English
Oblivion
tango by Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
His appearance in the Buenos Aires tango environment started in 1938, precisely at the time when tango was fastly awakening out of its relative lethargy which had commenced around 1930. Piazzolla´s relationship with that environment was difficult, a mixture of love and despise, admiration and resentment. But his struggle, which was that of an artist so gifted as innovative, against mediocrity and conservatism, took place within tango, deeply rooted in it, playing in others´ or own orchestras on café stages or in dark suburban clubs. Post-Piazzollans no longer wear this mud on their shoes. In spite of this rootedness and the deep tango essence in all what Astor did, even when playing another kind of music, since mid- 50s an allegedly disqualifying pet phrase spread among his detractors : "Piazzolla is not tango", as an absolute expression of quietism and intolerance. Nonwithstanding this antagonism, various tangos were written in his homage, one of them by Julio De Caro, a significant figure in the genre, as testimony of admiration aroused by that rough and fighting individual, who challenged all standards.