Customer Reviews

Pampero

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

This Album is absolutely awesome. The intensity of the first track in particular parallels Coltrane's playing. Some might be put off by the timbre of Gato's "voice" shrieking and screaming. Not one of mom's favorite albums. This recording is for real.

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.

If you don't think the excitement of a live concert can be adequately captured on a recording, you've never heard this CD! But the most amazing thing about this performance is that it was an unplanned amalgamation of musicians from different groups - but you have to read the liner notes to believe it, especially when you listen to Brasil. The amazing, spontaneous interactions among the musicians and the absolute explosions of sound, particularly from Pretty Purdie, will take you about as close as you can get to being there in the audience without a time machine! Incredible.

According to Bob Palmer's liner notes,this cd was recorder at the 1971 Montreux Jazz Festival at 4:00 in the morning.The audience had waited to hear Barbieri and his band after seeing him perform with another larger Jazz band just a little while before.you can rest easy that everyone who stayed up till that early hour to see Barbieri play thanked the gods they did.This is wonderful playing.Barbieri is amazing,the incredible sounds he gets from his saxophone are exilirating.Lonnie Liston Smith is on piano and is great.Pretty Purdie on drums.Sonny Morgan on congo and Nana Vasconcelos on percussion.Chuck Rainey on electric bass.this band is very tight and obviously enjoyed playing at this festival.In addition to the live Montreux recording,you get one track recorded in the studio called El Gato.This was recorded by a nine piece band with Oliver Nelson on saxophone,Hank Jones,Ron Carter,Airto Morerira,and others.You cant really go wrong with this Cd.It's great.

Memo to aspiring John Coltrane clones-you don't have to play a few notes and then screech in the high register every few minutes. Trane knew how to pace himself and make his solo's interesting. This is just plain irritating. Every solo ends up the same. Every song is the same. After a while it grinds you down just as 'live in Newport' did for those brought up on 'village vanguard' by Trane (the first one with 'chasing' on it) If you like your sax playing frenzied be my guest but for me this is just a parody and a bad one at that. He isn't even that good to be honest. Try the Branford Marsalis 'love supreme' dvd to see Coltrane done properly. More light and shade please!