Premieres Friday, April 7 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
Tango to Buenos Aires, Argentina, with host Scott Yoo, flutist Alice Dade, and tango musician and historian Ignacio Varchausky to explore the impact of composer Astor Piazzolla’s work on tango and beyond. With a special look at Piazzolla’s “History of Tango” in four movements (often played on violin, but written for the guitar and flute), Yoo and Dade trace the evolution of the genre from backroom dance halls and working-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires around the turn of the 20th century to the popular music and dance it is today. Experiencing performances by local artists on the guitar, violin, flute and bandoneon (an Argentine button accordion), Yoo and Dade even receive a tango dance lesson of their own and sample the food and culture of today’s Buenos Aires.
