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The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night (Tango Apasionado)

Theater music about the history of tango, recorded in New York with Paquito D'Rivera on saxophone.
Astor Piazzolla, 1988

Released
1988
Recorded
1987, New York
Label
American Clavé
Producer
Kip Hanrahan, Astor Piazzolla

Recorded in New York in 1987 and released in 1988, The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night was produced by Kip Hanrahan and Piazzolla. Its music was first developed for a theater performance about the history of the tango. Piazzolla played with his Quinteto Tango Nuevo, and Paquito D'Rivera joined on saxophone. Pablo Ziegler and Pablo Zinger both played piano, Zinger having been musical director of the stage production, and Horacio Malvicino was on guitar. In the liner notes Piazzolla said he wanted the music to sound as if played by "half-drunk musicians in a bordello."

Christgau gave it an A minus, calling the collection episodic given Piazzolla's habit of abrupt mood shifts. JazzTimes described it as a spacious postbop tango. Nonesuch reissued the album in the late 1990s.

Track listing

  1. Prologue (Tango Apasionado)1:45
  2. Milonga For Three5:59
  3. Street Tango4:12
  4. Milonga Picaresque1:35
  5. Knife Fight1:49
  6. Leonora's Song3:33
  7. Prelude To The Cyclical Night (Part One)0:47
  8. Butchers Death2:22
  9. Leijia's Game2:21
  10. Milonga For Three (Reprise)5:57
  11. Bailongo1:44
  12. Leonora's Love Theme3:51
  13. Finale (Tango Apasionado)3:31
  14. Prelude To The Cyclical Night (Part Two)0:51

Personnel

More from Astor Piazzolla

Libertango (1974), Tango: Zero Hour (1986), The New Tango (1987)

Sources

  1. The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night (Tango Apasionado), Wikipedia
  2. Consumer Guide: Astor Piazzolla, Robert Christgau
  3. Astor Piazzolla: The American Clave Recordings (Nonesuch), JazzTimes (2024-06-26)