Astor's Speech - Astor Piazzolla

-Thank you very much

-Muchas gracias.

-I'll speak in two languages so you can understand me better.

-Italiano!

-No, italiano un posso.

Posso parlare italiano ma non (…) sono italiano qui.

(…) Grazie!

-This is the music of Buenos Aires, the New Tango.

-Esta es la nueva música de Buenos Aires, el Nuevo Tango.

-Questa e la nuova musica di Buenos Aires, il Nuovo Tango.

A bene!

-We started this music in 1954.

-Comenzamos en 1954

-Abbiamo cominciato a mille novecento cinquanta quattro (…)

-My name is Ástor Piazzolla, I was born in Argentina, I was raised in New York

and my parents come from Trani, Italia.

Un salutto.

-And this strange instrument you see here that many people say it’s an

accordion, it’s not an accordion, it’s a bandoneon.

It’s an instrument that was

invented in Germany in 1854 to play religious music in a church.

It started in a church and then, a couple of years later, they took it to the

whorehouses in Buenos Aires.

And now I’m taking it to Central Park.

-It's a nice tour for this instrument.

-And it’s not a joke, I’m not trying to be funny, it’s the real life of this

instrument.

A very surrealistic life, but that’s how Tango was born.

-Tango was also and was always in nightclubs, cabarets, like Jazz in New

Orleans.

-It wasn’t very clean at the beginning.

Today it’s supposed to be clean because

this is clean: people, free music and love.

-Thank you very much, I hope you enjoy our music."