b. 8th March, 1936, Budapest, Hungary.
d. 26th February, 1982, Budapest, Hungary.
Born in Hungary in 1936, Gabor Szabo began playing guitar when he was 14 and often played in dinner clubs and secret jam sessions while still living in Budapest.
He relocated to the United States in 1956, after serving as a Freedom Fighter in Hungary.
Settling in California, he attended Berklee College between 1958 and 1960.
Daringly different in his approach to jazz, Szabo combined the melodic elements from four continents with his own haunting Gypsylike style, and his compositions which have been credited by American critics as having a profound effect on the jazz idiom have become legendary.
Gabor made an impression on the UK jazz funk scene with two albums recorded for Mercury Records in the mid-70's.
These were 'Nightlfight' (1976), including 'Keep Smilin' produced by Bunny Sigler (an earlier version having been recorded by Sigler on a Philadelphia International album a few years earlier) and 'Faces' (1977), produced by Wayne Henderson.
After coming to the United States, Szabo credited the nightly broadcasts of jazz by the Voice of America as being the catalyst which ultimately saw him become one of the leading exponents of the jazz idiom in the world.
He revisited his homeland several times during the 1970's.
Gabor died on the 26th February,1982 in Budapest, after being hospitalised on his final visit home and shortly before his 46th birthday.
He had gone there in July of 1981 to produce an album and had planned to return in the summer of 1982.
Albums:
Gypsy '66 (Impulse! 1965)
Spellbinder (Impulse! 1966)
Simpatico (Impulse! 1966)
Jazz Raga (Impulse! 1966)
More Sorcery (Impulse! 1967)
The Sorcerer (GRP / Impulse 1967)
Light My Fire (Impulse! 1967)
Wind, Sky and Diamonds (Impulse! 1967)
At Monterey (Impulse! 1967)
Bacchanal (Skye 1968)
Dreams (Skye 1968)
Gabor Szabo (Skye 1968)
Gabor Szabo 1969 (Skye 1969)
Watch What Happens (DCC 1969)
High Contrast (Blue Thumb 1970)
Magical Connection (Blue Thumb 1970)
Small World (Four Leaf 1972)
Mizrab (CTI 1972)
Gabor Szabo Live (Blue Thumb 1972)
Rambler (CTI 1973)
Macho (Salvation 1975)
Nightflight (Mercury 1976)
Faces (Mercury 1977)
Belsta River (Four Leaf 1978)
Jazz Mysticism / Exotica (DCC 1978)
Femme Fatale (Pepita 1978)
Memorabilia (MCA 1982)
The Szabo Equation (DCC 1990)
