dollars to see that their returns are profitable.
Another business that is booming is the Tango Week. It appears that this will be a banner year for Argentine Tango professionals who are being actively sought to fill in the numerous venues on the already busy Tango Week circuit. The pool of top talent in Argentina is not very deep so we expect to see a lot of new names and unfamiliar faces each with their own version of salida to cruzada. But, it has been said many times that the Tango Week is the Club Med of the Tango dancer. For many, it is the once a year trek to another city to renew acquaintances, to make new friends, and to embrace other Tango fellows at the milongas and classes. The more success a Tango Week has, the more tempting it is for others to try their fortune and their chance to live the dream of the Tango King or Queen. Sometimes things get nasty and across the country folks get thrown in the middle of family feuds. There is only a minority of people who actually get to see the ugliness of human pettiness and blinding selfishness that drive some Tango promoters. However, most of us close our eyes, like when they play Chique near midnight at the milonga, and tune in to the music and dance, grateful that there is a place to dance, that there is somebody playing the music, and especially beholden that there is somebody to dance with.
The point of it all is that we have choices and the power to make them. There are far more loving and gracious people across our Tango nation than the few who try to make others feel unwelcomed or just plain miserable. To those who are in the majority, we are indebted and grateful for providing the human element of kindness and affection. And thinking of you we tortured ourselves deciding whether to share our own personal joy and prestigious honor, vested upon us by Jim Rendon of the Silicon Valley Metro Newspaper, who set out to write about Tango, and found out what we do worthy of public awareness fit to be published. This issue is therefore our way to say thank you for dancing wherever you are, and for letting us come into your life and participating in the experience.
Alberto Paz
Copyright (c) 2000, Planet Tango. All Rights Reserved
During the 60s, Pichuco used to play every Thursday on Channel 11. The singer was Tito Reyes, and the speaker Horacio Aiello. The case was one Thursday, Troilo missed his appointment. The orchestra played without him, but this situation caused worry among the channel authorities. They thought that attitude was unbearable and were thinking about breaking Troilo’s contract.
Aiello told a friend of mine, who was also very close with Pichuco, about this problem, so he could tell the musician to go and talk with the authorities. I remember going with my friend to Pichuco’s house, where his wife Zita received us.
When my friend told her about the reason of our visit, the woman answered us with a question. “Do you know which teams played football last Sunday?” A bit confused, my friend said “Boca Juniors and River Plate” (River had won the game that time). And Zita kept talking “You know Pichuco loves three things more than anything in his life: his mother, tango and River Plate. Last Sunday morning, some of his friends picked him up to go to the stadium, and he hasn’t come back yet”.
These were the pranks of a lovable man, who enjoyed all the joy life would bring him.
Of course, at the channel, things didn’t get very serious, and he kept delighting us with his bandoneon and his exceptional talent week after week.
If you wish to tell us stories related to tango, the information to El Portal del Tango: info@elportaldeltango.com
or to us: milongueando@gmail.com
