Simpático - Gary McFarland & Gabor Szabo

 

Norwegian Wood

Simpático

Gary McFarland and Gabor Szabo

Produced by Gary McFarland and Bob Thiele

Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder

Cover Photo: Bob Ghiraldini

Liner Photos: Bob Thiele

Liner Design: Joe Lebow

Impluse! AS-9122

On the cover: Gary McFarland is riding a Yamaha Jet 100

Gabor Szabo is riding a Yamaha Big Bear

courtesy of Yamaha International Corporation and Village Yamaha, Inc., New York

Recorded May 18, 1966

She's A Cruiser, Norwegian Wood, You Will Pay, Cool Water

Gary McFarland - Vibraphone

Gabor Szabo - Guitar

Sam Brown - Guitar

Richard Davis - Bass

Joe Cocuzzo - Drums

Tommy Lopez, Barry Rodgers - Latin Percussion

Recorded May 20, 1966

Spring Song, The Word, Ups and Downs, Nature Boy

Bob Cranshaw replaces Richard Davis on the following selections:

Simpatico, Yamaha Mama, Hey, Here's A Heart

From the inside cover: For those who don't limit their listening to pre-set categories, it's been clear for several years that popular music is becoming remarkably flexible, searching and candid. It has also become both democratized and internationalized – a swirling stream of blues, rhythm and blues, country and western, Latin sounds and rhythms, British ballads, bristling topical songs, and now even Indian ragas.

Gary McFarland and Gabor Szabo have been intrigued for some time by this revitalization of popular music and accordingly, they decided to do their version – in their own jazz styles – of parts of the pop scene along with the Latin-based music of which they're also fond.

It was particularly important, they felt, to get a rhythm section that could set and maintain various kind of grooves and that also was expert at changing colors. Heard on electric twelve-string is Sam Brown, who has worked with Miriam Makeba and other folk music luminaries. Drummer Joe Cocuzzo, a regular in McFarland's group, has had a wide range of experience both in small combos and in big bands from Larry Elgart to Woody Herman. From the band of Eddie Palmieri, described by McFarland as "the Thelonious Monk of the Latin scene," there came Tommy Lopez and Barry Rogers. Lopez plays conga and a set of higher-pitched Indian drums. Rogers, who plays trombone and writes for Palmieri, is heard on cowbell, scraper and other percussion devices. Alternating are Richard Davis on bass and Bob Cranshaw on Fender bass – both of them prestigious jazz figures.

To get added colors, McFarland and Szabo also sang, sometimes in vocalese, and Gary whistled. "Singing," McFarland points out, "is nothing new for Gabor. He had a vocal group in Hungary, and when he first came to America, he used to sing a little in Boston." The arrangements are by McFarland and Szabo but, Gary points out, "a lot of this we did right on the spot. Gabor and I have worked together so often that we can hear something and know immediately how we both want to handle it."

Since Gary feels strongly that John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles have contributed importantly toward raising the standards of popular songwriting in terms of freshness of conception, two of their songs are included here. The opener, The Word, was chosen, says Gary, "because we liked its feeling. Actually it's another variation of the blues with a little bridge, but it has individuality." The thrust of the song, as is often the case with contemporary popular songs, is an affirmation of the power and potential of love. (Or as the rebels on campus proclaim on their placards: "Make Love, Not War.")

"I've dug Nature Boy," says Gary, "since I first heard Nat Cole sing it when I was thirteen or fourteen. It reached me. We altered a few of the changes in this version but kept, I fee, the essential serenity of the song."

Norwegian Wood, a particularly evocative song by Lennon and McCartney, reflects in this version the beguiling internalization of pop music with its elements from India and Latin America. Listen with particular care to the mesmeric, multi-colored patterns of the rhythm section.

Hey, Here's A Heart is an example of McFarland's own writing in the popular vein. It's been recorded by, among others, Brook Benton and Ethel Ennis. The song has an open feeling of expectation and of wonder. Dig the judicious overdubbing of vocal color.

Cool Water, that vintage thirst-awakener, reflects the admixture of country and western influences in the  current popular music scene. "We chose it because I've always liked the song." Gary point out, "and also it was very well suited for the overall mood of the album."

Ups And Downs, another McFarland original, is a different dimension of mood-setting. It tells of inevitable impermanence, and also implicit in the song is the persistent resourcefulness of the human spirit in trying to find new good times.

Yamaha Mama is Gabor Sazbo's. Gabor came in with a straightforward, swinging tune," Gary notes, "and since he digs the little Yamaha motor bike, we decided to title the song in a kind of tribute to it."

Gabor Szabo as chronicler of unrequited love is revealed in You Will Pay, a rueful theme in which the traditional wish of the rejected is distilled: the cool woman will eventually have to pay her dues too. "Just as Gabor is a very melodic player," Gary adds, "he's also a particularly melodic writer."

Another illustration of Szabo's flowing writing skills is Spring Song. "It's an exceptionally soft, lovely song," says Gary. "It was so fresh that when we started to play it, it happened immediately and so we did the song in one take."

She's A Cruiser is Gary's, and he describes the subject of the piece as "a very sassy kind of chick, the kind who floats in and out of places without ever getting too involved. When you think you might be getting close to her, she flits away."

Simpatico took spontaneous shape at the very end of the recordings for the album. "It was toward the close of a double session," Gary recalls. "We were all pretty tired and we were trying a number of different songs, but they weren't working out. Finally we got into this traditional pattern – as traditional to Latin music  as blues changes are to jazz. It's based on the dominant chord, in this case from b flat minor to e flat seventh. We took the tempo down, and we got a real groovy feeling. In fact, we got into the kind of trace that all Latin players aim for. For that matter, all players try for that deep a groove – from John Coltrane to Ravi Shankar. If you get it, you lock it in, and you feel as if you're flying at 30,000 feet, cruising all the way."

The final track – and the album as a whole – is a lyrical, variegated personalization by Gary McFarland and Gabor Szabo of many of the intersecting influences that are shaping both contemporary popular music and jazz. This is a time of unusual exploration, warmth, openness and transcending of barriers that are no longer relevant. In music, we live – as you can hear – in a most simpatico time. – Nat Hentoff

 

The Word

Nature Boy

Norwegian Wood

Hey, Here's A Heart

Cool Water

Ups And Downs

Yamaha Mama

You Will Pay

Spring Song

She's A Cruiser

Simpatico