I'm sure a lot of moggers are already fans of this wonderful Hungarian guitarist- but for those of you not in the know,
Gabor Szabo is the shit.Szabo starting playing guitar at the age of 14 in his native Budapest. By the age of 20, he settled in California and began playing with jazz greats like Chico Hamilton and Ron Carter. His first solo album
Spellbinder was released in 1966. It is one of my favorites, especially his lovely, surprisingly low-key rendition of
Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)".
Santana covered another song from the album, "Gypsy Queen" on 1970's "Abraxas". I don't know how to describe Szabo's guitar playing, except to say i've never heard anyone play quite like him. He hypnotizes me every time I listen to him.I've also been listening to 1970's
Lena Horne & Gabor Szabo, which includes sizzling renditions of "Everybody's Talkin'" and the Beatles "Rocky Raccoon", "In My Life", "The Fool on the Hill" and "Something".1973's
Mizrab has Szabo playing with a killer group consisting of Bob James, Jack DeJohnette, Billy Cobham, Ron Carter and Ralph MacDonald.The album that most current fans know him from is
The Sorcerer live at The Jazz Workshop in 1967. I would recommend this as the perfect introduction to his music, and probably the easiest album to find on cd.
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