Search - Gato Barbieri :: Chapter Three: Viva Emiliano Zapata - Originals

Mistergato

David M. Doyle | El Monte, CA USA | 01/20/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wake up and smell the coffee.This is the REAL Gato Barbieri at his best in his best day.Anyone who wants to hear this musical GENIUS at his best need only cue up "ZAPATA".His tone rivals Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders his brothers in arms.Shows you what the man can really do with great material and great musicians.With the exception of "Europa",this material is no comparision to the thin veneered,commercial crud the man has been advised,cadjoled,conned into playing today. Hey,don't get me wrong,,,I still luv the guy.Even after a major heart surgery,,,The Gato still kicks major booty.Go see him live in your lifetime,,,Yes,GO SEEM HIM LIVE!!!You will never forget it.Wail on Gato."

Gato in rare big band setting and at his smokin' best

Lois Roe | Neptune, NJ United States | 08/30/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Apart from Gato's Two Pictures: 1965-68 recording of Piero Umiliani soundtracks, Chapter Three: Viva Emiliano Zapata is the only album I know of where Gato played in a big band as a leader. And it's a smokin' big band album at that. Like many Latin Jazz albums, this release is intensely rhythmic and percussive. Latin Jazz does not emphasize solos the way other styles of Jazz do; as Gato himself once explained in an interview, when solos happen, they tend to happen at the same time the rest of the band is playing. Notice that Gato himself does not take the kind of solos in which everyone else stops. Nevertheless, Gato's special brand of combined fire and lyricism comes through loud and clear. This album will definitely make you want to dance, but it is no salsa album. Even the ballad Cuando Vuelva a Tu Lado (What a Difference a Day Makes) is intense in its beauty. And Chico O'Farrill's arrangements are superb. If you love Gato's passsion but aren't not quite ready to experience Gato in the full fury of his free jazz/semi-free jazz recordings of the late 60's and early 70's, try this. It's a really wonderful album and one that you're not likely to find in a used CD bin. I can't think of a better endorsement than that!"

The musical equivalent of Liberation Theology.

DJ Rix | NJ USA | 01/18/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"El Gato arrived in the United States as a screamin' disciple of John Coltrane. His early recordings with Don Cherry, Carla Bley & The Liberation Music Orchestra are free & committed to the musical equivalent of Liberation Theology. That spiritual quest took The Cat back to South America for several collaborations on the themes of political & romantic revolution via music. This & the two preceding LPs are probably the peak of Barbieri's art, as he weaves, yells & moans like an Argentine cat in heat. Never a particularly generous bandleader, the other musicians have to get their two cents in where they can. But here Gato holds his place under the spotlight.

Barbieri apparently became weary of this kind of preaching, so when Herb Alpert finally appeared waving bags of catnip, Gato leaped.

Bob Rixon, WFMU"