Obsession

Gato Barbieri quickly moved on from free jazz, but for fans of post-Coltrane tenor expressionism, his early records in the style are worth seeking out. Obsession is the more obscure of two sessions he led in 1967. It’s a gritty gem that finds him in a near-constant lunge toward the harshest extremes of his horn, including the overheated squall that became one of his sonic trademarks. The rhythm section of French bassist J.F. Jenny-Clark and Italian drummer Aldo Romano was the same one that had joined Barbieri on Don Cherry’s Togetherness two years earlier, and on both the free-bop-ish two-part title track and slightly more spacious Side Two epic “Michelle,” they complement the leader’s delivery with a tumbling sense of abstract swing that moves gracefully in and out of strict time.