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FEMME FATALE
Gabor Szabo
Fidelity Recording Studio; Studio City, California: March 27, 1979

Leon Bisquera (key); Gabor Szabo, James Harrah (g); David Roney (el-b); Hugh Moran (d); Everette Bryson (perc).
Fidelity Recording Studio; Studio City, California: June 6, 1979
Lawrence Sonderling, Bobby Dubow, Ken Yerke, John Wittenberg, Sheldon Sanov, Carol Shive (vln); Pamela Goldsmith, Arthur Royval, Michael Nowak (viola); Ronald Cooper, Ray Kelley (cello); Josephine Dapar, Ralph Mullins, Jean DelCrosso (copyist); Frank Cole (contractor); David Campbell (arr, cond).
Fidelity Recording Studio; Studio City, California: June 12, 1979
Gary Grant, Jerry Hey (tp, flhrn); William Reichenbach (tb); Kim Hutchcroft, Larry Williams (reeds); Josephine Dapar, Suzanne Ruffalo (copyist); David Campbell (arr, cond).

a. A Thousand Times (Gábor Szabó) - 9:13
b. Zingaro (Antonio Carlos Jobim - 7:08

Fidelity Recording Studio; Studio City, California: March 30, 1979
Leon Bisquera (key); Gabor Szabo, James Harrah (g); David Roney (el-b); Hugh Moran (d); Everette Bryson (perc).

c. April Fools
d. Untitled guitar tune

Fidelity Recording Studio; Studio City, California: June 30, 1979
Michael Lang, Chester Thompson (key); Abraham Laboriel (b).

e. Out of the Night (Chick Corea) - 8:06

Fidelity Recording Studio; Studio City, California
Gabor Szabo (g); Abraham Laboriel (b) with others unknown. 

f. Femme Fatale (Gábor Szabó) - 8:18
g. Serena (James Harrah) - 3:38

Gabor Szabo (g); Chick Corea (p).

h. Out of the Night (Chick Corea) - 8:06

Note: (1) "Serena" is a duo performance with Szabo on unamplified acoustic guitar and an unidentified acoustic guitarist (possibly himself). (2) Szabo indicates Corea wrote "Out of the Night" as a duet for the two to perform and, additionally, lyrics were written for the song which were to be sung by Roberta Flack on the other side of the record. No known evidence of this version exists. (3) According to bassist David Roney, he composed "Femme Fatale" with Gabor Szabo but he did not play on the tune because of the birth of his son on the day of the recording and he did not receive credit because of the rather convoluted release of the album

Issues: a, b, f, g & h on Pepita International (Hun) SLPR-707 (issued 1981), Mambo (Hun) HCD-37919 [CD] (issued 1999).
Producer: Gabor Szabo
Engineer: Not Listed
Notes: N/A (L/P). Ligeti Nagy Tamás with thanks to Douglas Payne (CD)


Released in 1981 on Pepita Records (a "popular" division of the state-owned label, Hungaroton), FEMME FATALE was originally recorded in 1979 for Atlantic Records, which rejected it. The melodic date has its share of interesting moments - even though more material from these sessions probably exists. "Out of the Night" intriguingly pairs Szabo with pianist Chick Corea for a sparkling duet performance and the Flamenco fusion of Szabo's excellent Return To Forever-like "A Thousand Times" stands up well enough to have become a staple of the guitarist's live performances. Szabo's melodicism is especially apparent on Jobim's "Zingaro" and the pretty "Serena" as well. Recorded more than three years before his death, FEMME FATALE is Szabo's last known recording, though he was said to have recorded during his 1981 stay in Hungary. But it is an especially pleasing, if too brief, effort gleaming with the guitarist's appealing melodic skill. One can only hope the 1999 CD release of FEMME FATALE -- nicely remastered and packaged with original cover art, new notes, a Fillmore poster reproduction and other neat tidbits gathered from the stuff you're reading now -- will allow more to hear this often entrancing music.

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