Jan Garbarek is a winter warmer

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It takes a sombre, soulful musician to achieve such tonal depth, and it certainly takes nerve, as Garbarek demonstrated both on tenor and the smaller curved-soprano sax, to rely wholly on the impact of that sound. Several times last night he held a note for an inordinate time, content to let it stand alone, unmodified, while the band and the chord changes raced along beneath. Miles Davis and Lester Young mastered this device two generations ago. A hot rhythm section is essential, and last night Garbarek had one.

At the drumkit , surrounded by a forest of optional extras, was Trilok Gurtu, the great Indian percussionist and former Miles sideman. Nobody has faster handspeed on tabla drums, or for that matter a faster tongue when it’s vocal tabla-scatting time. Gurtu swapped breaks with German keyboarder Rainer Brüninghaus and Brazilian bass-guitarist Yuri Daniel as Garbarek’s all-star band roved stylishly through updated Nordic folksongs and originals from his latest ECM album, Dresden.

Passages of calypso, samba, jazz-rock and even (for an encore) soul-balladry all filtered through the chamber-jazz dreamscape that makes Garbarek such a charismatic artist. He’s a total orginal and a class act. But he really should speak to his public, if only to say goodnight.

Concert to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Mon 15 March, 8.15pm.

Jan Garbarek
Barbican Hall