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Astor Piazzolla Youtube3/20/2021
Astor would describe Wilda as his first great master: We lived in a very long house and there, at the back, beyond a courtyard there was a window and, from there, the sound of a piano was heard.Tango Nuevo, at first, was strongly rejected in his home country Argentina, but eventually was appreciated and celebrated for the genius it was throughout the world.
He is the only child of Vicente Piazzolla and Asunta Mainetti, of Italian background - all four grandparents were Italian immigrants who moved to Argentina. At birth, there is tragedy: his right leg is terribly twisted due to polio, and as an infant he undergoes repeated operations, until it is corrected, albeit with one leg slightly shorter than the other. This affects Astors parents greatly, though in different ways. Astors mother decides not to have more children; whereas his father, according to Astor: Proposed that I should do everything forbidden to me, so that I would get ahead, not be a solitary person, a person with complexes. They first go to New Jersey, and work on the railroads; then later during the infamous Prohibition they illegally carry alcohol across the border. They then move to Manhattan, near a densely Italian district termed Little Italy, near the largest Jewish community in the world. In fact Astor would earn small pocket money extinguishing candles in the local synagogue, and would later say that: My rhythmic accents, 3-3-2, are similar to those of the Jewish popular music I heard at weddings. One day when Astor is attacked by a gang, a note is sent by Scabuttiello saying: Never touch Piazzollas son again. New York suites Astor and he adjusts reasonably well; he learns to speak English with the New York accent, which he retains for life. However Astor has an aggressive and disruptive side, and is expelled from school for fighting: he gets the nickname Lefty because of his left handed punch. In 1929, aged only 8, Astor Piazzollas father spends 18 buying him a bandonen, which is the Argentine version of the concertina (related to the accordion). Piazzolla says of this gift: My first bandonen was a gift from my father when I was eight years old. ![]() It was a letdown because instead of a pair of skates, I found an artifact I had never seen before in my life. Dad sat down, set it on my legs, and told me, Astor, this is the instrument of tango. Tango was that music he listened to almost every night after coming home from work. For Astor this is a difficult time, as everything about him is strange to his school-friends, and he gets taunted - the foreign child attempting pidgin Spanish is someone to redicule. But Astor can pull a good punch, and soon the laughter stops. After nine months in Argentina, Vicente realizes the grass is not greener, and the family return to New York. He also makes his first (non-commercial) recording, Marionette Spagnol, at the Radio Recording Studio. Piazzolla rides the jazz scene in New York, huge at the time, sneaking into clubs (he was underage) where Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman and other icons play. The pianist and neighbor, Bela Wilda who was a student of Rachmaninov, teaches Piazzolla the piano, and introduces him to classical music. Piazzolla becomes obsessed with Wildas playing of Johann Sebastian Bach, which he would later term as a major influence; in fact Wilda teaches him to play Bach on the bandonen.
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