Tango: Zero Hour
The second quintet at full strength in New York, an album Piazzolla called the greatest he had made.
Astor Piazzolla, 1986
- Released
- September 1986
- Recorded
- New York
- Label
- American Clavé
- Producer
- Kip Hanrahan
Tango: Zero Hour was released in September 1986 on Kip Hanrahan's American Clavé label and reissued on Pangaea in 1988. It was recorded in New York by the quintet that had worked with Piazzolla since 1978: Fernando Suárez Paz, Pablo Ziegler, Horacio Malvicino and Héctor Console. Hanrahan produced and engineered, with Jon Fausty as engineer and mixer.
Piazzolla called it "absolutely the greatest record I've made in my entire life." Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote that "the tangos suggest that even in the modern world, romance survives." Christgau gave it an A minus and called it "dance music for the cerebellum." In JazzTimes, A.D. Amorosi described the album as noirish and said the violinist Suárez Paz was the Keith Richards to Piazzolla's Mick Jagger. The record includes Milonga del ángel, a piece Piazzolla first recorded live in 1965.
Track listing
- Tanguedia III4:39
- Milonga del ángel6:31
- Concierto para quinteto9:06
- Milonga loca3:09
- Michelangelo '702:52
- Contrabajissimo10:19
- Mumuki9:33
Personnel
- Astor Piazzolla bandoneon, arranger
- Héctor Console bass
- Horacio Malvicino guitar
- Fernando Suárez Paz violin
- Pablo Ziegler piano
- Kip Hanrahan producer, engineer
- Jon Fausty engineer, mixing
- Greg Calbi mastering
More from Astor Piazzolla
Libertango (1974), The New Tango (1987), The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night (Tango Apasionado) (1988)
Sources
- Tango: Zero Hour, Wikipedia
- Tango: Zero Hour, Nonesuch
- Consumer Guide, 2 June 1987, Robert Christgau (1987-06-02)
- Astor Piazzolla: The American Clave Recordings (Nonesuch), JazzTimes (2024-06-26)