Libertango

Dear James,

Have I ever told you about Piazzolla? Probably best if I haven't as I know very little about him and have in all likelihood just misspelled his name there. You would be better informed reading the Wikipedia article about him. If you're too busy to do that, I'll tell you the salient titbit: In 1935, Piazzolla met Gardel, who invited him to tour with his band. Piazzolla's dad wouldn't let him, because he was only 13. Gardel and his entourage were killed in a plane crash during the same tour. Similarly, I've always been grateful to my mum for forbidding me from joining Metallica on their 1986 Swedish tour.

One of the main problems with tango is that no sooner are the grand masters out of sight then you get a lot of poncey kids making cheesy videos and showing off how talented they are:



Who ever heard of tango being sexy? Whatever next? Jazz and heroin? Fortunately for the world, there are still videos of Piazzolla himself playing a storm with one of his bands.