Llueve Sobre Broadway

Llueve sobre Broadway is an obscure Piazzolla tune lurking in plain sight in the readily available music book published by Hal Leonard: Astor Piazzolla for Violin & Guitar. The score is also available for piano from the French publisher, Universelles. As originally recorded, the title of the piece was When I go walking in the rain and the lyrics were sung in English. It was recorded by Piazzolla for an LP to be issued in the U.S. but to my knowledge, it was never issued. The recording has been preserved in a Japanese reissue, An Evening in Buenos Aires. I have found no other commercial recordings of Llueve sobre Broadway and it has not previously been posted on YouTube so today's video provides a rare chance to hear the work. There is a little information about the work in this image from what appears to be the first publication of the score: it is dated 1962 and lyrics for the song have been written in Spanish by Raul Gonzalez and in French by Albert Mayotte. With this hint, we can find a copyright reference to a song, While I Go Walking in the Rain, first registered in Europe (EU0000581709) on June 17, 1959 to A. Piazzolla and Raul Gonzalez. It is all the same song. The original, which I have heard on the Japanese reissue, is forgettable - pure American style pop-pap in the Lucky Strike Hit Parade style. But, beneath the saccharin exterior of that original there does exist a song with a decent flow and a pleasant melodic line which has largely gone unexplored.

The performers in the video, Nury Ulate, on flute, and David Mozqueda, on guitar, are wife and husband and have performed together as Duo Prelude since 1998. They are highly trained and skilled musicians and if we can only have one performance of Llueve sobre Broadway, I am glad it is theirs. They reside in Guadalajara, where this video was made, but perform all over the world. There are references in many of their reviews to three CD's they have recorded but I cannot find them for sale on the web.

My thanks to Duo Prelude for bringing this song back to our attention. Perhaps others will now apply their arranging and performing skills to the piece.

If the video does not appear below, click here.



To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.