Escalandrum is a jazz band led by percussionist Daniel “Pipi” Piazzolla, the grandson of Astor Piazzolla, who was one of Argentina’s best known composers. But while Piazzolla’s tango legacy can be felt in some of their music, the band has defined their own mature jazz sound.

Since 1999, these six tango-loving jazz musicians have forged their own way with impeccable technique and intriguing improvisational ability. And for Pipi, it all started in the football stadiums of Buenos Aires.

From the “cancha” to the concert hall

Although Pipi’s first instrument was the piano and he began taking classes in classical music from a young age, he gave it up in his early teens, tiring of music until he discovered a very unclassical influence - the city’s carnival “murgas”. As a keen football fan, at the age of around 14 he started to go to the “cancha”, the football pitch, to watch River Plate at the Monumental Stadium in Belgrano neighbourhood. And there he discovered a different kind of music - the powerful rhythm of the carnival drums that beat out over the stadium terraces during matches and which nowadays can be heard all over the city at carnival time. He fell in love with the power of the murga rhythm and later decided that drums and percussion were his musical calling.