Fenix remains an outstanding recording of its decade and even now has a towering presence. It took Barbieri a decade to pull together his early love affair with Parker with the free blowing he explored with Don Cherry; but what lit the blue touchpaper was his belated embracing of his own Argentinian folk roots. Until Fenix there was nothing like ‘El Dia Que Me Quieras’, ‘El Arriero’ or ‘Bahia’ on record. With a gold standard rhythm section behind him (notably Smith) Barbieri is able to blow like crazy without losing control, to be free yet have those irresistible latin rhythms and melodies rise and fall within incandescent, Coltrane-fuelled meditations. Maybe such a heady mix couldn't be sustained and a decade later the edges have smoothed, but Para Los Amigos has the virtue of being live. The combination of carnival and carnage is palpable, the political edge still to the fore, the fire still alive. However, returning from the long hiatus of illness and the death of his wife, Que Pasa, leaden with strings and synths, leans into a commercial groove that unfairly found Barbieri lumped into a smooth jazz box. But the emotion swells beyond the ‘sound design’ and Sulzmann and co. all drank deep from the well. Che Corazon is unabashedly nostalgic (there's even a string driven ‘Auld Lang Syne’) as Barbieri looks back over his career.