The guitar theatrics of Gabor Szabo are some of the most inventive and free from whatever else was going on in the jazz world during the sixties as anyone else in the field – that actually applies to any player on any instrument. Even the man’s forays into pop music can’t be matched for the creativity that it seemingly oozed. The fact that no one really cared about any of his music, though, is pretty problematic.

With George Benson, Donald Byrd and any number of other once respectable players taking jazz into its most pop related forms and garnering some decent pay days, it’s understandable as to why Szabo was a bit miffed about the situation. He was actually able to participate in some of the more far reaching jazz and rock ensembles of the decade before Miles came along and convinced everyone that he’d been the one ahead of the curve the entire time.

But in listening to any of those Chico Hamilton dates with Szabo on guitar, it’s pretty clear who the trailblazer was. And while that might be a clichéd sentiment, there’s a reason why Santana saw fit to borrow one of Szabo’s compositions and turn it into a chart topper. There is no justice, but we should have all known that without being aware of Szabo’s troubles.

All of the missed opportunity in the world didn’t disallow this player from recording a few really remarkable discs during the second half of the sixties and a few into the following decade. For the most part, the earlier in Szabo’s career you look, the better the recordings. And while I have a distinct feeling that The Szabo Equation: Jazz/Mysticism/Exotica is at least in part archival stuff, there’re a few songs that most aren’t going to be familiar with.

Of course, covers like “Sunshine Superman” and “Some Velvet Morning” appear on various albums, live and in studio form, from Szabo. Here they’re included as well. But alongside those well know cuts is work like “Ferris Wheel.” It’s probably that the date which yielded this particular track occurred well in advance of the album’s release. But with scant and shoddy information about the guitarist, it’s kinda difficult to tell.

Either way, the track apes a more laid back feel and could possibly represent one of the more commercial efforts from the guitarist’s oeuvre. That’s not good or bad unless you’re distinctly tied to a single conception of what jazz could or should be. Szabo wasn’t. He was as enamoured with American culture, it’s subcultures and rock music. And being an immigrant, he perceived all of it to be of a single whole. It is. But for some unknown reason, the majority of the jazz cognoscenti never understood that. Even the left over be bop players weren’t able to get their heads around Coltrane or Coleman. So the feedback that Szabo toyed with must have been especially disconcerting. Louis Armstrong was still around – and considering the fact that he begin playing in the genre when there was a banjo not a guitar utilized for rhythm, this all must have been confounding. It should have been. Szabo had it all figured out at least a few years ahead of those other electric jazzbos.