Eduardo Gutiérrez del Barrio, known professionally as Eddie del Barrio, is an Argentinian composer, arranger, songwriter, and pianist. He is a founding member of the

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

band

Caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

. He has collaborated with Earth, Wind & Fire,

Stan Getz Stanley Getz (February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of ...

, Herb Alpert, and Dianne Reeves.

Early life

Eduardo del Barrio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1937. In 1942 his family moved to Mendoza, where his father started a music school. Del Barrio is a classically trained pianist. At seventeen he led a jazz band, playing in clubs. In 1965 he moved to the United States. His brother Jorge del Barrio was classically trained and moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as an arranger.

Career

Eduardo del Barrio and Jorge Strunz of Costa Rica were the founding members of

, a

group. Caldera was composed of Del Barrio on keyboards, Strunz on guitar, Dean Cortez on bass and Steve Tavaglione on saxophone, Cuban drummer Carlos Vega, and Brazilian percussionist Mike Azevedo. In 1976

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

signed the band and released the debut album ''

''. Del Barrio co-produced the albums '' Sky Islands'', '' Time and Chance'', and '' Dreamer''. Larry Dunn of Earth, Wind & Fire, co-produced Sky Islands. Caldera's song "Out of the Blue" reached position 95 on the

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Soul Singles

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

on January 22, 1977. "Time and Chance" reached position 46 on the Billboard Best Selling Jazz LPs chart in October 1978. "Ancient Source" was sampled by American rapper Joey Badass on his song "95 Til' Infinity". Del Barrio composed " Fantasy", "Runnin' ", "

Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

", "Sailaway", "Sparkle", "Straight from the Heart" and "Miracles" for Earth, Wind & Fire. "Runnin'" was re-recorded by American jazz musician Marcus Miller with additional music and lyrics under the title "Keep 'Em Runnin". "Fantasy" received a nomination for Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. "Runnin" won a Grammy award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance. Del Barrio collaborated with Dianne Reeves during the recording sessions for Caldera's album ''Sky Islands'' when she sang on the song "Ancient Source". Reeves sang a version of "Ancient Source" on her album ''The Nearness of You''. Del Barrio was a composer on her albums '' Dianne Reeves'' and ''Bridges'' and produced her album ''Art and Survival''. During 2005, the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

commissioned Del Barrio to compose a

symphonic jazz A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning co ...

mass. "Misa Justa" was written for an orchestra, large choir, five jazz soloists, bass, and drums. Dianne Reeves,Billy Childs, Hubert Laws,Pal McCandless and Terence Blanchard made guest appearances at the concert, which premiered at the

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Ave ...

. Del Barrio began his collaboration with Herb Alpert by composing four songs for his 1988 album ''Under a Spanish Moon''. He composed and played on Alpert's ''

North on South St. ''North on South St.'' is a hip-hop influenced album by Herb Alpert released in 1991 and his last vinyl release on A&M Records before he released ''Midnight Sun'' (available on CD and cassette only) in 1992. The album was a commercial success an ...

'' and worked as an orchestrator on Alpert's album '' Midnight Sun''. Del Barrio then arranged, orchestrated, and played keyboards on Alpert's album ''Steppin' Out''.''Steppin' Out'' won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album in 2013. Herb Alpert signed Del Barrio to A&M, were he recorded his album ''Free Play''. Del Barrio worked as a composer, orchestrator, and keyboard player on

's album ''Apasionado''. The album received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Jazz Fusion Performance.

Awards and honors

* Grammy Award nomination, Best R&B Song, " Fantasy" by Earth, Wind & Fire, 1978

Discography

* ''Free Play'' (A&M, 1991)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Del Barrio, Eddie 1937 births Argentine composers Argentine jazz pianists Living people