AQUEL HUMOR DE PIBE DE BARRIO.GATO BARBIERI, LATIN JAZZ GREAT AND 'LAST TANGO IN PARIS' COMPOSER, DEAD AT 83

Grammy-winning saxophonist dies following bout with pneumonia

BY DANIEL KREPS 

Gato Barbieri, the influential Latin jazz bandleader and saxophonist best known for his to 'Last Tango in Paris,' passed away at the age of 83. 

Waring Abbott/Michael Ochs Archives

Leandro "Gato" Barbieri, the influential Latin jazz bandleader and saxophonist best known for his Grammy-winning score to the film Last Tango in Paris, died Saturday at a New York hospital following a bout with pneumonia. He was 83. Barbieri's wife Laura confirmed her husband's death to The Associated Press, adding that he also recently underwent bypass surgery to remove a blood clot.

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"Music was a mystery to Gato, and each time he played was a new experience for him, and he wanted it to be that way for his audience. He was honored for all the years he had a chance to bring his music all around the world," Laura Barbieri said. In 2015, Barbieri was awarded a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his musical contributions.

Born in Argentina in 1932, Barbieri broke into the American jazz world as part of fellow Argentine Lalo Schifrin's orchestra before immersing himself in the free jazz movement pioneered by Ornette Coleman; in the late Sixties, Barbieri worked primarily in the quartet led by trumpeter Don Cherry, another Coleman disciple.

In the Seventies, Barbieri shifted his sound toward the Latin jazz previously mined by Charlie Parker, the jazz great who first inspired Barbieri to learn his instrument, as well as the native music of his South American roots. That blending of styles led director Bernardo Bertolucci to recruit Barbieri to compose the score for his controversial 1972 film Last Tango in Paris.

"Always in the tango is tragedy — she leaves him, she kills him. It's like an opera but it's called tango," Barbieri said in 1997 of his score. "The lyrics and the melodies are very beautiful. It's very sensual." The Last Tango in Paris soundtrack scored Barbieri a Grammy win for Best Instrumental Composition and made the saxophonist a star on the jazz circuit.

After recording prolifically throughout the Seventies, Barbieri's output slowed immensely following a dispute with his record label, which forced the saxophonist to tour more frequently. He didn't release any albums between 1988 to 1997, only ending his hiatus with 1997's Que Pasa, which he recorded while dealing with the death of his then-wife of 35 years. Barbieri's final LP was 2010's New York Meeting, which featured covers of Miles Davis' "So What" and Thelonious Monk's "Straight, No Chaser."

In addition to his work as a bandleader, Barbieri also worked alongside artists like Herb Alpert, Charlie Haden, Carla Bley, Alan Shorter, Ennio Morricone, Santana, the Jazz Composer's Orchestra, Oliver Nelson (who also arranged the Last Tango in Paris soundtrack), Leon Ware and more.

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AQUEL HUMOR DE PIBE DE BARRIO

HORACIO FUMERO

Le conocí cuando grabé con él en Buenos Aires Chapter One y Two. De Barbieri me llamó la atención el contraste entre su poderoso sonido y su fragilidad física. También estaban Ed Michel, del sello Impulse! y productor de Coltrane, y el cineasta Glauber Rocha por el estudio. Un ambientazo.

El Gato hablaba un rosarino salpicado de jerga romana, parisiense y neoyorquina, a veces difícil de entender, y con un sentido del humor 100% santafecino, que yo entendía perfectamente. A pesar de su fama mundial nunca quiso dejar de ser un pibe de barrio. Sus indicaciones musicales te dejaban un gran margen para desarrollar tu propia creatividad, como es común entre los buenos músicos de jazz: cuanto más grandes, más libres. Don Cherry, con su Simphony for Improvisers, o Charlie Haden, con la Liberation Orchestra, estaban muy presentes en los planteamientos musicales de Gato, y el éxito era total en los repletos teatros de las múltiples giras. El fenómeno desbordaba el ámbito jazzístico. Con muchos años de anticipación estaba anunciando lo que se llamó despuésworldmusic.

Recuerdo el festival de Montreux en 1973. Estaban por allí Bertolucci y todo el equipo de El último tango en París (menos Brando, que estaba rodando): yo era muy joven y tenía que pellizcarme para asegurarme de que no estaba soñando.También, la actuación de 1974 en Madrid, mi primer bolo en España. Siento hacia Gato una inmensa gratitud por haberme hecho tan fácil mi primer encuentro con artistas de ese calibre. Hoy se mezclan en mí la tristeza por su fallecimiento y la nostálgica alegría de unos años fundamentales de mi vida.

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