Jan Garbarek Selected Recordings - ECM :rarum

ECM has released a series of compilation albums of their longest-running recording artists issued under the heading of :rarum.

For saxophonist Jan Garbarek, this includes selected tracks on a double-CD taken from a recording career spanning 30 years.

Obviously, over such an expansive and prolific period, Norwegian-born Garbarek has been involved in many collaborations with fellow improvisers and kindred spirits, most of whom are from the ECM stable.

For those of you who are already Garbarek fans this album will hold no surprises, but more a sense of compiled history as we are treated to 24 tracks from collaborative artists such as Keith Jarrett, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, Ralph Towner, John Abercrombie and Bobo Stenson.

Garbarek's steely, almost tundra-cold style of playing was originally influenced by John Coltrane. So inspired was he from this blast on the radio that he bought an instruction book and learnt how to finger the notes on an instrument he did not possess until he could afford one some time later.

Garbarek developed his own extremely distinctive style early on, although he says he took some time to realise that he needed to do some serious weeding and pruning to give the spaces and silences that have become synonymous with his eery style of playing.

Another of his distinctive characteristics is his wide-ranging pool of influence. Even in the early 1960s the young Garbarek was following in Coltrane's footsteps by exploring Eastern music and today is heavily interested in contemporary classical and folk musics.

His collaboration with The Hilliard Ensemble in creating the impressive church work Officium helped Garbarek cross musical borders and introduced him to a whole new audience.

And for those of you who think you know nothing of this great musician and composer, it is highly likely you will have heard the man playing on many a TV theme or film.

Buy the album and you will own a faultless and comprehensive collection of this contemporary musician's repertoire.

:rarum II ECM 014 165-2