Yesterday I posted about Unboxing Indiespensable Volume 5, and showed you some of the cool stuff that came in the package.
Here's a detail of one of the information cards that comes with each book release. There's always an interview with the author, in this case Miriam Toews, which gives you some fun facts and interesting details about the writer and the book.
The bottom card is a quote from Nick Hornby, where he tells the story of how Powell's turned him on to Toews' first book. The top card in this photo shares some info about Toews herself. What stood out to me was that she listed Astor Piazzolla as her favorite relaxant.
Astor Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer who played the bandoneón, which looks and sounds somewhat like an accordion. The bandoneón, according to Wikipedia, "has buttons on both sides. Additionally the notes produced on push and pull are different (bisonoric). This means that each keyboard has actually two layouts - one for the opening notes, and one for the closing notes. Since the right and left hand layouts are also different, this adds up to four different keyboard layouts that must be learned in order to play the instrument." To even imagine trying to play this instrument makes my mind reel a bit.
Piazzolla was keen to throw some jazz elements into traditional tango, and he's lauded for taking the genre to a totally new place (nuevo tango, if you will). Here's a not-particularly-relaxing clip of a live performance of "Chin Chin" from the 1984 Montreal International Jazz Festival:
I own Piazzolla's Tango: Zero Hour, recommended to me several years back by the incomparable Craig Wedren. It's a lovely record. Highly recommended.
