Gabor Szabo
"A talent that deserves much greater recognition." This is how the authoritative magazine Down Beat describes the work of Gabor Szabo.
And today we look at the life, music and heritage of the guitarist.
The name of the Hungarian-American musician Gabor Szabo is not among those often heard. Unfortunately, the genius guitarist and composer left this world way too young - at the age of 45, in the distant 1982. Born in Budapest in 1936, he left Hungary shortly before the events of 1956 and from there his life continued in the United States. In the late 50's Szabo studied for two years in Berklee College of Music, participated in jazz festivals, where life brought him together with a number of famous names. Among them are future great virtuosos such as saxophonist Charles Lloyd and bassist Ron Carter.
Szabo's career was booming, and by the mid-1960s, he was considering combining jazz with rock, drawing attention to musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and George Harrison. Later in the years, there were more joint performances with almost all the great musicians of that time. In the 1970s, Szabo traveled back to Hungary, and later met Chick Corea, who introduced him to Scientology. Fame, tension and inner demons slowly pushed Szabo towards heroin and depression. His death occurred in his native Budapest in 1982. These are the brief biographical facts.
On the other side stands the legacy that the Hungarian leaves behind and music, which to this day has not lost a part of its relevance. This amazing blending of styles and themes; of ideas and instruments (such as borrowing sitar chords from Ravi Shankar's music). The courage to experiment. As Szabo himself says: "Changing musical landmarks is a sign of maturity. I often ask myself: am I a jazz musician? It seems to me that I have every right, but I prefer to call myself a contemporary artist."
As with any hypersensitive artist, madness and genius go hand in hand with deep immersion and decades ahead of time. And the forms and ideas created by Szabo years later will be used by guitarists such as Carlos Santana, Bill Frisell and Pat Metheny.
We illustrate this palette of colors with the 1967 piece "Ravi", in which the guitar sounds like a sitar, and then we listen to the 1968 album "Dream". Gabor Szabo's discography can be found across digital platforms.
February 2022
Image: pixabay
©МА
