Compilation of the Month - "Gary McFarland & Gabor Szabo"

Compilation of the Month
Gary McFarland & Gabor Szabo: "Sketch for Summer - Elegant Mid Sixties Recordings For Verve, Impulse & Prestige" (Él/Cherry Red) 2008

Ten years ago, back in 1998, while selecting the tracks for a new compilation I was producing for the Milestone label, I found a lost treasure on the vaults of Fantasy Records: the original 2-track tapes of a 7-inch 45rpm single released on the Prestige label by Gary McFarland, recorded on July 27, 1964 with Antonio Carlos Jobim on the acoustic guitar.
I immediately selected Jobim's "The Dreamer" (Vivo Sonhando), the Side A from that megarare single, as the opening track of my best-selling CD compilation "Brazilian Horizons Vol. 2". It was the first CD reissue ever of such an ultra-cult recording!
Right now, ten years later, both "Dreamer" and the Side B "Rivergirl" (co-written by McFarland & Margo Guryan) appear on this new compilation "Sketch for Summer", released through the London-based Cherry Red Records' subsidiary Él label.
The excellent selection also includes tracks from LPs by McFarland and Szabo (individually or in collaboration) such as "Gypsy 66," "Spellbinder," "Jazz Raga," "The Sorcerer", "The 'In' Sound" (produced by Creed Taylor), "Simpatico," "Scorpio and Other Signs", and two tunes from the "Eye of the Devil" soundtrack, recorded in London back in 1966 for Verve but only recently released for the first time on the FMS (Film Score Monthly) company.
Among the sidemen are Grady Tate, Richard Davis, Sam Brown, Barry Galbraith, Sadao Watanabe, Francisco Pozo, Ron Carter, Chico Hamilton, Bob Bushnell, Bernard Purdie, Willie Rodriguez, Don Payne, Candido, Sol Gubin, Joe Venuto, Spencer Sinatra, Joe Cocuzzo, Marvin Stamm and Chet Amsterdam.
Though they came from radically different cultures and found their way into jazz via widely divergent routes, McFarland & Szabo developed an all-too brief working relationship that produced a spectacular range of solo and collaborative works spanning jazz, pop, bossa nova, psychedelia, Indian raga, Hungarian folk and film music.
But, besides "Rivergirl", the rarest tracks are "Winter Samba" and "Summer's Gone Away," cut in October '66 for the Impulse! label.
"Thanks But Not Thanks", recorded in 1968 in NY, includes an uncredited João Donato on organ (he would perform a week later with McFarland on Cal Tjader's "Solar Heat", the debut LP on the Skye label formed by McFarland, Szabo & Tjader).
Other highlights are the original versions of Szabo's "Gypsy Queen" (that would be recorded by Santana on the "Abraxas" album, forming a medley with the hit "Black Magic Woman") and "Mizrab" (revisited by the guitarist in 1972 as the title track of his CTI debut album).
The 12-page CD booklet includes accurate liner notes by Christopher Evans and Kristian St. Clair (director of the superb "This Is Gary McFarland" documentary), plus an essay on Gabor Szabo by jazz historian Douglas Payne, who has chronicled the musical lives of Szabo and McFarland on his "Sound Insights" website.