I remember the days when Gato Barbieri became the toast of jazz. Caliente had recently been issued and the song Europa was all over jukeboxes and FM radio. It was at long last a North American breakthrough to the mainstream for a man who had toiled in relative obscurity for the better part of two decades. Caliente is today still a best seller for him, but what about his other work?
Old-time cognoscenti and early-adopters of Gato Barbieri can be thankful now that his pre-Caliente solo work on the Flying Dutchman label is being reissued and made available to those of us who are second or third-generation Barbieri fans. I remember listening to more knowledgeable jazz fans talk of Barbieri when I was a young teenager but I never got to hear what they were talking about until Caliente swept the airwaves. I did eventually obtain Bolivia on cassette, but it certainly didn't have the rich fullness of sound as does this CD.
Gato Barbieri is perhaps the best tenor saxophonist of my lifetime and starting with the fabulous Merceditas, he wastes little time living up to that accolade. Soaring melodies and dense rhythms envelop the listener in a state of entrancement as the music progresses.
The entire CD is good, but I particularly enjoy Merceditas, Bolivia, Ninos, the frenetic El Parana, the smooth, flowing Antonico and Maria Domingas. Barbieri's rendition of Atahualpa Yupanqui's Yo Le Canto a La Luna demonstrates his rarely presented vocal ability.
If you are a Barbieri fan who came to his music upon the release of Caliente or later, you owe it to yourself to get this and hear where he came from. If you are an early fan, well you just need to get the CD and give your scratched up LPs a rest. Double your pleasure and order this today!