JAZZ PROMO SERVICES 3

The survival of a musical genre is the result of artistic evolution, passed through generations of musicians, largely through the roles mentor and student.  There’s always a key figure that puts together the disparate cultural pieces that form an inspirational spark.  These folks generally gather some attention, and they require musicians to support their concept through live performance.  The musicians that they hire get that first hand experience of learning the foundation of this new style from its creator, and often times, they even see it evolve through the years.  On a rare occasion, a special kind of musician gets hired; this type of musician will dedicate themselves fully to the new style and stay with the master as long as possible.  More importantly, they’ll continue performing this music long after their time with their mentor and they’ll eventually become responsible for taking the music to a new generation.
Pianist Pablo Ziegler has taken on the duty of carrying the art of nuevo tango onto the next generation, continuing the musical tradition begun by his mentor, Astor Piazzolla.    Raised in Buenos Aires, he studied classical piano intensely, stretching his interests into the world of jazz as he hit his teen years.  These two realms made up his musical life for much of his time in Argentina, as he performed with his own groups, and wrote music for stage and television.  In 1978, he hit a major turning point in his musical evolution when he joined Astor Piazzolla’s quintet and became a major player in nuevo tango.  He stayed with Piazzolla for eleven years, until the well known composer ended his quintet due to health issues.  Hitting a major crossroads in his career, Ziegler could have gone in any musical direction, but he decided to stay committed to nuevo tango, the music created and made famous by Piazzolla.  Over the years, he has fronted a number of different configurations, ranging from solo concerts to quintets, including acoustic and electric groups, and even writing for orchestral groups.  One thing has remained consistent though – through the performance of original compositions and Piazzolla pieces over the long term, Ziegler has become the most important voice in modern nuevo tango.
This video comes from a performance at Birdland, featuring Ziegler performing one of Piazzolla’s classic songs, “Fuga y Misterio” with a recent group, his classical tango quartet.  This group brings a variety of sounds together, with Ziegler on piano, Hector del Curto on bandoneon, Pedro Giraudo on acoustic bass, and Sandra Luna on cello.  There’s a stately quality to the music here, that pulls together the combination of classical finesse, rich jazz harmonies, and tango rhythmic motion originally presented by Piazzolla and pushed to a new level by Ziegler.
– Chip Boaz The Latin Jazz Corner