Obituary
Simon
Collier
Warm-hearted expert
on Latin America - from Chile to the tango
Jan Fairley
Saturday March 15, 2003
The Guardian
The prime academic interest of Simon Collier, who has died aged 64,
was Chilean political
history, and he co-edited the groundbreaking Cambridge Encyclopaedia
Of Latin America And The Caribbean (1985). Yet it is for his passion
for Argentinian tango, and his The Life, The Music And Times Of
Carlos Gardel (1986), and his biography of composer Astor Piazzolla
(2000) that he will be best remembered.
Collier was part of a generation which emerged from Cambridge
University in the 1960s to establish Latin American studies in
British universities. His first book was a history of Chilean
independence, while his latest (forthcoming this year) is on the
making of the Chilean republic in the 19th century.
As one of the first academics to talk about popular music and
culture, notably the intertwining of the history of the tango with
the city of Buenos Aires in the work of Gardel, his seminars were
insightful and hugely entertaining. "I love it as it is an
opportunity to play records and have fun," he would say. And
like any historian, his hugely rich collection was meticulously
catalogued. As consultant for Harlequin Records, his sleeve notes
for 20 of their tango history collections are a major contribution
to tango recording history.
Collier's evocative biography of Gardel was the first in English,
and undoubtedly one of the best in any language. He sat on the
committee charged to establish Gardel statues in Buenos Aires, much
enjoying a recent description of fans with ghetto-blasters pumping
out Gardel's Mi Buenos Aires Querido at the singer's tomb,
constantly relighting a cigarette placed in their hero's statue's
hand.
If his Gardel was an accessible, popular book, Collier's
biography of Piazzolla, written with his Argentinian colleague María
Susana Azzi, was a tour de force. It followed Tango (1995), which he
and Azzi had co-authored, and which Collier described as a serious,
coffee-table book.
Collier and Azzi had decided on the Piazzolla project in 1994
over lunch in the old Recoleta port district. They were soon
researching, interviewing and uncovering possibly every known piece
ever published on, or by, the king of "new" tango, with
the full help of Piazzolla's family and colleagues.
Constantly tracking the performances of Piazzolla's music,
Collier was a mine of information on who was performing what and
where. When Gidon Kremer played Piazzolla at the BBC Proms a few
years ago, Collier sent unpublished notes on the pieces to flesh out
my programme notes, impressed that Piazzolla's music was finally
being performed at the Royal Albert Hall, and sure that Piazzolla
would have been amused, if not thrilled.
The eldest of seven children, born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire,
he inherited his father's passion for history and literature, and
his mother's for music. He played the piano by ear, and entertained
his family with popular hit songs. He went to Bedford school and,
after national service in the RAF, read history to postgraduate
level at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he led the Hourglass
debating group.
He taught history at Essex University (1965-91), during which
time he had four spells as a visiting professor at the University of
Wisconsin. In 1991, he was tempted away to become director of the
centre for Latin American and Iberian studies, and chairman of the
history department, at Vanderbilt University, Nashville. In his
Essex farewell speech, ever informed by popular music, he cited Hank
Williams: "No, it ain't Dallas, it ain't Dynasty, It's jest
knocking out a living down in Tennessee." And he always ensured
his visitors got a rich taste of Nashville's music scene.
Warm, generous and full of wry humour, Collier was supportive and
encouraging to his colleagues and friends, and cherished by all.
After the 1973 coup in Chile, he was active in helping refugees.
Stories circulate of him breaking the gender barrier of the
Survivors, an all-male Essex dining club by introducing American
colleague Gina Sapiro as a "temporary member". Renowned
for his dapper appearance, a 1960s picture shows him at the top of
Maccu Piccu, Peru - in bow tie and suit.
Collier's honours included the Order of Andrés Bello from the
republic of Venezuela. In 2000, he became a knight commander of
Chile's Order of Bernardo O'Higgins. He died peacefully, the songs
of his beloved Carlos Gardel playing softly in the background. He is
survived by his six brothers and sisters.
Simon Daniel White Collier, historian and tango expert, born June
6 1938; died February 20 2003
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Collier,
professor of history, dies
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Simon
Collier, professor of history, died Feb. 20 at Alive Hospice in
Nashville after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 64.
Collier,
a native of England, completed his undergraduate and postgraduate
work in history at the University of Cambridge in England and was a
faculty member at the University of Essex in England from 1965 to
1991. In 1991, Collier joined Vanderbilt where he served as director
of the Center for Latin American Studies from 1993 to 1996, and was
chair of the Department of History from 1996 to 2000.
The
author of more than a dozen books and approximately 40 articles and
essays, Collier was fluent in French and Spanish. He has researched
in the field of Chilean history, and has written extensively on the
Argentinean dance, the Tango.
“Simon
Collier was one of the world’s leading authorities on
Latin-American popular music, in particular, the Tango,” said
Marshall C. Eakin, chair of the Department of History. “His works
on Chilean and Argentine history span four decades and are widely
read in Europe, the United States and Latin America.”
Collier’s
remains will be cremated and spread in the gardens at Trinity Hall,
University of Cambridge.
Eakin
said plans were under way for a memorial service to take place on
the Vanderbilt campus in the coming weeks.
Posted
2/21/03 at 10 a.m
Vanderbilt
University, 2201 West End Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee
Simon Collier
was born and raised near London, England, and did his undergraduate
and postgraduate work in history at Cambridge (PhD 1965). In 1963 he
traveled in South America for the first time, living in Chile for
nearly all that year. He has returned there frequently since. From
1965 to 1991 he was on the faculty at the University of Essex,
England, where he helped to create a flourishing Latin American
program. He spent many of his sabbatical leaves in South America,
and was four times visiting professor at the University of
Wisconsin, Madison. In 1991 he come to Vanderbilt, where he has
served as Director of CLAIS (1993-96) and more recently as chairman
of the History Department. He has researched in the field of Chilean
history, and has also written extensively on the story of the
Argentine Tango, a major enthusiasm stemming from his residences in
the Southern Cone. He has published five books (one co-authored),
co-edited and co-authored The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Latin
America and the Caribbean (2nd edition 1992), and edited and
co-authored ¡Tango! (1995), currently available in four
languages. His most recent book is (with William F. Sater) A
History of Chile 1808-1994 (1996).
Vanderbilt
University
MUSICA:
MURIO SIMON COLLIER
El biógrafo de Gardel y Piazzolla
El historiador británico fue un estudioso
e investigador del tango internacionalmente reconocido, y un gran
amante del género.
Irene
Amuchástegui. DE LA REDACCION DE CLARIN.
El
historiador inglés Simon Collier, autor imprescindible en el campo
del tango como exhaustivo biógrafo de dos de sus más
significativos protagonistas de todos los tiempos, Carlos Gardel y
Astor Piazzolla, murió en Tennessee, Estados Unidos, el 20 de
febrero. Con el correr de estos días, la noticia de su
fallecimiento fue difundida y recibida con enorme dolor entre sus
amigos argentinos, que eran muchos.
Nacido en Londres en 1938, y especializado en temas
latinoamericanos, Collier fue docente en la Universidad de Essex
(Inglaterra) durante veinticinco años y en la Universidad de
Vanderbilt (Tennessee) desde 1990. Durante todos esos años se
mantuvo fiel a una pasión nacida durante un período que pasó en
Santiago de Chile: la pasión por el tango y en particular por
Gardel. Tomó contacto con el género del modo más casual, a
través de la radio chilena, y poco después fundaba una soberbia
colección personal de discos que seguiría acrecentando hasta el
final.
Collier fue un investigador de perfil singularísimo: un británico
reconocido internacionalmente como especialista en historia del
tango. "El gran desafío de esta época es estudiar la cultura
popular de las sociedades modernas del siglo XX", afirmó
alguna vez en una entrevista, durante una de sus incontables visitas
a Buenos Aires. Autor de cerca de una decena de libros sobre temas
sudamericanos, dentro del tango comenzó por elaborar una biografía
de Gardel, a quien eligió como "el artista de mayor alcance de
la historia latinoamericana y la voz más rica y expresiva de todo
el panorama de la música popular del siglo XX". Sobre Carlos
Gardel. Su vida, su música, su época —que se publicó en
inglés en los Estados Unidos, en 1986, y se tradujo al castellano
dos años después, transformándose en una referencia
ineludible—, Collier dijo: "Mi objetivo era dar una visión
creíble, ordenada y verídica de la vida de este hombre
extraordinario. Personalmente, no creo mucho en la existencia de
revelaciones de tipo sensacional en la vida de Gardel, una vida
bastante sencilla. Se trata de un hombre con un talento prodigioso
que llegó a explotar maravillosamente bien."
En el año 2000, la Oxford University Press de Nueva York publicó Le
Grand Tango. The Life and Music of Astor Piazzolla, una
atrapante biografía escrita por Collier y la investigadora
argentina María Susana Azzi (quienes ya habían compartido los
créditos de ¡Tango!), prologada por una entrevista con el
cellista Yo—Yo Ma. "Por supuesto, no habría abordado el
proyecto sin una admiración loca por Piazzolla: más de 200 discos
suyos ya formaban parte de mi colección personal", afirmó
Collier entonces. La versión en castellano, Astor Piazzolla. Su
vida y Su música, se publicó en la Argentina en 2002.
Miembro de la Academia Nacional del Tango y de la Academia Porteña
del Lunfardo, vinculado también a la Asociación la Reina del
Plata, participaba apasionadamente de la escena del tango.
"Simon vivió una vida intensa y muy productiva, nos ha dejado
un precioso legado de palabras", se lee en un breve mensaje de
su familia que informa, además: "Su muerte fue pacífica y
tranquila, escuchando la música de su amado Carlos Gardel".
Clarín,
Lunes 3 de marzo de 2003 Año VII N°
2527
Copyright 1996-2003 Clarín.com - All rights reserved
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Original
English Version
Translated
Spanish Version
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The
Life, Music, and Times of Carlos Gardel, by Simon
Collier,
published by University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986,
hardcover, printed in The United States and England. Simon
Collier is the professor of History at the University of Essex,
England. In 1991, Collier joined Vanderbilt
university in Nasville, Tennessee, where he served as director
of the Center for Latin American Studies from 1993 to 1996, and was
chair of the Department of History from 1996 to 2000.
What is
more important is that this is the only English language
biography on Gardel ever written and is as such an
indispensible tool for tango and music historians.
A
wonderful book, first because it was a pleasure to read
about a Tango related subject, and such an important,
revered, talented and loved man, in English. This book is
well researched and well written. Simon Collier strikes me
as a man who loves Tango, and therefore gets under the
skin of his subject matter. This is a real page turner,
even though you know the tragic end to the story.
Note by
J. Lupic: The English version is out of print and
impossible to obtain. I got mine by luck via eBay.
Carlos
Gardel: Su vida, su música, su época
ISBN/Cat.#
9500715155. Collier, Simon.
Published by "Editorial Sudamericana, S.A." in 1988.
This is
a Spanish language version. The only difference is that
there are many more photos than in the English language
version. This Spanish language soft-bound version is
available from many sources.
El hombre y el mito
Detrás de la sonrisa de Carlos Gardel
Terra Networks,
S.A. Buenos Aires, 13 de febrero de 2004.
El relanzamiento de una biografía clave sobre Gardel realizada por el investigador Simón Collier y la edición de 4 discos con 100 tangos ubican al hombre sobre el mito: lejos entonces de las leyendas, muestran intacto al cantante y alejan todos los
fantasmas.
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