Gato Barbieri - Bolivia / Under Fire (1971/1973)

Artista: Gato Barbieri

Álbum: Bolivia / Under Fire
Año: 1971/1973
Género: Latin Jazz / Latin Funk
Duración: 72:05
Nacionalidad: Argentina

Lista de Temas:
1. Merceditas
2. Eclypse/Michellina
3. Bolivia
4. Ninos
5. Vidala Triste
6. El Paraná
7. Yo Le Canto A La Luna
8. Antonico
9. Maria Domingas
10. El Sertao

Alineación:
- Gato Barbieri / vocals, tenor saxophone, flute
- Lonnie Liston Smith / piano, electric piano
- Stanley Clarke / bass
- John Abercrombie / guitars
- Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark / bass
- Airto Moreira / drums, percussion
- Bernard Purdie / drums
- Roy Haynes / drums
- M'Tume, Gene Golden / congas
- Moulay Ali Hafid / dumbeg

Jazz de vanguardia de apenas iniciados los setentas, uniendo el jazz avant-garde de los 60s con sus propias raíces folklóricas argentinas, logró preeminencia marcada por un estilo único y bien reconocible, mientras que logró un enfoque distinto de las posibilidades del tango al ser mezclado con el jazz. Justamente en los años que siguen a la presentación de este disco (mejor dicho estos dos discos) y que van desde 1973 a 1975, el Gato amplió su música, incorporando más ritmos y cadencias de la música folklórica latinoamericana. Esa influencia de ritmos bolivianos, brasileños, chilenos y argentinos sonó cada vez con más intensidad en sus discos mientras que el Gato había logrado un sonido y una personalidad propia. Expresiones folklóricas como "¡Adentro!", "áhura", "otra vuelta", "qué pasa..." se deslizaron, y se acentuarían en sus siguientes grabaciones, en los compases de su acentuado jazz a la par que su saxo tenor adquiere una textura más cálida, espesa y colorida. Aquí todavía está empezando esa etapa, que por su forma de llevar adelante lo netamente latinoamericano y lanzarlo al mundo, muchos lo consideraron un activista político aunque no tengo referencia de que efectivamente haya sido así, aunque tenía mucha simpatía ideológica con el cornetista norteamericano Don Cherry, una relación amistosa y altamente productiva. Justamente integró el grupo cosmopolita que Cherry había armado tratando de romper el prejuicio del "jazz negro". Y recordemos que en esos incipientes tiempos del free jazz, este estilo no solamente conmovía por su nueva estética, sino también por su consigna social y política... así que muy lejos del activismo político hecho arte no habrá estado, como muchas otras expresiones artísticas de calidad.
Incluso estos dos discos tiene un gran concepto unido al compromiso ideológico... "Bolivia" / "Under Fire" es un concepto: habla del poder de la naturaleza, de que el camino emprendido por el hombre no es saludable, pero también de todo lo bueno que el hombre puede crear cuando no se dedica a destruir, reservándose una última oportunidad y una esperanza que aún no muere.
"Bolivia" y "Under Fire" son los álbumes que han marcado la evolución estilística de un gran artista: la creación de un género tomando ritmos nativos de América del Sur, junto con la alta tradición del jazz, y un componente extra lleno de marcas personales y originales, como solamente poseen los artistas de calidad superior.
Los dos álbumes se uniron en un solo CD, quizás teniendo en cuenta el grado de compactación de las composiciones y las muchas similitudes que existen entre los dos discos. Acompañado de grandes de la música de todos los tiempos, como Airto Moreira, John Abercrombie, Lonnie Liston Smith o Stanley Clarke, les dejamos otro inmenso trabajo de este músico tremendo.
No encontré comentarios en español, les dejo pues los respectivos comentarios en inglés, peor es nada:

The phrase "muscular" is frequently used in musical criticism to describe a musician’s attack or forceful nature in the playing of their instrument. Pharaoh Sanders or McCoy Tyner might be described thusly. No one comes close to wielding their instrument with such passionate ferocity, however, as one Leandro ‘Gato’ Barbieri, the powerful Argentina-born tenor saxophonist responsible for these two classic recordings. Bolivia, originally released in 1973 and Under Fire, published two years previously, first saw light of day on the Flying Dutchman label. Both are extraordinary recordings. Each is given half the space of this 10-song delight.
Gato, the cat, is joined on the songs from Bolivia by Lonnie Liston Smith (acoustic and electric piano), John Abercrombie (electric and acoustic guitar), Stanley Clarke or Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark (bass), Airto Moreira, Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie or Roy Haynes (drums), M’tume, Gene Golden and/or Moulay Ali Hafid (percussion). Each player brings fire to the session, though Barbieri ignites the set with his undeniably muscular lines on his opening volcanic "Merceditas". This is followed by the understated "Eclypse/Michellina," on which Smith offers a beautifully rhythmic and tender intro that Gato follows with a hard blowing tenderness of his own. Here he combines a traditional Latin American folk tune with the adventurous blowing that was first introduced to jazz audiences while in the Don Cherry band of the mid 1960s. This was music that he would call Latin Third World. The title piece is as steeped in Latin tradition as in various permutations of electric and acoustic jazz. Fusion of the highest level. Over agile percussion and rhythmic accompaniment, Barbieri blows a beautiful bolero line that is heart achingly beautiful, while still powerful . On "Ninos" following a brisk bongo, bass and percussive opening, Barbieri breaks into stratospheric playing that remains rooted. He remains ever adventurous here, while wholly accessible. That was the secret to this being one of the most popular recordings of his career. On the final "Vidala Triste," with hand claps in the mix and juxtaposed against Abercrombie’s acoustic guitar, Gato plays wonderful flute and sings. It is an extraordinary moment on the recording, being the most representative folk element.
Opening the Under Fire segment of the program is "El Parana," on which Abercrombie and Clarke set up an inconspicuous platform over which Barbieri blows with an understated intensity. An extended Smith solo is riveting, with Clarke and Haynes especially hard at work on the bottom. For "Yo Le Canto a la Luna," on which Gato’s vocals remind of Gilberto’s, the melody is played atop a fiery percussion spearheaded by Airto. Abercrombie’s acoustic guitar works well against Gato’s relatively brief sax work. On the following "Antonica," it is again Abercrombie’s acoustic, in tandem with electric piano, that intros the dually tracked saxophone choir. Another highlight in a program that excites throughout. The following Jorge Ben-penned ""Maria Domingas" is a Carnival piece that may best represent the album’s title. This is fiery with references to tradition and the emerging fusion style of the era. Finally, the closing "El Sertao," with a piano intro that reminds of Joe Zawinul and a texture that reminds of early Return to Forever, puts the master saxophonist’s tone on display. He was more than merely a hard blower. That doesn’t require any particular skill, only strong lungs. Gato has always been about inflection, finesse, texture and emotion. The combination of these two masterpieces on one disc is a treat for those of us who may have forgotten just how amazing Gato Barbieri was in his prime. Though some would argue he continued to grow and become even more amazing, for me this was the apotheosis.

Mark E. Gallo

Over the last ten years, I have been slowly replacing my vinyl Gato Barbieri collection with CDs, and it has not been easy. Some of his best music (early 70's) is hard to find on CD, especially in the US, where only his later, more commercial work seems to be appreciated. Gato is from Argentina and, after training as a jazz musician in the USA, decided to return to his South American roots and, in the late 60s, started a brilliant solo career in which he created his own brand of music, containing the basic elements of American jazz, but infused with South American influences, atmospheres and themes.
Influential to Gato's early career was his collaboration with Brazilian movie director Glauber Rocha, whose well-known movies depicted the poverty and the misery of a whole continent, and glorified violence and socialist revolution. In addition to providing the musical score to the movies, Gato can even be seen in these films playing the saxophone on a park bench. Through this collaboration, Gato had a sociopolitical awakening: he started singing the beauty of his continent, and denouncing its rape at the hands of US-sponsored ruthless dictators who kept the people down using terror. Later Gato softened up his music, purged the anger, and became famous for providing the rather mediocre soundtrack to the controversial movie "Last Tango in Paris" by Bertolucci.
Later, his music softened further into a smooth Latin jazz whose trademark was the highly successful but rather unexciting "Caliente". Since then, Gato's music has slowly become a pleasant cliché. It is hard to be innovative (and pure) as one gets old!
I still remember the first time I heard Gato's music. I was a teenager trying to expand my musical range of appreciation from classical to jazz. A friend brought this LP, "The Third World", Gato's first recording with Flying Dutchman. I listened through about three minutes of soft flute and voice atmospheres, nothing special, all rather bland, when suddenly a piano burst in, with a cascade of sounds and, immediately thereafter, two saxophone notes so beautiful, haunting, deep, passionate, tender and soulful that a shiver went up and down my spine several times. The short melody immediately escalated into wild jazz variations and finally into an interminable series of convulsive shrieks, ghastly scales full of furious anger, desperation, all drowned by a violent trombone and piano cacophony. The violent struggle reflected in this untidy, wild music, had me totally absorbed. I was astounded at the strange alternating of tender phrases and furious bursts of violence. It was love at first hearing!
"The Third World" is, to the best of my knowledge, not available in the US, and I had to buy it in Germany. Too bad, because it is Gato's best - if challenging- work. "Fenix", his second best, I could not find even in Germany. It is a hole in my collection. It was with great joy that I saw the reprint of two of his best works, Bolivia and Under Fire, combined in a single product. I really had not listened to these records in many years, and it has been a pleasure to be able to see that their effect on me has not changed in the last 30 years. If anything, their pure, refreshing sound is a wonderful alternative to the more polished but less exciting Gato of the last two decades.
The line-up is basically the same in both CDs, and it is the best Gato has ever had. The star is probably Lonnie Liston Smith, whose fluid piano is like a waterfall of sounds, evocative and mysterious. Another great jazz star, Stanley Clarke, adds his brilliant bass texture to a background made up of phenomenon Airto Moreira, the famous Brazilian percussionist, who is aided by James M'Tume (congas) and Moulay Ali Hafid, a Berber percussionist, who adds a touch of Africa with his unusual dumbec rhythms. Roy Haynes in Under Fire and Pretty Purdie and Gene Golden in Bolivia complement the percussion section. Last but not least, John Abercrombie weaves beautiful guitar (acoustic or electric) solos and always provides a delicate background to Gato's sax solos.
BOLIVIA:
Merceditas: Somewhat unusually, here Gato bursts into a passionate, unaccompanied sax solo, as if to set the tone for the record. This fades into a fluid piano introduction, behind which Gato is heard to call for "Primera", for the first variation. He enters the river of piano music with a passionate, repetitive Latin pulse, then returns to the main theme, followed by prolonged and intense jazz variations. After a brief pause, one hears Gato call for "Segunda", the second variation, launched as usual by a piano solo and the thick percussion line weaving a wild rhythm. Gato follows with an intense pulsing solo, returning to his main theme and completing the second round of jazz variations, which ends abruptly.
Eclypse/Michelina: It is Gato's trademark to have passionate melodic Latin songs with very little in terms of variations. They are his tribute to his home. These are beautiful, tender and longing melodies, and in "Bolivia" this is the track. The tune starts with lounge-style piano, a jazzy intro, followed by Gato's passionate song. As usual, the intensity is interrupted by a long piano interlude, to give way to the original melody, played with even more tenderness then slowly fading.
Bolivia: The best track of the album seems to represent a voyage through the immensity of the South American continent. Through the mysterious repetitive rhythms, the fluid piano background, and a soft flute in the distance, one can almost see never-ending jungles, the flat banks of the Amazon river, thousands of miles of snow capped mountains, an immense land of haunting beauty. Then the saxophone starts his pulse, then a melody, then jazz variations, with some wild high notes, the shrieking sounds that are Gato's trademark, in this case accompanied by voices screaming in unison with the saxophone. The song ends with a return to the mysterious atmospheres: percussions and delicate piano weaving textures in the background of a faraway flute.
Ninos: This is a classical Gato piece, with a beautiful melody only briefly sketched and intense passionate jazz variations, with short piano interludes as breaks.
Vidala Triste: Gato loves to try to sing, although he is not a great singer and his voice is too nasal. This sad, soft song is the chosen one to showcase his voice. Accompanied by flute and guitar, he sings a mysterious song, with minimal lyrics, mostly "la-ra-ja-ja". Probably the low point of the album. One misses the saxophone when Gato sings!
UNDER FIRE:
El Parana - The typical voyage song. After an intro of fluid piano variations, the sax enters with a pulse, then launches into a beautiful duet with Abercrombie's electric guitar, short but intense bursts of sounds, after which Gato takes over and launches into a long fit of convulsive, ghastly shrieks, strangely beautiful for the sheer intensity of it all. The voyage ends with a long piano and percussion section.
Yo Le Canto La Luna: A very simple melodic song, where the melody is played first by the sax, then sung by Gato. A wonderful song, without the jazzy variations, a tribute to Argentina.
Antonico: Probably the best song of the album. Only 3'47", but filled with such intense longing that it can be emotionally draining. Again, a love song without much jazz . After a few seconds of pulse, a sax melody starts, beautiful, tender, full of love, and then, far away, a second saxophone picks up the same melody, and the two saxophones weave, in unison at times, and echoing each other in some sections, singing a nostalgic melody, as if calling each other. It is a longing for something lost in time, for a past, or for a faraway love. Anyone who has experienced intense longing can hardly listen to this song without being touched to one's core.
Maria Domingas: A true gem of a song. It starts with about 1'40" of percussions, people calling and yelling and beating on drums, like a street Carnival. Then, all of a sudden, the drumming stops and a guitar picks up with slow, soft chords, and Gato's sax enters with a phrase of such tenderness that no words can possible describe it. Just the guitar and the saxophone, about one minute of passionate, sad melody, which slowly changes into a wild vibrato that never seems to end; when one believes Gato is about to die, the fading vibrato slowly picks up in volume and leads to another drumming section, Carnival again, and now the saxophone has picked up in intensity, vitality and launches in a series of jazz variations that never seem to end.
El Sertao; A proper ending to an unbelievable album. In spite of the excellent saxophone variations, I always listen to this track for the percussions. Here Moreira, M'Tume and Hafid build such a wonderful percussive texture that they basically outshine all other instruments. Over eight minutes of fantastic rhythms!
Overall, almost an hour and a half of passionate music which, depending on one's sensibility, can be extremely draining from an emotional standpoint. The notes simply burst with intensity! This is not suitable for background music, and it is as far from lounge jazz as one can possibly find.
I have had the good fortune of seeing Gato live. I expected him to be 7 feet tall. Instead, he is a puny old man a little over 5 feet tall. Yet, when he blows in his sax, he and his instrument fuse together, the sax becoming like a natural appendage to his body. He then becomes 7 feet tall, as I imagined him!
If you like Gato, this double CD is a must have. If you know only his late work, try his early 70's music, where he laid the basis of his musical vocabulary with an unparalleled intensity. If you don't know him, this double CD for the price of one is a great place to start!

vicfar

2 of Gato Barbieri's greatest albums of the 70s – back to back on one CD! Bolivia is one of Gato's better albums from the early 70s – and like a lot of his Latin-themed ones, a swirling mix of soulful soloing, modal grooves, and unbridled emotion. Lonnie Liston Smith is playing piano on most cuts, and he's a perfect blend for Barbieri's horn – giving it the same sort of soulful base as in his classic recordings with Pharoah Sanders. Titles include "Merceditas", "Eclypse", "Bolivia", and "Vidala Triste". Under Fire is filled with Latin rhythm influences forged on Gato's Impulse sessions of the same time, plus some nice spiritual blowing in the Pharoah Sanders tradition in which he was linked in the immediate post-Coltrane years. Airto and Mtume are on percussion on most tracks, and Lonnie Liston Smith plays some pretty outside piano on the set. All tracks are long, and titles include "El Parana", "Antonico", "El Sertao", and "Maria Domingas".

dustygroove.com

While it's true that Argentinian saxophonist Gato Barbieri is widely celebrated in jazz circles for his out recordings with Dollar Brand (now Abdullah Ibrahim) and his Impulse! Latin America series, it is Barbieri's Flying Dutchman sides, in particular the two albums featured on this excellent two-fer from BMG's Bluebird subsidiary, that tell the tale. Bolivia and Under Fire feature the talents of John Abercrombie, Airto, Stanley Clarke, Bernard Purdie, Roy Haynes, Mtume, Lonnie Liston Smith, and others in their articulation of soul-jazz, Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz, and Brazilian melodic sensibilities. Their dynamics are spacious and spacy; their lush presentations are not overly slick and are full of radical harmonic developments and an intricate interaction between front-line and percussion instruments as equals in the melodic idiom. This two-fer features beautifully remastered sound and complete liner notes with a solid essay by Donald Elfman as well as the original liners for the individual albums by Nat Hentoff and Robert Palmer. These are indispensable Latin jazz records that opened many doors. They remain vital and progressive recordings that will enlighten the cultural and musical perspectives of any open-minded listener.

Thom Jurek

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!

Kurt Harding

These albums come from the beginning of Gato's best period. He left the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s and on these two albums began to use more traditional Latin American instrumentation and sounds. These two albums are intense and fiery Latin jazz which still has some elements of Free Jazz.
His subsequent "Chapters" albums will explore the ideas here much further and those have an even wilder and even more intense sound. I think those albums are better, but this is a good introduction to his work.
I like a little fusion maybe when it's Larry Coryell, but I prefer my Gato straight - like this great cd of 2 1970's disks or like El Pampero. Antonico plays a bit too soft, but the majority of these sets hit the mark. Definitely worth having if you like Gato's jazzier work.

D. Moore

"Gato's great strength lies in the huge, wild high tone he coaxes from the tenor instrument and in his novel mingling of South American concurring rhythms and melodic traditions with the searing energetics opioneered by Coltrane, Coleman and Albert Ayler. The great appeal of his music is the apotehosis of heartbreakingly gorgeous melodic lines... into churning imploding kegs of rhythm and the soaring expression of feeling via the tenor saxophone." - Stephen Davis, quoted in the liner notes for Under Fire
"...I sing sometimes, not because I like to sing but because the music needs singing. And when I scream with my horn, it's because the music needs screaming."- Gato Barbieri
I have talked before about Gato Barbieri's sweet spot, between the 60's spent sessioning (usually exquisitely) for the likes of Lalo Schifrin and Don Cherry and his eventual late-70's latin-lover endgame into bombastic mediocrity. This is Barbieri in that sweet spot, his classic early/mid-70's prime as bandleader, blending spiritual and passionate modal jazz with experiments into Latin folk tradition and cinematic romanticism. Under Fire finds him blowing his trademark pink-hot, sweaty fire-music sound with Lonnie Liston Smith at his side making cool breezes on piano and Airto Moreira on percussion (Moreira being most famous for his work on Bitches Brew-- further proof of his genius in this thrilling video).
This record is very much in line with others of the time, especially those I've shared here (Latin America Chapter One and Bolivia certainly come to mind, particularly the latter). Evocative and smoldering, with deep grooves; studious use of South American popular music elements, in this case with a soft focus on Brazil; experimental and restless without getting too far out into free-blowing brain-splitting material (which might be said of the same year's howling Fenix, which gets pretty bonkers, admittedly to considerable rewards). This LP stands with the best of Barbieri's work in terms of quality and consistently sublime mood, even if it doesn't have a track as transcendent as Bolivia's "Bolivia" or the majority of Latin America-- or the stunningly unique vitality of either of those records, honestly. Still, it's basically a minor masterpiece, a slow-creeping and near-perfect set.

Flash Strap

Bolivia/Under Fire album for sale by Gato Barbieri was released Oct 07, 2003 on the Bluebird RCA label. .2 LPs on 1 CD: BOLIVIA (1973)/UNDER FIRE (1971).
Recorded in New York, New York in 1971 & 1973. Bolivia/Under Fire buy CD music Originally released on Flying Dutchman. Bolivia/Under Fire songs Includes liner notes by Donald Elfman, Nat Hentoff and Robert Palmer. Bolivia/Under Fire CD music contains a single disc with 10 songs.
This double CD release is a prime example of early-1970s jazz fusion, with the flautist-saxophonist Gato Barbieri joined by many of the genre's leading figures, including the drummer Bernard Purdie, the bassist Stanley Clarke, and the pianist Lonnie Liston Smith, on a set dripping with as much tropical atmosphere as a Gauguin painting. Bolivia/Under Fire CD music Smith's keyboards provide much of the tonal coloring here, though the untethered emotion of Barbieri's keening saxophone is the obvious focus of both these albums.

CD Universe

El Gato fue, y sigue siendo, uno de los músicos argentinos alineado al Jazz más trascendental de nuestra historia, al igual que Schifrin, Piazzolla o Saluzzi. Su talento y su sonido inconfundible rápidamente lo hicieron sobresalir, y fue nada menos que uno de los pioneros y forjadores de la vanguardia en el Jazz quién le diera un lugar en la escena y que luego derivaría en el primer Free Jazz.