Gabor Szabo

Two very groovy records - back to back on a single CD! Gypsy 66 is one of Gabor Szabo's best records - a hip small combo session, featuring backup by Gary McFarland, Sadao Watanabe, Richard Davis, and Willie Rodriguez - an odd kind of lineup, but one that goes well with the offbeat grooves of the set! The overall sound has lots of touches of the McFarland Latinized rhythms of the time - but also stretches out with some of those great snakey guitar solos from Szabo - not nearly as extended or trippy here on other albums of the time, but in a really great way that makes for some tight, hip, mod little tracks!…

In the late '60s, many jazz artists were ignoring the rock and soul hits of the day – when called upon to interpret popular songs, they stuck to their favorite Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and Irving Berlin standards and didn't see Beatles or Marvin Gaye hits as vehicles for jazz improvisation. But there were some jazz artists who didn't feel that way; Grant Green, Herbie Mann, and Charles Earland – just to give three examples – saw no reason why rock and soul tunes couldn't receive instrumental jazz makeovers. And on 1969, Gazor Szabo puts a jazz spin on popular songs of the 1960s, including "Walk Away Renee" (a major hit for the Left Banke), the Beatles' "In My Life," and Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now".

Hungarian born guitarist and composer Gabor Szabo recorded eight records for Impulse between 1966 and 1968. Some of those albums, such as Jazz Raga and Spellbinder are masterpieces, while others, like Simpatico (with Gary McFarland) and Light My Fire (with Bob Thiele) are embarrassing exercises in self-indulgence. The pair of recordings issued on this Impulse two-fer were always meant to be together, though they were released separately; they are closer to the former category than the latter. The Sorcerer and More Sorcery contain live performances of two of Szabo's greatest quintets in concert settings: Jimmy Stewart on guitar, Lajos "Louis" Kabok on bass, either Marty Morell or Bill Goodwin on drums, and Hal Gordon on percussion…

Jazz Raga, recorded in August of 1966, and released in early 1967, is Hungarian jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo's third album for Impulse!, and his most exotic and mysterious. Szabo not only played guitar on the live-to-two-track sessions, he also overdubbed sitar on nine of the album's eleven cuts…

Released just six months after Gypsy '66, Gabor Szabo's second album as a leader (after leaving a sublime Chico Hamilton band that also included Charles Lloyd) remains one of his finest moments in the studio. Szabo utilized the tales of bassist Ron Carter and his old boss Hamilton on drums, as well as a pair of fine Latin percussionists – Willie Bobo and Victor Pantoja…

Moving over to the CTI label with Creed Taylor, Paul Desmond injects a bit of the 1970s into his sound, obtaining agreeable if not totally simpatico results. Here, the cool altoist is teamed with the progressive-slanted drumming of Jack DeJohnette (who might have been too busy a drummer for his taste), and Bob James' electric and acoustic pianos, with Ron Carter as the bass anchor, Gene Bertoncini on rhythm guitar, and, most interestingly, another individualist, Gabor Szabo, on solo electric guitar…

Gabor Szabo's quintet featuring Jimmy Stewart was one of the guitarist's very best units. Live performances like this, recorded at Boston's Jazz Workshop, document some of the excitement the group stirred in 1967-1968…