Zoom Zoom - may bring to mind Mazda automotive advertisements but more importantly, they are the words that Néstor Zadoff chose to open his vocal arrangement of Piazzolla's Buenos Aires Hora Cero that is in today's featured video. Dr. Zadoff is Argentina's leading choral scholar and conductor. He recently won the Konex Award as choral conductor of the decade. He is also the arranger of many choral works including vocal arrangements of more than a dozen Piazzolla compositions that are widely used in the global choral community. Most of these are available from Ediciones GCC or Editions A Coeur Joie. Buenos Aires Hora Cero is an angular work said to describe that instant at midnight when time is neither yesterday or today. It is not a work which naturally lends itself to a vocal arrangement but Zadoff has found a way to do it that works extremely well.
The performance in today's video is by Vocal 7 led by Susana Diaz. This group was assembled about 12 years ago from a high school choir led by Ms. Diaz. They continued to sing together during and even after the singers went to Universidad Adventista del Plata in Liberador San Martin. Today, the group is dispersed around the globe but still remain friends and sing together when they can. Three of the singers are daughters of Ms. Diaz. Vocal 7 have a number of videos on YouTube which can be found at Juan Freichel's channel. The group is well rehearsed, on pitch and blend very well - no voice stands out, which is goal many A Capella groups fail to achieve. Today's video was made approximately two years ago. The group has sung some other Zadoff arrangements of Piazzolla's music but unfortunately, no video exists. My thanks go to Mr. Freichel for this information about Vocal 7.
As a side story, perhaps of interest only to chemistry geeks like me, the town of Liberador San Martin was known as Puiggari from 1917 to 1950 - named after the father of Argentine Chemistry, Dr. Miguel Puiggari.
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To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
Composer Astor Piazzolla focused tango through a modern lens. Drawing techniques and harmonies from modern composition and jazz, he created a refracted version of Argentina's music, which was simultaneously rooted in tradition, yet unpredictable and iconoclastic. I learnt a lot about him when I travelled to Argentina. I got Buenos Aires Real Estate in the Abasto neighbourhood, which is a neighbourhood that is fully connected to tango and its history, and I love everything he wrote!
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