Advertisement
Advertisement

JJ 01/85: Jan Garbarek Quartet at Brighton Polytechnic

Forty years ago Michael Tucker found that a performance by the Norwegian saxman's band with David Torn, Eberhard Weber and Michael DiPasqua dispelled the notion that ECM music is a one-mood affair. First published in Jazz Journal January 1985

ECM music, particularly Garbarek’s, is sometimes dismissed as a one-mood affair, but the many musicians and fans who caught the great Norwegian’s only British performance of 1984 were shown the absurdity of that particular critical canard. Together with the other distinctive perso­nalities of bassist Eberhard Weber, guitar­ist David Torn and drummer Michael DiPasqua, Garbarek delivered two warmly received sets of music as rhythmically adventurous as they were melodically appealing.

The compositional logic, haunting melo­dic grace and spacious, reflective invention one associates with both Garbarek and Weber were particularly evident in We­ber’s poignant The Last Stage Of A Long Journey, where Garbarek’s subtle sense of dynamics and psychological development made his keening soprano solo especially memorable. Subtlety was also very much part of DiPasqua’s fresh-toned contribu­tions to the range of ostensibly simple, in­tricately realised themes. Particularly im­pressive were the obliquely shaded cymbal accents which brought both his solo feature and Going Places itself to a pianissimo con­clusion, the variety of samba-inflected per­cussion which caressed the liquid lines of Gesture, and the sitar-like effects offered in polyrhythmic dialogue with Garbarek’s flute in a major, as yet untitled new com­position, the latter stages of which revealed the aggressive side of the leader’s full thro­ated tenor work.

- Advertisement -

An aggressive edge was also evident in Weber’s solo feature, and in the latter stages of Garbarek’s Wayfarer suite, which gave David Torn ample opportunity to dis­play his personal transmutation of aspects of Hendrix, Bailey, Rypdal and straight jazz guitar. For many, his sophisticated, occasionally abrasive textural sense and uncanny polyphonic emphathy with Garbarek supplied the highlights of an out­standing evening’s music.

- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

Read more

More articles