Another blow and huge loss to the international jazz scene with the news that percussionist and bandleader Marilyn Mazur had passed away on Friday 12th December after a long illness.
Mazur’s stature and esteem in which she was held is documented in the company she kept, having played in the bands of Miles Davis (the only woman to have been a permanent member of the trumpeter’s group), Wayne Shorter, Gil Evans and as a long time collaborator with Jan Garbarek.
In addition to this, Marilyn Mazur also led her own influential bands comprising all female line ups in Shamania and Prima. Mazur would often leave audiences and listeners of her recorded work in awe of her mastery of the vast arrays of percussion instrument that comprised her stage set up. Moving effortlessly around the various instruments, not for show but to lift the music being performed, Mazur seemed to dance around her instruments finding just the right sound at the right time, a strike of the gong here or a delicate touch of one her collection of cymbals that paradoxically allowed the music to flow yet somehow conveyed the feeling of space.
I first became aware of Marilyn Mazur through her playing as part of the Jan Garbarek Group, captivated by her playing on I Took Up The Runes, Twelve Moons and Visible World. The relationship she developed with drummer Manu Katché within the Group was astonishing as she found places to play within the fabric of the music that never allowed the drums and percussion to overwhelm the material but rather enhance it with delicacy and detail that added lightness and colour.
The last album that Marilyn play on is the wonderful Strands with Palle Mikkelborg and Jakob Bro, a live recording from the Danish Concert Hall captured in February 2023 and released the following year on ECM. A captivating set that covered a vast musical sound world in which melody, silence and texture all come together in a delightful set. Throughout one is aware of the percussionist listening and finding her place in the music. Never obtrusive but always present, she will be much missed.
