{"id":44679,"date":"2016-04-05T11:04:54","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T18:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=44679"},"modified":"2024-06-22T10:17:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-22T17:17:05","slug":"r-i-p-gato-barbieri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2016\/r-i-p-gato-barbieri\/","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P. Gato Barbieri"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gato-ws\"<\/a>A couple of days ago, when I read that Gato Barbieri passed away on Saturday, I couldn’t immediately write this article about his him. If I wrote that he had died, then this somehow would make it real in my mind, and I could no longer go on and deny it. Yes, Gato Barbieri had that kind of profound effect on me as a saxophone player.<\/p>\n

Back when I was just starting out on saxophone, I somehow ended up buying Barbieri’s Caliente!<\/em> album. When I heard his tone, his altissimo, and the vocal effects he did through his horn, all I wanted to be able to do was play like him.<\/p>\n

Fast forward a few decades, when I played with Cesar Morales y Sabor Latino<\/em><\/a>, there were lots of times my hundreds of hours of Gato listening came out in my playing. Yes, to this day I still use those vocal effects, the heavy growl, and of course the altissimo range a lot in my solo work.<\/p>\n

[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]\u2018What do you play?\u2019 I say, \u2018I play my music \u2014 Gato Barbieri.\u2019\u201d[\/perfectpullquote]<\/p>\n

As of Saturday however, Gato’s saxophone was forever silenced as he passed away from pneumonia at the age of 83. He leaves behind a musical legacy that other artists can only dream of.<\/p>\n

In his 60+ years in the music industry, Barbieri recorded dozens of albums, won a Grammy for his musical score for the 1972 film Last Tango in Paris<\/em>, and just last year received a lifetime achievement Grammy from the Latin Recording Academy. And during his nearly seven decade-long career, Gato never stopped performing. His last  public performance was last November 23, at New York’s Blue Note, where he appeared monthly.<\/p>\n

As popular as he was with the public, Gato never seemed to get the kind attention in the saxophone world that other greats do. I have often wondered why that is. I suspect it has to do with is playing style.<\/p>\n

Gato, although a great technical player, since the 1970s chose a melodic type of Latin jazz music as his musical style. This sensual, melodic style, seems to not appeal to the great masses of saxophone players. As a general rule, they seem to be more impressed with how many notes you can cram into a bar, than they are with how you can make a single note sound melodic, sensual, or climactic as it leads to the next. That to me is a shame, because IMHO, they are missing out on a huge element of what makes music both interesting, as well as appealing.<\/p>\n

According to a 2006 interview, this is how Gato Barbieri thought of the music he played after his style-shift post Last Tango<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn those days,\u201d he said, referring to the 1970s, \u201cthe jazz people they don\u2019t consider me a jazz musician. If I am Latin, they don\u2019t consider me Latin. So I am here in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good thing,\u201d he added. \u201cYou know why? Because they say, \u2018What do you play?\u2019 I say, \u2018I play my music \u2014 Gato Barbieri.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Gato Barbieri, Latin Jazz Trailblazer With a Saxophone, Is Dead at 83<\/a>, NY Times, April 2, 2016 <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are lots of videos on YouTube that illustrate Gato’s amazing work as a saxophonist. Picking just one was difficult, so I opted for this one from 1973…<\/p>\n