The music of
Astor Piazzolla
, rather like
Bach
's, is amenable to realizations in a variety of instrumental media, and since the hit recordings by
Gidon Kremer
and company, it has been subjected to many orchestral and chamber treatments. This release from saxophonist
Marco Albonetti
comes with an endorsement by
Piazzolla
keyboardist and nuevo tango giant
Pablo Ziegler
, and it's hard to imagine that
himself, who grew up amidst New York jazz, would have objected to it much. Except for the one by
Ziegler
of
Oblivion
, the arrangements for saxophone and orchestra are
Albonetti
's.
was not a jazz artist; what he and his accompanying musicians played was specified in one way or another. Yet, with his mix of a fixed rhythmic basis and melodic elaboration, he was a kindred spirit to jazz.
seems to emphasize the blurred genre lines by introducing
's
arrangement with a genuine jazz improvisation, both pointing up the non-jazz nature of the rest of the pieces and making clear the continuity of mood. The simpler pieces, allowing
to flaunt his beautiful tone work best here; try
Anos de Soledad
, a bit less familiar than the other pieces, where he plays a baritone saxophone. The
Cuatro estaciones portenas
(The
Four "Port City" Seasons
, or
Buenos Aires Four Seasons
), have to transfer their more chordal and polyphonic bandoneon parts to the saxophone and orchestra somehow; they break up the pieces' basic forms, and to these ears don't always put them together again. Nowhere, however, is
's album less than stimulating, and it's often beautiful. It will certainly find a place in
collections. ~ James Manheim