Jan Garbarek Group: Wayfarer

By JOHN KELMAN
December 24, 2014
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Jan Garbarek Group
Wayfarer
ECM Records
1983

Today's Rediscovery? Jan Garbarek Group's Wayfarer, the saxophonist's 1983 ECM recording with Bill Frisell, Eberhard Weber and Michael DiPasqua. I was fortunate enough to have seen this group in a small club while on a trip to Boston the same year, and I still remember it to this day.

Most people seem to prefer the previous group record, Paths, Prints (ECM, 1982), with Jon Christensen in the drum chair, but Wayfarer's three wonderfully atmospheric, extended pieces—the opening "Gesture," second side opener "Pendulum" and extraordinary title track—give this release the tiniest edge over Paths, Prints for me.

What a group....what a record.

So, what are your thoughts? Do you know this record, and if so, how do you feel about it?

[Note: You can read the genesis of this Rediscovery column here .]