Gabor Szabo – The Sorcerer (Verve by Request Series)

To some, Wes Montgomery was the inventor of pop jazz; to others, it was George Benson. In fact, however, that credit probably belongs more to a Hungarian colleague of the two: guitarist Gabor Szabo, who died in 1982 at the age of 45.

"If you play pop songs, all you can do is prove you're a better musician because you know what to do with them," Szabo asserted. He showed what he meant by that on his 1967 album "The Sorcerer," which he recorded live at the Boston Jazz Workshop.

The repertoire reflected what was hip at the time: a bossa nova by Roberto Menescal, a top 10 hit by Sonny & Cher and a piece by French film composer Francis Lai. Szabo knew how to give this material a distinctly jazzy edge without robbing the poppy, groovy tunes of their magic.

Newly remastered at London's Abbey Road studios, pressed in 180g vinyl and, of course, in the famous original gatefold sleeves.