Claudio Gabis - Claudio Gabis (Reissue) (1974/2004)

Claudio Gabis was born in Buenos Aires on March 18th, 1949. After participating in the Los Abuelos de la Nada debut single, he formed the pioneer Spanish language blues trio Manal.

When Manal broke up Gabis moved to Brazil, where he lived from time to time. In 1972, encouraged by producer Jorge Álvarez, he recorded his first solo album with the help of La Pesada This was a very good hard blues and psycho album. The most remarkable tunes are: "La fiebre de la ruta", led by the powerful voice of Billy Bond, the crazy fiddle of Pinchevsky and the brilliant guitar of Gabis^ the long and psychedelic "Más allá del viaje del tiempo", sung by Kubero and Medina, backed with guitar sounds and effects^ "Blues del terror azul" ("Blues of the blue terror") was about the police repression of those days and features Gabis in yet another outstanding wah-wah performance^ and the improvised mystic psychedelic madness of the guitar/violin/bass trio of "El viaje de Lord Dunsany". The lyrics were based on the fantastic literature of authors like Lord Dunsany, H.P. Lovecraft and Algernon Blackwood. This was evident by the great cover design of Juan O. Gatti. It is recommended, though hard to get now. For his second solo album Gabis recruited –besides Medina, Pinchevsky and Bond- Emilio Kauderer on electric piano, Charly García on organ, David Lebón on vocals and Juan Rodríguez and Black Amaya on drums Though not as inspired as the first one, this second LP features some good moments as "Esto se acaba aquí", "Blues de la tierra supernova" and "Blues de un domingo lluvioso", all with great guitar work. Gabis can also be seen on the movie Rock hasta que se ponga el Sol, performing a tune called "Raga" (included on the soundtrack album [Talent I-382}). He also played on several solo albums by fellow La Pesada members as well as other Talent/Microfón records. In 1975 he moved to Brazil, where he worked with artists like Ney Mattogrosso and jazz-rock groups. By 1980 he returned to Argentina for Manal’s comeback. Afterwards he moved definitely to Spain. None of his rare solo albums have been reissued on vinyl, but both are available on CD.