Search - Gato Barbieri :: Pampero

Coltrane + Firey Afro-Latin Rhythms

Louis Alemayehu | Minneapolis/Saint Paul, MN USA | 05/24/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gato and the rhythm section are having a REALLY GOOD time here. When I first heard this album in '71, I was in the famous Jazz Record Mart just north of the Loop in Chicago. One of my favorite pastimes is to browse the bins in a well stocked record store... been doing that since childhood. I was lost in a trance, the vamp to the title track, El Pampero, begins and then that searing horn over the burning drums and bass. Oh my god! I went directly over to the woman at the register and said:



"Who the f*** is THAT!!!"



"Yeah honey! That's somebody named Gato Barbieri."



Once he started playing Mi Buenos Aires Querido, I plopped down my money and headed home!



As word began to spead about this "cat named Gato" from Argentina, the perception was not that he sounded like Trane, but rather more in tone like the legendary Pharoah Sanders, which some folks resented. But the fact is that in many ways they were a part of the same jazz community, and played with many of the same musicians: Don Cherry, Lonnie Liston Smith, Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), all influenced by Coltrane. They also were lable mates on 2 different ocassions: ESP (an avant garde european lable) and the U.S. based, Impulse. However listening to them always been a totally different experience. Because their material was very different, ultimately led them to do very different things on their instruments. I never confuse the two!



(Pharoah Sander's approach is more influenced by the blues, bop, modal jazz, African Hi-life, Arabic and East Indian musics. He sings & prays on his horn and speaks in tongues.)



Gato, though familar with all that, delved more into the wide range of Latin American music with it's rich blend of influences: Native American, African and European instruments and themes. Barbieri has had major influence on other Latin American musicians which becomes very clear if you chance to see and hear the excellent DVD, Calle 54. Check out the similarity between the Paquito Rivera's performance and Gato's there.



After Gato did the sound track for Last Tango in Paris, his music drifted off into more r&b and pop expressions during the days of disco.



I am so glad this is out on CD now. His version of Brazil here is a JOY!! It is fierce, pulsing and infectious, a significant example of Latin Jazz/Jazz. This entire album is an important descendent from bop, Dizzy, Bird and Chano Pozo. Give Gato a 6/8 rythmn and the cat flies... no aircraft or drugs needed!





"

Live jazz at its very best

Ned Burks | Berryville, Virginia USA | 01/27/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For real jazz fans, two words suffice for this recording: Get it. El Pampero is one of the greatest live jazz recordings ever made, a showcase for the soaring tenor saxophone of Gato Barbieri and a primer on what spontaneous jazz music can aspire to at its most passionate and joyous. The ensemble work by Gato's partners on this outing is superb. And after all these years, I still believe that the way Gato Barbieri weaves the hypnotic folk music of South America into the very North American textures of mainstream jazz points the way to the future for this still vibrant form of music."

High-Energy Latin Jazz

Kurt Harding | Boerne TX | 12/04/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I am a little bit of a latecomer to the music of Gato Barbieri, having come on board with the issue of Caliente back in the 1970s. Since that time, I have stuck with him through the good and the occasionally execrable and have also gone backwards in his musical catalog to discover his roots. I bought El Pampero several years ago, listened to it for a while, forgot about it, and only lately rediscovered it when thumbing through my music collection for CDs I had not heard in a while.

El Pampero is about what you would expect from a Gato Barbieri concert in his early days of burgeoning international popularity. The remarkable thing about it is that according to the liner notes, the band was composed mainly of other musicians who just happened to be playing with their own bands at Montreux, since Barbieri left most of his own regular group at home.

This concert is high-energy Latin jazz, full of bombast and staccato bursts. Here's my impression of the music: The title cut honks, blasts, and screams its way through nearly fifteen minutes of intense, heated jazz; Mi Buenos Aires Querido sounds nothing like the classic song, but rather is an aimless, unstructured blowfest that sounds like the musicians are just warming up; Brazil is recognizable but startling in that Barbieri's arrangement begins it in the middle of the song; and El Arriero, well, if you know Yupanqui you'll recognize the refrain. I like that last one best.

Part of the rap against Barbieri has always been his obsession with Third World topics and the tendency toward bombastic performances in concert. Some would say that is part of his charm. You get a little of both here, both in the music and in the liner notes in the accompanying booklet. Overall, El Pampero is not a bad album but it doesn't deserve the mostly high praise it has gotten here. I'll listen again on occasion, but most fans will probably be more satisfied listening to his better studio albums."