Tango-Man Ástor Piazzolla

Need a tango composition whipped up? No problem. You need look no further than Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla (1921-1992). That is to say, he would have been your ideal tango-man composer 15 years ago before he died. But as the most notable Argentinean composer of tango music, he might have composed something for you in the tango nuevo or nuevo tango style which he invented. This is a style of music and dance in which elements of jazz, classical and the traditional Argentine tango are blended together.

The innovative Piazzolla changed the face of tango by employing, for example, electric guitars and saxophones, while also using new melodic structures in his music.

Piazzolla was known in Argentina as "El Gran Ástor," meaning the "Great Astor." He is widely considered -- especially by his mother-- to be the most influential of all tango composers who lived in the second half of the last century.