Zero Hour

Astor Piazzolla | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 6, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: American Clave
• ASIN: B000005A2P
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #478,792 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Tanguedia III

2. Milonga del Angel

3. Concierto Para Quinteto

4. Milonga Loca

5. Michelangelo '70

6. Contrabajissimo

7. Mumuki

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Astor Piazzolla lived and died as tango's bad boy, having almost single handedly invented the music's vanguard, the form known as tango nuevo. It took Piazzolla decades to reach his unequivocal apex, which is captured flawlessly on Tango Zero Hour. When this recording was cut in 1986, some of the compositions Piazzolla and his quintet cued up were standards for the band. Whether it was an epiphanic period or not, the recording captures an ensemble alchemically transforming seriously complex works into goose-bump-inducing electricity. Pianist Pablo Ziegler brings his jazz background into the mix with jarring urgency, just as violinist Fernando Suárez Paz makes quavering classical inflections sing amid Piazzolla's here tender and there blistering bandoneon. For a peak experience in music that challenges the ear to dance and the body to fully listen, look no further than this recording. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique visionary at his best, June 22, 2002

By 

greg taylor (Portland, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Tango: Zero Hour (Audio CD)

I will try to be brief in light of the quality of the other reviewers. Two quick points. This man is as unique a musical visionary as Monk, Ornette Coleman, Mingus, or Jimi Hendrix. Like them, he is best heard with his own group. Fernando Suarez Paz (violin) Pable Ziegler (piano), Horacio Malvicino, Sr. (guitar), Hector Console (bass) along with Piazolla on bandoneon comprised one of the greatest quartets in the history of music. Like Coltrane's classic quartet, or some of Muddy Water's groups, these guys present an entire genre of music at its best.
If you are new to Piazolla, some of the melodies will seem almost cliched. This is where the cliches came from. This is why the melodies became standards- because when this group plays them you can hear the joy of discovery, the intensely passionate nature of Piazolla's sound universe.
This is not necessarily music for everyone- what is? But this is a great album by one of the unique voices in the music of the twentieth century. You owe it to your heart and your soul to give it a listen.

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably my favorite recording of all time., August 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Tango: Zero Hour (Audio CD)

Aurally stunning from start to finish, this album isn't "easy listening" but is best experienced in total immersion. That said, it's surprisingly accessible, both smooth and mind-bending, a rollercoaster ride of emotions that somehow draws back from the brink at the very moment you think it's going to tip over into schmaltz. It takes a genius like Piazzolla to make music this dramatic without being maudlin. Like Mahler's 9th, it altered my views of dissonance and harmony forever. I know of no recording quite like it.

A few Piazzolla fans may prefer his more straightforward works, but I believe that he himself pronounced it his best recording ever. Recordings like "La Camorra..." succeed with a somewhat more rough and impromptu sound; on this record Piazolla and band aim for perfection... and achieve it.

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS IS NOT YOUR GRANDFATHER'S TANGO..., November 20, 2003

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tango: Zero Hour (Audio CD)

...but your father might have liked it, if he listened with an open mind. For me - this is absolutely one of the most stunning recordings I've ever heard. Piazzolla (bandoneón) and the musicians he assembled for this quintet (Fernando Suárez Paz, violin; Pablo Ziegler, piano; Horacio Malvicino, Sr., guitar; and Héctor Console, bass) gave the performances of their collective lifetimes when they made this album, recorded in NYC in May of 1986. It is the zenith of Piazzolla's career - and that's saying a lot, considering the contributions he made to music in his lifetime.

The music is nuevo tango - the traditional soul of tango, full of the emotion that it has always carried (and with which it carries its listeners and dancers), charged and reborn with all of the grit and grime that exists `at street level'. Gosh - if the tangos we're used to hearing and seeing in the old films made your grandmother blush, this would most certainly put her on the floor in a dead faint. The music is intricately composed - but at the same time, it is FELT in the depths of the soul. There is nothing whatsoever cold and emotionless about it. The musicians themselves are of the highest caliber - some are classically trained, some have their roots in jazz, but they are all under the spell of Piazzolla's vision. The quiet passages purr and stroke the senses, the more strident ones will pick the listener up and toss them around. The music will make you want to close your eyes and drift away one moment, then have you sweating the next.

Piazzolla made one more recording with this group, LA CAMORRA, and one featuring some of the same players (but not all of them), THE ROUGH DANCER AND THE CYCLICAL NIGHT (based on a story by the great Argentinean literary master Jorge Luis Borges). These two are very, very good - but ZERO HOUR is his greatest.