<<  -- 3 --  David Wilkins    INEXPLICABLE PASSION

You can see genuinely enlightening explanations of the workings of a bandoneon [watch -- title 9/chapter 6/0.8:00-0.9:08] and the special techniques of violin, guitar and percussion effects from the very best of musicians who played with Piazzolla. That's an education really worth having -- and which I doubt you can find anywhere else.

There are honest discussions about the moral waywardness that followed the death of his father and all the usual sludge of emotional / sexual mess that you don't have to be a musical genius to encounter.

Especially lovely is the episode about Piazzolla's collaboration with the film-maker Fernando Solanos and how, despite being diametrically opposed in political terms, they created such wonderful films together [watch -- title 9/chapter 33/1.22:10-1.23:18].

The legacy is not ignored and, however much it drifts away from Piazzolla-purism, is not denigrated. There are worthwhile extracts from the work of the French GOTAN Project (adding pop-issues to tango performance) and the TANGO PASION dance show which carries us directly back to Astor's (quoting Borges) description of tango as 'vertical rape!' There's also a lovely episode with the Kronos Quartet where Astor feels the need to bring in an old mate from Buenos Aires to teach these exemplary musicians a thing-or-two because 'they just can't play it!' That's a deliciously well-received hoot.

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