Gabor Szabo: Jazz Raga [VAMPI SOUL]

Why you'll love it

This remastered 180g pressing is in stereo. Jazz Raga mixes Szabo's own raga-inspired pieces with covers of "Caravan" and "Summertime," and it has built a lasting cult following among guitarists and psych collectors.

This edition

• Remastered
• 180g vinyl
• Stereo

About the album

Gabor Szabo learned his jazz from Voice of America broadcasts in Budapest, listening very quietly at night. After the 1956 revolution he left for California, studied at Berklee, and by the mid-1960s had played with Chico Hamilton and Charles Lloyd while quietly falling for the feedback and drones of rock. In 1965 he also orchestrated Chico Hamilton's score for Roman Polanski's Repulsion.

Jazz Raga is where those ideas meet. Bob Thiele produced it at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in August 1966, with Johnny Gregg on bass, Bernard Purdie on drums and Bob Bushnell on second guitar for half the sessions. Szabo plays guitar and sitar across originals like "Mizrab," "Krishna" and "Search For Nirvana," Gary McFarland supplies "Raga Doll," and the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" gets a hypnotic, buzzing makeover. Purdie's crisp, funky drumming keeps everything grounded, and "Caravan" gets a slinky reading of its own.

It came out on Impulse! in January 1967, shortly before Szabo started his own label, Skye, with McFarland and Cal Tjader. It'll make the rest of your jazz guitar shelf sit up a little straighter.

Also at Kops: more Gabor Szabo on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Vampi Soul (cat# VAMPI 337), a reissue of the 1967 album.