In 1935, a 14-year-old Astor Piazzolla was invited to tour with tango superstar Carlos Gardel, and his strict father said no. Gardel's plane then crashed, killing everyone on board. Piazzolla later joked that without that grounding he would be playing the harp in heaven instead of the bandoneon on earth. This episode traces the turbulent life of the Argentine composer whose musical awakening actually happened in the gritty streets of 1920s Greenwich Village, where traditional tango records inside the apartment collided with jazz on the corners and Bach pouring from neighbors' windows.

Back in Argentina, Piazzolla played bandoneon in Anibal Troilo's orchestra and spent his cabaret earnings on composition lessons with Alberto Ginastera, sneaking into the Teatro Colon at dawn to study orchestration. His 1953 symphony with two bandoneons sparke ...