Astor Piazzolla [photo: Quinteto Astor Piazzolla] ‘Traitor.’ ‘Apostate.’ ‘Little Lucifer.’ Astor Piazzolla was called all of these things and worse by his fellow Argentinians during his long career. It seems absurd now to think he received death threats in the 60s for breaking with tradition and taking tango off the dance floor and into the conservatory. Yet it was not only arch-conservatives who damned his innovations. Aníbal Troilo, the legendary bandoneón player and bandleader for whom Piazzolla played in the early 40s – is on record as saying, “it bothers me the way he at times wants to frighten people with strange arrangements.”