Tango: Zero Hour is an album by Ástor Piazzolla

Ástor Piazzolla

Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music...

. It was released in September 1986 on American Clavé, and re-released on Pangaea Records in 1988.

Piazzolla considered this his greatest album. Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

commented on the Pangaea reissue of the album, comparing Piazzolla's fusion of form

Musical form

The term musical form refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections...

, improvisation

Musical improvisation

Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...

, and dynamics

Dynamics (music)

In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...

 to contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...

, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, and rock & roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

, respectively. Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...

 of The Village Voice

The Village Voice

The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

also commented on Piazzolla's fusion of classical and jazz music.

Track listing

All songs composed by Ástor Piazzolla.

1. "Tanguedia III" – 4:39
2. "Milonga del ángel" – 6:31
3. "Concierto para quinteto" – 9:06
4. "Milonga loca" – 3:09
5. "Michelangelo '70" – 2:52
6. "Contrabajísimo" – 10:19
7. "Mumuki" – 9:33

Personnel

People involved in the making of this album include:

• The New Tango Quintet:
  • Ástor Piazzolla
    Ástor Piazzolla
    Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music...
    
     – bandoneón
    Bandoneón
    The bandoneón is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It plays an essential role in the orquesta típica, the tango orchestra...
    
    , arranger
  • Hector Console – bass
  • Horacio Malvicino – guitar
  • Fernando Suarez Paz – violin
  • Pablo Ziegler
    Pablo Ziegler
    Pablo Ziegler is an Argentine composer based in Buenos Aires and New York City. He is currently the leading exponent of nuevo tango, thanks to the skills and reputation he gathered while working extensively as Ástor Piazzolla's regular pianist from 1978 until the maestro's retirement for health...
    
     – piano

Technical personnel

• Greg Calbi – Mastering
• Jon Fausty – Engineer, mixing
• Kip Hanrahan
  Kip Hanrahan
  Kip Hanrahan is an American jazz music impresario, record producer and percussionist.-Biography:Hanrahan was born in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in the Bronx to an Irish-Jewish family. He has an unusual role in the albums released under his name, one which he has analogized to that of a film...
  
  – Producer, engineer
• Nancy Hanrahan – Associate producer
• Scott Marcus – Executive producer
• Charles Reilly – Photography
• Shawna Stobie – Assistant engineer, mixing assistant