PIAZZOLLA IN HIS OWN WORDS
On music: “Music is more than a wife, because you can divorce a wife, but you can’t divorce music. When you marry music, she’s your love forever, and you’ll go to the grave with her.”
Accordion vs Bandoneon: “The accordion has an acid sound, a sharp sound. It’s a very happy instrument. The bandoneon has a velvet sound, a religious sound. It was made to play sad music.”
Bird: “Some people tell me that when I play…I sound like Charlie Parker. That comes from the way I feel the music.”
Swing: “Swing is everything! If you don’t have swing in music you have nothing. And the tango in itself doesn’t have swing. No matter the context, the tango must express ‘camorra,’ which is how its roots are preserved.” ‘Camorra’ is a fight, quarrel, rumble.
Revolution in tango: “When the water doesn’t run, it rottens. Tango that doesn’t run, it rottens. I have a great respect for the old tango, the primitive tango. But I must do it in my own way.”