Review of Gato Barbieri : El Pampero: Live in Montreaux, Switzerland
Reissue of the Jazz great's original album from 1971, featuring Chuck Rainey on bass and Lonnie Liston Smithon piano. Four tracks: 'El Pampero', 'Mi Buenos Aires Querido', 'Brasil' and 'El Arriero'. Remaining line up is Barbieri on tenor sax, Pretty Purdie on drums, Sonny Morgan on conga and Nana Vasconcellos on percussions & berimbau.

Users's Reviews - Gato Barbieri : Live jazz at its very best
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.

Your latest reviews - Gato Barbieri : A great collection of "early to middle Cat" tunes
Rarely do I find myself enjoying compilations as much as the originals they come from, but "Gato Barbieri's Finest Hour" is an exception. In what seems to be an unusual move, Verve has released here a combination of Gato's tunes from more than one label--what was ABC/Impulse! and A&M. The ABC/Impulse! recordings sampled here are the famous groundbreaking Chapter Series albums in which Gato melded North American jazz with Latin American music, instruments and musicians--onsite in Argentina and Brazil as well as in NY. The project was conceived as a TV-like series, hence the track "To Be Continued" in which Gato narrates the close of Chapter 1 and previews the music to come in Chapter 2: "Al final de este capítulo, dejé Buenos Aires, llegue a Rio..." ("At the end of this chapter, I left Buenos Aires and arrived in Rio...") One by one, the instruments enter the mix, the excitement and rhythmic complexity building, layer by layer, to Gato's own entrance-an unbridled screech that sends chills up the spine before abruptly descending two octaves into some of his lushest tones.

It is hard to imagine a song that better captures the essence of Gato Barbieri's artistry, but it is augmented beautifully by the inclusion of Nunca Mas with the wonderful bandoneon player Dino Saluzzi and by the big band tracks from his highly acclaimed album with the renowned Chico O'Farrill, who passed away in June 2001.

What makes this album a good representation of Gato is that it also includes some of his later A&M tunes, such as his signature arrangement of Carlos Santana & Tom Coster's Europa, and his duet with Santana, Latin Lady. These are the tunes that are widely regarded as having set the stage for "smooth jazz," although the complexity of Gato's articulation is worlds away from much of the vapid instrumental music that now dominates that genre.

It is hard to imagine making a single album that contains all the styles Gato Barbieri has played, but this one does a great job of pulling together a fair bit of that diversity. Notably absent from this collection are Gato's beautiful Flying Dutchman albums and his more recent albums, but these have been compiled elsewhere and are also widely available.

For smooth jazz fans, this CD will probably have a few too many screechy and high-energy tunes; for "jazz purists" the A&M tunes may be undesirable. But for anyone who loves Gato in all his artistic breadth--or for anyone who has never heard him before, this will be a great introduction to a phenomenal artist.