Customer Reviews

Witchi-Tai-To

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My roommate at college introduced me to the ECM label through Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert and two very obscure releases from a bass player named Barre Phillips - Mountainscapes and Three Day Moon (all 3 releases named above are highly recommended, by the way!). This marked my conversion from rock music to jazz, and I set out to the local bookstore to browse the bins (we are talking 21 years ago, so one could still enjoy flipping the album covers). I decided to purchase 3 ECM jazz releases - Ralph Towner's Solstice, Sound and Shadows (superb!), the John Abercrombie Quartet, and Jan Garbarek's Witchi-Tai-To.

I am embarrassed to relate how many ECMs I now have in my collection, but it can be assured that Witchi-Tai-To remains a very important centerpiece, music that stands the test of time and always sounds fresh and challenging. The first cut, A.I.R. (all-India Radio), is a reworking of a Carla Bley tune that first appeared in a very different format and sound on the bizarre but wonderful Escalator Over The Hill. A great tune, and superb way to start the CD. Tunes 2 and 3 are fine, but the real gems are Jim Pepper's Witchi-Tai-To (which you could hum all day, as it drills itself into your memory), and the great tune Desireless. Garbarek plays more tenor on this release than he currently does, and his tone is warm and rich, though not cloying at all. The rhythym section of Palle Daniellsen (bass) and Jon Christensen (drums) is still the one of choice for those who record on ECM - just great, great players. And, Bobo Stenson, at the time of the recording somewhat obscure, is now perhaps THE piano player most desired for recording sessions on ECM. If you own or have heard this CD, I am telling you nothing new. If you do not own it, do yourself and your ears a favor...and buy it!

Although this album was recorded in 1973 by four young, then relatively unknown, Nordic jazz musicians, I didn't get to hear it until 1977 when a student I met at a Weather Report concert introduced me to the LP. It blew my mind, and I have been steadily accumulating Jan Garbarek albums ever since.

For me, this is one of the least Nordic of my Garbarek albums. He wrote none of the tracks himself -- highly uncharacteristic of his output over the past 20 years -- and indeed most were written by American jazz composers, such as Cherry and Bley (C.). Only one track was written by a band member: Palle Danielsson's 'Kukka', a title which sounds like a piece of furniture you can buy from IKEA.

As an LP, this was a highly unbalanced selection. Side Two was simply magnificent, so Side One hardly got played at all, even though it contained at least two decent tracks. Hopefully with CD, tracks 1-3 should get a fairer hearing.

But tracks 4 and 5 are gorgeous. For me, this is the definitive version of 'Witchi-Tai-To' -- although Garbarek commemorated it by re-recording it for the ECM anniversary special CD, 'Twelve Moons'. It's probably Stenson's delicate piano-playing that makes it for me. And then comes the sublime 'Desireless', in which Garbarek alternates between harsh and beautiful tones on the intro, and then we get a very solid groove delivered by the bass, quite unlike anything else that I own of Garbarek's. After a wonderfully long piece of interplay between bass, piano and drums, Garabarek re-enters and, to my mind, messes it up. It's unusual for me to rate a piece so highly when I dislike a passage within it, but I guess it shows how strong most of it is.

Fans who only found Garabarek in the 1990s will be very pleased by this album of twenty years earlier. The standard of musicianship is just as high, and the sound is just ... well, different. As you might expect of an older recording, there is some tape hiss on the quieter passages.

My number one Jazz album of all time. Co-leaders Jan Garbarek and Bobo Stenson make possibly the best use of the ECM 'house rhythm section' (Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen) on a wonderful selection of 'non-Standard' compositions. The spotlight is shared the group and the compositions (including one by bassist Danielsson.) Stunning intuitive interplay, passionate intensity and heart-wrenching beauty;

A "state-of-the-art" album by Garbarek & Co. Was recorded the same year as the famous "BELONGING" with the same rhythm-section (Palle Danielsson-bass, Jon Christensen-drums) but with swedish Bobo Stenson on piano instead of Keith Jarrett. This Garbarek is soo different from Garbarek in Jarrett's quartets (more Coltrane-ian, less restrained) yet he still yields a great performance. HASTA SIEMPRE is my favorite piece - a kind of Scandinavian Flamenco, has the same chrod progression (Am-G-F-E). Also check another version of Jim Pepper's Witchi-Tai-To, a piece recorded several times by Garbarek (also on TWELVE MOONS) and Ralph Towner & OREGON (albums WINTER LIGHT, OUT OF THE WOODS, etc.)

This CD is flat out gorgeous. It is substantive enough for seasoned jazz listeners to listen to time and again yet melodic enough for neophytes. It is truly one of the most beautiful CDs I have heard from beginning to end. All the songs are lovely, but "Desireless" is my personal favorite. What a gorgeous, gorgeous tune! It is hauntingly beautiful and almost compels me to use a descriptor I don't like to use: spiritual. I will conclude by saying that if I were trapped on a desert island (with a good sound system, of course) and could only have ten CDs with me, this is one I would defintely include. It is also among the top ten CDs I would recommend to someone who has not heard much, if any, jazz. Of course, like many jazz listening veterans, I would start this person off with Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, but Witchi-Tai-To wouldn't be too far behind.

Though I never heard Witchi-Tai-To contemporary to the musical milieu into which it was released, I am delighted to find it now. Jazz aficionados are aware that unlike most rock labels, jazz labels often had stables of musicians that worked interchangeably with one another when one of those musicians released an album in his own name. And each label had its own devotees. In 1974, my jazz label of choice was CTI. If the artist in question wasn't signed to CTI, chances are I was not going to hear them any time soon. But today, my tastes are more catholic as I have built a fine library of ECM and Blue Note recordings, not to mention other labels, that fit right in with those I own on CTI.
The heart of this CD is not the title cut, which really does nothing for me, but the 20+ minute long musical voyage that is Jan Garbarek and the Bobo Stenson Quartet's take on Don Cherry's excellent composition Desireless. If you don't enjoy that, then you don't like nearly half of the album! But if Desireless can be described as the heart of the album, Hasta Siempre is the soul. What a piece of work! It amazes me that not a single reviewer made a comment about how much Garbarek sounds like Gato Barbieri on that one. Indeed, it's almost as if Barbieri had kidnapped Garbarek and had taken his place in the studio!
The quartet also does a fine interpretation of Carla Bley's A.I.R., and Kukka is at least listenable. So overall, while Witchi-Tai-To is an all too short album, it is quite satisfying. In keeping with ECM's reputation for minimalism, there are no extras and the flimsy six-panel insert contains almost no information that adds to that found on the back side of the jewel case that houses the CD.

"Witchi-Tai-To" released in 1974 on ECM stands as a great introduction to jazz music and also to the saxophone style of Jan Garbarek. First of all, Jan's one of the great saxophone players of our time. He's very melodic and he doesn't rely on nasty squawks and noises to make his saxophone playing interesting (not that making noise is interesting).

Jan is joined by Bobo Stenson on piano, Palle Danielsson on bass, and Jon Christensen on drums, which also make up Keith Jarrett's European quartet (check out the albums "Belonging" and "My Song"). I was really impressed with the piano work of Bobo Stenson, but all the musicians that contributed are incredible. Jon Christensen's drumming is very fluid and he's been one of my favorite drummers for many years now. Palle Danielsson does a great job at the deep end, guiding the melodies along in a very relaxed manner.

"Witchi-Tai-To" remains one of the greatest jazz recordings in the 70s in my opinion. I listen to this album alot.

If you like Jan Garbarek's playing I also recommend Ralph Towner's "Solstice," his own "Twelve Moons," and any album he played with Keith Jarrett on.

Jim Pepper was only mentioned a few times in these reviews. Too bad, he is worthy of much more attention. If you like Witchi-Tai-To, then you should check out Jim peppers recordings. He was a very strong tenor player and writer. He went right by the usual tenor player cliches and went straight for the jugular. Very intense and emotional. Dakota Song, Comin' and Goin', The Path were great records albeit, hard to find. However, my favorite Jim Pepper recording is a live concert he did in Germany called "Remembrance." He really shines here. He does all of his own compositions, all hearkening back to his Native American roots. PBS did a video special on him called "Pepper's Pow Wow." I just wish he were still here. Check it out.

It can be an advantage to have missed a recording and come across it years later. Your own musical taste has had time to mature and you have a surer and deeper sense of context. In this case, the delay was thirty-seven years: Garbarek and his colleagues brought out this album in 1974. Now it's 2011.

Regardless, the music is still gorgeous. In 1974, I'd not heard Garbarek at all but by the end of the 70s, I owned copies of Dis (1976) and Photo with Blue Sky, White Cloud, Wires, Windows and a Red Roof (1978), not to mention Keith Jarrett's Belonging (1974) and My Song (1977) and Ralph Towner's Solstice (1975). (Since then, add the trio recording with Egberto Gismonti and Charlie Haden, Magico [1979].)

But somehow I missed this album. Maybe it was the album's title, which seemed too self-consciously ethnic, not sufficiently jazzy. (Actually, it's the title of a song by Jim Pepper, which is played on this album.) Plus, the one time I'd heard Bobo Stenson (piano) on record before that I hadn't been impressed. He struck me as ECM light. That's a judgment I now find incomprehensible.

Witchi-Tai-To is simply one of the best jazz albums issued in the 1970s, one of the great albums of ECM jazz, and a great album for all time, regardless of era or style. Its strengths are the musicians, a peerless crew, and a discriminating choice of songs to play.

Let me start with the musicians. Garbarek has one of the most distinctive sounds in jazz, whether on soprano or tenor sax. (On flute, it's less distinctive, just because of the nature of the instrument.) Almost vibrato-less, his sound is piercing but in its purity, austere and beautiful. On an album like Dis or Photo, it can sound cold, beautiful but cold, and almost un-jazz, classical instead. But on this album, the Garbarek who plays has more in common with the Garbarek who plays in Keith Jarrett's great European quartet. His tone may be cold but his playing is hot. He cooks non-stop.

He couldn't have a better rhythm section. Stenson is an amazing player, who provides rich, rhythmic and melodic comping behind Garbarek's solos and ensemble work and who is consistently interesting in solo. Danielsson? No one has a richer and woodier tone on bass than Danielsson, with the possible exception of Charlie Haden, with whom there are comparisons -lyricism, good placement of notes, sensitivity and taste. And Jon Christensen has proven his talents as drummer and percussionist in several contexts -ranging from his work in Eberhardt Weber's seminal group Colours (Yellow Fields, 1975; reissued as a 3-CD package as Weber, Colours) to Bobo Stenson's double album. Serenity (1999). He always -always- provides interesting rhythms and cross-rhythms and is unfailingly tasty.

The tunes on this album -there are five--range from lyrical (Palle Danielsson's "Kukka") to impassioned ("Hasta Siempre") to kick- a*s (Carla Bley's "A.I.R.", Jim Pepper`s "Witchi-Tai-To," and Don Cherry's "Desireless"). They all drive, and the kickers are ruthlessly propulsive. Garbarek's solos are phenomenal -his dentist-drill sound cuts through the music to drive you on while Stenson comps two-handed chords and Danielsson lays down a thick bass ground, and Christensen provides shifting, always interesting rhythm accompaniment. The music is never dull, never less than melodic and captivating.
My fear is that I'm gushing in this review, but the music is that good that it deserves a bit of gush. I can record one criticism, a most unusual one for an ECM recording, where the recording standards are so uniformly high. For the first time ever on an ECM record that I've listened to, the piano sounds -slightly, not a lot--out of tune. When Stenson is so long and laying down chords, they don't seem as clean as they should be. But this is a trivial complaint in a uniformly stellar recording, which has to be one of the great jazz recordings of our times.

4 1/2

A far cry from his later, still-sufficient down-tempo meditations, WTT is fused with an urgent sense of melodic texture that never feels premeditatedly packaged.