Leandro "Gato" Barbieri (November 28, 1932 – April 2, 2016) was an Argentine
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
tenor saxophonist who rose to fame during the
free jazz
Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...
movement in the 1960s and is known for his
Latin jazz
Latin jazz is a genre of jazz with Latin American rhythms. The two main categories are Afro-Cuban jazz, rhythmically based on Cuban popular dance music, with a rhythm section employing ostinato patterns or a clave (rhythm), clave, and Afro-Brazil ...
recordings of the 1970s.
His nickname, Gato, is Spanish for "cat".
Biography
Born to a family of musicians, Barbieri began playing music after hearing
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz Saxophone, saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of beb ...
's "Now's the Time". He played the
clarinet
The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell.
Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...
and later the
alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...
while performing with Argentine pianist
Lalo Schifrin
Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Music of Latin America, Lati ...
in the late 1950s. By the early 1960s, while playing in Rome, he also worked with the trumpeter
Don Cherry. By now influenced by
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...
's late recordings, as well as those from other
free jazz
Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...
saxophonists such as
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler (; July 13, 1936 – November 25, 1970) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer.
After early experience playing rhythm and blues and bebop, Ayler began recording music during the free jazz era of the 1960s. Ho ...
and
Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", San ...
, he began to develop the warm and gritty tone with which he is associated. In the late 1960s, he was fusing music from South America into his playing and contributed to multi-artist projects like
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than fifty years. Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playin ...
's ''
Liberation Music Orchestra'' and
Carla Bley
Carla Bley (born Lovella May Borg; May 11, 1936 – October 17, 2023) was an American jazz composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she gained acclaim for her jazz opera ''Escalator ...
's ''
Escalator over the Hill
''Escalator over the Hill'' (or ''EOTH'') is mostly referred to as a jazz opera, but it was released as a "chronotransduction", with "words by Paul Haines (poet), Paul Haines, adaptation and music by Carla Bley, production and coordination by Mic ...
''. His score for
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci ( ; ; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved inte ...
's 1972 film ''
Last Tango in Paris
''Last Tango in Paris'' (; ) is a 1972 Erotic film, erotic Drama (film and television), drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The film stars Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider (actor), Maria Schneider and Jean-Pierre Léaud, and portrays a rec ...
'' earned him a
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
and led to a record deal with
Impulse! Records
Impulse! Records (occasionally styled as "¡mpulse! Records" and "¡!") is an American jazz record label established by Creed Taylor in 1960. John Coltrane was among Impulse!'s earliest signings. Thanks to consistent sales and positive critiques ...
.
By the mid-1970s, he was recording for
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...
and moved his music towards soul-jazz and jazz-pop. ''Caliente!'' (1976) included his best-known song, a rendition of
Carlos Santana
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he r ...
's "
Europa". ''Caliente!'' and his follow-up album, ''Ruby Ruby'' (1977) were both produced by fellow musician and label co-founder,
Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter, pianist, singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger, conductor, painter, sculptor and theatre producer, who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass (sometimes called "Herb Alpe ...
.
Although he continued to record and perform well into the 1980s, including composing the scores to films such as ''
Firepower'' (1979) and ''
Strangers Kiss'' (1983), the death of his wife Michelle led him to withdraw from the public arena. He returned to recording and performing in the late 1990s, composing original scores at the behest of friend
Bahman Maghsoudlou for
Amir Naderi's ''Manhattan by Numbers'' (1991) and
Daryush Shokof's ''
Seven Servants'' (1996). The album ''Qué Pasa'' (1997) moved more into the style of
smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is commercially oriented crossover jazz music. Although often described as a "genre", it is a debatable and highly controversial subject in jazz music circles. As a radio format, however, smooth jazz radio became the successor to e ...
.
Barbieri was the inspiration for the character Zoot in the fictional Muppet band
Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.
On April 2, 2016, Barbieri died of
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
in New York City at the age of 83.
Personal life
Barbieri married his first wife Michelle in 1960. She was also his manager and musical confidant. She died of cancer in 1995 after 10 years of treatment. During that time, Barbieri stopped recording and touring to care for her. After her death, he resumed his career. He then met his second wife, Laura, who gave birth to their son Christian, in 1998.
Discography
As leader
* ''
In Search of the Mystery'' (ESP Disk, 1967)
* ''Obsession'' (Affinity, 1967,
978
* ''Confluence'' (Freedom, 1968) with
Dollar Brand
Abdullah Ibrahim (born Adolph Johannes Brand on 9 October 1934), previously known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cap ...
– also released as ''Hamba Khale!'' (1974) and ''I Grandi del Jazz'' (1976)
* ''
The Third World'' (Flying Dutchman, 1969)
* ''
Fenix'' (Flying Dutchman, 1971)
* ''
El Pampero'' (Flying Dutchman, 1971)
* ''
Under Fire'' (Flying Dutchman, 1971
973
* ''
Last Tango in Paris
''Last Tango in Paris'' (; ) is a 1972 Erotic film, erotic Drama (film and television), drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The film stars Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider (actor), Maria Schneider and Jean-Pierre Léaud, and portrays a rec ...
'' (United Artists, 1972)
* ''
Bolivia
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
'' (Flying Dutchman, 1973)
* ''
Chapter One: Latin America'' (Impulse!, 1973)
* ''
Chapter Two: Hasta Siempre'' (Impulse!, 1973)
* ''
Chapter Three: Viva Emiliano Zapata'' (Impulse!, 1974)
* ''
Yesterdays'' (Flying Dutchman, 1974)
* ''
Chapter Four: Alive in New York'' (Impulse!, 1975)
* ''El Gato'' (Flying Dutchman, 1975 compilation) includes 1 previously unreleased track
* ''Caliente!'' (A&M, 1976)
* ''I Grandi del Jazz'' (1976) (Previously released as Confluence and Hamba Khale!)
* ''Ruby Ruby'' (A&M, 1977)
* ''Tropico'' (A&M, 1978)
* ''Euphoria'' (A&M, 1979)
* ''Bahia'' (1982)
* ''Apasionado'' (1983)
* ''Para Los Amigos'' (Doctor Jazz, 1984)
* ''Passion And Fire'' (1988)
* ''The Third World Revisited'' (1988 compilation)
* ''
Seven Servants'' (1996)
* ''
Qué Pasa'' (Columbia, 1997)
* ''Che Corazón'' (Columbia, 1999)
* ''The Shadow of The Cat'' (2002)
* ''New York Meeting'' (2010)
As sideman
With
Don Cherry
* ''
Togetherness'' (Durium, 1965)
* ''
Complete Communion'' (Blue Note, 1966)
* ''
Live at Cafe Montmartre 1966'' (3 volumes) (ESP-Disk, 1966)
* ''
Symphony for Improvisers'' (Blue Note, 1966)
With
Gary Burton
Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz Vibraphone, vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused ...
*''
A Genuine Tong Funeral'' (RCA, 1967)
With the
Jazz Composer's Orchestra
* ''
The Jazz Composer's Orchestra'' (1968)
With
Alan Shorter
* ''
Orgasm
Orgasm (from Greek , ; "excitement, swelling"), sexual climax, or simply climax, is the sudden release of accumulated sexual excitement during the sexual response cycle, characterized by intense sexual pleasure resulting in rhythmic, involu ...
'' (Verve, 1968)
With
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than fifty years. Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playin ...
* ''
Liberation Music Orchestra'' (Impulse!, 1969)
With
Carla Bley
Carla Bley (born Lovella May Borg; May 11, 1936 – October 17, 2023) was an American jazz composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she gained acclaim for her jazz opera ''Escalator ...
and
Paul Haines
* ''
Escalator Over The Hill
''Escalator over the Hill'' (or ''EOTH'') is mostly referred to as a jazz opera, but it was released as a "chronotransduction", with "words by Paul Haines (poet), Paul Haines, adaptation and music by Carla Bley, production and coordination by Mic ...
'' (JCOA, 1971)
* ''
Tropic Appetites'' (Watt, 1974)
With
Oliver Nelson
Oliver Edward Nelson (June 4, 1932 – October 28, 1975) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. His 1961 Impulse! album '' The Blues and the Abstract Truth'' (1961) is regarded as one of the most signi ...
*''
Swiss Suite'' (Flying Dutchman, 1971)
With
Antonello Venditti
Antonio "Antonello" Venditti (born 8 March 1949) is an Italian singer-songwriter and pianist who became popular in the 1970s for the social themes addressed in his songs.
Biography
Antonello Venditti was born in Rome, the son of Vincenzino Ita ...
* ''Da Sansiro A Samarcanda (1992)
With
Letizia Gambi
* ''Introducing Letizia Gambi'' (Via Veneto Jazz, 2012)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbieri, Gato
1932 births
2016 deaths
Argentine composers
Argentine film score composers
Argentine male film score composers
Latin jazz saxophonists
Argentine jazz tenor saxophonists
Male saxophonists
Flying Dutchman Records artists
Impulse! Records artists
Musicians from Rosario, Santa Fe
Free jazz saxophonists
ESP-Disk artists
Smooth jazz saxophonists
Argentine people of Italian descent
Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Deaths from pneumonia in New York City
Male jazz musicians
20th-century saxophonists
Jazz Composer's Orchestra members