Tango Nuevo!

I stayed up late last night gipped by the experience of a live recording by Astor Piazzolla and his quintet. The amazing range of sounds he gets from relatively traditional instruments. The dynamic rhythms and shifting tone colours. If you've not heard this Argentinan composer-performer before, it's a tonic to the soul. Part classical, part jazz influenced, and imbued throughout with the spirit of the tango. The playing is passionate, skilled, and committed - lyrical and romantic one moment, then moving sinuously into passages of dramatically syncopated affirmation the next. If you want to hear his traditional material, try the bargain 2-CD set Astor Piazzolla & The Golden Age of Tango, and for more up-to-date examples of his tango nuevo try The Essential Tangos of Astor Piazzolla.