Jan Garbarek (born 4 March 1947) is a Norwegian jazz saxophonist, who is also active in classical
Garbarek was born in Mysen, Norway, the only child of a former Polish prisoner of war, Czesław Garbarek, and a Norwegian farmer's daughter. He grew up in Oslo, stateless until the age of seven, as there was no automatic grant of citizenship in Norway at the time. When he was 21, he married Vigdis. He is the father of musician and composer Anja Garbarek.
Recording almost exclusively for ECM since 1970, he has created a twisted jazz that explores Gregorian chant, Nordic folksong and Indian classical music, but for more than a decade he’s been playing the festival circuit with a quartet that’s often reminiscent of MOR American saxophonists such as David Sanborn or Kenny G, playing simple and accessible melodies on his soprano sax over a rather bland, smooth jazz accompaniment.
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.
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”.
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 sound is one of the hallmarks of the ECM Records label, which has released virtually all of his recordings. His style incorporates a sharp-edged tone, long, keening, sustained notes, and
Rites is a double album recorded in 1998 and released on the ECM label.
[ AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek
Since the late '70s, Jan Garbarek has been carving out a place within jazz for the folk and spiritual traditions of the indigenous peoples of Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and finally of those people all over the world.
Rites, a double CD, is his attempt at forging a synthesis that takes improvisation into the heart of ritual music and creates a new form of spiritual from them both. Using a strategy for each of the discs, the first one digs deep into the spiritual and mystical side of his language. Garbarek plays soprano and tenor as well as synthesizers, drum machines, and samples -- always understated, always elegant -- and utilizes the talents of some of his running mates as well as new ones.
Rainer Bruninghaus appears sporadically throughout, as does bassist Eberhard Weber, and drummer/percussion wizard Marilyn Mazur is ubiquitous. The music is slow, tenuous, and repetitive. It hardly matters -- on disc one, anyway -- which of the pieces are being played. All of them have spare, chant-like melodies that are lifted by myriad percussion instruments and keyboards, which provide a spacious ambience in which to enfold them both.
Even Garbarek's trademark icy saxophone -- usually made more so by Manfred Eicher's production --
Disc two of Rites is a bit of a different story. While the music is indeed intended for ritual, it comes from the celebratory side of the aisle rather than the contemplative one. Here are dances, Garbarek's versions of gospel shouts, processionals, festival waltzes, and all manner of joyful ceremonies completing the circle.
On one collection, listeners get music for prayer, contemplation, and grief, as well as a funky European read of indigenous music for moving to and celebrating. Clearly this is what sets Rites above Garbarek's other recordings, him taking that balance he possessed so early in his career back again and putting it to work in a near-sacred setting.]
TRACKS
All compositions by Jan Garbarek except as indicated
Disc One:
1. Rites - 8:29
2. Where the Rivers Meet - 7:02
3. Vast Plain, Clouds - 5:55
4. So Mild the Wind, So Meek the Water - 6:11
5. Song, Tread Lightly - 7:45
6. It's OK to Listen to the Gray Voice - 6:45
7. Her Wild Ways - 6:46
Disc Two:
1. It's High Time - 3:36
2. One Ying for Every Yang - 6:36
3. Pan - 6:13
4. We Are the Stars - 5:03
5. The Moon Over Mtatsminda (Jansug Kakhidze) - 4:02
6. Malinye (Don Cherry) - 6:22
7. The White Clown - 3:47
8. Evenly They Danced - 5:18
9. Last Rite - 8:25
Personnel
Jan Garbarek - soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, synthesizers, sampler,percussion Rainer Brüninghaus - piano (Disc One tracks 4, 6 & 7), keyboards (Disc One tracks 3 & 6, Disc Two tracks 2 & 7)
Eberhard Weber - bass (Disc One tracks 3, 4, 6, & 7, Disc Two tracks 2 & 7)
Marilyn Mazur - drums (Disc One tracks 3, 4, 6 & 7, Disc Two tracks 2, 6 & 7), percussion (Disc One tracks 2 & 5)
Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra - conducted by Jansug Kakhidze (Disc Two track 5)
Bugge Wesseltoft - synthesizer (Disc One track 1, Disc Two tracks 1, 8 & 9), accordion (Disc Two track 6)
Sølvguttene Choir - conducted by Torstein Grythe (Disc Two track 4)
