Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (Mar del Plata, 11 March 1921 - Buenos Aires, 4 July 1992) was an Argentinian musician, composer and arranger.
Reformer of the tango and avant-garde instrumentalist, he is considered the most important musician of his country and in general among the most important of the twentieth century; author of several collaborations with artists of various kinds (among which the countrymen Amelita Baltar and Lalo Schifrin, the American jazz musician Gerry Mulligan and, as regards the Italian ones, Tullio De Piscopo, Pino Presti and the singers Mina and Milva). For his mingling of tango and jazz he was the catalyst of heavy criticism directed to the nuevo tango by the purists of the genre, who defined him as el asesino del tango (the murderer of Tango).
