Long before he became the standard-bearer for the "ECM sound," churning out discs with a mildly medieval or Scandinavian flavor spiced with enough new age fluff to guarantee sales,
Jan Garbarek produced a string of superb albums, culminating in Witchi-Tai-To, his masterpiece. Intriguingly, with the exception of
Palle Danielsson's "Kukka," all of the pieces here are cover versions, largely culled from the then burgeoning Jazz Composers Orchestra catalog or related musicians. It opens with
Carla Bley's "A.I.R.," an incredibly infectious melody heard on her Escalator Over the Hill.
Garbarek's soprano slithers sensuously around the theme, searching for and finding all manner of variations, while
Stenson, a chameleon-like pianist who shows aspects of
Jarrett,
Tyner, and
Alice Coltrane, makes all the right choices in support.
Charlie Haden used the
Carlos Puebla composition "Hasta Siempre" as a cornerstone for his
Liberation Music Orchestra, and
Garbarek rips into it with total romantic gusto; his tenor playing has never sounded more robust, muscular, or inspired. The title track by
Jim Pepper is given a short but lovely reading,
Garbarek withholding its gorgeous theme until the end of the piece, leaving the listener dying to hear more. Which is exactly what
Don Cherry did on his Relativity Suite, where his supremely beautiful song "Desireless" lasted barely a minute. Here, it's stretched out over the 20-minute mark,
Garbarek summoning the spirit of
John Coltrane and offering a stunning amount of indefatigable creativity. He might never have reached similar heights since, but
Witchi-Tai-To, along with
Dave Holland's Conference of the Birds, is one of the two finest jazz albums that ECM ever released, and simply one of the very top jazz albums of the '70s. ~ Brian Olewnick