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Jan Garbarek

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Jan Garbarek
Jan Garbarek in Oslo in 2016
Jan Garbarek in Oslo in 2016
Background information
Born (1947-03-04) 4 March 1947 (age 77)
Mysen, Norway
OriginOslo, Norway
GenresJazz, classical, world
OccupationMusician
InstrumentSaxophone
Years active1966–present
LabelsECM, Flying Dutchman
Websitewww.garbarek.com

Jan Garbarek (born 4 March 1947)[1] is a Norwegian jazz saxophonist who is also active in classical music and world music.

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.[2]

Biography

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 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 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).[3] He was also a featured soloist on Jarrett's orchestral works Luminessence (1974) and Arbour Zena (1975).[4]

Garbarek live in 2007.
Garbarek with Eberhard Weber and Nana Vasconcelos in Vancouver, Canada 1987.

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. He has collaborated with Indian and Pakistani musicians such as Trilok Gurtu, Zakir Hussain, Hariprasad Chaurasia, and Ustad Fateh Ali Khan. Garbarek is credited for composing original music for the 2000 film Kippur.

In 1994, during heightened popularity of Gregorian chant, 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. Officium Novum, another sequel album, was released in September 2010. In 2005, his album In Praise of Dreams was nominated for a Grammy. Garbarek's first live album Dresden was released in 2009.

Awards and honors

Discography

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As leader

As sideman

With Karin Krog

  • Jazz Moments (1966)
  • Til Vigdis (1967)
  • Joy (1968)

With Terje Rypdal

With George Russell

With Art Lande

With Ralph Towner

With Bill Connors

With David Darling

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With Keith Jarrett

With Egberto Gismonti

With Charlie Haden

With Zakir Hussain

With Trilok Gurtu

  • Living Magic (1990)

With Manu Katché

With Eleni Karaindrou

  • Music For Films (ECM, 1991)
  • Concert in Athens (ECM, 2013)

With Kim Kashkashian

  • Monodia (2002)

With Marilyn Mazur

  • Elixir (2007)

With Gary Peacock

With L. Shankar

With Paul Giger

With Giya Kancheli

  • Caris Mere (1995)

With Miroslav Vitous

With Eberhard Weber

With Kenny Wheeler

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References

  1. ^ Hultin, Randi (2002). "Garbarek, Jan". In Barry Kernfeld (ed.). The new Grove dictionary of jazz, vol. 2 (2nd ed.). New York: Grove's Dictionaries Inc. pp. 11–12. ISBN 1561592846.
  2. ^ Allmusic biography
  3. ^ Yanow, S. Allmusic Biography accessed 5 November 2009
  4. ^ Keith Jarret discography accessed 5 November 2009
  5. ^ willy-brandt-stiftung.de
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Awards
Preceded by Recipient of the Buddyprisen
1968 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
First award in 1982
 Recipient of the Gammleng-prisen
1982 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Recipient of the Norsk kulturråds ærespris
2004 		Succeeded by
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