Libertango -- Revirado -- Otono Porteno -- 20 Years Ago -- Golazo -- Bandoneon -- Tres Minutos Con La Realidad -- Milonga Del Angel --Tanguedia 1 -- Tanguedia 2 -- Tanguedia 3 -- Vuelvo Al Sur -- Los Suenos -- Adios Nonino.

Astor Piazzolla is arguably the greatest tango musician of all time and, from the 1950s onwards, he continued to experiment to test the limits of the genre. A virtuoso on the bandoneón, a brilliant composer, arranger and bandleader, Piazzolla conjured a sound that fused the evolutionary tangos of Aníbal Troilo, jazz, ambient and classical avant-garde aberrations. The Rough Guide To Astor Piazzolla is a soundtrack to the teeming city of Buenos Aires - peopled by colourful characters and incredible stories - and reflects his remarkable lifetime achievement.

Before Piazzolla, Argentinean tango, whether performed in a Buenos Aires waterfront dive or cafe society boïte, was primarily music for a dance famously described as a "vertical expression of a horizontal desire." But filtered through Piazzolla's cosmopolitan outlook and intellect, it became a sophisticated yet still searingly sexy fusion of Argentina's rural milonga and African derived candombe styles with American jazz, European pop and 20th-century classical influences. Today, it's hard to believe that nuevo tango initially raised howls of indignation as Piazzolla's spell-binding bandoneon (accordion) and compositions ultimately won over the traditionalists. This compilation includes many of the late Maestro's best-known tunes, such as Libertango and two versions of Adios Nonino, an elegy for his father. From the percussive, Shostakovich-like thrust of Tres Minutos Con La Realidad to the keening, fatalistic bitterness of Milonga Del Angel, it is a collection to treasure, ideal for beginners and enlightening for collectors. --Christina Roden

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