Carlos Santana & Gato Barbieri - Europa (1977)

Gato Barbieri - Chapter One: Latin America (1973)

When Gato Barbieri signed to Impulse! Records in 1973 for a series of critically lauded albums, he had already enjoyed a celebrated career as a vanguard musician who had worked with Don Cherry and Abdullah Ibrahim (then known as Dollar Brand), recorded for three labels as a leader, and scored and performed the soundtrack to director Bernardo Bertolucci's film Last Tango in Paris. Chapter One: Latin America was a huge step forward musically for the Argentinean-born saxophonist, even as it looked to the music of his heritage. This turned out to be the first of four chapters in his series on Latin America, and for it he teamed not with established jazz musicians, but instead folk and traditional musicians from his native country, and recorded four of the album's five cuts in Buenos Aires -- the final track, a multi-tracked solo piece, was recorded in Rio de Janeiro. The music found here doesn't walk a line between the two worlds, but freely indulges them. The enormous host of musicians on the date played everything from wooden flutes to electric and acoustic guitars, bomba drums and quenas, and Indian harps and charangos, creating a passionate and deeply emotive sound that echoed across not only miles but also centuries. At the helm was Barbieri, playing in his rawest and most melodic style to date, offering these melodies, harmonies, and rhythms as a singular moment in the history of jazz. While the entire album flows seamlessly from beginning to end, the A-side, comprised of Barbieri's own "Encuentros" and J. Asunción Flores and M. Ortiz Guerrero's classic "India," is the clear standout. That said, the four-part suite that commences side two -- "La China Leoncia Arreo la Correntinada Trajo Entre la Muchachada la Flor de la Juventud" -- is a work of such staggering drama and raw beauty that it is perhaps the single highest achievement in Barbieri's recorded catalog as an artist. Simply put, this album, like its remaining chapters, makes up one of the great all but forgotten masterpieces in 1970s jazz. Thankfully, Verve has brought this set back into print on CD as part of its wonderfully mastered, budget-priced Originals series.

By Thom Jurek in All Music Guide

Styles:
Avant-Garde
Free-Jazz
World Music
Fusion

Tracks:
01 - Encuentros (12:28)
02 - India (08:58)
03 - La China Leoncia Arreo La Correntinada Trajo Entre La Muchachada La Flor De La Juventud (13:33)
04 - Nunca Mas (05:25)
05 - To Be Continued (02:27)

Line-up:
Gato Barbieri - tenor saxophone
Raul Mercado - quena (1, 2, 3)
Amadeo Monges - Indian harp (1, 2, 3)
Ricardo Lew - Electric guitar (1, 3)
Quelo Palacios - acoustic guitar (1, 2, 3)
Isoca Fumero - charango (1, 3)
Antonio Pantoja - anapa, erke, siku, quena, erkencho (1, 2, 3)
Adalberto Cevasco - Fender bass (1, 2, 3, 4)
Dino Saluzzi - bandoneon (4)
Domingo Cura - bombo indio (Indian drums) (1, 2, 3)
Pocho Lapouble - drums (1, 3)
Jorge Padin - percussion (1, 3)
El Zurdo Roizner - percussion (1, 2, 3)
Osvaldo Bellingieri - piano (4)

Gato Barbieri - Fenix (1971)

Some artists totally change directions; some reinvent their personalities. It is hard to know exactly what to make of the case of this Argentinian tenor saxophonist, who first appeared as a sideman on several extremely important Don Cherry projects, making such an essential contribution to the overall feel of these records that listeners expected great things. After a few attempts at finding a meeting place between the energy and harshness of free jazz and the his own rhythmic roots, he created this album in which everything seemed to come together perfectly. If a judgement is to be made based on Barbieri's overall career, then a lot of credit would be given to his accompanying musicians here, who are strictly the cream of the crop. A horn player certainly couldn't complain about a rhythm section featuring bassist Ron Carter, drummer Lenny White, and pianist Lonnie Liston Smith, the last fresh out of the band of Pharoah Sanders, where he had established himself as the absolute king of modal, vaguely Latin or African sounding vamps. Smith was able to fit right in here, and he of course knew just what to do when the saxophonist went into his screaming fits, because he surely had plenty of practice with this kind of stuff playing with Sanders. The leader adds a nice touch of ethnic percussion with some congas and bongos and Na Na on berimbau; in fact, this was the first time many American listeners heard this instrument. From here, Barbieri continued to build, reaching a height with a series of collaborations with Latin American musicians playing traditional instruments. He would then switch gears, tone down the energy, and become kind of a romantic image with a saxophone in his mouth, producing music that brought on insults from reviewers, many of whom would have bit their tongues if they'd known much worse sax playing was to come via later artists such as Kenny G. But at this point in 1971, well before the Muppets would create a caricature out of him, Barbieri was absolutely smoking, and for a certain style of rhythmic free jazz, this is a captivating album indeed.

by Eugene Chadbourne in All Music Guide

Styles:
Latin Jazz
World-Fusion
Avant-Garde

Tracks:
01 - Tupac Amaru (04:13)
02 - Carnavalito (09:1o)
03 - Falsa Bahiana (05:48)
04 - El Dia Que Me Quieras (06:10)
05 - El Arriero (07:24)
06 - Bahia (06:22)

Line-up:
Gato Barbieri - Tenor Sax
Lonnie Liston Smith - Piano, Electric Piano
Na-Na* - Congas, Berimbau
Ron Carter - Electric Bass
Gene Golden - Congas, Bongos
Lenny White - Drums

Don Cherry - Symphony for Improvisers (1966)

For his second album, Symphony for Improvisers, Don Cherry expanded his Complete Communion quartet -- tenor saxophonist Gato Barbieri, bassist Henry Grimes, and drummer Ed Blackwell -- to a septet, adding vibraphonist Karl Berger, bassist Jean François Jenny-Clark, and tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders (who frequently plays piccolo here). The lineup has a real international flavor, since Barbieri was from Argentina, Berger from Germany, and Jenny-Clark from France; Cherry had gigged regularly with all three during his 1964-1965 sojourn in Europe, and brought them to New York to record. With all the added firepower, it's remarkable that Symphony for Improvisers has the same sense of shared space and controlled intelligence as its predecessor, even when things are at their most heated. Once again, Cherry sets up the album as two continuous medleys that fuse four compositions apiece, which allows the group's improvisational energy and momentum to carry straight through the entire program. The "Symphony for Improvisers" suite is the most raucous part of Cherry's Blue Note repertoire, and the "Manhattan Cry" suite pulls off the widest mood shifts Cherry had yet attempted in that format. Even though the album is full of passionate fireworks, there's also a great deal of subtlety -- the flavors added to the ensemble by Berger's vibes and Sanders' piccolo, for example, or the way other instrumental voices often support and complement a solo statement. Feverish but well-channeled, this larger-group session is probably Cherry's most gratifying for Blue Note.

by Steve Huey in All Music Guide

Styles:
Free-Jazz
Avant-Garde

Tracks:

01 - Symphony for Improvisers: Symphony for Improvisers/Nu Creative Love/What's Not Serious?/Infant Happiness (19:43)
02 - Manhattan Cry: Manhattan Cry/Lunatic/Sparkle Plenty/Om Nu (19:17)

Line-up:

Don Cherry - cornet
Gato Barbieri - tenor saxophone
Pharoah Sanders - tenor saxophone, piccolo
Karl Berger - vibes, piano
Henry Grimes - bass
Jean-François Jenny-Clark - bass
Ed Blackwell - drums

Charlie Haden - Liberation Music Orchestra (1969)

A fascinating reissue that comfortably straddles the lines of jazz, folk, and world music, working up a storm by way of a jazz protest album that points toward the Spanish Civil War in particular and the Vietnam War in passing. Haden leads the charge and contributes material, but the real star here may in fact be Carla Bley, who arranged numbers, wrote several, and contributed typically brilliant piano work. Also of particular note in a particularly talented crew is guitarist Sam Brown, the standout of "El Quinto Regimiento/Los Cuatro Generales/Viva la Quince Brigada," a 21-minute marathon. Reissue producer Michael Cuscuna has done his best with the mastering here, but listeners will note a roughness to the sound -- one that is in keeping with the album's tone and attitude.

by Steven McDonald in All Music Guide

Styles:
Experimental Big Band
Avant-Garde

Tracks:
01 - The Introduction (1:15)
02 - Song of the United Front (1:52)
03 - El Quinto Regimiento/ Los Cuatro Generales/ Viva la Quince Brigada (20:58)
04 - The Ending to the First Side (2:07)
05 - Song for Ché (9:29)
06 - War Orphans (6:42)
07 - The Interlude (Drinking Music) (1:24)
08 - Circus '68 '69" (6:10)
09 - We Shall Overcome (1:19)

Line-up:
Charlie Haden — bass
Perry Robinson — clarinet
Gato Barbieri — clarinet, tenor saxophone
Carla Bley — piano, tambourine
Sam T. Brown — guitar, thumb piano
Don Cherry — flute, cornet
Andrew Cyrille — percussion, drums
Howard Johnson — tuba
Michael Mantler — trumpet
Paul Motian — percussion
Bob Northern — percussion, French horn
Dewey Redman — alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Roswell Rudd — trombone