Many believe “Last Tango in Paris” was an erotic masterpiece. The only thing erotic about it was Maria Schneider’s performance, not Marlon Brando (in the album cover right) who played the predictable dirty old man despite his character’s complex personality. Either way, the European cut was better than the American because there was more of the music of Brazilian jazz titan Gato Barbieri. That’s the latest vinyl record album I’ve digitized to make room for other stuff during our home renovation.
I first heard Gato Barbieri (below left) watching the Montreaux Jazz Festival on WTTW in Chicago somewhere around 1970. I was electrified by the musical and stage presence of this semi-geeky, gaucho-hatted, bespectacled tenor saxophonist whose sound I could only describe as a cross between Miles Davis and an undiscovered Amazon tribe. I’ve heard nothing comparable.
When I first saw “Last Tango” as a college student in 1974, I did so because it was so controversial given its tough sexual content, the youthful sensuality of French phenom Maria Schneider, and that director Bernardo Bertolucci was pushing the envelope cinematically and morally. But I left the theater more impressed with the music: a combination of traditional French instrumentation and romanticism, and improbable, raw, and wild South American beats. I dressed as Gato at Southern Illinois University’s infamous Halloween celebration that year. No one guessed.
As much as any other player and composer, Barbieri influenced my own music. Hard to say why for a boy from suburban Chicago. But life is mysterious. Mysterious is good. And I thank Gato and public TV for putting it out there so I could find it.
