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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