Eduardo Gutiérrez del Barrio, known professionally as Eddie del Barrio, is an Argentinian composer, arranger, songwriter, and pianist. He is a founding member of the

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

band

Caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

. He has collaborated with

Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (EW&F or EWF) is an American band whose music spans the genres of jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, big band, Latin, and Afro pop. They are among the best-selling bands of all time, with sales of over 90 million re ...

Stan Getz Stanley Getz (February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of ...

Herb Alpert Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the ...

, and

Dianne Reeves Dianne Elizabeth Reeves (born October 23, 1956) is an American jazz singer. Biography Dianne Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan, into a musical family. Her father sang, her mother played trumpet, her uncle is bassist Charles Burrell, and h ...

Early life

Eduardo del Barrio was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, Argentina, in 1937. In 1942 his family moved to Mendoza, where his father started a music school. Del Barrio is a classically trained pianist. At seventeen he led a jazz band, playing in clubs. In 1965 he moved to the United States. His brother Jorge del Barrio was classically trained and moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as an arranger.

Career

Eduardo del Barrio and Jorge Strunz of Costa Rica were the founding members of

, a

group. Caldera was composed of Del Barrio on keyboards, Strunz on guitar, Dean Cortez on bass and

Steve Tavaglione Steve Tavaglione, sometimes known as "Tav", is a woodwind and EWI musician best known for his work as a co-founder of the Latin fusion group Caldera with Jorge Strunz and Eduardo del Barrio, his work with Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, John Pi ...

on saxophone, Cuban drummer

Carlos Vega Carlos Vega (December 7, 1956 – April 7, 1998) was a Cuban-born Los Angeles-based session drummer best known for his performances with James Taylor. As a part of the L.A. studio scene from the late 1970s through the 1990s, Vega contributed to ...

, and Brazilian percussionist Mike Azevedo. In 1976

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

signed the band and released the debut album ''

''. Del Barrio co-produced the albums ''

Sky Islands Sky islands are isolated mountains surrounded by radically different lowland environments. The term originally referred to those found on the Mexican Plateau, and has extended to similarly isolated high-elevation forests. The isolation has s ...

'', '' Time and Chance'', and '' Dreamer''.

Larry Dunn Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

, co-produced Sky Islands. Caldera's song "Out of the Blue" reached position 95 on the

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Soul Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

on January 22, 1977. "Time and Chance" reached position 46 on the Billboard Best Selling Jazz LPs chart in October 1978. "Ancient Source" was sampled by American rapper

Joey Badass Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott (born January 20, 1995), known professionally as Joey Badass (stylized as Joey Bada$$), is an American rapper, singer, and actor. A native of Brooklyn, New York City, he is a founding member of the hip-hop collective Pro ...

on his song "95 Til' Infinity". Del Barrio composed "

Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

", "Runnin' ", "

Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

", "Sailaway", "Sparkle", "Straight from the Heart" and "Miracles" for Earth, Wind & Fire. "Runnin'" was re-recorded by American jazz musician Marcus Miller with additional music and lyrics under the title "Keep 'Em Runnin". "Fantasy" received a nomination for Grammy Award for

Best R&B Song The Grammy Award for Best R&B Song (sometimes known as the R&B Songwriter's Award) has been awarded since 1969. From 1969 to 2000, it was known as the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Song. Beyoncé has won it a record four times, while Bab ...

. "Runnin" won a Grammy award for

Best R&B Instrumental Performance The Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance was awarded from 1970 to 1990 and in 1993. The award had several minor name changes: *From 1970 to 1985 the award was known as Best R&B Instrumental Performance *From 1986 to 1989 it was award ...

. Del Barrio collaborated with

during the recording sessions for Caldera's album ''Sky Islands'' when she sang on the song "Ancient Source". Reeves sang a version of "Ancient Source" on her album ''The Nearness of You''. Del Barrio was a composer on her albums ''

'' and ''Bridges'' and produced her album ''Art and Survival''. During 2005, the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

commissioned Del Barrio to compose a symphonic jazz mass. "Misa Justa" was written for an orchestra, large choir, five jazz soloists, bass, and drums. Dianne Reeves,Billy Childs,

Hubert Laws Hubert Laws (born November 10, 1939) is an American flutist and saxophonist with a career spanning over 40 years in jazz, classical, and other music genres. Laws is one of the few classical artists who has also mastered jazz, pop, and rhythm- ...

,Pal McCandless and

Terence Blanchard Terence Oliver Blanchard (born March 13, 1962) is an American trumpeter and composer. He started his career in 1982 as a member of the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, then The Jazz Messengers. He has composed more than forty film scores and performed ...

made guest appearances at the concert, which premiered at the

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Ave ...

. Del Barrio began his collaboration with

by composing four songs for his 1988 album ''Under a Spanish Moon''. He composed and played on Alpert's '' North on South St.'' and worked as an orchestrator on Alpert's album ''

Midnight Sun The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When the midnight sun is seen in the Arctic, t ...

''. Del Barrio then arranged, orchestrated, and played keyboards on Alpert's album ''Steppin' Out''.''Steppin' Out'' won the Grammy Award for

Best Pop Instrumental Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album (previously: Best Pop Instrumental Album) is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording arti ...

in 2013. Herb Alpert signed Del Barrio to A&M, were he recorded his album ''Free Play''. Del Barrio worked as a composer, orchestrator, and keyboard player on

's album ''Apasionado''. The album received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Jazz Fusion Performance.

Awards and honors

* Grammy Award nomination,

, "

" by Earth, Wind & Fire, 1978

Discography

* ''Free Play'' (A&M, 1991)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Del Barrio, Eddie 1937 births Argentine composers Argentine jazz pianists Living people