Spellbinder, released in 1966 on Impulse! Records, introduced Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo to a wider American audience with a set that blends modal jazz, Eastern European folk influences, and 1960s pop textures. Recorded in May 1966 at Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs studio and produced by Bob Thiele, Spellbinder features Szab? in a quintet setting with pianist Chick Corea (in one of his earliest recorded sessions), bassist Albert Stinson, drummer Chico Hamilton, and percussionist Willie Bobo. The record's standout moment is a reimagining of Sonny Bono's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)," which Szab? transforms into a darkly lyrical modal meditation. Elsewhere, the group blurs the lines between jazz improvisation and global rhythms, bridging bop vocabulary with the expanding musical frontiers of the mid-1960s. The Verve Vault Series is always mastered from analog tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.
