Gábor Szabó

Gábor Szabó ( born March 8, 1936 in Budapest, † February 26, 1982 ) was a Hungarian jazz guitarist.

Life and work

Szabó began playing self-taught guitar at the age of fourteen. From 1954 he played professionally with various ensembles in Budapest and composed for film and radio. On November 22, 1956, he left as a refugee his Hungarian homeland, moved to the U.S. and studied there from 1957 to 1959 at the Berklee College of Music, where he among other things, with Toshiko Akiyoshi and the Newport International Band conducted by Marshall Brown on the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 played. From 1961 to 1965 he was a member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet. In 1965 he orchestrated the music for Roman Polanski's film disgust. After that he was in the quartet of Charles Lloyd. In 1964 the jazz journal Downbeat had awarded him next to the also coming from Hungary Attila Zoller as " best new jazz guitarists ." In 1969 he accompanied the singer Lena Horne (Lena & Gabor ).

Carlos Santana had in 1970 with Szabo's Gypsy Queen piece a hit. The title appeared on Santana's album Abraxas. From the end of the 1960s had Szabó own bands like the jazz-rock group, The Perfect Circle in the 1970s. In 1968 he founded with Gary McFarland and Cal Tjader the record label Skye Records. In the 1970s, Szabó played with artists such as Ron Carter, Paul Desmond, Wayne Henderson and Bobby Womack.

Szabó died in 1982 during a home leave in Hungary from liver and kidney failure.

Discography (selection)

Under its own name:

• Gypsy '66 (1965 )
• Spellbinder (1966 )
• Jazz Raga (1966 )
• Bacchanal (1968 )
• 1969 (1969)
• High Contrast (1971 )
• Mizrab (1972)
• Rambler (1973)
• Macho ( 1975)
• Night Flight (1976 )
• Faces ( 1977)
• Belsta River ( 1979)
• Femme Fatale ( with Chick Corea, Paulinho da Costa and Jim Keltner, 1981)

Chico Hamilton:

• Litho (1961 )
• Drum Fusion ( 1962)
• Transfusion (1962 )
• Passin Thru (1962 )
• A Different Journey ( 1963)
• Man From Two Worlds (1963 )
• Repulsion (1964 )
• Chic Chic Chico (1965 )
• El Chico (1965 )

Charles Lloyd:

• Of Course, Of Course (1965 )
• Nirvana (1965 )
• Waves (1972)

Gary McFarland

• The In Sound (1965 )
• Profiles (1966 )
• Simpatico (1966 )