Jan Garbarek

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Mysen, Oslo, Norway

Jan Garbarek (born March 4, 1947 in Mysen, Norway) a Norwegian tenor and soprano saxophonist, active in the , classical, and world music genres. Garbarek was the only child of former Polish prisoner of war, and a Norwegian farmer’s daughter. Garbarek grew up in Oslo. At 21, he married Vigdis. Their daughter Anja Garbarek is also a musician.

Garbarek’s sound is one of the hallmarks of the ECM record label, which has released virtually all of his recordings. His style incorporates a sharp-edged tone, long, keening, sustained notes strongly reminiscent of Islamic prayer calls, 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 Othello Ballet Suite and 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 , retaining only his tone from his previous approach.

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. This textural approach, which rejects traditional notions of thematic improvisation (best exemplified by Sonny Rollins) in favor 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 music, a style generally scorned by more orthodox jazz musicians and listeners, or spiritual ancestors thereof.
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  • In Praise of Dreams
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  • Visible World
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  • I Took Up The Runes
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  • Twelve Moons
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  • Jessica_Del

    @Membroza The song is in Norwegian :)

    February 2012

  • dupkaskorupka

    I deeply love his music, it is so amazing!

    February 2012

  • qpskeifjtygh

    I'm flying in cold air with sunrays piercing my body when I listen to him! [4] exactly !

    September 2011

  • MTYZH

    I'm flying in cold air with sunrays piercing my body when I listen to him! [3]

    August 2011

  • Oskoreii

    Words lack the power to describe his music. I'm flying in cold air with sunrays piercing my body when I listen to him!

    August 2011

  • Junna-Junna

    His music takes on a life inside you, brings the deepest emotions, makes you a person of sensitive, and .. multifaceted.

    August 2011

  • lolkanon

    So far I've only gotten to hear Officum and In Praise of Dreams, but they're truly magnificent albums.

    July 2011

  • bitsandbytes

    Jan Garbarek on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/artist/jan-garbarek/id22119895

    June 2011
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