The Esoteric Circle (feat. Jan Garbarek) – Same (1969)

Esoteric Circle is the second album by Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, originally released under the band name “The Esoteric Circle” on Bob Thiele’s Flying Dutchman label but re-issued under his name on the Freedom imprint, performed by Garbarek with Terje Rypdal, Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen. (by wikipedia)

Jan Garbarek had studied with the great American composer George Russell, and had previously appeared on Russell’s venture into jazz-rock, Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved By Nature. Whereas his teacher’s usage of rock rhythms in an avant jazz context often came off as rather clunky, for Garbarek and his guitarist, Terje Rypdal, formerly a member of the popular Norwegian band the Vanguards, such a melding was more second nature. The Esoteric Circle, the first album by their band of the same name (hey, this was still the ’60s after all), is a highly successful and enjoyable effort, one that can stand comfortably with work being done at that time by Tony Williams or John McLaughlin.

Alternate front+ backcover:

Garbarek’s compositions range from deeply felt homages to Coltrane (“Traneflight” and “Nefertite”) to rocking jams like “Rabalder,” where Rypdal gets to showcase his considerable chops. In fact, some of these themes were used by Russell in his aforementioned work. Garbarek’s own playing, here entirely on tenor, come largely out of Albert Ayler as well as Coltrane, and his general attack is much more raw and aggressive than the style for which he would eventually become more widely known through his recordings for ECM. Listeners who enjoy his first several albums for that label (from Afric Pepperbird to Witchi-Tai-To) will find much to savor here. (by Brian Olewnick)

Oh yes, the very earl days of Jan Garbarek … First released in 1969 under the band name ‘The Esoteric Circle’ on the Flying Dutchman label (US), later re-issued by Freedom under Jan Garbarak’s name in 1976.

This quartet played a unique hybrid of jazz-rock, free jazz  …

Listen and enjoy

Personnel:
Arild Andersen (bass)
Jon Christensen (drums, percussion)
Jan Garbarek (saxophone)
Terje Rypdal (guitar)

Tracklist:
01. Traneflight 2.57
02. Ralbalder 8.20
03. Esoteric Circle 5.27
04. Vips 5.47
05. Sas 644 7.53
06. Nefertite 2.09
07. Gee 1.14
08. Karin’s Mode 7.36
09. Breeze Ending 3.44

Composed by Jan Garbarek

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Alternate labels:

Jan Garbarek – Live in Matera (2019)

As an improvising musician, Jan Garbarek has said that he seeks to make his playing “fit the tone, texture and temperament of the music. It’s about finding a common language.” The quest to explore that language has ranged widely across time and space, from the folk songs of his native Norway to improvisations around medieval polyphony and the music of the Indian subcontinent and Middle East, as well as jazz. In the course of these musical journeys, the intensely focused sounds of his tenor and soprano saxophones have become among the most instantly recognizable and haunting in contemporary music.

Garbarek was born in Mysen, Norway in 1947. His family later moved to Oslo and, at the age of 14, Garbarek first heard John Coltrane on the radio, which inspired him to take up the saxophone. Dexter Gordon, then a frequent visitor to Norway, also made a deep impression.

In 1962 Garbarek won a competition for amateur jazz players and for the rest of the decade worked regularly in Norway, usually as a leader, but he also spent four years with jazz composer and theorist George Russell, who would later describe him as “the most original voice in European jazz since Django Reinhardt”. In 1969, ECM founder Manfred Eicher asked Garbarek to join the roster of his new record label. Garbarek’s first ECM album was Afric Pepperbird. “After we recorded it we knew we had something special,” Eicher remembered. It was to be the first step in one of ECM’s most distinguished recording careers.

Jan Garbarek rose to international fame in the mid-1970s playing with Keith Jarrett’s European Quartet, which released the albums Belonging, My Song and the live recordings Personal Mountains, Nude Ants, and Sleeper. Such collaborations, in the words of Jarrett’s biographer, Ian Carr, took “the art of classic jazz to its highest pinnacle”.

Triptykon (1972) was the first recording on which Garbarek used a Norwegian folk song in his playing, a direction in which he had been encouraged by American trumpeter Don Cherry. “Whether I like it or not,” Garbarek told one writer, “I am locked into a certain vocabulary or phraseology which is linked to Norwegian folk music.”

In 1979, Garbarek recorded Photo with Blue Sky, the first of a series of albums with the Jan Garbarek Group, a regular touring band whose line-up would evolve over the decades. It was not until 2007 that they recorded a live album, however, the double CD, Dresden. As the Guardian wrote of the group on their 2007 tour: “The contrast between an intense jamming sound and the songlike simplicity of the tunes is always Garbarek’s magic mix, but this version of the band has an exhilarating intensity.”

Officium, one of the most significant recordings of Garbarek’s career – and in the history of ECM – was made in 1993 in St Gerold monastery in Austria with the Hilliard Ensemble. Garbarek’s sax – a “fifth voice” – weaves soaring, swooping lines around the polyphony of the vocal quartet, creating effects that are as entrancing as they are unexpected. In 1999 came a sequel, Mnemosyne, which ranged further across time in its musical material, and Officum Novum explored the crossroads between east and west, with particular focus on the music of Armenia.

Garbarek’s restless musical imagination, so evident in his Hilliard collaborations and countless other projects over the years, keeps driving him forward. Of his musical journey he says: “It never really stands still. Not at any point in time can you say, ‘Now I reached something.’” (by ecm.com)

And yes, Jan Gabarek ist still active … alive and well. So listen to his brilliant concert, recorded at the Gezziamoci Festival 2019 in Matera/Italy.

This show was broadcasted by an Italian TV-Station (this video is included in my file) and so we have a brilliant soundboard recording.

In keeping with the theme of bringing cultures together, various concerts featuring international musicians will take place as part of the Materadio programming. An especial highlight promises to be the performance of Norwegian jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek, who will be joined on stage by another world-class musician, Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu. (press release)

Indeed: another nearly perfect perfomance by one the greatest jazz musician of our time !

Enjoy this rarity !

Personnel:
Rainer Brüninghaus (keyboards)
Yuri Daniel (bass)
Jan Garbarek (saxophone, flute)
Trilok Gurtu (drums, percussion, tablas, vocals)

Tracklist:
01. Opening (unknown) 2.32
02. Molde Canticle (Garbarek) 16.55
03. Untitled (unknown) 5.27
04. Hot Æ Dæ Fe Noko Vesolt Væ (Jutulen Og Stolt Øli) (Garbarek) 10.34
05. Matera Five (Brüninghaus/Daniel/Garvarek/Gurtu) 5.01
06 Matera Six (Brüninghaus/Daniel/Garvarek/Gurtu) 11.36
07 Matera Seven (Brüninghaus/Daniel/Garvarek/Gurtu) 7.20
08 Rainer Solo (Brüninghaus) 8.07
09 All Those Born With Wings (5th Piece) (Garbarek) 6.20
10.  Trilok Solo (Gurtu) 12.12
11. Improvisation (Brüninghaus/Daniel/Garvarek/Gurtu) 9.57
12. Had To Cry Today (Winwood) 7.10

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Keith Jarrett & Jan Garbarek – European Quartet (1974)

For a band destined to be so influential, led by a pianist who is certainly not shy of the recording process, Keith Jarrett’s so-called European quartet was parlously under-documented.

Two studio albums, Belonging (1974) and My Song (1977) and a single live recording, Nude Ants (1979) made at New York’s Village Vanguard, were all that Jarrett and producer Manfred Eicher saw fit to release at the time. But the studio albums in particular were of such a high quality, so totally original in their conception, so utterly, heart-openingly beautiful, they were enough to establish the quartet as one of the most influential acoustic units to emerge from the otherwise fusion-soaked 1970s.

Formed around Jarrett’s bravura playing and writing, the group featured three then little-known Scandinavian musicians: saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Palle Danielsson and drummer Jon Christensen. The Europeans seemed to have a liberating effect on the Pennsylvania pianist.

Even now, with more than 50 other ECM recordings to his name, among them some of the most celebrated jazz albums of the post-Coltrane era, Jarrett stands out for his playing with the European quartet – joyous, exuberant flights of pure melodic invention, imbued with a bright-eyed romanticism that is rare in modern jazz.

Also known as the Scandinavian quartet, Jarrett’s alliance with Jan Garbarek (tenor and soprano sax), Palle Danielsson (bass), and Jon Christensen (drums) stood in smooth contrast to the American quartet’s restlessness. Common to both groups was Jarrett’s brilliant writing and a few free and ethnic tangents. Their first album Belonging was recorded in the heyday of the American quartet, but they only became a working unit after the Americans had dissembled. Considering all the compositions Jarrett wrote for both groups, it cements him as one of the most creative jazz artists of the 1970s, all without playing a lick of fusion.  (by jazzshelf.org)

And here´s a brilliant live recording from this “European quartet”… a broadcast recording, live at the Funkhaus, Studios 1, Hannover … recorded by the German radio station “NDR”.

Listen and you´ll know why I think and feel, that this is timeless music !

Personnel:
Jon Christensen (drums)
Palle Danielsson (bass)
Jan Garbarek (saxophone)
Keith Jarrett (piano)

Tracklist:
01. Introduction (in German) 0.35
02. Belonging 5.03
03. Spiral Dance 13.53
04. Blossom 15.50
05. Give Me Your Ribbons And I’ll Give You My Bows 7.53
06. The Windup 13.37
07. Long As You Know You’re Living Yours 17.13
08. Mandala 7.23
09. Solstice 14.44

Music composed by Keith Jarrett

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Jan Garbarek – Photo With Blue Sky (1978)

Photo with Blue Sky, White Cloud, Wires, Windows and a Red Roof is an album by Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, released in 1979 on the ECM label and performed by Garbarek, John Taylor, Bill Connors, Eberhard Weber and Jon Christensen.

Jan Garbarek’s icy and haunting tones on tenor and soprano are in the forefront during much of this set. He performs six originals (which have simple but picturesque titles such as “Blue Sky,” “Windows” and “The Red Roof”) with the assistance of guitarist Bill Connors, pianist John Taylor, bassist Eberhard Weber and drummer Jon Christensen. Nothing too exciting occurs, but this is high-quality background music. (by Scott Yanow)

From the flowing introductory licks to the final exhalation that snaps this sonic locket shut, one look at the track listing of this debut nominal album from the Jan Garbarek Group can’t help but remind us of William Carlos Williams. The full title—Photo With Blue Sky, White Cloud, Wires, Windows And A Red Roof—is a Williams verse in itself, each element drawn from the cover photo into a sonic description thereof. Together they form a concept album in the deepest sense, the anatomy of which is known before the music even graces our ears. Garbarek is as incisive as the words, each the tooth of a widening grin.

Melody and circumstance cohabitate the sonorous waves that issue from every new turn that awaits us, and all in a language that is mellifluous, filled with open spaces, and drenched in Garbarek’s sunlit tone. The airy piano stylings of John Taylor and ever-moving bass of Eberhard Weber, not to mention outstanding contributions from guitarist Bill Connor and the omniscient Jon Christensen on drums, make for a most soluble palette. Even in such a pool of bases, Garbarek’s thematic bite loses none of its acidity. His is an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of worldly-wise meditations and humble commentary.

Each piece breaks a piece from the longer title and rolls it out into a photo in its own right. “White Cloud” works its way from the inside out, laying the tender kindling of a solo piano before being set aglow by Garbarek’s deep smolder. Slowly but surely, drums, bass, and electric guitar weave their way into this dreamlike fabric, cinched by soothing legato threads. We keep our eyes on the cover as its “Windows” are hung with lilting harmonies between Garbarek and Taylor. An acoustic guitar speculates through its translucent frame, enhancing Connors’s understated brilliance all the more. “Red Roof” finds Garbarek in a more pentatonic mode in his soaring reverberant passages, while “Wires” gives us a more animated, earthbound concept in which to contemplate the patterns of our psychic dentition.

This track is composed not of melodies, but of wing beats tickling the edges of our brains with promises of light, and all the more soothing for its lack of vivid rhythmic separation. Every fragment falls into place in “The Picture,” which sprouts from the piano’s chromatic seeds into a small yet lush garden of life. Garbarek paints delicate images in the snatches of sky afforded to us while Weber’s bass navigates the soil below with the silent knowledge of an earthworm, closing in a gorgeous crepuscular fade.

Photo With… is far more than the “high-quality background music” it has been accused of being elsewhere. It was a finely polished stepping stone for the Norwegian saxophonist and composer, who with its ripples forged a distinct sonic shoreline that we continue to imprint every time we put our ears to its surface. (by Tyran Grillo)

Personnel:
Jon Christensen (drums)
Bill Connors (guitar)
Jan Garbarek (saxophone)
John Taylor (piano)
Eberhard Weber (bass)

Tracklist:
01. Blue Sky 6.42
02. White Cloud 9.03
03. Windows 6.42
04. Red Roof 7.46
05. Wires 5.20
06. The Picture 8.01

All compositions by Jan Garbarek

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Jan Garbarek – Bobo Stenson Quartet – Witchi-Tai-To (1974)

Witchi-Tai-To is an album by the Jan Garbarek-Bobo Stenson Quartet released on the ECM label and performed by Garbarek, Stenson, Palle Danielsson, and Jon Christensen.

Witchi-Tai-To is an album by the Jan Garbarek-Bobo Stenson Quartet released on the ECM label and performed by Garbarek, Stenson, Palle Danielsson, and Jon Christensen. This selection of composers Carla Bley, Jim Pepper, Don Cherry, Palle Danielsson, Carlos Puebla keep this fast and free indeed. Jan Garbarek has stepped up to deliver and has all his taste and styles loaded. Bobo Stenson always seams to shine in all surroundings, this session he sounds more Jarrett-est with that touch of Tyner added then ever before indeed Sophisticated Post Bop and Progressive. Plenty for your ears and one to have in any collection. (by Rick Ransom)

Long before he became the standard-bearer for the “ECM sound,” churning out discs with a mildly medieval or Scandinavian flavor spiced with enough new age fluff to guarantee sales, Jan Garbarek produced a string of superb albums, culminating in Witchi-Tai-To, his masterpiece. Intriguingly, with the exception of Palle Danielsson’s “Kukka,” all of the pieces here are cover versions, largely culled from the then burgeoning Jazz Composers Orchestra catalog or related musicians. It opens with Carla Bley’s “A.I.R.,” an incredibly infectious melody heard on her Escalator Over the Hill. Garbarek’s soprano slithers sensuously around the theme, searching for and finding all manner of variations, while Stenson, a chameleon-like pianist who shows aspects of Jarrett, Tyner, and Alice Coltrane, makes all the right choices in support. Charlie Haden used the Carlos Puebla composition “Hasta Siempre” as a cornerstone for his Liberation Music Orchestra, and Garbarek rips into it with total romantic gusto; his tenor playing has never sounded more robust, muscular, or inspired. The title track by Jim Pepper is given a short but lovely reading,

Garbarek withholding its gorgeous theme until the end of the piece, leaving the listener dying to hear more. Which is exactly what Don Cherry did on his Relativity Suite, where his supremely beautiful song “Desireless” lasted barely a minute. Here, it’s stretched out over the 20-minute mark, Garbarek summoning the spirit of John Coltrane and offering a stunning amount of indefatigable creativity. He might never have reached similar heights since, but Witchi-Tai-To, along with Dave Holland’s Conference of the Birds, is one of the two finest jazz albums that ECM ever released, and simply one of the very top jazz albums of the ’70s. /by Brian Olewnick)

Personnel:
Jon Christensen (drums)
Palle Danielsson (bass)
Jan Garbarek (saxophone)
Bobo Stenson (piano)

Tracklist:
01. A.I.R. (Bley) 8.20
02. Kukka (Danielsson) 4.38
03. Hasta Siempre (Puebla) 8.15
04. Witchi-Tai-To (Pepper) 4.27
05. Desireless (Cherry) 20.25

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Jan Garbarek (feat. Kim Kashkashian & Manu Katché) – In Praise Of Dreams (2004)

It has been six years since saxophonist/composer Jan Garbarek issued a new recording under his own name. For In Praise of Dreams Garbarek enlisted violist Kim Kashkashian and frequent collaborator Manu Katché on drums. Garbarek, who composed the album’s 11 selections, plays saxophones as well as a host of keyboards and percussion, while Katché plays acoustic and electronic drums along with Kashkashian’s viola. In many ways this is the most radical recording that Garbarek has ever issued, but not because it’s outside — quite the opposite. This is easily the warmest, most accessible outing Garbarek has ever issued because though there are no vocals, Garbarek has clearly written “songs” on this set, with identifiable structures that are followed almost throughout. Though he is no stranger to the form, having employed it almost continually for the last 20 years, he has never engaged it so thoroughly and completely. Previously, he has engaged improvisation to get song to the breaking point and move it somewhere else. Here it is always present; surprise happens inside the formal frameworks of these compositions. Beautiful, soulful lines underscore and recontextualize the saxophonist’s trademark Nordic iciness of tone on the opener, “As Seen from Above,” with its spiraling soprano, lush keyboards, and hypnotic loops.

In its warmth, it comes very close to a distinctly European kind of groove/soul-jazz. The interplay between Kashkashian and Garbarek on the title track offers rounded, multidimensional sonorities winding through the intro before spilling into a call-and-response melody. The repetitive keyboard line and Katché’s mantra-like drumming under the loops draw the listener inside the song’s heart and extend the edge for the front line. The restrained romanticism shown by Kashkashian on her nocturnal solo intro to “One Goes There Alone” is nearly breathtaking. As it gives way to the tune itself, it’s slow, reflective, and rooted deeply in the tension created between percussion and Garbarek’s minimal backing response lines. When he solos later in the tune, he’s clearly blowing blues into her elegiac line. The blues notion continues in his phrasing on “Knot of Place and Time,” slipping through the landscape of Kashkashian’s elegant, near heartbreakingly poetic soundscape. And so it goes. Things get more speculative on “Scene from Afar” and “Cloud of Unknowing,” but it hardly matters since these song forms are nonetheless immediately recognizable, presenting the nether side of the equation. It emerges again with “Conversation With a Stone” and whispers to a close with “A Tale Begun,” a mantra-like duet that closes this strong set that will undoubtedly, if it gets the opportunity to be heard, garner Jan Garbarek some new fans. Poetic, moving, and marvelous, In Praise of Dreams is a welcome return. (by Thom Jurek)

Personnel:
Jan Garbarek (saxophone, synthesizer, percussion)
Kim Kashkashian (viola)
Manu Katché (drums)

Tracklist:
01. As Seen From Above 4:4
02. In Praise Of Dreams 5:21
03. One Goes There Alone 5:0
04. Knot Of Place And Time 6:22
05. If You Go Far Enough 0:39
06. Scene From Afar 5:14
07. Cloud Of Unknowing 5:22
08. Without Visible Sign 4:59
09. Iceburn 4:59
10. Conversation With A Stone 4:18
11. A Tale Begun 4:39

All compositions written by Jan Garbarek

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Jan Garbarek

Jan Garbarek – Esoteric Circle (1971)

Jan Garbarek had studied with the great American composer George Russell, and had previously appeared on Russell’s venture into jazz-rock, Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved By Nature. Whereas his teacher’s usage of rock rhythms in an avant jazz context often came off as rather clunky, for Garbarek and his guitarist, Terje Rypdal, formerly a member of the popular Norwegian band the Vanguards, such a melding was more second nature. The Esoteric Circle, the first album by their band of the same name (hey, this was still the ’60s after all), is a highly successful and enjoyable effort, one that can stand comfortably with work being done at that time by Tony Williams or John McLaughlin. Garbarek’s compositions range from deeply felt homages to Coltrane (“Traneflight” and “Nefertite”) to rocking jams like “Rabalder,” where Rypdal gets to showcase his considerable chops. In fact, some of these themes were used by Russell in his aforementioned work. Garbarek’s own playing, here entirely on tenor, come largely out of Albert Ayler as well as Coltrane, and his general attack is much more raw and aggressive than the style for which he would eventually become more widely known through his recordings for ECM. Listeners who enjoy his first several albums for that label (from Afric Pepperbird to Witchi-Tai-To) will find much to savor here. (by Brian Olewnick)

Jan Garbarek’s solo debut, released on US-label Flying Dutchman under “Esoteric Circle” project’s name (and later re-released as his solo album), is really interesting release for every Garbarek fan.
First of all,music presented there is a bit raw but innovative mix of post-bop, fusion and avant- garde jazz. Musician’s line up is the same as on Garbarek second, much better known album (and his debut on ECM), but the music sounds different. Rhythm section is more conservative there and rarely leaves post-bop tradition, but Garbarek’s tenor sax and partially Rypdal’s electric guitar make some trips to fusion and avant-garde zones. As a result, album in whole sounds slightly unfocused, but raw,dirty and even explosive in moments (what is impossible for any Garbarek’s recorded on ECM music).

Some compositions have strong emotional vibes, nice tunes, and Coltrane’s influences are obvious there.At the same time, Jon Christensen and Terje Rypdal bring some heavier and rockier elements, from jazz-rock to rock jamming. Eclectic and quite unusual musical mix for Garbarek’s album, isn’t it?

Rare and interesting release illustrating Garbarek’s (and Rypdal’s) early musical influences,inspired and innovative as few first Garbarek’s ECM albums are. (by snobb)

Personnel:
Arild Andersen (bass)
Jon Christensen (drums, percussion)
Jan Garbarek (saxophone)
Terje Rypdal (guitar)

Tracklist:
01. Traneflight 2.57
02. Rabalder 8.21
03. Esoteric Circle 5.28
04. Vips 5.47
05. SAS 644 7.53
06. Nefertite 2.09
07. Gee 1.14
08. Karin’s Mode 7.36
09. Breeze Ending 3.44

Music composed by Jan Garbarek

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