Born to a family of musicians, Barbieri began playing music after hearing Charlie Parker's "Now's the Time". He played the clarinet and later the alto saxophone while performing with the Argentinean pianist Lalo Schifrin in the late 1950s. By the early 1960s, while playing in Rome, he also worked with the trumpeter Don Cherry. By now influenced by John Coltrane's late recordings, as well as those from other free jazz saxophonists such as Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders, he began to develop the warm and gritty tone with which he is associated. In the late 1960s, he was fusing music from South America into his playing and contributed to multi-artist projects like Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra and Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill. His score for Bernardo Bertolucci's film Last Tango in Paris earned him a Grammy Award and led to a record deal with Impulse! Records.
By the mid-70s, he was recording for A&M Records and moved his music towards soul-jazz and jazz-pop with albums like Caliente! in 1976 (including his best known song, Carlos Santana's Europa) and the 1977 follow-up, Ruby Ruby, both produced by fellow musician and label co-founder, Herb Alpert.
Although he continued to record and perform well into the 1980s, the death of his wife Michelle led him to withdraw from the public arena. He returned to recording and performing in the late 1990s with the soundtrack for the film Seven Servants by Daryush Shokof (1996) and the album Qué Pasa (1997), playing music that would fall more into the arena of smooth jazz.
He received the UNICEF Award at the Argentinian Consulate in November 2009.
El arriero
Gato Barbieri Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
El sol juega en el brillo del pedregal
Y prendido a la magia de los caminos
El arriero va... el arriero va...
Es bandera de niebla su poncho al viento
Lo saludan las flautas del pajonal
Y guapeando la senda por esos cerros,
El arriero va... el arriero va...
Se van por la misma senda;
Las penas y las vaquitas,
Se van por la misma senda;
Las penas son de nosotros
Las vaquitas son ajenas
Las penas son de nosotros
Las vaquitas son ajenas.
Un degüeyo de soles muestra la tarde,
Se han dormido las luces del pedregal,
Y animando a la tropa, dale que dale
El arriero va, el arriero va...
Ojalá que la noche traiga recuerdos,
Que haga menos pesada la soledad,
Como sombra en la sombra por esos cerros,
El arriero va, el arriero va...
Las penas y las vaquitas,
Se van por la misma senda;
Las penas y las vaquitas,
Se van por la misma senda;
Las penas son de nosotros
Las vaquitas son ajenas
Las penas son de nosotros
Las vaquitas son ajenas.
Y prendido la magia de los caminos,
El arriero va, el arriero ... va...
The song "El Arriero" by Gato Barbieri is about a man, referred to as the arriero, who is a mule driver traveling through the desert. The song describes the arriero's journey as he travels through the sand and across the hills, guided only by the magic of the roads that he travels. His poncho waves in the wind, making him appear like a flag of fog as he travels through the low grass. The arriero is greeted by the music of flutes and keeps pushing through the path, despite his worries and afflictions.
The chorus of the song speaks about how both sorrows and cattle travel on the same path. The sorrows belong to the arriero and are an essential part of his journey, while the cattle belong to others and are outside his control. The song talks about how the arriero is hoping for a night full of memories that will make his loneliness feel more bearable.
Overall, "El Arriero" is a song that romanticizes the idea of travel and the importance of the journey. It is a reminder that life is not only about the destination but also the path we take to get there. The arriero is an emblematic figure, traveling through the land while facing the challenges that come with it, and Gato celebrates this character.
Line by Line Meaning
En las arenas bailan los remolinos
In the sand, whirlwinds dance.
El sol juega en el brillo del pedregal
The sun plays in the shine of the rocky terrain.
Y prendido a la magia de los caminos
And captivated by the magic of the roads,
El arriero va... el arriero va...
The mule driver goes... the mule driver goes...
Es bandera de niebla su poncho al viento
His poncho in the wind looks like a flag of fog.
Lo saludan las flautas del pajonal
He is greeted by the flutes of the tall grass.
Y guapeando la senda por esos cerros,
And bravely following the path through those hills,
El arriero va... el arriero va...
The mule driver goes... the mule driver goes...
Las penas y las vaquitas,
The sorrows and the cows,
Se van por la misma senda;
They go down the same path;
Las penas son de nosotros
The sorrows are our own,
Las vaquitas son ajenas.
The cows belong to others.
Un degüeyo de soles muestra la tarde,
A flood of suns fills the evening,
Se han dormido las luces del pedregal,
The lights of the rocky terrain have fallen asleep,
Y animando a la tropa, dale que dale
And urging on the troop, go on and on,
El arriero va, el arriero va...
The mule driver goes... the mule driver goes...
Ojalá que la noche traiga recuerdos,
Hopefully, the night will bring memories,
Que haga menos pesada la soledad,
To make the loneliness less heavy,
Como sombra en la sombra por esos cerros,
Like a shadow in the shadow through those hills,
El arriero va, el arriero va...
The mule driver goes... the mule driver goes...
Y prendido la magia de los caminos,
And captivated by the magic of the roads,
El arriero va, el arriero ... va...
The mule driver goes, the mule driver... goes...
Writer(s): Hector Roberto Chavero, Antonietta Paula Pepin
Contributed by Aubrey E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.