Garbarek, Gismonti, Haden - Magico, Carta de Amor (1980)

Artista: Garbarek, Gismonti, Haden

Álbum: Magico, Carta de Amor
Año: 1980
Género: Jazz fusión / World music / Música de extraterrestres
Duración: 01:47:56
Nacionalidad: Multinacional

Lista de Temas:
CD 1:
1. Carta de Amor
2. La Pasionaria
3. Cego Aderaldo
4. Folk Song
5. Don Quixote
6. Spor
CD 2:
1. Branquinho
2. All That Is Beautiful
3. Palhaço
4. Two Folk Songs
5. Carta de Amor, var.

Alineación:
- Jan Garbarek / tenor and soprano saxophones
- Egberto Gismonti / guitars, piano
- Charlie Haden / double bass.

Resubida para los que lo habían pedido...

¿Querían más cosas del genial Gismonti? Acá está algo acompañado, en un disco en vivo que en realidad son dos discos ("Magico" de 1979 y "Folk Songs" de 1981) y en un disco que en realidad se terminó en 1981 aunque reciésn salió a la luz en el 2012. De este trabajo ha dejado dicho Gismonti que es como "un mensaje en una botella" que se lanzó hace casi 30 años. Registrado en directo en la sala Amerika Haus de Munich, en Abril de 1981.

El disco "Mágico" aparecido en 1979, su continuación se produjo ese mismo año donde grabaron "Folks Songs". Poco después, en Abril de 1981, Garbarek, Gismonti y Haden registraron un concierto que Manfred Eicher, el capo de ECM, archivaría hasta perderse entre estanterías. En aquella actuación, el trío interpretó temas de los dos álbums, además de alguno de sus respectivas autorías (como "Carta de Amor", "Branquinho" y "Don Quixote", de Egberto Gismonti; el estreno de "All That Is Beautiful" y los aires hispanos de "La Pasionaria", ambos de Charlie Haden, o "Two Folk Songs" de Jan Garbarek). Y, treinta años después, esa es la sesión que compone el disco en directo que sirve como "nuevo regreso" de Garbarek, Gismonti y Haden.
Pero disculpen, me siento un zapato escribiendo algo de este disco, copio un buen comentario del disco, humildemente digo que esto me rebasa ampliamente, y hago de éste el verdadero comentario del disco:

De este trabajo ha dejado dicho Gismonti que es como “un mensaje en una botella” que se lanzó hace casi 30 años. Y es cierto que tiene ese aliento de un mundo lejano e imaginado, como de isla en la memoria sentimental del oyente. Algo único e irrepetible, distinto a todo lo que hicieron los tres luego, que quedó instalado ahí y que ahora se nos devuelve. ¿Cómo lo recibiremos?
La recuperación de valiosos archivos sonoros como los de Keith Jarrett y el cuarteto nórdico en el reciente Sleeper anunciaba un estimulante ejercicio memorístico al tiempo que suponía un posicionamiento estratégico que pocos sellos como ECM pueden permitirse en el mercado discográfico actual. Esta iniciativa parte de registros en directo con una edición de estudio intachable realizada por Manfred Eicher y Jan Erik Kongshaug. Este trío irrepetible, fruto de los encuentros que favorecía el productor entre los músicos fieles a sus escudería, está en la línea de buscar una nueva categoría estética, pues creadores de categorías en los 70 fueron Abercrombie, Garbarek, Walcott, Micus, Gismonti... Esta entrega y la anterior, y las que se esperan, incluyen dos valores añadidos al producto en disco: uno el contraste cronológico sobre la vigencia de la obra y el otro la implicación emotiva del aficionado. Así se completa el legado contenido en esas dos joyas que son Mágico y Folk Songs, grabaciones muy cercanas en el tiempo, entre el verano y el otoño de 1979, aparecidas justo en el año que nos ocupa.
Habría que preguntarse cómo llegaron a coincidir y por qué nunca más se recuperó esta alianza, excepción aparte del concierto en Montreal de Haden y Gismonti. El músico brasileño llega a ECM con Naná Vasconcelos en Dança das cabeças (76). Es manifiesto el interés de Eicher en su producción a partir de este momento, prueba de ello son sus discos Solo (78-79) y sobre todo Sol do medio dia (77), en el que podríamos encontrar ya a Garbarek (y a Ralph Towner, Naná Vasconcelos y Collin Walcott). Por otro lado, Charlie Haden había formado parte del cuarteto americano de Jarrett y, tras contadas participaciones, pronto, a principios de los 80, engrosaría su nombre en el catálogo con la Liberation Music Orchestra (LMO) y el ornettiano Old and New Dreams.
Garbarek, que estaba dentro del cuarteto de Jarrett cuando este grupo se constituía, se va despegando de un estilo propiamente jazzístico hacia una enunciación basada en el folclore que toma impulso en el propio escandinavo y se extiende como discurso a través de sus colaboraciones en el sello, entre ellas con Ralph Towner en el destacado Dis (1976). Si Gismonti volvió a Brasil desde París para tocar la guitarra y encontrarse a sí mismo tras el consejo de la pedagoga Nadia Boulanger, Garbarek explora melodías con acervo noruego en su inmersión tradicional a través también de la flauta, de la que adopta matices de color e intensidad en el saxo soprano. Haden ve el folclore desde una posición intelectual con la LMO, leyendo con soltura e inventiva colectivas las canciones de la Guerra Civil Española y el cancionero revolucionario cubano.
En estos datos hay dos elementos subyacentes que resultan esenciales para entender este encuentro: la música de inspiración latinoamericana y la guitarra. Esto, que matiza la tendencia nórdica del sello, lo encontramos no sólo en los discos previos del brasileño, también ya en el My Song de Jarrett y luego en The Ballad of the Fallen de Haden. Conectada con la música latina estaría la guitarra acústica y la cita previa, más enfocada sobre una música panorámica y coral promulgada por Eicher, que fue Sol Do Medio Dia.
Música clásica, improvisación acotada y folclore, dotados de gran respiración melódica, son los pilares de este trío. Gismonti, continuador del mensaje de Heitor Villalobos, es quien más escritura aporta. Su dualidad como instrumentista dota de dos perfiles distintos a este disco, preferible es el guitarrístico por el sonido y la técnica de piano que aplica a guitarras de 8 y 10 cuerdas y la percusión sobre el mástil.
Mensaje en un lienzo. Vermeer pintó La carta de amor en 1670. El laúd en el regazo de la dama que lo tañe es la prueba de que la misiva que le entregan contiene algo sentimental. Otro instrumento de cuerda, otra botella entregada al océano del tiempo... La guitarra de Gismonti hace de suave y extraño el oleaje con figuras circulares, el saxo de Garbarek se alza e invoca la letra de la carta, mientras que el bajo con arco de Haden es el viento que mece a la botella al capricho de la corriente. Carta de amor (Gismonti) abre y cierra esta cita doble con la delicadeza de un río manso fundiéndose en el mar. Sólo Folk song (Garbarek) aparece también dos veces, en versiones distintas, situado en el centro de uno y otro. El disco del 81 Folk songs, para quien esto escribe, es más rico, arriesgado y original, con menos concesiones a la degustación melódica que Mágico, cuya influencia se deja sentir en una segunda parte con propensión al piano que parece imponer, languideciendo el tono general, su exuberancia lírica.
Con el tiempo, y este disco hace posible ese contraste ampliando los ángulos de visión, parece más evidente que son los temas con guitarra los que imprimen verdadera singularidad a este encuentro. Los más perdurables de esta sesión, incidiendo en esa idea, serían Cego Aderaldo (el timbre de la guitarra se asemeja al berimbau con esa extrañeza “caipira” que el saxo a trae hacia el norte, uniendo a indios del Mato Grosso y a samis), la primera versión de Folk Song (el cruce de caminos de un folclore con sentimiento de nostalgia, el alma del encuentro) y Spor (techo del diálogo improvisado bajo el enfoque estético que favorecía el sello como introducción abierta, de resultado tímbrico, rítmico y melódico incomparable).
Además de Carta de Amor, hay cuatro temas nuevos respecto a los discos de estudio. Haden, que hace un uso del arco varias veces, algo poco habitual en él, aporta La Pasionaria, confirmando la línea con lo marcado después en la LMO pero aquí concentrado en voces y adecuada adaptación popular hispánica, y All that is beautiful, balada que está en consonancia melódica con la tradición de standards pero que el saxo de Garbarek atrae hacia el cuarteto de Jarrett y lleva a terrenos más libres. En líneas generales, en el segundo disco hay una mayor preeminencia del piano y esto conduce a terrenos más melodiosos, solos más alargados y emparejamientos. Branquinho y Don Quixote (luego incluido en Duas Vozes) los firma Gismonti y reflejan su ambivalencia instrumental teñida del aroma-canción del disco Mágico. Se echa de menos el pulso repetitivo de Equilibrista, pieza con piano contenida en Folk Songs que se sale un poco de la bohonomía melódica y las cadencias clásicas del brasileño, entre el requiebro virtuoso y la mirada infantil, en las que Palhaço no oculta conexiones iniciales con el My Song de Jarrett.
Música que se mueve entre ideales y viajes en el tiempo y la geografía. Sonido, culturas y sentimientos que en su cúspide trascienden las tres personalidades y cualquier barrera entre lo popular y lo académico. Folclore imaginario, por llamarlo de algún modo, con un mensaje que llega hasta hoy sin oponer apenas resistencia. Si acaso la del descreimiento y el pensamiento de que en el pasado todo se sentía de otra manera, nueva y esperanzada.

Jesús Gonzalo

Si alguien busca algo más que sugerente sonido acústico del muy propio para la introspección, quizá lo encuentre entre estos once hechizantes temas de larga exposición que cubren con leve bruma los diversos paisajes de serena belleza que van dibujándose a lo largo del doble Cd. Se suceden melodías de saxo, contrabajo y guitarra, vitales a veces y melancólicas otras, pero siempre frescas y brillantes.

El sonido acústico, los peculiares estilos de cada uno de los componentes, la sonoridad tanto de las poco usuales guitarras del brasileño como del empleo del saxo del noruego, hacen que cada tema acabe por convertirse en una especie de comunión entre los músicos para todo con el auditorio, la capacidad de Garbarek o Gismonti para crear ambientes se ven apuntaladas por el tremendo Haden.
Un disco donde tres increíbles músicos en estado de gracia van haciendo lo que mejor saben: crear bellos ambientes sonoros tocados en directo, llevándose al público de paseo por entre las nubes, el sol y las estrellas, en un disco donde no sobra nada.
Y ya no escribo más, no hace falta, escúchenlo, llévenlo, disfrutenlo...
Vamos, eso sí, con otros comentarios de otra gente que escribe reseñas en inglés:

It's sure been a banner year for fans of the ECM label, with a slew of fine new releases from artists including guitarist John Abercrombie (Within a Song), bassist Arild Andersen (Celebration), pianist Tord Gustavsen (The Well), and saxophonist Tim Berne (Snakeoil). Previously out-of-print or never-before-in-print studio recordings from saxophonist Jan Garbarek (Dansere) and pianist Jon Balke (Magnetic Works: 1993-2001) are now back in circulation. And, for the first time since bassist Charlie Haden's duet record with pianist/guitarist Egberto Gismonti (2001's In Montreal, from a 1989 concert), the label has dug back into the past, with Terje Rypdal's Odyssey: In Studio & In Concert coupling the guitarist's 1975 classic, Odyssey—finally on CD in its full, two-disc glory—with a previously unreleased Swedish radio performance, Unfinished Highballs, and Sleeper: Tokyo, April 16, 1979 debuting a full concert from Keith Jarrett's influential European Quartet.
The year's not over by a long shot, but Magico: Carta de Amor may ultimately emerge as ECM's most significant archival release to date, trumping the Jarrett if only because, as superb as it is, Sleeper is not the pianist's first live recording with this group to see the light of day. Culled from live performances by a relatively short-lived trio that, with Magico (1980) and Folk Songs (1981), already stood as one of label head Manfred Eicher's most inspired collaborative suggestions, Carta de Amor liberally expands on material from both studio dates, but also adds plenty of music that, if familiar to fans of Garbarek, Gismonti and Haden individually, has not been heard performed by this vibrant chamber trio before—and, in the case of Haden's uplifting "All That is Beautiful," appears on record for the first time.
The record demonstrates just how far this trio had come by the time of its April, 1981 performances at Munich's Amerika Haus—no surprise, given the established reputations of all three members, and that it had been almost 18 months since Folk Songs was recorded, just a scant five months after the Magico sessions. Gismonti's characteristically lyrical yet emotionally ambiguous "Palhaço" was a tremendous closer to Magico and a highlight of the Brazilian's more heavily produced Circense (Carmo, 1980), but here Garbarek soars even higher in a version nearly double both studio counterparts' length and, taken at a brighter tempo, indicative of this trio's profound interconnectivity, as all three players transcend mere soloing to interact at a near-mitochondrial level.
If, as a pianist, Gismonti has always felt a little more schooled—without suggesting either predictability or an inability to stretch boundaries—his more rough-hewn guitar work is the fulcrum on which both Garbarek and Haden balance on the bassist's Spanish-tinged "La Pasionaria," which he had yet to record at this point, and which would ultimately swing far harder and brighter on his Liberation Music Orchestra's Ballad of the Fallen (ECM, 1983). But if Gismonti provides the initial context, it's Haden who ultimately assumes role of both anchor and animator/instigator, in a free middle section that, despite form reasserting itself nearly ten minutes in to reiterate the theme, opens up once again for a closing bass solo that, in its muscular avoidance of grandstanding, is an early standout of Carta de Amor's 108-minute set.
Beyond Garbarek's arrangement of traditional folk songs ("Folk Songs," "Two Folk Songs"), the saxophonist's "Spor"—first heard on Magico, but reinterpreted, three years later, in more electrified form on Wayfarer (ECM, 1983)—is another example of this trio's remarkable connection, another piece that breaks down into the kind of collective free play that's only hinted at on the studio recordings. As ever, Garbarek's attention to purity of tone is a marker, here matched by Haden, who has always favored tone, texture and the right note over pyrotechnic displays and whose rare use of a bow here is another distinguishing point in a set filled with highlights.
Carta de Amor is a reminder of how a particular point in time, when the pan-cultural and cross-genre interests of three artists from vastly different backgrounds and musical upbringings, could come together in rare synchronicity. That such confluence couldn't have occurred before nor could it likely have happened again is only bolstered by Haden and Gismonti's subsequent In Montreal. A fine disc, to be sure, but without Garbarek, lacking that certain spark that clearly ignites throughout Magico: Carta de Amor, a set defined by selfless interplay, unrestrained yet ever-purposeful exploration, and the kind of power made all the more dramatic for Garbarek, Gismonti and Haden's ability to instantly change directions, as one, with the subtlest of gestures. In Galacian, "magico" means "magical" and "Carta de Amor" means "love letter," and in its decision to unveil Magico: Carta de Amor thirty years after the fact, ECM has delivered just that. The press sheet refers to the many recordings apparently made at Amerika Haus as "an artistic treasure trove awaiting further investigation." It sounds like the magic has just begun.

All about jazz

In 1979, ECM released Magico and Folk Songs, two gorgeous albums by the creative trio of saxophonist Jan Garbarek, guitarist/pianist Egberto Gismonti, and bassist Charlie Haden. Magico: Carta de Amor is a double-disc recorded live in 1981 in Munich which has been sitting in ECM's vaults until now. The recording features a seasoned band in full command of a shared musical language developed after an extended period touring together. It contrasts sharply with the work they issued as individual players during this era: Garbarek's Eventyr in 1980 and Paths and Prints in 1981, Gismonti's Frevo (1980), and Sanfona and En Familia (1981), and Haden's collaborations with Old and New Dreams, Ornette Coleman, and Pat Metheny. The material here features five iconic Gismonti compositions -- yet only "Palhaço" appears on this trio's studio albums. Haden’s 16-minute "La Pasionaria," a number closely associated with his Liberation Music Orchestra, is presented in a glorious trio version. It features intense, forceful playing by Garbarek which contrasts with Gismonti's spacious guitar playing. Garbarek's own "Spor," which also appeared on the trio's studio album Magico, is presented as a more elliptical group improvisation here. Haden's high-pitched bowing adds a tinge of the otherworldly, while Garbarek's voice is simultaneously emotive and icy. Gismonti's pianism is given an ample showcase on "Palhaço" and Haden's "All That Is Beautiful," the latter with lovely, ethereal soprano work from Garbarek. The bassist's "Two Folk Songs" is given an urgent, dark-tinged, exotic treatment thanks in no small part to Gismonti's virtuoso 12-string playing and Haden's elegant yet propulsive push at the melody articulated by Garbarek's soprano. It differs considerably from the version he presented on Metheny's 80/81. "Folk Song," from the trio's Folk Songs album, is a group improvisation based on a traditional hymn, but moves far afield with startling guitar effects and soprano soloing. Like Keith Jarrett's Sleeper, a live quartet date from 1979 that also saw the light of day from ECM in 2012, Magico: Carta de Amor is a musical treasure trove that features three players from three continents working in near-symbiotic dialogue, offering music that showcases compositional and improvisational mastery, yet transcends the limitations of genre classification.

Thom Jurek

Norwegian sax star Jan Garbarek and Brazilian composer, guitarist and pianist Egberto Gismonti teamed up with bassist Charlie Haden for this trio, Magico. They released good studio albums in 1979 and 1980, but this is a set of previously unreleased performances from 1981. It's an impassioned and fiercely improvisational collection of variations on powerful themes by all three, touching on Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra repertoire and Garbarek's free-jazz history. It also showcases Gismonti as a lyrical and abstract-effects guitarist, an inspired composer and a resourceful, Jarrettish pianist. Haden's simmering La Pasionara, usually an orchestral piece, sounds equally thrilling for a threesome; Gismonti's percussive and chordal effects are dazzling on Cega Aderaldo and Garbarek's traditional Folk Song; while Spor sets Garbarek's free improvisations against jaw's harp sounds, wah-wah noises and frenetic strumming. There are surprises on all eleven tracks.

John Fordham

Back in 1979, ECM released two albums by the creative trio of Jan Garbarek on tenor and soprano saxophones, Egberto Gismonti doubling on guitar and piano, and bassist Charlie Haden. All three contributed to the content of Magico and Folk Songs, but at the time, that seemed to have been that.
Garbarek went on to record the celebrated albums Eventyr (1980) and Paths, Prints (1981), and his career took a different turn. However, in 1981, the trio was briefly reunited, and recorded by ECM in concert at the Amerika Haus in Munich. Two albums’ worth of material from these sessions had been languishing in the vaults, but now ECM has collected the recordings into a double-CD package. On learning of the release, Gismonti commented that it was “like a message in a bottle that has taken 31 years to reach the shore”.
There is so much dazzlingly effective music here that it is extraordinary it took this long to appear. Haden’s La Pasionaria, better known in versions by his Liberation Music Orchestra, gets an intense, punchy reading from Garbarek. The saxophonist spits out notes with venomous feeling, before withdrawing to allow space for a shimmering guitar solo from Gismonti. Over 16 minutes, the piece never flags.
Garbarek’s disjointed, vocal-toned style (reminiscent of his early work on the recently repacked Dansere set) comes to the fore on an otherworldly version of his Spor, with Haden bowing shrieks from below the bridge of the bass, creating an eerie overall landscape.
Haden’s All That Is Beautiful, with Gismonti on piano, gets the kind of lyrical treatment we might have heard from a Keith Jarrett group at the time; Gismonti’s own Palhaço is a more sombre showcase for his pianism.
The main benefit of hearing this music freshly now, as if it was entirely new, is the passionate commitment of all three protagonists. The punchy spark in Garbarek’s playing is not quite so omnipresent nowadays, and even in his own Quartet West, Haden is seldom so totally on show, so exposed and so daring. Gismonti anchors it all, matching his European and American counterparts at every turn.

Alyn Shipton

“I know that the stars when I vanish will remain pegged way up there, fixed, immutable, gazing on the absurd hustle and bustle of men, small and ridiculous, striving with each other during the sole second of life allotted them to learn and to know about themselves, wasting it stupidly, killing one another, the ones fighting to avert exploitation by the others.”

Dolores Ibárruri
2012 has seen quite the magic act of releases from ECM’s archives. The encore comes literally so in the case of Magico: Carta de Amor, as the trio of saxophonist Jan Garbarek, guitarist/pianist Egberto Gismonti, and bassist Charlie Haden takes the stage in newly restored 1981 performances at Munich’s Amerika Haus, host to such classic recordings as Ralph Towner’s Solo Concert and the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s Urban Bushmen. From their studio work, these three mavericks draw a distinct blend of signatures, while from the two years spent touring prior to this recording they accomplish feats of improvisation that perhaps no studio could have induced or contained.
Bookended by two versions of Gismonti’s title track, a beautiful love letter indeed to the wonders within, Haden’s 16.5-minute tribute to Dolores Ibárruri, “La Pasionaria,” lends substance to the feathers in between. The entrance of bass is as effortless as it is invisible, dropping into the foreground as it does from the line of Garbarek’s ornamental reed. Changing his Liberation Music Orchestra clothing for something more romantic, Haden offers “All That Is Beautiful” (making its first appearance on record), an emotionally epic vehicle for Gismonti, who takes seat at the keyboard and sprinkles it with clouds and weighted dew.
If these are the tire tracks left behind, then “Cego Aderaldo” is the vehicle that left them. Driven by the 12 focused strings of its composer, it keeps us balanced along the album’s craggiest terrain. Here Garbarek does something wondrous as he opens the passenger-side door and jumps over the cliff, spreading burnished metal wings across a landscape that welcomes his flight with thermals galore. Gismonti continues on, spiraling up to the apex. There he plants not a flag of conquest, but seeds of thanksgiving. From the dulcet “Branquinho,” with its distant ideas of brotherhood, to the shining reprise of “Palhaço,” his fulfilling melodies bring out the playful best in Garbarek. If there were ever any doubts about the group’s unity, let “Don Quixote” stand as Exhibit A toward quelling them. Like the novel for which it is named, it is a critique of belittlement and insincerity in a society gone mad. It moves at the leisurely pace of a mule whose grandeur resides not without but within.
Garbarek gives us a triangle of stars, including folk song arrangements that whistle through dynamic peaks and valleys and a fully opened rendition of “Spor” (compare this to its infancy in the studio on Magico). To this mysterious canvas, Garbarek applies shadow on shadow, seeking out wounds of color in the language of his band mates before diving into repose.
While the unity expressed by these musicians is surely enthralling, it comes closest to perfection in the monologues. Garbarek’s energy is, if I may appropriate a Douglas Hofstadter subtitle, an eternal golden braid—one that nourishes itself on the light of which it is made, self-replicating and beyond the measure of value. Haden unfolds themes fractally. Trundling through empty streets with dog-eared book in hand and love in its margins, he brings closure to uprisings of the heart. Gismonti, for his part, is as breath is to lungs.

ECM Review

The unearthing and release of previously unissued jazz recordings has become its own industry. ECM has gotten into the act. Earlier this year they released Keith Jarrett’s Sleeper, from 1979, and now there is Carta de Amor, a two-CD set by the trio that called itself Magico. They were together for just two albums recorded in 1979, Magico and Folk Songs. The new album comes from a 1981 performance at Amerikahaus in Munich, ECM’s hometown. In the ’70s and ’80s, ECM presented and recorded many concerts in this recital hall, and expects to release more of them.
The point of this trio was to juxtapose three starkly contrasting musical personalities and create a new alchemy. Egberto Gismonti (guitars, piano) is rich Brazilian ethnicity. Jan Garbarek (soprano and tenor saxophones) is Nordic passion channeled through lyric austerity. Charlie Haden (bass) is red-blooded American jazz chops.
Despite their individual strengths, their collective efforts result in a surprisingly inconsequential album. On Gismonti’s “Cego Aderaldo,” the composer’s nervous, fidgeting rhythmic thrusts and counter-melodies incite unattractive squealing from Garbarek’s soprano. The two versions of Gismonti’s title track are pretty, filigrees of guitar counterpoint set against yearning, floating tenor saxophone, but they never transcend languidness. On Haden’s “All That Is Beautiful,” Gismonti’s repetitive piano section is long on indulgence, short on revelations.
While the ensemble entity is the priority, the live setting creates opportunities for extended blowing, sometimes meaningful, sometimes not. On Garbarek’s 14-minute “Spor,” group improvisation stays in a static three-way suspension of clicks and sighs and random gestures. Because of individual solos, the strongest piece is Haden’s 16-minute “La Pasionaria.” It has Garbarek’s complete series of fervent, ascending cries, and Gismonti’s densely layered tapestry, and Haden’s dramatic emergence from accompaniment. He takes the song out for the final five minutes in a dark, rapt bass ceremony.

Thomas Conrad

‘A message in a bottle that has taken this long to reach the shore’ is guitarist/pianist Egberto Gismonti’s description of this two-CD live recording from Munich’s Amerika Haus featuring the trio known as ‘Magico’, completed by saxophonist Jan Garbarek and bassist Charlie Haden. ‘This long’ is actually thirty-one years, the concert having taken place in April 1981, two years after the trio’s Magico and Folk Songs studio albums.
Composing credits are democratically shared between the trio members, so extended versions of Garbarek’s deceptively simple folk-based tunes and a collectively improvised workout on his ‘Spor’ are judiciously balanced against Gismonti’s richly evocative, multi-hued compositions (the album is book-ended by two versions of his title-track) and Haden’s ‘La Pasionaria’ (from the Liberation Music Orchestra book) and (its recorded debut) ‘All That is Beautiful’.
What is immediately striking (especially given the recent comparisons of Garbarek with Kenny G ) is the sheer intensity of the saxophonist’s attack, both on soprano and tenor, but the musical rapport between Gismonti (whether playing mesmerising, shimmering guitar or idiosyncratic piano) and the consistently melodic, supremely sensitive Haden is the core of the band’s appeal.
Whether they’re softly propelling Garbarek’s plangent cry or weaving hypnotic duo improvisations, they’re at the heart of what producer Manfred Eicher accurately describes as: ‘a great instance of the art of listening, of interaction, and suspense’. Given that another great highlight of 2012 was provided by Keith Jarrett’s aptly named Sleeper, a bottled message from his Belonging band recorded in 1979, what further wonders ECM might have in its live-recordings vault provide matter for much enjoyable speculation.

Chris Parker

Un disco que no es un disco, es una maravilla, y es al cuete escribir sobre él, solamente hay que disfrutarlo... acá vamos con algo de extraterrestres, algo que no es de este mundo, quizás el más importante de los lanzamientos del sello ECM hasta la fecha, con sonidos no se habían escuchado nunca antes, interpretada por este vibrante trío de cámara.
Y una pregunta fuera de lo musical, que está fuera de toda discusión: ¿Garbarek no es en realidad una versión musicalmente virtuosa de Jim Carrey?