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El Cuarteto del Chivo Borraro En Vivo -
Chivo Borraro
whatmusic.com
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whatmusic.com presents ‘El Cuarteto del Chivo Borraro’, a live 1970 session from the legendary Argentinean tenor saxophonist. Chivo is supported here by a fine trio of compatriots in extended compositions showcasing his brilliant playing!
- First ever worldwide release!
- Tracks include ‘Africa’ & ‘Minor Key’!
- Features Fernando Gelbard, Jorge López Ruiz & Pocho Lapouble
- Exclusive new liner notes by Chivo Borraro!
- Also available on vinyl LP (WMLP-0083)
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Check the 30 second clips from the album...
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The whatmusic.com interview...
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chivo en chants!
The tunes on this album were recorded live the night
of November 3, 1970, thanks to the Tarsia Jazz Group
at “Cricket”, a large and pleasant musical bar in Olivos,
on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
“Tarsia Jazz Group” was the name used by Carlitos Tarsia to organize jazz concerts, to which he invited us frequently. Carlitos has been no doubt a unique character in the
history of Argentinean jazz or even the World’s jazz history. His home was open for more than two decades to all jazz musicians. If anyone needed a place to rehearse, a call
to Carlitos would do. His door and his upright piano were always open to all.
We used to get together at his place every Sunday and Wednesday for jam sessions that lasted until dawn.
I’d better not quote names since the list would be too extensive and I would run the risk of forgetting some.
I can tell you though, that at Tarsia’s place there
landed personalities like Count Basie, Milt Jackson,
Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Percy Heath, Sam Jones,
Gary Burton, The Double Six of Paris and many others.
We had the pleasure of playing with them all.
Furthermore it was there I met Fernando Gelbard, a fact that I consider of great importance from a musical and an affective point of view… So Carlitos, please receive through these words the recognition of all those that were your friends. (Fortunately, for the sake of his mental health, Carlitos also had friends that were not musicians).
To tell you the truth, the night this album was recorded, Fernando, el Flaco [López Ruiz], Pocho and I unholstered our instruments for “just another concert”. We had been playing together for a long time, and together we had already been breaking the rules a bit.
Our rehearsals were always a quest, a hunt, but not a forced or artificial one. I always had in mind the words
of Astor Piazzolla: “The worst failures (referring to music
and art, generally) come from those who want to do something different. Nobody can become different.
You are born different.”
So, in our case when composing a tune, we started by setting a rhythmic, harmonic, and sometimes a melodic base that often departed from be-bop without drifting too
far from it. This music is, as you may understand,
bordering on free-jazz or chance music.
Personally, I never wanted to get into ‘free’ for formal reasons. I think that if you always play without limits,
you cannot avoid repeating yourself in the end. That’s how three of the four tunes that comprise this album were born.
“Blues con amague”, (“Blues with a tease”), written by López Ruiz, has the same base as a twelve-bar blues, changing its harmonies at the second half of each chorus.
Gelbard’s “Minor Key”, is based on minor mode chords, with a rhythmic ostinato repeating itself every now and then, and rhythm shifts found randomly while improvising.
“Africa”, my own tune, starts with percussion which alludes in a veiled way to African tam-tams, joined by the bass and the piano. The outline of a melodic sequence by the piano is later repeated by the sax, when it begins improvising
on a basis of thirteenth chords.
The fourth piece is a standard: “Lover Man”, maybe in memory of Charlie Parker. His version is one of the most heartbreaking songs that I have heard from a jazz player:
at the end of that recording session, he was taken into Camarillo, a drug rehab center.
About the musicians that make up this quartet, all doubts about their musical qualities disappear when you hear them. Fernando’s creativity and musical density, the harmonic certainty and swing of Jorge’s bass, and Pocho’s accuracy and rhythmic richness would justify a long list
of exaggerated praising words.
And about my sax, what can I say? A local saying goes
“you can’t be both the judge and the plaintiff”, so maybe it’s presumptuous or wrong for me to say that I play well. But I can tell you that lots of people think so; among others, the other three musicians in the quartet, which is no mean praise.
To create my jazz groups, I also had in mind another thing Astor Piazzolla once told me: “Chivo, don’t ever forget that a group always sounds as good as its worst player”, and in this quartet nobody plays “worst”.
I am sure that you will agree with me. And thank you
for listening to us.
Buenos Aires, April 2004
Horacio “Chivo” Borraro
Recorded live at the Cricket Night Club in Olivos,
Buenos Aires, during a Tarsia Jazz Group concert
November 3, 1970
Chivo Borraro, tenor sax
Fernando Gelbard, Piano
Jorge López Ruiz, Bass
Pocho Lapouble, Drums
Recording Engineer: Osvaldo Acedo
Produced by Fernando Gelbard
Transfer from original tape: John Strother, Penguin Recording, Pasadena, California.
Editing and pre-mastering: Daniel May, Band-Ade Studios, Long Beach, California.
CEDAR processing by Sean ‘Big P’ Pennycook, London.
Remastered by Gareth Williams at Sound Recording Technology, Cambridge, June 2004
Cover drawing: Hermenegildo Sabat
Licensed by Chivo Borraro
Special thanks to Chivo Borraro, Norberto Gimelfarb,
Carlos Piriz and John Cooper
©2004 whatmusic.com
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