Jan Garbarek (born 4 March 1947 in Mysen
, Norway
) is a
Norwegian tenor and soprano saxophonist, active in the jazz, classical, and world music genres. Garbarek was the only
child of a former Polish prisoner of war Czeslaw Garbarek and a
Norwegian farmer's daughter. Effectively stateless until the age of
seven (there is no automatic grant of citizenship in Norway)
Garbarek grew up in Oslo. At 21, he married Vigdis. His daughter
Anja Garbarek is also a
musician.
Biography
Garbarek's sound is one of the hallmarks of the
ECM record label, which has released
virtually all of his recordings. His style incorporates a
sharp-edged tone, long, keening, sustained notes strongly
reminiscent of
Islamic prayer calls, and
generous use of silence. He began his recording career in the late
1960s, notably featuring on recordings by the American jazz
composer
George Russell
(such as
Othello Ballet
Suite and
Electronic Sonata
for Souls Loved by Nature). If he had initially appeared
as a devotee of
Albert Ayler and
Peter Brötzmann, by 1973 he had
turned his back on the harsh dissonances of
avant-garde jazz, retaining only his tone
from his previous approach.
Garbarek gained wider recognition through his work with pianist
Keith Jarrett's European Quartet which
released the albums
Belonging (1974),
My Song (1977) and the live recordings
Personal Mountains
(1979), and
Nude Ants (1979). He
was also a featured soloist on Jarrett's orchestral works
Luminessence (1974)
and
Arbour Zena (1975)
As a composer, Garbarek tends to draw heavily from
Scandinavian folk melodies, a legacy of his
Ayler influence. He is also a pioneer of ambient jazz composition,
most notably on his 1976 album
Dis a collaboration with guitarist
Ralph Towner that featured the distinctive
sound of a
wind harp on several tracks.
This textural approach, which rejects traditional notions of
thematic improvisation (best exemplified by
Sonny Rollins) in favour of a style described
by critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton as "sculptural in its
impact", has been critically divisive. Garbarek's more meandering
recordings are often labeled as
New Age
music, a style generally scorned by more orthodox jazz
musicians and listeners, or spiritual ancestors thereof. Other
experiments have included setting a collection of poems of
Olav H. Hauge to
music, with a single saxophone complementing a full mixed choir;
this has led to notable performances with
Grex Vocalis, but not yet to recordings. In the
1980s, Garbarek's music began to incorporate
synthesizers and elements of
world music.
In 1993, during the
Gregorian chant
craze, his album
Officium,
a collaboration with
early music vocal
performers the
Hilliard Ensemble,
became one of ECM's biggest-selling albums of all time, reaching
the pop charts in several European countries and was followed by a
sequel,
Mnemosyne, in
1999. In 2005, his album
In
Praise of Dreams was nominated for a
Grammy. Garbarek's first live album
Dresden was released in
2009.
Film music
Selections from
Dis have been used as incidental music in
several feature films and documentaries. Garbarek has composed
music for the film
Kippur and several
other European films, including French and Norwegian films. His
composition "Rites" was used in the American film
The Insider and Garbarek performs on
Yoko Kanno &
The Seatbelts' soundtrack for the Japanese
anime Cowboy
Bebop.
Discography
Jan Garbarek live
As leader
As sideman
References
External links
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