1815  Borges & Piazzolla A DON NICANDOR PAREDES

Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 21:44:48 -0400
From: Daniel Saindon <gardien@TANGO.MONTREAL.QC.CA>
Subject: Borges & Piazzolla A DON NICANDOR PAREDES

Good evening


Alberto Gesualdi <clambat2001@YAHOO.COM.AR>
Wrote:

How this shortstory came to the hands of Piazzolla, and how he decided to
do this masterpiece record , is out of my knowledge . In short, there could
be an explanation, but I dont know it .

And he also wrote:

The recording was made at El Viejo Almacen , during a live performance,
with the presence of Borges who was deeply moved after the event.,
Fortunately there is a film about this night , that sometimes is shown at
special tango programs, or programs about Borges.

According to Maria Susana Azzi and Simon Collier in the
File and music of Astor Piazzolla, Borges had mixed feelings on

On page 90 & 91, "Le Grand Tango" reads:

The year 1965 brought a further milestone: collaboration
With Argentina's greatest modern writer: Jorge Luis Borges,
Who had broken through to worldwide celebrity since the early 1960s..

The idea was an album of some new Borges poems and milongas
Set by Piazzolla and sung by the bass Edmundo Rivero, together with
Piazzolla`s still unused music for the story "Hombre de la esquina rosada".
Borges had apparently been asked for the poems by the classical composer
Carlos Guastavino. Borges`s friend Felix Della Paolera and Piazzolla`s
friend Alberto Salem ( by then news director at Channel 13) helped to
arrange the vital meeting between the two men, over tea at the Confiteria
St.James on Calle Maipu, one of Borges`s favorite places. On the afternoon
of 14 March 1965 Borges visited the Piazzolla (much to their excitement )
at their apartment on Avenida Entre Rios, accompanied by the eighty-eight
year old mother, the formidable Dona Leonor. Borges signed one of his books
for Dede ( Astor`s wife D.S.), or rather Dona Leonor signed for him, as je
was now almost blind. Borges recited one of this newly written milongas.
Piazzolla played the piano. Dede, with her untrained but pleasant voice,
sang three of the new songs, seeing tears in Borges`s eyes.
The recording of the album took place later in the year. In the EMI-Odeon
studios in Avenida Cordoba. Borges listened impassively as Edmundo Rivero
recorded the milonga "A Don Nicanor Paredes" shich Piazzolla described as
"composed on a ground of eight bars of Gregorian chant, the melodic part
without artificial modernisms, all very simple, deeply felt and sincere.
Piazzolla asked him if he liked it. "I liked it better when the girl sang
it". Replied Borges - the girl being Dede. When the LP appeared, Borges
expressed equivocal opinions about it, something that irritated Piazzolla.
If Borges had any musical preferences at all (he was always happy to admit
his tone deafness), they were for the old milonga rather than the tango.
For whatever reason, he took a permanent dislike to Piazzolla, often
referring to him as "Pianola" - hardly one of his happier inspirations.
During a television program in the mid-1980s he even credited the milongas
to Guastavino. He once walked out of a Piazzolla recital in Cordoba,
muttering: I`m leaving. They aren`t playing taaangos today". It was an
opinion shared in the 1960s by many Argentines who should have known better.

***************
end of excerpt
***************

I find the melody of this milonga very touching.

I do not know the Piazzolla/Rivero recording.

I know the 1996 recording of Daniel Binelli on
Milan Sur ( Borges & Piazzolla ) the vocalist
Is Mario Ruben Gonzalez also called "Jairo";

Like Borges, I think it is a woman voice that I found
Was the most appealing for this song.
My favorite niterpretation of
A DON NICANOR PAREDES,
come from Haydee Alba on her CD
L`Epoque Tango, Playa Sound, France.

Best regards

Daniel Saindon