0.10 Appendix 1: musician biographies  (Page 25/37)

Piazzolla, astor (1921-1992)

Piazzolla was world-famous as a composer, bandleader, and virtuoso of the bandoneón, a type of 38-key accordion considered one of the crucial instruments of the traditional tango ensemble. A child prodigy, Piazzolla was born in Argentina, but his family emigrated to the US in 1924. Thirteen years later they returned to their homeland, where Piazzolla made arrangements for some of Argentina’s most popular bandleaders and studied classical music with the great Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. In 1944 Piazzolla formed his own band, which featured primarily his own compositions. In 1954 he went to Paris to study with legendary teacher Nadia Boulanger, who felt his tango compositions showed great promise. He returned to Argentina, and for the next twenty years worked with his own tango groups. In 1974 he returned to Paris. Piazzolla’s distinctive music became known as nuevo tango (“new tango”) and was at first widely criticized by those who felt he had abandoned some of the important traits of the nearly century-old tango tradition. However, he was later widely viewed as responsible for tango’s renewed international popularity, as the music’s audience had declined sharply in the 1950s and 60s. In the 1980s, his works were featured by important classical performance groups, including the Kronos Quartet. At the time of his death he was at work on an opera about the life of Carlos Gardel, a hugely popular tango singer of the 1920s and 30s. He composed about 750 works, including a symphony, a concerto for bandoneón, and a sonata for the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

Presley, elvis (1935–1977)

Known around the world as “the King of Rock and Roll,” Elvis Aaron Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, the son of a poor white truck driver. Presley and his family moved to Memphis in 1948, where he was exposed to both white country and black R'n'B and gospel music. In 1954, the year after he graduated high school, he made his first recordings at Sam Philip’s now legendary Sun Studios on Union Avenue in Memphis. Philips had recorded both white country singers and black blues singes, but in Presley he discovered a young white man who had exceptional feel for the black music, as demonstrated on his early blues covers “That’s All Right Mama” (original by Arthur Crudup), “Good Rockin’ Tonight” (original by Roy Brown), and “Mystery Train” (original by Jr. Parker). Accompanied by the twangy electric guitar of Scotty Moore and bouncing bass of Bill Black, Presley’s sound was dubbed “rockabilly” by early critics in deference to his hillbilly roots and his ability to rock the blues.

Presley appeared on the Grand Ole Opry and the Louisiana Hayride live radio shows, but it was not until Philips sold his contract to the major record label RCA that Presley would become a teen idol and national star. In 1956 and 1957 he recorded over a dozen hit songs, with “All Shook Up,” “Hound Dog,” “Teddy Bear,” “Jailhouse Rock,” and “Don’t be Cruel” charting number one on the pop, country, and R'n'B charts. His appearances on the popular TV shows Milton Berle, Steve Allen, and Ed Sullivan shows brought him further fame and earned him the title “Elvis the Pelvis” due to his sexually suggestive dancing. In 1958 Elvis entered the army, and after completing a two-year commitment returned to the United States to continue to record and pursue a career in the Hollywood. He died in his Memphis home in Graceland in 1977, the victim of drug abuse.