Gato Barbieri

El Gato. Flying Dutchman

    Gato, of course, is the torch-mouthed tenor player from Argentina who's combined Latin American folk sources, jazz, and a revolutionary international political perspective to come up with a supercharged body of music that's instantly recognizable and hard to beat.

     Flying Dutchman Records, who used to record Gato, have been releasing every scrap of music that Gato ever put on tape for them in the hopes of capitalizing on Gato's relative success with Impulse. Oddly enough (or not), I feel that Gato's earlier  work was stronger. His bands featured the likes of Lonnie Liston Smith, Stanley Clarke, Airto, and John Abercrombie, and several of the best efforts lo which these folks contributed (from Bolivia and  Under Fire mostly) are reissued here.

   The excuse for this  is a previously unavailable suite entitled EI Gato, twelve minutes long composed for Gato by band leader/ composer/ saxophonist Oliver Nelson. considering the bulk of Nelson's fine work. Including especially the two Blues and the Abstract Truth efforts he recorded for Impulse, this suite is unremarkable. Nelson arranged various flutes, an english horn, a bass clarinet, guitar and percussion Into  a Latinish groove. The horn voiceings are mixed down. The most exciting moments here are when Gato and Nelson play at the same time, each man goading and inspiring the other in a manner somewhat reminiscent of Nelson and  Erik Dolphy on the great Blues and the Abstract Truth.