Gabor Szabo – Galatea’s Guitar
Gabor Szabo – Fire Dance
Gabor Szabo – Lady In The Moon
Of the many records I sold back in 2004, this is the one that has haunted me the most. I can’t remember now where I first bought this, likely at the Atlanta Record Show, but I’m not totally sure. I had started digging on the music of Gabor Szabo back when I still bought CDs and I was getting deeper into jazz. I was working through the Impulse catalog and I got a copy of his album Sorcerer, recorded live in 1967 at the Jazz Workshop. I was particularly entranced by Szabo’s measured use of feedback, a rare thing for a jazz guitarist, but Szabo was so much more than “just” a jazz guitarist. Of all of the albums I’ve heard of his (and at one time I owned 11 albums from Szabo) Dreams remains my favorite. When I ran into this copy at the December Beat Swap Meet, I just had to pause for a moment and breeze a deep sigh of relief.
“Galatea’s Guitar” leads off the album and it showcases everything that was beautiful about the way Szabo played and the way he was able to deftly mix together multiple genres into a unique mix. For me, it’s the single best thing he ever recorded and one of my all-time favorite compositions. Every single thing about the song is beautiful, every single thing. It sounds like nothing else under the sun and it transports you away from everything that is going on around you into a pure state of bliss. Some of the other tracks on the album are a bit hit and miss, with pop elements sometimes featuring too prominently, but when the band hits their stride, as they do on “Galatea,” “Firedance” and “Lady In The Moon,” it is something glorious to hear. Truly beautiful and so glad that I ran into this record, seemingly right when I needed this music in my life most.
Cheers,
Michael