The Original Latin Jazz!

Over the last ten years, I have been slowly replacing my vinyl Gato Barbieri collection with CDs, and it has not been easy. Some of his best music (early 70's) is hard to find on CD, especially in the US, where only his later, more commercial work seems to be appreciated. Gato is from Argentina and, after training as a jazz musician in the USA, decided to return to his South American roots and, in the late 60s, started a brilliant solo career in which he created his own brand of music, containing the basic elements of American jazz, but infused with South American influences, atmospheres and themes.

Influential to Gato's early career was his collaboration with Brazilian movie director Glauber Rocha, whose well-known movies depicted the poverty and the misery of a whole continent, and glorified violence and socialist revolution. In addition to providing the musical score to the movies, Gato can even be seen in these films playing the saxophone on a park bench. Through this collaboration, Gato had a sociopolitical awakening: he started singing the beauty of his continent, and denouncing its rape at the hands of US-sponsored ruthless dictators who kept the people down using terror. Later Gato softened up his music, purged the anger, and became famous for providing the rather mediocre soundtrack to the controversial movie "Last Tango in Paris" by Bertolucci.

Later, his music softened further into a smooth Latin jazz whose trademark was the highly successful but rather unexciting "Caliente". Since then, Gato's music has slowly become a pleasant cliché. It is hard to be innovative (and pure) as one gets old!

I still remember the first time I heard Gato's music. I was a teenager trying to expand my musical range of appreciation from classical to jazz. A friend brought this LP, "The Third World", Gato's first recording with Flying Dutchman. I listened through about three minutes of soft flute and voice atmospheres, nothing special, all rather bland, when suddenly a piano burst in, with a cascade of sounds and, immediately thereafter, two saxophone notes so beautiful, haunting, deep, passionate, tender and soulful that a shiver went up and down my spine several times. The short melody immediately escalated into wild jazz variations and finally into an interminable series of convulsive shrieks, ghastly scales full of furious anger, desperation, all drowned by a violent trombone and piano cacophony. The violent struggle reflected in this untidy, wild music, had me totally absorbed. I was astounded at the strange alternating of tender phrases and furious bursts of violence. It was love at first hearing!

"The Third World" is, to the best of my knowledge, not available in the US, and I had to buy it in Germany. Too bad, because it is Gato's best - if challenging- work. "Fenix", his second best, I could not find even in Germany. It is a hole in my collection. It was with great joy that I saw the reprint of two of his best works, Bolivia and Under Fire, combined in a single product. I really had not listened to these records in many years, and it has been a pleasure to be able to see that their effect on me has not changed in the last 30 years. If anything, their pure, refreshing sound is a wonderful alternative to the more polished but less exciting Gato of the last two decades.

The line-up is basically the same in both CDs, and it is the best Gato has ever had. The star is probably Lonnie Liston Smith, whose fluid piano is like a waterfall of sounds, evocative and mysterious. Another great jazz star, Stanley Clarke, adds his brilliant bass texture to a background made up of phenomenon Airto Moreira, the famous Brazilian percussionist, who is aided by James M'Tume (congas) and Moulay Ali Hafid, a Berber percussionist, who adds a touch of Africa with his unusual dumbec rhythms. Roy Haynes in Under Fire and Pretty Purdie and Gene Golden in Bolivia complement the percussion section. Last but not least, John Abercrombie weaves beautiful guitar (acoustic or electric) solos and always provides a delicate background to Gato's sax solos.


BOLIVIA:
Merceditas: Somewhat unusually, here Gato bursts into a passionate, unaccompanied sax solo, as if to set the tone for the record. This fades into a fluid piano introduction, behind which Gato is heard to call for "Primera", for the first variation. He enters the river of piano music with a passionate, repetitive Latin pulse, then returns to the main theme, followed by prolonged and intense jazz variations. After a brief pause, one hears Gato call for "Segunda", the second variation, launched as usual by a piano solo and the thick percussion line weaving a wild rhythm. Gato follows with an intense pulsing solo, returning to his main theme and completing the second round of jazz variations, which ends abruptly.

Eclypse/Michelina: It is Gato's trademark to have passionate melodic Latin songs with very little in terms of variations. They are his tribute to his home. These are beautiful, tender and longing melodies, and in "Bolivia" this is the track. The tune starts with lounge-style piano, a jazzy intro, followed by Gato's passionate song. As usual, the intensity is interrupted by a long piano interlude, to give way to the original melody, played with even more tenderness then slowly fading.

Bolivia: The best track of the album seems to represent a voyage through the immensity of the South American continent. Through the mysterious repetitive rhythms, the fluid piano background, and a soft flute in the distance, one can almost see never-ending jungles, the flat banks of the Amazon river, thousands of miles of snow capped mountains, an immense land of haunting beauty. Then the saxophone starts his pulse, then a melody, then jazz variations, with some wild high notes, the shrieking sounds that are Gato's trademark, in this case accompanied by voices screaming in unison with the saxophone. The song ends with a return to the mysterious atmospheres: percussions and delicate piano weaving textures in the background of a faraway flute.

Ninos: This is a classical Gato piece, with a beautiful melody only briefly sketched and intense passionate jazz variations, with short piano interludes as breaks.

Vidala Triste: Gato loves to try to sing, although he is not a great singer and his voice is too nasal. This sad, soft song is the chosen one to showcase his voice. Accompanied by flute and guitar, he sings a mysterious song, with minimal lyrics, mostly "la-ra-ja-ja". Probably the low point of the album. One misses the saxophone when Gato sings!

UNDER FIRE:
El Parana - The typical voyage song. After an intro of fluid piano variations, the sax enters with a pulse, then launches into a beautiful duet with Abercrombie's electric guitar, short but intense bursts of sounds, after which Gato takes over and launches into a long fit of convulsive, ghastly shrieks, strangely beautiful for the sheer intensity of it all. The voyage ends with a long piano and percussion section.

Yo Le Canto La Luna: A very simple melodic song, where the melody is played first by the sax, then sung by Gato. A wonderful song, without the jazzy variations, a tribute to Argentina.

Antonico: Probably the best song of the album. Only 3'47", but filled with such intense longing that it can be emotionally draining. Again, a love song without much jazz . After a few seconds of pulse, a sax melody starts, beautiful, tender, full of love, and then, far away, a second saxophone picks up the same melody, and the two saxophones weave, in unison at times, and echoing each other in some sections, singing a nostalgic melody, as if calling each other. It is a longing for something lost in time, for a past, or for a faraway love. Anyone who has experienced intense longing can hardly listen to this song without being touched to one's core.

Maria Domingas: A true gem of a song. It starts with about 1'40" of percussions, people calling and yelling and beating on drums, like a street Carnival. Then, all of a sudden, the drumming stops and a guitar picks up with slow, soft chords, and Gato's sax enters with a phrase of such tenderness that no words can possible describe it. Just the guitar and the saxophone, about one minute of passionate, sad melody, which slowly changes into a wild vibrato that never seems to end; when one believes Gato is about to die, the fading vibrato slowly picks up in volume and leads to another drumming section, Carnival again, and now the saxophone has picked up in intensity, vitality and launches in a series of jazz variations that never seem to end.

El Sertao; A proper ending to an unbelievable album. In spite of the excellent saxophone variations, I always listen to this track for the percussions. Here Moreira, M'Tume and Hafid build such a wonderful percussive texture that they basically outshine all other instruments. Over eight minutes of fantastic rhythms!

Overall, almost an hour and a half of passionate music which, depending on one's sensibility, can be extremely draining from an emotional standpoint. The notes simply burst with intensity! This is not suitable for background music, and it is as far from lounge jazz as one can possibly find.

I have had the good fortune of seeing Gato live. I expected him to be 7 feet tall. Instead, he is a puny old man a little over 5 feet tall. Yet, when he blows in his sax, he and his instrument fuse together, the sax becoming like a natural appendage to his body. He then becomes 7 feet tall, as I imagined him!

If you like Gato, this double CD is a must have. If you know only his late work, try his early 70's music, where he laid the basis of his musical vocabulary with an unparalleled intensity. If you don't know him, this double CD for the price of one is a great place to start!