Gabor Szabo: Jazz Raga Vinyl LP

This digger / jazzhead favorite gets reissued on vinyl for the first time in a long time by Vampi Soul (on a roll recently). In this reissue, the label stayed true to the Impulse high design ethos, with the original heavy gatefold cover and liner notes. Diplo was the first one to tip me off to this international gem, so we'll refer to his original TTL Record Check review:

"In the country of Hungary, they still have traveling Gypsies snd shit. They go around on Vespas and play sitars now, but they are still all about the free spirited musicianship and mack mode, as Gabor demonstrates. It is the kind of music that all the hot English people had sex to in the sixties. Just cool type shit. Like you gotta be sitting in a cafe with a goatee and a sunglasses on to really feel the effects. Gabor has some very listenable records on Impulse. I love his stuff, very melodic with his Hungarian ethnic music steeze coming though somehow. He is usually playing guitar real well, but here he picks up the sitar and can't stop getting loose. This record is a jazz dance super sitar Bernard Purdie on drums type record, with a bunch of spiritual Krishna song titles. I ate Krishna food at a rainbow gathering once so I can bob my head to this record and Rasa on the regular. You don't even know rock and roll until you have heard 'Paint it Black' on a sitar."

• black vinyl pressing
• housed in repro gatefold sleeve w/ liner notes
• original release year: 1967
• music Label: Vampi Soul 2026

reviewed by the mgmnt 08/2010