Jan Garbarek - Beyond the Nordic Ethos (from 1977)

 

Jan Garbarek, Photo by Roberto Masotti

Best known internationally for the well received recordings he has made for the ECM label, Norway's leading jazz musician Jan Garbarek, was once described by George Russell as the most exciting young player in Europe. Certainly he has made an an outstanding contribution to the cause of achieving wider recognition for European jazz. And if polls have any significance, his performance in recent years has been exceptionally impressive.

Words by Michael Tucker.

BEYOND THE NORDIC ETHOS

"WHEN 'FREE JAZZ' is proclaimed self-consciously as the way to play, it involves a contradiction-the musicians aren't free, for the music always ends up sounding the same."
That's how Jan Garbarek, the much-acclaimed 30-year-old Norwegian saxophonist and flautist, defines the limitations on contemporary jazz imposed by inadequate musicianship and an absence of discipline.
"The idea of an untutored guitarist going anywhere, anyhow on his instrument,finding out things completely by chance, sounds very nice-but not for my group."
"Then, historically, records like Ornette's Free Jazz and Coltrane's Ascension were just right for when they came out, but l wouldn't want to play on similar things today. There are many more possibilities now, more nuances to play with-a lot of them certainly opened up by those eariler records. 
Musicians like Coleman, Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders and Albert Ayler were certainly important influences on Garbarek in his formative years, but he feels no uneasiness about being a white European playing an acquired music which stems from the lived experience of black Americans.
"I've never felt guilty about being white and playing black music. And I've never minded
the word 'jazz' In fact, I'm proud to be perhaps considered within that tradition. Obviously 90 percent of jazz history, at least is from the black source and I know to whom I was originally-and still am-indebted.
"You could trace the scream effect back to Illinois Jacquet and others, used within a different style: or go back to the big sound of Hawkins or Chuck Berry-I was always drawn to that rather than to Lester Young's tone, though l appreciate him more now. "Dexter Gordon? Yes, of course-and then, if you think of the spiritual concern in Coltrane's music, you have to consider so many aspects of his background. Ever since I left the State Church at 14-about the time heard Coltrane-I've read a lot in the field of spirituality -if you like, and generally l have had other influences-you could say white influences-from within jazz, from folk tradition, from classical, romantic and 20th century composed music."
His synthesis of these influences has recently been described as possessing a quality
of "icy resignation" and some critics discern a distinctly Nordic element in his playing. This proposition brought wry smile from Garbarek when put it to him.
" I have to say that am not quite resignated (sic) yet! And you know, the further south. You
know the further south go, the icier it becomes here in. Norway. The trouble is, talk of a 'Nordic ethos' lends itself to myth so quickly. I've been to New York twice on government grants-l had six weeks there in the autumn of 1970 and really learned a lot, just listening. So I can tell you, at least, that the air is much cleaner In Norway!

 "Of course, I've related to Norwegian folk music. So there is that aspect, and yes, I am
fond of Munch's paintings and graphics. Particularly the earlier Frieze Of Life material. I've been raised In Norway, So naturally there are certain factors in my background. But really the development of the music I've played has been a lot to do with individual personalities and their particular qualities. Edward (Vesala) helped take it in a much looser, freer rhythmic direction, while Bobo (Stenson) had a lot to do with its becoming more song-like, more structured for example.
The study of the Norwegian folk tradition has obviously played a large part in the development of Garbarek's melodic sense, but given his earlier awareness of other major innovators on the American scene, I wondered it he had listened really closely to Ornette Coleman. "Oh, yes. In fact from about 1968 onwards I think I must have played almost all of his compositions -they are fine to play on. But then I also spent some time really  learning a few standards, going through the chords until I felt I could do practically anything with them."
It was almost decade ago that the American composer, arranger, Instrumentalist and musical theorist George Russell described Garbarek as the most exciting young player he had heard in Europe. Garbarek was in his late teens when he first caught Russell's attention and could fairly have been described as a promising post Coltraner who, in common with many young Europeans of the time, clearly drew inspiration from some exemplary black American sources. He made no attempt to disguise the fact: his first two albums as leader both opening with what were clearly heartfelt tributes to Coltrane.
Mr J.C. from the 1967 live trio and quartet recording, Til Vigdis (To Vigdis), is a lengthy, almost uncannily accurate pastiche based on Mr P.C from Coltrane's Giant Steps album: and the melody of Traneflight, trom the 1969 studio recording The Esoteric Circle (Flying
Dutchman 125), recalls the rubato ballads of Coltrane's last years. The extremes of swaggering extroversion and intimate rumination which Garbarek displayed on the
latter album are strongly reminiscent of Archie Shepp, though minus his overt political stance: and if one considers the then 22-year-old Garbarek's playing on Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature (Flying Dutchman 124), a Russell-led live sextet date from earlier in the year, the hard-edged declamation of his opening tenor solo lines, subsequent variety of tonal inflections and brief use of overblown sound-spans, would certainly suggest careful listening to the mid 60s work of "high energy" players like Shepp and Pharoah Sanders.
Precedents need not imply plagiarism, of course. and the elements of a distinctive, searching tenor sound were already evident in Garbarek's solos on Othello Ballet Suite
(Flying Dutchman 122), Russell's richly diversified big band recording from late 1967.
While the variety of forms and subtle treatment of dvnamics on The Esoteric Circle evinced the growing strength of his musical imagination and an ability to avoid rumbling
in the shadows of a giant such as Coltrane.
The recordings for ECM in the '70s have shown Garbarek becoming ever more his own man, the huge evocative tone and technical ability of his late '60s work being rogressively
developed and refined to serve a range of considered expression.
In many respects this has typified what critic and producer Joachim Berendt presumably meant by his rather bald statement that "The jazz of the seventies melodizes and structuralizes the freedom of the jazz of the sixties." Parts of Garbarek's first ECM recording, the 1970 Afric Pepperbird (ECM 1007) with fellow Norwegians Terie Rypdal (guitar) and Arild Andersen (bass) and long-time Garbarek associate, drummer Jon Christensen complementing the leader's generally aggressive work on saxes and flutes proved that he could scream as loudly as any, if need be. On the appropriately titled Blow Away Zone, his very free tenor solo displays an almost bestial power, the Avlerish width of vibrato in his entry prefacing considerable use of the false upper register over the fierce polyrhythms supplied by Andersen and Christensen.
Subsequent recordings reveal a gradual move away from such extreme extroversion towards a tempered synthesis of declamatory and lyrical elements, the title track of the 1971 quintet date Sart (Soft/Tender: ECM 1015) being an early manifestation of the increasing subtleties of his style. His lengthy tenor statement an integral part of the reflectively open, collective performance, the use of space and harmonics being particularly noteworthy aspects of a delivery full of emotional nuance. Triptykon (ECM 1029), a 1972 trio date with Andersen and Finnish drummer Edward
Vesala, did contain some heated soprano on the title track and an agitated, multiphonic tenor duet with Vesala on Etu Hei! but one is more inclined to remark the plaintive lyricism of the tenor lines on Rim, the dirge-like ovening and concluding sections of Triptykon itself, and the direct reference to the melodic richness of Norwegian folk tradition on Bruremarsi.

To be continued. Ref : Jazz Journal International Oct '77