Será que estoy llorando - Jairo

All good things come to an end and, according to Fabián Russo, the collaboration between Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer came to an end with the creation of the canción, Será que estoy llorando - featured in today's video.  It may not be the very last collaboration but it is certainly among the last.  According to the Azzi/Collier book, Le Grand Tango, Piazzolla and Ferrer during a four or five month period together in Paris in 1981, created "more than a score of new songs, with the singers Jairo and Rubén Juárez specifically in mind."  Many of that score of songs appear to be lost but Será que estoy llorando survived and was recorded by Jairo in Paris in 1981 with Piazzolla accompanying him on bandoneón on an LP titled, Este amor es como el viento. While copies of that LP are very difficult to find outside of Argentina, today's video provides us the opportunity to once again hear Jairo perform the work. The performance was from a concert last Saturday at the Usina del Arte in Buenos Aires in commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of Piazzolla's death. Since that twentieth anniversary falls on this very day - 4 July, 2012 - it seems appropriate to feature the video.

Jairo's birth name is Mario Rubén González.  He was born in Argentina and has lived most of his life there but also lived for periods in Spain and France and has considerable popularity there also. He first met Piazzolla in 1978 when they performed together on a television program. In spite of an age difference of nearly thirty years, the two were evidently friends as well as musical colleagues.  Le Grand Tango documents that Jairo was present at Piazzolla's 60th birthday party and was at Piazzolla's bedside the day after his ultimately fatal stroke in August,1990.  Piazzolla no doubt recognized Jairo's vocal gifts and the works he wrote for Jairo require perfect vocal control that few others can provide. His performance in today's video has a minimalist accompaniment and shows well the crystal purity of his voice. You can find more Piazzolla sung by Jairo on his excellent 2003 CD, Jairo Canta Piazzolla.

You can find the lyrics that Horacio Ferrer wrote for Será que estoy llorando here.  The book, Le Grand Tango, suggests that Piazzolla had created the music and shared it with Ferrer before the lyrics were written. Ferrer, with the tune in mind, was walking to his apartment in Paris when he paused and rubbed the snow from a parked car - inspired, he took out pen and paper and began to write the lyrics.  The last two verses seem poignantly appropriate today:

Nieva y nieva,
y sin saber por qué he venido,
en los vidrios ateridos
vi tu rostro reflejado,
desolado, blanco y breve.

Debe ser que te he adorado.
O será, tal vez, la nieve.
O será que estoy llorando.

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