All in all, a diverse and welcome set that can be seen to neatly sum up Garbarek’s career to date.
ECM 1685/86 (Luminessence Series LP) 555 3948
Jan Garbarek (Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Samplers, Percussion); Rainer Brüninghaus (Keyboard, Piano); Eberhard Weber (Bass); Marilyn Mazur (Percussion, Drums); Bugge Wesseltoft (Synthesizer/Electronic Effects)
Recorded March-April 1998, Rainbow Studio, Oslo
With the CD currently out of print, it is wonderful to have this album once again, this time on vinyl as part of the Luminessence Series of reissues.
As one of the most distinctive and individual of saxophonists, Garbarek’s output in the 1990s was an intriguing series of collaborations that appeared to put his own solo recording career, if not on hold, somewhat paused with long gaps between albums under his leadership.
In 1992 he recorded the excellent Twelve Moons which is perhaps one of his finest albums and followed this up three years later with Visible World. It would be a further three years before the session for Rites took place at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in March 1998 which produced this double album that with the passing of time emerges very much as a consolidating set.
Garbarek’s trademark tone on both soprano and tenor saxophones are very much to the fore, but the saxophonist is also keen on rhythm and texture, and the unshakable feeling that he is looking back at previous works and lessons learned. This is no more apparent than on the title track that opens the album with its long introduction from percussion and keyboards prior to Garbarek’s entry on soprano that recall his full bodied tone on the instrument as captured on Twelve Moons, and explored further on tenor saxophone on ‘Where the rivers meet’, complete with overdubbed saxophone lines that along with Marilyn Mazur’s percussion create a real sense of drama.
The saxophonist, while retaining a band book of compositions that he has been performing live for many years, has shown a reluctance to re-record past pieces so it is most unusual to find a new arrangement of ‘It’s Ok To Listen To The Gray Voice’ from his 1985 album of the same name. This album was my first introduction to Garbarek’s work, and the version here shows how much mileage there is to be had from his rich compositional history. This feeling of looking back and consolidating is also felt on the closing ‘Last Rite’ in which the saxophones are left in their cases, and the music is developed through percussive motifs and layers of synthesizers and electronic effects that recall the 1987 all solo set All Those Born With Wings.
Elsewhere we are treated to the exuberant ‘Her Wild Ways’, and the joyous ‘It’s high time’, and the exquisite beauty of Don Cherry’s composition ‘Malinye’ featuring soprano saxophone, Bugge Wesseltoft on accordion and some delicate percussion; while ‘Yin for every Yang’ is notable for Eberhard Weber’s superb solo.
This is a long album stretching over four LP sides and there are some flat moments with the rather drab ‘The white clown’ and ‘Evenly they danced’ fares little better with even Garbarek’s tenor unable to bring to life a piece that meanders over a rather lacklustre backdrop.
Much better are ‘We are the stars’ based on the Native American poem featuring Garbarek’s soprano and the voices of Passamaquoddy and a version of ‘The Moon over Mtatsminda’ with Tbilisi Symphony and sung by its composer Jansug Kakhidze on which the saxophonist is not heard at all.
All in all, a diverse and welcome set that can be seen to neatly sum up Garbarek’s career to date. It would be another five years before the saxophonist would release another solo album with In Praise Of Dreams in 2003 which at the time of writing was Jan Garbarek’s last studio album as leader for ECM.
