Telegraph Piece on Garbarek

[Pete C]

Here's an article on the formerly great saxophonist.

Music for hotel lobbies: what's wrong with that?
(Filed: 15/11/2004)

Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek has been dismissed by some critics as jazz-lite, but the sparse beauty of his music has seduced millions of listeners. Peter Culshaw meets him

When I meet Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek in a hotel lobby in central London, he seems to be hiding behind a pillar.


Mainstream abstraction: Jan Garbarek
His publicist has told me how much he hates posing for photos, which is not surprising given the intense, introverted nature of his music. After five years without releasing a record, it had begun to seem as if his minimalism had reached the point of total silence – but now Garbarek is back with a new album, In Praise of Dreams, and begins touring next week before starring at the London Jazz Festival.

Self-effacing he may be, but Garbarek, 57, is one of the best known and most successful European musicians whose music can be labelled jazz, even if he's not sure it is jazz he's playing: "For me, jazz was really from the 1920s until about 1970," he says. "I have quite a strict definition."

Certainly, much of his music is at the edges of the genre, such as his million-selling album Officium, which perfectly meshed his sparse soprano sax with the early music of the Hilliard Ensemble. It got into the pop charts in several countries, as did the more folky follow-up, Mnemoyse. His new album is already in the mainstream charts in Germany and Norway.

There is some annoying piped music playing in the background, and he tells me that the last time he was in London they played Officium in his hotel as background music. Many musicians would probably keep quiet about this, especially since some critics have dismissed his music as being at times little more than classy lift music. But, he says, "Some hotel lobbies are like churches, don't you think?"

The connection between music and space is a preoccupation with Garbarek, both the actual spaces between the notes and the wonderfully intense sense of spaciousness in his music. Nonetheless he says he is puzzled that people keep associating his sparse music with the fjords and mountains of Norway.

"It's a useful label, perhaps, but it's also absurd. My mother came from a farming family and I did spend childhood summers in the mountains, but did that really affect how I play?"

More relevant, he says is that his father was a refugee.

"I was born in a camp for displaced persons near Oslo after the Second World War. That I like to think of. I've always felt displaced."

At 14, Garbarek had an "epiphany" when he heard John Coltrane on the radio. He bought himself a saxophone instruction book and learned the fingering positions – before he even had an instrument. Scandinavia, at the time, was a haven for American musicians and the young Garbarek got to hear the likes of Dexter Gordon and Johnny Griffin and to play, in 1964, with Don Cherry, whose embracing of world folk traditions was a key influence.

Coltrane's endorsement of jazz free spirits such as Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp fired Garbarek's musical development, as did Coltrane's interest in Indian music.

"I saw Ravi Shankar in a big hall in Oslo in 1962 – there were maybe 25 people there. It was a fantastic concert, as exhilarating as any jazz event, swinging like crazy." Shortly afterwards, Garbarek collaborated with a sitar player, and much of his music since then has been informed by folk traditions, particularly those of his homeland.

By the end of the '60s he had had enough of the post-Coltrane free jazz school and found inspiration instead in Miles Davis, who helped in his "less is more" development.

He says, with a refreshing lack of jazz snobbery or obscurantism, that Davis's Kind of Blue is his favourite album. "It's a wonderful record, which I've played thousands of times – and it does show you can be popular and extremely good at the same time."

He went to see Davis play every night for a week on his first trip to America in 1972, and although he knew Davis's then pianist, Keith Jarrett, he was too nervous even to introduce himself to the trumpeter, let alone play with him.

"I should have gone on stage and blown with him, but I was too shy. Now, of course, I wish I had."

What surprised him were the small audiences for many well-known jazz artists in America. "You'd see Stan Getz or Bill Evans play to 75 people – Miles only played to 300."

Plenty of Americans have been dismissive of the European jazz scene. When I met American saxophonist Branford Marsalis last month in New York he told me that jazz meant nothing without an African-American element and that he saw Garbarek as "some kind of folk musician".

Garbarek points out that from the '20s, when black Americans came to Paris to escape the racism at home, to the present plethora of jazz festivals in Europe, the continent has been a vital part in the development of the genre. "Many of them couldn't survive without the European circuit."

Jarrett and Garbarek became the best-selling mainstays of Manfred Eicher's ECM records, a label whose distinct sensibility fitted perfectly with Garbarek's increasingly minimalist music of the '70s, such as the groundbreaking Dis, which featured a wind-harp and guitar. Since then, changes in his style have been "more in terms of evolution than revolution".

The core of In Praise of Dreams, with its wide-screen atmosphere, is his relationship with the American-Armenian violist Kim Kashkashian, whom he calls a

"very powerful new agent in my music-making. I was overwhelmed by the life and depth that Kim brought to the lines I presented to her."

He avoids the question of why his new output has been so small, saying only: "I am basically extremely lazy." In fact, he's been extremely busy touring, playing large concert halls and, usually, churches with the Hilliard Ensemble.

He says he doesn't miss the old days of smoky jazz clubs, as "they were an absolute health hazard". Nor does he particularly enjoy touring. "There are all kinds of problems, but then there is the quietness before the concert, that's when I remember how lucky I am – it's always the most wonderful moment, going on stage."

Jan Garbarek tours the UK from Tues, and performs as part of the London Jazz Festival at the Festival Hall, London SE1 (0870 401 8181), Nov 21.
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

[Nate Dorward]

Plenty of Americans have been dismissive of the European jazz scene. When I met American saxophonist Branford Marsalis last month in New York he told me that jazz meant nothing without an African-American element and that he saw Garbarek as "some kind of folk musician".

I find it interesting that Branford considers that a putdown.

[Uli]

Originally Posted by Nate Dorward

I find it interesting that Branford considers that a putdown.

I don't know if he does. At least not from what was quoted.

[mke]

Originally Posted by Uli

I don't know if he does. At least not from what was quoted.

In the context of "Plenty of Americans have been dismissive of the European jazz scene," it reads as a putdown. I had the same reaction as Nate.

[Pete C]

Uli is just a European pro-anti-European contrarian.

[Uli]

Originally Posted by mke

In the context of "Plenty of Americans have been dismissive of the European jazz scene," it reads as a putdown.

Yeah, but that context is an editorial add and not a Branford quote.

Originally Posted by Pete C

Uli is just a European pro-anti-European contrarian.

Who reads his stuff well, I would add.

[mke]

Originally Posted by Uli

Yeah, but that context is an editorial add and not a Branford quote.

You could see it as a journalistic addition to inform us of the sense in which Branford meant what he said, which was expressed non-verbally and therefore not directly quoteable.

[Tom Storer]

Originally Posted by Pete C

Certainly, much of his music is at the edges of the genre, such as his million-selling album Officium, which perfectly meshed his sparse soprano sax with the early music of the Hilliard Ensemble.

God, how I hate that fucking album. My wife likes it. The things I have to put up with. But I think the album may have mysteriously disappeared. She hasn't noticed yet. Shhhhhh.

[Uli]

Originally Posted by mke

You could see it as a journalistic addition to inform us of the sense in which Branford meant what he said, which was expressed non-verbally and therefore not directly quoteable.

Agreed, I could.

[danny boy]

it sad if branford really feels that way. i think the comment is indicitive of a kind of protective jealousy many americans feel about european jazz. music is music, doesnt matter where it comes from, just what it sounds like.

personally, though i am european i dont tend to go wild for a lot of 'our' jazz musicians. a lot of them are a bit too bookish for my liking. neither will you find me doing cartwheels for modern technology in jazz that is probably more popular here than in Bush-Country.

however i'd still prefer to set my stall out in these areas than the positively Luddite kingdom ruled by the great lord protector of all, he who must be obeyed, Wynton Marsalis, peace be upon him.

[Pete C]

Welcome, Danny. Don't be surprised if you start hearing from a guy named Damen.

[picsou]

Originally Posted by Tom Storer

God, how I hate that fucking album. My wife likes it. The things I have to put up with. But I think the album may have mysteriously disappeared. She hasn't noticed yet. Shhhhhh.

I like your wife's opinion We heard Officium live in Liverpool, it was a fucking great performance! They used the acoustic of the place excellently.

[Tom Storer]

Harrumph.

[Jimmy Cantiello]

I also have Officium. Haven't listened to it in years. I remember it being a bit tedious................

[Alastair]

Originally Posted by Nate Dorward

I find it interesting that Branford considers that a putdown.

Nate pulled the same quote that I was going to!

Sounded pretty much like a putdown when he said something almost identical about Arve Hendriksen on "All About Jazz" (the TV film) the other day.