“Iga tema noot, iga fraas on sihipärane; seal puudub retoorika, on vaid poeesia.”

Küllap on muusikas vähe kiiduütlusi, mis oleksid väärtuslikumad, kui see siiras ja asjalik tunnustus, öelduna ühe muusiku kohta teise muusiku poolt. Tosin aastat tagasi Briti trompetisti ja kriitiku Ian Carri kirjutatu on praegu sama tõene, kui siis.

Jan Garbarek, omanäoline helilooja, mitmekülgne improvisaator ja üks olulisemaid Coltrane’i-järgse perioodi saksofoniste, esindab mitte üht vaid mitut suundumust jazzis. Tosinad Müncheni kvaliteetplaadifirma ECM Records suurepärased salvestised dokumenteerivad tema stiili mängutehnilisi jäljendamatuid nüansse ja emotsionaalset laengut. Need on plaadid, mille kogum hõlmab mitmekülgsust, mida Garbareki fenomen endas kätkeb: rahvamuusikate sulameid (Skandinaaviast Kaug-Idani), jazzi ristamisi keskaja ja renessansi muusikaga (“Officium” koos Hilliard Ensemble’iga), improvisatsioonide vabaduse ühendamist lüüriliste meloodiajoonistega.

Aasta-aastalt ja plaat-plaadilt on Jan Garbareki maine kasvanud ning praegu on ta rahvusvahelise jazzieliidi üks vaieldamatuid tippe. See on olnud loominguline teekond palavikulisest kirest teismeliseeas kuni kaalutletud askeesini täna, mil muusik on ületanud 50. eluaasta künnise.

Ta oli 14, kui kuulis raadiost John Coltrane’i lugu “Countdown”. Seejärel suutis ta veenda oma vanemaid sooritama saksofoniostu. Ta muretses õpiku ja harjutas sõrmi seadma enne, kui sai ihaldatud pilli omanikuks. Tohutuks paisunud tahe kannustas seejärel liikuma väga kiiresti. Viieteistkümneselt võitis noor saksofonist amatöörmuusikute konkursi, mis avas tee kutseliste seltskonda. Ta moodustas oma grupi, lõi kaasa teiste ansamblites. George Russelli bigbändis õppis Garbarek elu ja muusika põhitõdesid; ühel kontserdil astus ligi Don Cherry ja soovitas kätt proovida jazzi ja norra rahvaviiside ristamisel. 1970. aastal, 23-sena saadeti noormees Norra riigi kulul Ühendriikidesse “jazzi kuulama”. Teda teati, teda tunnustati. Samal aastal ilmus “African Pepperbird”, esimene plaat ECM-i märgi all.

Järgnev on juba ajalugu, millel lehekülgedel on Jan Garbarek jäädvustunud ühtaegu nii tänapäevajazzi, Euroopa jazzi kui ka norra jazzi olulise figuurina. Alates seitsmekümnendate keskpaigast on teda tunnustanud ka Ameerika kriitikud, hääletades ta mitmesugustesse aastaküsitluste pingerividesse - hoolimata asjaolust, et Garbareki mitme traditsiooni koosmõjus vormunud hääl tuli nö jazzi tagahoovist Vanalt Mandrilt. Just tema oli üks nendest, kes suutis jazzi sünnimaal tõestada Euroopa jazzi eripära ja elujõudu; just tema nimega eelkõige ja eriti seondub paljudele plaadifirma ECM kõla ja mitmesuguseid muusikaid sildav hoiak. Enam kui viiekümnel “Tänapäevase muusika toimetiste” märgiga ilmunud albumil kõlab Jan Garbareki saksofon, mille helides omakorda on tubli annus Manfred Eicheri, ECM-i looja, muusikanägemust.

Heli kargelt põhjamaine ja samas globaalhaardega toimumine jätkub. Pärast loendamatuid auhindu ja kirjalikke ning suulisi tunnustusi on Jan Garbarek ikka veel väsimatu otsija. Tema mõte sirutub järjest uutesse suundadesse, samal ajal kui kõla ja väljendus muutub aina selgemaks ning lihtsamaks. Ja ilusamaks. Saksofonist lähendab muusikaid üksteisele ja inimestele.

Muusikud, kellega Jan Garbarek Tallinnas esineb, on ekstraklassi instrumentalistid ja loovad isiksused, millele viitab plaatide hulk, mis nad teinud nii oma nime all kui ka mitmesugustes ansamblites.

Bassist Eberhard Weber (57) on äärmiselt mitmekülgne ja eelkõige solistina endale nime teinud muusik. Ühesuguse veenvusega esitab ta standardjazzi, jazz-rocki, vaba jazzi ja abstraktseid helimustreid. Enne koostööd Jan Garbarekiga juhtis Weber aastatel 1975-82 paljukiidetud ansamblit Colours, kuhu kuulus ka pianist Rainer Brüninghaus (47). Too mees on varem mänginud Manfred Schoofi kvintetis ning juhtinud triod Markus Stockhauseni ja Fredi Studeriga. Ta on loonud muusikat nii sümfooniaorkestritele kui ka bigbändidele. Brüninghausi nimekaimate koostööpartnerite hulka kuuluvad Carla Bley, Kenny Wheeler, Archie Shepp, Bobby McFerrin ja Toots Thielemans. Koostöö Garbarekiga algas 1980ndate lõpus.

Taani-Ameerika löökpillimängija Marilyn Mazur (42) on äärmiselt mitmekülgne ja eksperimendialdis muusik. Ta on mänginud Gil Evansi ja Wayne Shorteri ansamblites, on tiirutanud mitu aastat mööda maailma Miles Davise grupiga. 1989. Aastal moodustas ta Marilyn Mazur’s Future Songs’i, millelt äsja ilmus ECM-i märgi all album “Labyrinth”.

Toetab Põhjamaade kultuurfestival

“His every note, every phrase is meant, there is no the rhetoric, only poetry.”

In music there are arguably very few praises more valuable than words of sincere and proficient appraisal - said about a musician by another musician. The above words, written about Jan Garbarek by the British trumpeter (and critic) Ian Carr a dozen years ago, ring true without a doubt.

A musician of abundant resources, an original composer and versatile improviser, one of the major saxophone voices of the whole post-Coltrane period, Jan Garbarek personifies many important traits of European jazz legacy. Garbarek’s absorption of folk traditions (from Scandinavian to Middle Eastern), his graceful crossovers into medieval and Renaissance music (the collaboration with the Hilliard Ensemble “Officium”), his excellent small-band compositions that demonstrate the technical subtlety and emotional charge of his style - all these aspects have been recorded to the best advantage of dozens of superb albums by the German ECM Records, label of quality and distinction. In the course of recordings and worldwide tours, Garbarek’s reputation has grown steadily as has his international audience.

On hindsight, the burning fervour that the 14-year-old Jan started out with on the saxophone some thirty-six years ago appears, in a way, almost as telling as the distilled calm of the 50-year-old Garbarek of today appears ascetic. Both the latter and the former are parts of the same phenomenon, of the same artistic journey. To put it in a different way: the ascetic features of Garbarek’s music are always clearly apparent in the spareness and precision of his phrasing, yet under the spareness and cool crystalline serenity there is a glowing passion. Unmistakably. An extension or conversion, if you will, of that same boyish fervour which back in the beginning of the 1960s made the teenager, who had got hooked up on the saxophone while hearing Coltrane’s “Countdown” on radio, start practising the instrument before he had even got one! Waiting for his first horn to be brought home, the young Garbarek got himself a fingering exercise book. And by the time the sax arrived, he’s already learned a fair lot of the fundamentals. In his own later estimation “From then on, I seemed to move very fast”.

The self-taught prodigy won a competition for amateur jazz players in 1962. This led to his first professional engagements. That led to the formation of his own bands. In 1970, Jan Garbarek received a government grant “to go to the USA and listen to jazz”. Prior to this he had already met the founder/producer of ECM Records, Manfred Eicher… The rest as they say, is history.

As for Jan Garbarek, his story is an important part of several histories - of modern jazz in general and of European and Norwegian jazz in particular. The Coltrane-inspired and George Russell-influenced young talent of the late sixties was soon hailed as one of the most original and profound European saxophonists. In the seventies America, too, caught up on him. Since the middle of the decade, Garbarek’s name became a permanent fixture in numerous international critics' polls. And along the way Jan Garbarek was possibly the prime force that moved Norway out of what the American critic Nat Hentoff had once rather tersely termed “the backwaters of jazz”.

For hundreds of thousands of listeners the later, folk-saturated works of Garbarek are still the most familiar sphere of the Editions of Contemporary Music because he is the best-known musician on the label. On the other hand, Garbarek readily acknowledges the importance of Manfred Eicher’s influence across a personal discography that has grown to about fifty albums and that has explored multifarious musical contexts.

As the nineties - the century, the millennium - are approaching their end, Jan Garbarek’s story is still unravelling, developing recent plots, conjuring up ancient characters and branching off in new directions. Making history.

The members of Jan Garbarek’s quartet are all musicians of the highest calibre; each of them has released recordings under their own name and participated in manifold collaborations.

Bassist Eberhard Weber (57), who in addition to being one of the most innovative bass players is also composer in his own right and a classically trained cellist, has performed with Jan Garbarek’s groups since the early eighties. Weber is an extremely versatile player, able to handle different styles - walking bass lines, free jazz, jazz-rock, and abstract colourings - with equal deftness. From 1975 to 1982, he led the highly acclaimed band Colours. To the line-up of which also pianist Rainer Brüninghaus (47) belonged. The latter has worked previously with Manfred Schoof’s quintet, and has led his own trio with Markus Stockhausen and Fredi Studer. He has composed and arranged music for symphony orchestras and big bands. Among the artists he has collaborated with are Kenny Wheeler, Carla Bley, Archie Shepp, Bobby McFerrin, Toots Thielemans. Into Jan Garbarek’s group Rainer Brüninghaus came towards the end of the 80s. Percussionist Marilyn Mazur (42) has a rich experience of live and studio work behind her. Her multi-ethnic metal, wood and clay instruments have provided impressive rhythmic tapestries for Gil Evans, Wayne Shorter and Miles Davis. Having toured with Miles’ band for three years, she formed her own group, Marilyn Mazur’s Future Song, in 1989. Future Song’s album “Small Labyrinths” has just been released by ECM.

Supported by Cultural Festival of Nordic Countries