El Gaucho

Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Herbie Hancock (piano), Reggie Workman (bass) and Joe Chambers (drums). From the album Adam’s Apple (1967).

The gaucho was a skilfull, brave and undisciplined rider, characteristic of the plains and adjacent areas of Argentina, Uruguay, southern Brazil and southern Chile, who dedicated himself to rural tasks. He was related to the cattle farming and the economic activities derived from it, such as meat consumption and the use of the leather. He was a semi-nomadic inhabitant, with considerable personal autonomy that lived from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century.

The gaucho was widely admired in legends, folklore and literature, and became an important part of the regional cultural tradition. Although the term is now used to refer to the employees of farms, the real gaucho used to earn his living helping with the care of the cattle in exchange for a place to sleep, food and some money. The arrival of modernity, the accumulation of land in the hands of large landowners and barbed wire to delimit the territories and manage the livestock in the same place led to the disappearance of the gaucho.

This theme has a Latin rhythm marked by Chambers so that Shorter can enter and expose it at medium tempo. The melody is insinuating when he plays it in a velvety way and stimulating when he does it with intensity. After that, he makes a light solo with well calculated phrases incorporating spacious silences. He is followed by Hancock presenting a more adventurous speech, but equally captivating and performed with an excellent sense of harmony and musicality. To finish, Shorter comes back to re-expose the theme.