Gato Barbieri - Last Tango In Paris (1973)

A este disco lo traigo porque lo hizo el Gato y porque es un clásico pero realmente no es de mi gusto (no puedo mentirles) y ni lo puedo terminar de escuchar. Pero como siempre digo, no importa lo que a uno le guste o no, lo importante es que se la reconoce como buena música y que luego cada uno vea si le gusta o no.

Artista: Gato Barbieri

Álbum: Last Tango In Paris
Año: 1973
Género: Latin jazz
Duración: 62:03
Nacionalidad: Argentina

Lista de Temas:
01. Last Tango In Paris - Tango
02. Jeanne
03. Girl In Black - Tango (Para Mi Negra)
04. Last Tango In Paris - Ballad
05. Fake Ophelia
06. Picture In The Rain
07. Return - Tango (La Vuelta)
08. It's Over
09. Goodbye (Un Largo Adios)
10. Why Did She Choose You?
11. Last Tango In Paris - Jazz Waltz
12-40. Last Tango In Paris Suite

Alineación:
Original Soundtrack from Bernardo Bertolucci's movie.
- Oliver Nelson / Arranged
– Gato Barbieri / Composed By, Saxophone [Solo]
Music By Gato Barbieri And His Orchestra

El sonido del saxo del Gato es tan brillante y tan finamente ejecutado que es como si te llevará en un viaje en montaña rusa musical emocional. No resulta difícil identificar su saxo, siempre con notas largas y desgarradas que quizá tengan su origen en aquel estilo basado en música Argentina donde no sólo tocaba jazz sino que en las primeras actuaciones los grupos y solistas debían de incluir repertorio nacional en sus actuaciones (tangos, boleros, carnavalitos, chacareras, o lo que sea, pero que sea de por acá cerca).
Y de ahí llegó a esto:

El Gato buscó siempre su propio sonido. Admiró a Parker, a John Coltrane, a Sonny Rollins y a muchos otros saxofonistas, pero él sabía que no tenía que hacer lo mismo que ellos, que tenía que buscar su propia identidad, su propia sonoridad y la encontró. El disco a mi no me gusta pero lo que suena suena al Gato Barbieri. Un sonido y un fraseo inconfundibles y una música llena de melodía y a la vez impregnada de ese apasionamiento latino que siempre seduce. Es que al free jazz el Gsto siempre le incorporó elementos musicales y políticos latinoamericanos y esa fue parte de su grandeza.

Yesterdays is an album by Argentinian jazz composer and saxophonist Gato Barbieri featuring performances recorded in New York in 1974 and first released on the Flying Dutchman label.[1] The album was rereleased in 1988 as The Third World Revisited with two additional tracks from El Pampero.

Wikipedia

"Yesterdays", el tema que da nombre al disco, es un tema compuesto en 1933 por Jerome Kern . Un tema que se ha convertido en uno de los estándares de jazz y que Coleman Hawkins, considerado como el padre del saxo tenor en el jazz y el primero que lo convirtió en instrumento solista, decidió incorporarlo a su repertorio. Después del gran Hawkins pocos saxofonistas se han atrevido a tocarlo y uno de esos pocos ha sido Gato Barbieri, quien a lo largo de su carrera se dedica a asumir riesgos, y ese es uno de sus aspectos distintivos. Y como buen Gato, siempre cayó parado.

Leo en la Guía universal del jazz moderno que para buscar un sonido reconociblemente latino el Gato llama, para esta grabación, a su compatriota Jorge Dalto para que se encargue del piano, pero entre los músicos participantes de las sesiones decisivas que decantarían en este disco se encontraban Cherlie Haden, Beaver Harris, Ron Carter, John Abercrombie, Stanley Clarke, Aireto Moreira, Nana Vasconcelos y varias luminarias más. Seguramente, a raíz de su aproximación cada vez más fluida a ritmos y melodías latinoamericanas y especialmente argentinas, es por lo que fue llamado a hacerse cargo de la música de "El último tango en París", filme de Bertolucci de 1972, pero eso ya es otra historia.
Ahora estamos con éste disquito, y como tengo bastantes cosas del Gato, trataré de dejarles un disquito por día, al menos por esta semana.

Although some of the smoky sax solos get a little uncomfortably close to 1970s fusion cliché, Gato Barbieri's score to Bertolucci's 1972 classic is an overall triumph. Suspenseful jazz, melancholy orchestration, and actual tangos fit the film's air of erotic longing, melancholy despair, and doomed fate. "Last Tango in Paris" is a particular standout, its orgiastic, wordless vocal yelps reflecting, whether by design or not, the actual content of the movie. The 1998 CD reissue is by no means just a substitute for the old vinyl; it more than doubles the length of the original release with a "Last Tango in Paris Suite," put together by Barbieri himself from 29 cues from the original score as used in the film.

Richie Unterberger

Although some of the smoky sax solos get a little uncomfortably close to 1970s fusion cliché, Gato Barbieri's score to Bertolucci's 1972 classic is an overall triumph. Suspenseful jazz, melancholy orchestration, and actual tangos fit the film's air of erotic longing, melancholy despair, and doomed fate. "Last Tango in Paris" is a particular standout, its orgiastic, wordless vocal yelps reflecting, whether by design or not, the actual content of the movie. The 1998 CD reissue is by no means just a substitute for the old vinyl; it more than doubles the length of the original release with a "Last Tango in Paris Suite," put together by Barbieri himself from 29 cues from the original score as used in the film.
This is a brilliant revision of the original soundtrack of the movie score from the 1970s. Gato Barbieri went back into the studio as a much older man, deeply affected by the death of his beloved wife, and immersed himself in this project which proved restorative for him. And we benefit immeasurably hearing the fresh sounds of his unique saxophone, searing, untrammeled, boundless. The beauty
of his playing is never conventional but always illuminating. And there is a striking bonus. Gato also composed and performs a Suite
based on themes from the soundtrack. This music is redolent of Paris, the city's magic, mystery and wonder are Gato's gift to us. This is Paris as romantics everywhere feel it and experience it. The film itself is a tragic story of a man's life winding down, his death wish accelerating it; and the naive young woman who becomes not his lover in an apocalyptic love affair, although for a time she believes it, but rather his accomplice in his death. I know that view of the film sounds harsh, but it's accurate. The music of the Suite presents a very different Paris and suggests a more romantic love story.

Zen Archer

Leandro "Gato" Barbieri, the influential Latin jazz bandleader and saxophonist best known for his Grammy-winning score to the film Last Tango in Paris, died Saturday at a New York hospital following a bout with pneumonia. He was 83. Barbieri's wife Laura confirmed her husband's death to The Associated Press, adding that he also recently underwent bypass surgery to remove a blood clot.
"Music was a mystery to Gato, and each time he played was a new experience for him, and he wanted it to be that way for his audience. He was honored for all the years he had a chance to bring his music all around the world," Laura Barbieri said. In 2015, Barbieri was awarded a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his musical contributions.
Born in Argentina in 1932, Barbieri broke into the American jazz world as part of fellow Argentine Lalo Schifrin's orchestra before immersing himself in the free jazz movement pioneered by Ornette Coleman; in the late Sixties, Barbieri worked primarily in the quartet led by trumpeter Don Cherry, another Coleman disciple.
In the Seventies, Barbieri shifted his sound toward the Latin jazz previously mined by Charlie Parker, the jazz great who first inspired Barbieri to learn his instrument, as well as the native music of his South American roots. That blending of styles led director Bernardo Bertolucci to recruit Barbieri to compose the score for his controversial 1972 film Last Tango in Paris.
"Always in the tango is tragedy — she leaves him, she kills him. It's like an opera but it's called tango," Barbieri said in 1997 of his score. "The lyrics and the melodies are very beautiful. It's very sensual." The Last Tango in Paris soundtrack scored Barbieri a Grammy win for Best Instrumental Composition and made the saxophonist a star on the jazz circuit.
After recording prolifically throughout the Seventies, Barbieri's output slowed immensely following a dispute with his record label, which forced the saxophonist to tour more frequently. He didn't release any albums between 1988 to 1997, only ending his hiatus with 1997's Que Pasa, which he recorded while dealing with the death of his then-wife of 35 years. Barbieri's final LP was 2010's New York Meeting, which featured covers of Miles Davis' "So What" and Thelonious Monk's "Straight, No Chaser."
In addition to his work as a bandleader, Barbieri also worked alongside artists like Herb Alpert, Charlie Haden, Carla Bley, Alan Shorter, Ennio Morricone, Santana, the Jazz Composer's Orchestra, Oliver Nelson (who also arranged the Last Tango in Paris soundtrack), Leon Ware and more.

Daniel Kreps

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