Le Grand Tango: The Life and Music of Astor Piazzolla.

• Author: Holston, Mark

Le Grand Tango: The Life and Music of Astor Piazzolla, by Maria Susana Azzi and Simon Collier. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

The late tango composer and musician Astor Piazzolla is a perfect example of an artist whose reputation grows exponentially as his life's work becomes better known. This meticulously detailed biography will certainly aid in that process, which has accelerated in the decade since his death. Recent years have produced highly acclaimed recordings of Piazzolla's work by cellist Yo-Yo-Ma, who provides a short forward to this edition, jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton, and many others. In Argentina, the country of his birth, Piazzolla is now revered as one of that nation's great cultural icons. During much of his life, however, he was reviled by Argentine traditionalists who resented his successful effort to modernize the somewhat staid tango form and move it out of dance halls and into concert...