Gabor Szabo (1936 Budapest - 1982 ~), the jazz guitarist comes from Hungary. It's good to feel that his name is as big in jazz as many more American musicians' name.
Now I chose Spellbinder, this attractive album by him for these early-autumn days. Shortly, to sum up this album, I would say: well-known songs translated to a new, light musical language sealed by Szabo's personal style. It seems that he's fond of the Sinatra family and standards, because of the familiar tracklist:
02. Witchcraft
03. It was a very good year
04. Gypsy queen
05. Bang bang (My baby shot me down)
06. Cheetah
07. My foolish heart
08. Yearning
09. Autumn leaves / Speak to me of love
In a conversation concerning this album, Gabor added: "I never intend to sit down and play music that's bad or commercial; but on the other hand, I do not intend to stop playing tunes I like - wherever they come from - just to fit in with whatever is 'avant-garde' and 'in' that moment. These are all songs to which I'm attracted, and so long as the results are aesthetically satisfying to me, I don't care whether some rule maker thinks they're not 'proper' to jazz. After all, music is - or should be - self expression."
His guitar voice is unique and friendly, and compatible with a wide range of moods. I use the word friendly, because there are some kinds of music which you hear and think it's nice, it comes from the heart, and totally honest. You feel it friendly. And, to see the compatibility, just listen to the nice sounds of Witchcraft, and after that, the more serious and deeper It was a very good year. If you listen carefully (for ex. at 1:54), you'll hear cool and technical slides in the guitar melody. Unfortunately it's very short, but also very expressive, with its new rhythm by Chico Hamilton's drums and Ron Carter's bass. I also recommend to you Frank Sinatra's version of it, where you can hear the effective lyrics, and strings which almost cry. Later, in Bang bang there's an additive acoustic guitar solo in the melody. They emphasized the "bang-bang" part with the cool rhythm and volume differences, which made an attractive result. Here, we hear Szabo singing, too. His singing voice is clear and simple, perfectly matching to the melody, and there's a little accent in it, or something else, which makes it unique. We can also hear his easy-flowing vocals in that kind later song, Yearning. And in the end, he plays Autumn leaves and Speak to me of love together, as he used to do. This version of Autumn leaves is a good example about how to express something only with one instrument.
It was a very good year:
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