Gabor Szabo - Dreams

Gabor Szabo's Dreams drifts back onto 140 gram vinyl in a gatefold jacket, the Hungarian guitarist's richly atmospheric 1968 album for Skye Records.

By the late 1960s Szabo had already made his name blending jazz guitar with Hungarian folk melody, Indian-inspired drones and a taste for pop songs. Dreams pushed that mix toward something more cinematic and orchestral. Gary McFarland produced and arranged the sessions in Los Angeles, surrounding Szabo and second guitarist Jim Stewart with French horns, violin and cello, while Jim Keltner kept time on drums and Louis Kabok anchored things on bass.

"Galatea's Guitar" opens the album with Szabo's hypnotic, circling picking, setting a dreamlike mood that never quite lets go. Two pieces by Manuel de Falla, "Song of Injured Love" and "Fire Dance," are reimagined as smoky, slow-burning jazz with flamenco shadows, and the closing take on Donovan's "Ferris Wheel" shows how naturally Szabo could fold contemporary pop into his own spellbinding world.

It is music for late evenings, gentle and a little mysterious, with McFarland's arrangements giving everything a soft-focus glow and Keltner's light touch keeping it moving. For collectors of 1960s jazz guitar, this gatefold pressing is a lovely way to spend time with one of Szabo's most distinctive records.