By this point in the brief, decade-long career of Gary McFarland (1933-71), the gifted composer and arranger easily balanced light and breezy (even poppy) music with the serious and somber (quasi-classical, or what was then called the Third Stream). As the title of this record more than suggests, The October Suite is considerably more of…
Gary McFarland & Co./Clark Terry – “Tijuana Jazz” (1966)
Composer and arranger Gary McFarland (1933-71) and the legendary trumpeter and once-featured soloist in the Duke Ellington band, Clark Terry (1920-2015) get together and head “south of the border” for an especially tasty slice of Tijuana Jazz. This aptly-named record was clearly aimed at jumping aboard the runaway train that was Herb Alpert and the…
The Gary McFarland Sextet – “Point of Departure” (1963)
This effervescent disc was the first of several Impulse records waxed by the hugely underrated vibraphonist, composer and arranger Gary McFarland (1933-71). McFarland convened a remarkable sextet here, featuring the sadly ill-fated Willie Dennis (who dominates here) on trombone, Richie Kamuca (who, like both McFarland and Dennis, also died at a terribly young age) on…
Gary McFarland – “Soft Samba Strings” + Zoot Sims – “Waiting Game” (1967)
These two albums pair perfectly, as they were conceived and recorded while Gary McFarland (1933-71) was working on the troubled film production of “13” – which ended up being called “Eye of the Devil” when it was released a full year later. The film, which stars David Niven, Deborah Kerr, David Hemmings and the ill-fated…
Gabor Szabo – “Spellbinder” at 60
Spellbinder (1966) is Gabor Szabo’s (1936-82) “breakout” album and remains, six decades later, one of the Hungarian guitarist’s very best in a slim discography that numbers only about a dozen-and-a-half studio recordings. Recorded in May 1966 and released in October of that year, Spellbinder is the second album the guitarist Gabor recorded, but his third…
Gabor Szabo – “Jazz Raga” (2025 Vampisoul Vinyl Reissue)
Since 2003, the Spanish Vampisoul label has released a terrifically eclectic bunch of discs that range from Latin soul, Afrobeat, lounge rock and Brazilian groove to psyche rock, jazz, Indian groove and funk. In reissuing Hungarian guitarist’s Gabor Szabo 1967 masterpiece Jazz Raga, they may have hit on no less than four of those genre…