Artist Name: Gato Barbieri ( El Gato) Artist Biography: Native Argentine Gato Barbieri (b. 11/28/34) picked up the clarinet at the age of 12 upon hearing Charlie Parker´s ³Now´s The Time.² After moving to Buenos Aires in 1947, he continued private music lessons on alto sax; by ´53 he had become a prominent national musician through exposure in Lalo Schifrin´s Orchestra. Barbieri moved in ´62 and after meeting Don Cherry in Paris the following year, he joined the trumpeter´s group, immersing himself in the avant-garde jazz movement. He recorded two sessions with Cherry for Blue Note; the albums document his fierce, coarse, and wailing tone on tenor(demonstrating a kinship with Pharoah Sanders and Albert Ayler. By the turn of the ´70s though, Barbieri began to once again incorporate South American harmonies, textures, and rhythms into his music. He became an international star for his sensuous theme and score for the controversial film Last Tango in Paris; as a result , he began to record more commercially-oriented albums. Regardless of the context, Barbieri remains one of jazz´s most emotional and intense tenor saxophonists. E-mail:   Web Site: