Mysterious “Azabache”: contextualization and analysis of Astor Piazzolla’s first arrangement for the Aníbal Troilo orchestra

At the age of 21 Piazzolla wrote his first arrangement for the tango orchestra in which he was a bandoneon player. The song, commissioned by his director Aníbal Troilo, was the milonga candombe “Azabache”, which Francisco Fiorentino sang and premiered for an orchestral contest on an important radio program. The live performance of “Azabache” received the maximum applause from the audience and won the contest. Nonetheless, Troilo never recorded the arrangement commercially. According to historiography, the event occurred in 1942, although there are no details as to the exact date. Contradictory accounts also circulated about the reasons why “Azabache” did not make it to the album, and about a lost radio recording, along with doubts about whether it was truly Piazzolla’s first arrangement for Troilo. After transcribing the unpublished manuscript, reviewing the bibliography, analyzing the arrangement and producing a video featuring a performance of the work, I present here my general hypothesis about this case in the context of the historical period.