Libertango is by far the most frequently performed Piazzolla composition - one of every four Piazzolla videos posted on YouTube is Libertango. It is an instrumental but that did not stop Grace Jones from penning words for her version, I've Seen That Face Before, which has become her signature song. Few others have stepped up to the lyrics challenge but we will feature two others who have in today's featured videos.
The first is a Russian artist, poet and singer-songwriter, Marina Bystryakova, who titles her version, Planet. Ms. Bystryakova steps away from her native language and sings in English. You can find the lyrics here. I salute her creativity but don't think that Ms. Jones needs to worry about the competition.
The second video features a jazz-tinged version of Libertango with the Piazzolla/Ferrer song Hay una niña en el alba interwoven into it. The melodies are kept separate but someone has cleverly recognized that the harmonic backing for both songs are similar enough to combine the two in a seamless and interesting way. The singer is Fernando Paz - unrelated so far as I can tell to the Piazzolla violinist, Fernando Suarez Paz - and the saxophone player is, unfortunately, unidentified. She deserves a credit with the video. You can find the lyrics to Hay una niña en el alba here and a video of it in a normal setting here. Paz has a few problems staying on pitch in the number but he is quite an entertaining singer. You can see more of his work from this same concert on marcosredo1's YouTube channel.
If the singer-songwriter version does not appear below, click here; if the Fernando Paz version does not appear below, click here.
To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
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