Leandro Barbieri (born on November 28 1934 in Rosario, Santa Fe Province) better known as El Gato Barbieri (Spanish for "Barbieri the Cat") is an Argentine jazz tenor saxophonist and composer who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and from his latin jazz recordings in the 1970s. Born to a family of musicians, Barbieri began playing music after hearing Charlie Parker's "Now's the Time." He played the clarinet, then the alto saxophone while teaming with Argentine pianist Lalo Schifrin in the late 1950s. By the early 1960s, while in Rome, he played tenor saxophone, also with trumpeter Don Cherry. Influenced by John Coltrane's late recordings, as well as those from saxophonists Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders, Barbieri's warm and gritty tone began to form that would become his trademark sound. In the late 1960s, he was fusing the musics from South America into his playing. His music score for Bernardo Bertolucci's film Last Tango in Paris earned him a Grammy Award and landed him into a record deal with Impulse! Records.

By the late 1970s he was working for A&M Records, and moved his music towards jazz-pop with albums like "Caliente" (with his best known song, Carlos Santana's Europa).

Though he continue to record and perform into the 1980s, the death of his wife Michelle led him to withdraw from the public. He returned to recording and performing in the late 1990s, playing music that would fall into the arena of smooth jazz.

Discography (incomplete)

Complete communion (Don Cherry, 1965)
Togetherness (Don Cherry, 1965)
Symphony for Improvisers (Don Cherry, 1966)
Hamba Khale (with Dollar Brand, 1968)
Escalator Over The Hill (Carla Bley, 1968)
Under fire (1969)
The Third World (1969)
Liberation Music Orchestra (Charlie Haden, 1969)
El pampero (1971)
Fenix (1971)
Last tango in Paris (1972)
Bolivia (1973)
Chapter one: Latin America (1973)
Chapter two: Hasta siempre (1973)
Chapter three: Viva Emiliano Zapata (1974)
Chapter four: Alive in New York (1975)
Caliente (1976)
I Grandi del Jazz (1976)
Ruby Ruby (1977)
Apasionado (1982)
Que Pasa (1997)
The Shadow of The Cat (2002)

External links

Gato Barbieri discography, news, bio from Music City
Biography
Gato at Impulse!

Other pages about Argentine musicians

-Alberto Caracciolo -Alberto Ginastera -Alejandro Lerner -Alejo Parella -Alfredo Casero -Andres Calamaro -Anibal Troilo -Astor Piazzolla -Atahualpa Yupanqui -Carlos Gardel -Carlos Guastavino -Carlos Lopez Puccio -Carlos Nunez Cortes -Carlos di Sarli -Charly Garcia -Daniel Rabinovich -Dominic Miller -Enrique Coria -Ernesto Acher -Facundo Cabral -Fito Paez -Francisco Canaro -Gato Barbieri -Gerardo Masana -Gustavo Cerati -Hernan Cattaneo -Jorge Maronna -Jorge Morel -Juan D'Arienzo -Juana Molina -Juanjo Dominguez -Kevin Johansen -Leon Gieco -Liliana Herrero -Luis Alberto Spinetta -Marciano Cantero -Marcos Mundstock -Maximo Diego Pujol -Miguel Calo -Palito Ortega -Pappo -Paz Lenchantin -Rodolfo Biagi

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Gato_Barbieri