It's OK to Listen to the Gray Voice

Jan Garbarek | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 14, 1994)
• Label: Ecm Records
• ASIN: B0000031T6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #321,664 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. White Noise of Forgetfulness

2. The Crossing Place

3. One Day in March I Go Down to the Sea and Listen

4. Mission: To Be Where I Am

5. It's OK to Phone the Island That Is a Mirage

6. It's OK to Listen to the Gray Voice

7. I'm the Knife-Thrower's Partner

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jan's best album, February 10, 2003

By 

Clark Battle (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It's OK to Listen to the Gray Voice (Audio CD)

I've had this album since 86 and it is as refreshing now as it was when I first heard it. I have a half dozen Jan albums and this is definitely the best. I also have every David Torn album and this is his best work too. Theres some fantastic solos and bass work by E Weber. Great melodies, atmospheric and edgy at the same time. Definitely start here!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional music, February 28, 2000

By 

Miko (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's OK to Listen to the Gray Voice (Audio CD)

Gray Voice contains all the hallmarks of a great Jan Garbarek disc- the mystery, the passion, the bridging of many worlds. It, however, remains my favorite. It contains some of the best ensemble playing of any Garbarek album that I can recall. A lot of these tracks seem to materialize slowly out of thin air and then take you on a journey that will leave you breathless. Special kudos to guitarist David Torn, who has never been more suited to his surroundings. A lot of the powerful mood of this disc is a direct result of his interaction of Garbarek's compositions. And Eberhard Weber's fluid yet substantial bass never disappoints, as always. All the tracks seem knitted intricately to one another; yet all maintain an individuality on their own. This is a great place to start if you don't own any of Jan Garbarek's music.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A slightly awkward, but probably necessary, transition . . ., March 9, 2007

By 

Jan P. Dennis "Longboard jazzer" (Monument, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It's Ok to Listen to the Gray Voice (Audio CD)

. . . from experimental Nordic jazz-rock of a Terje Rypdal-ish sort-- David Torn nicely filling the Rypdal role--to his major career move, folk/jazz of the highest order.

I have to say, in light of his later recordings (Legend of the Seven Dreams, I Took up the Runes, Visible World, Twelve Moons, Rites, In Praise of Dreams), this disc sounds somewhat inchoate, transitional, and primitive. What's going on here, I think, is that he's got a foot in two worlds: that of his "old skin" jazz-rock orientation, and of his "new skin" world folk/jazz. But this is clearly one of those cases of you can't get there from here. Would he have been able to access that transcendent vibe brilliantly on display on those later discs without having first tested the waters with this one? I don't think so.

Anyway, there're plenty of goodies here: Eberhard Weber's post-Jaco e-guitar bass; David Torn's space-folk guitar, the leader's emerging keening sax voicings; Michael DiPasque's pre-Manu Katche drum stylings. If it doesn't all quite add up, that's OK: It's still a major statement by a master.

Entirely worth picking up, if only for the leader's fascinating grope toward later mature sax stylings.