NAHUEL JAZZ QUARTET
NAHUEL JAZZ QUARTET

TRACKLIST
A1 Serenata
A2 Tranquilo
A3 That Old Feeling
A4 Donna Lee
B1 Here It Is
B2 L.R. 361
B3 But Not For Me
B4 Taste Of Honey

ABOUT
The group's debut album, recorded in May 1963, was to prove a great incentive to many other Chilean jazz acts, not least the Chilean Jazz Messengers and the Village Trio. However, the album proved more than just a motivator and inspiration to others, and it stands by itself as a solid, tight jazz album. Recorded for the independent label Ediciones LR Ortiz and engineered by Rafael Hidalgo, it was a genuine milestone by being the first full jazz album recorded in Chile by a professional Chilean group. The personnel on the session is the 'classic' Naheul Quartet line-up: Omar Nahuel (piano), Patricio Ramírez (alto sax), Alfonso Barrios (double bass) and Orlando Avendaño (drums). The core quartet is augmented with Patricio Lara (clarinet) on the original composition 'Tranquilo', as well as two bebop covers: Charlie Parker's 'Donna Lee' and Dizzy Gillespie's 'Here it is'.

After the release of the album, there were a few line up changes as Avendaño left the group in 1963 and Ramírez followed in 1964, and there were further band changes in the following years as Nahuel began to modify the line-ups of his ensembles, incorporating drummers like Waldo Caceres and Jaime Farfan, bassists Boris Castilla and Nelson Gamboa and tenor player Mario Escobar Jr.
Sadly, the important strides made by the group would be tragically cut short when Naheul was killed in a car accident in February 1969 while travelling to the branch of his jazz club in Viña del Mar. He was only 33. However, in the short years of his active music career, Naheul made a lasting impression on Chilean jazz and, as musicologist Álvaro Menanteau says in his book The History of Jazz in Chile, "the '60s were born and died with Omar Nahuel".