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Places | 
| Artists: Jan Garbarek, Bill Connors, John Taylor, Jack Dejohnette
Label: ECM
Category: Music
List Price: £14.99
Buy New: £12.69
You Save: £2.30 (15%)
New (17) Used (2) from £9.44
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 76566
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 042282919526
EAN: 0042282919526
ASIN: B00000DTEL
Release Date: July 1, 1988
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Reflections | | • | Entering | | • | Going Places | | • | Passing |
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| Customer Reviews:
This is how good he was December 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Some adore him as a musical genius, some abhor him as the most prominent representative of New Age superficiality. I can see why. Taken by itself, each and every album of his is fascinating. It is when you get to know more of his work, that the repetitiveness and steady development toward mass market (in-)sensibilities start to worry you.
Each of Garbarek's 70s and 80s releases is interesting. But when you know them all, they start sounding formulaic. More of the same of the same of the same. Then there was some not too successful experimenting in the later 80s; finally came "Twelve moons" and the rapid move towards greater accessibility, which spells commerciality.
This album, "Places" is from 1977 and stands out. It is the result of four very different musicians being brought into the same studio at the same time, and left to do as they wished. What they did was amazing, and still holds my attention for the duration of the entire album, each time I listen to it today, 31 years later.
The musicians were/are Garbarek on tenor, Bill Connors on electric guitar, John Taylor on piano/organ and Jack DeJohnette on drums. Garbarek's sax already has that rich, shimmering, beautiful quality. There is an underlying bleak and forlorn quality detectable, though, which is at the same time captivating and disturbing. It goes very well with Connors' introspective, all-but-lost guitar sound. Taylor would go on to become one of Europe's essential pianists (read my reviews of his CDs!) and his greatest quality is on display even here. He never pushes himself into the foreground but keeps the musical best in mind at all times. Connors and Taylor both have to be credited with preventing this date from becoming a collision of great musicians, and turning it into a collaboration instead. Dejohnette was best known at the time for his work with Miles Davis, who turned to him when he needed a more rock-oriented, dynamic drummer. He is simply fabulous here, better than he ever was with Miles, in my opinion. His incredibly dynamic report with Garbarek is one of the best things about this already great album, and make you wish Garbarek had continued to work with him.
On the whole CD there is only one track that sounds like typical Garbarek form today's perspective. This is the second, and shortest track: a beautiful saxophone soaring over not much of a musical background. For once, this does not sound cliché ridden and commercial, but actually provides much needed solace after the jarred, barren soundscape created during the initial, and longest track.
This is jazz, if the word means anything. At the same time, this is new, different, courageous. Listening to this album in 2008 makes me want to shed tears of loss, thinking of all the good that might have been.
(Quite aside from this development, Garbarek started to pursue two different ideas, co-operation with musicians form different cultural backgrounds ("Ragas and sagas", "Madar") and with classical musicians ("Officium" etc.) These I believe to be truly valuable additions to the canon of music as a whole. Garbarek opened up new doors, on these albums, and we owe him for that.)
My Favourite Garbarek Album September 4, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'm afraid I'm one of those that can't help feeling that Jan got stuck in a rut a long while back. But this album predates that and comes from a time when he was fresh and still had something new to say. Here there is a sense that he is just finding his unique voice and with it a sense of exploration and adventure. The album is intimate in the way that ECM does best but it also manages to be exciting and playful, and there is no indication yet of the relentless nordic gloom that was to follow. There is beautiful ensemble playing throughout with all four players moving in and out, taking and creating space for each other in a delicately balanced and sensitive way. In this respect it is Euro-jazz at its best.
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